Search results

Globalisation, which is founded on an axis of dissemination and change, has economic, social, cultural and political dimensions. Since the rise of capitalism in the 1800s, the concept of childhood has evolved along with the shifting conception of man in globalisation. This shift can be investigated by looking at three pillars: (1) shifting play patterns, (2) child Labour and (3) violence towards children are all issues that need to be addressed. Play has been one of the most important phenomena that people have created for themselves throughout history. Toys that have grown more common and standardised as a result of globalisation are now available to children from various cultures all over the world and are designed to meet specific criteria. It is common knowledge that children have worked to aid their families' economies since they were young, and that child Labour is crucial for the family, village and clan. However, as a result of the commodification of Labour during the industrialisation process and major monopolies' quest for cheap Labour during the globalisation process, children were forced to work in exceedingly terrible conditions for extremely low wages. In the globalisation process, child pornography, the employment of girls and boys as sex workers and child abuse have become more frequent. Aside from child sexual assault, the rise in child murders, the fact that children are the most susceptible and easy targets for organised crime and the growing number of wars around the world illustrate the growing violence that children are exposed to as a result of globalisation. Computer games, which are often centred on war and involve heavy themes of violence, normalise and internalise violence in youngsters.

Although the concept of ‘social capital’ is not a new concept, its rise coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. This concept of sociology, left in a controversial and secondary position, was reborn both in the social, political and economic fields and in the scientific world, with the increase of the COVID-19 outbreak cases. Social capital is a form of socialisation and a way of performing social relationships. The COVID-19 outbreak led to the understanding that physical capital and human capital would not be sufficient to sustain social life, and, therefore, social capital started to rise. The expected private earning from social capital is not individual profit, but collective welfare and mutual benefit. In short, social capital is the capital spent on society and is for common good. On the other hand, social capital has a volume in proportion to the density of the capitals in the society. Social capital, with its intensity, has attracted the attention of different disciplines on Corona days and has exceeded the limits of sociology. Another issue to be emphasised in this study is the relationship between social capital and democracy. In societies where tutelary democracy is dominant, civil society cannot become functional enough. In this difficult environment, social capital is shaped as paternal (tutelary) and a healthy social network cannot be functionalised in society. On the one hand, the horrors of the pandemic are experienced, and, on the other hand, a social capital model that is ineffective in healing social wounds emerges.

The Corona crisis today has made it possible to realise that the capitalist system has transformed human life and the entire planet into a commodity. The new ecological consciousness, which has risen with environmental destruction, is against the destructive and wasteful practices that exploit nature because of the attitudes and values associated with the capitalist worldview. Social solidarity and active participation in the society nourish the social economy. Social solidarity contains a meaning that ‘people in wealth give, people in need take’ style. This approach has shown to be an effective and common solidarity example both in Turkey also in the world during the Corona crisis. Social solidarity actually involves sharing resources equally or fairly. The corona epidemic has clearly demonstrated that an individualistic, self-interested approach of capitalism is not a life-saving strategy, but a socialist, solidarist approach, an approach that promotes the survival and health of the other is a life-saving strategy for all. A new cosmological and anthropological approach will be the formula of salvation, based on a social economy system in the post-corona world, which can see that life in nature, including humans, is protected through cooperation, mutual care and love. Capitalism will again come out of this crisis by adding billionaires to its billionaires, but different civilisations such as workers, producers and consumer cooperatives, solidarity networks, and street economy that grow in the heart of capitalism are the signs that we are progressing towards the evolution of the social economy.