School of Labour Studies ________________________________________________ Fantasy at Work: Representations of Labour and Economy in Children’s Animated Films by Navjeet Sidhu, MA, Work & Society, 2012 McMaster University _________________________________________________ Work in a Global Society Working Paper Series 2013‐1 Fantasy at Work: Representations of Labour and Economy in Children’s Animated Films March 2013 Navjeet Sidhu
[email protected] Abstract Popular media play a significant role in a child’s socialization process, having the ability to transmit important messages about how the world functions, to promote certain traditional values, and to shape what is considered to be acceptable and expected social behaviour. How popular children’s media portray ideas and concepts related to labour and the economy is one area that has been largely under‐researched. This paper will examine how work and capitalism are represented in four Disney Pixar and DreamWorks animated films. It will be argued that the messages contained within these films – the moral virtues of hard work and private ownership, and the legitimacy of the power of bosses over workers – reinforce dominant values and ideologies which support and legitimize the capitalist economic system. The internalization of these messages and discourses work to shape and influence children’s understanding of and attitudes towards work which are carried throughout their developmental lifespan and into their role as future workers. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Working Paper 2013-1 1 Work in a Global Society, McMaster University Introduction How children learn about the world of work, how our economic system functions, their future role and place within this system, along with an array of other cultural values, social norms and behaviours expected and required of them in order to function properly in society, is the process known as ‘socialization’ (Denhardt and Jeffress 1971).