Production, Consumption, and Education: The Evolving Family Functions from Icelandic Films
Author(s): Xin Chen
Friday 16 | 13:00-13:20
Room: TP43
Session: Lifestyles, consumption, and inequality
This study unravels the intricate interplay of production, consumption, and education as portrayed in Icelandic films across different historical epochs. These functions are closely intertwined with the everyday life of families.
Methodology: this study employs a multi-faceted approach, amalgamating qualitative content analysis and contextual discourse analysis. The cinematic narratives from Icelandic films serve as the primary data source, carefully selected to span diverse periods and socio-cultural contexts. A systematic analysis of production, consumption, and education themes within these films involves a meticulous coding process, extracting nuanced patterns and underlying cultural representations.
Production Function: this study delineates productive labor within Icelandic films, encompassing activities like agricultural production, household handicrafts, and domestic chores. It investigates the social division of labor by identifying primary responsibilities for specific production activities within Icelandic households. Through qualitative coding, recurrent themes, role portrayals, and societal expectations associated with these activities are systematically categorized. This process facilitates the extraction of socio-cultural insights embedded within cinematic representations of familial labor.
Consumption Function: this analysis further explores the nuances of popular versus elitist displays of household consumption, shedding light on the evolving nature of Icelandic family dynamics. This function, being directly reflected in the family's consumption concept, type, and ability, provides insights into the evolving landscape of familial interactions and societal values. Whether household consumption is depicted as popular or elitist in the films serves as a reflection of societal concepts such as altruism or pleasure, simplicity, or materialism.
Education Function: amidst the currents of societal change, the landscape of family education is dynamically shifting, influencing its focus, goals, and overarching themes. Key inquiries include whether methods of rewards and punishments manifest as spiritual or material, the nature of self-correction—whether through inner reflection, a subtle need for guidance, or the fear of retribution. The study explores the cinematic representation of role models for children, their attitudes towards learning, the presence of ideals, and the portrayal of emotional education, two-way education, and intergenerational education within the context of accelerating societal changes.
Conclusion: this study provides a nuanced exploration of the evolving landscape of family functions depicted in Icelandic films. Through a cinematic lens, it seeks to unravel the complexities of familial dynamics in the face of technological and societal acceleration, shedding light on the transformative narrative threads woven into the fabric of Icelandic family life over different historical epochs.