September 17, 2021 Book section Open Access

Archer, Catherine; Leaver, Tama

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{
  "publisher": "Springer International Publishing", 
  "DOI": "10.1007/978-3-030-65916-5_22", 
  "ISBN": "978-3-030-65916-5", 
  "container_title": "Young Children's Rights in a Digital World: Play, Design and Practice", 
  "language": "eng", 
  "title": "Santa's Little Helper and Star of Instagram, Elf on the Shelf: Gendered Labour, Normalising Surveillance and Digitising a Childhood Phenomenon", 
  "issued": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        2021, 
        9, 
        17
      ]
    ]
  }, 
  "abstract": "<p>The Elf on the Shelf (EotS) has become &ndash; as well as being a best-selling book and toy of the same name &ndash; a cultural phenomenon. As a Christmas tradition, the EotS only dates back to 2005, but has quickly gained hold in homes across the world. For the marketers of EotS, it&rsquo;s also a huge money-spinner, earning millions worldwide. Originally self-published as a book by a retired teacher in 2005, the EotS book now sells with an EotS toy who sits on the shelf and, according to its story, reports back to Santa any &lsquo;naughty or nice&rsquo; behaviour of the resident children. The EotS resides in many homes and schools pre-Christmas, giving parents and teachers leverage in the lead up to Christmas with the ostensible aim of moderating children&rsquo;s behaviour (making them &lsquo;nice&rsquo;). EotS can also be viewed as a more sinister societal surveillance tool, normalising the &lsquo;panopticon&rsquo; and making parents complicit with the concept of omnipresent spying (Foucault, 1979). While &lsquo;magical&rsquo; rather than technological, EotS can nevertheless be seen as normalising and promoting a parentally-endorsed surveillance (and consumer) culture. Simultaneously, the EotS also has become both a chore and a source of fun for parents of Santa believers globally, as parents (mostly mothers) each night change the Elf&rsquo;s location and position.</p>", 
  "author": [
    {
      "family": "Archer, Catherine"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Leaver, Tama"
    }
  ], 
  "page": "299-312", 
  "note": "This is a preprint of the chapter Archer, C., &amp; Leaver, T. (2021). Santa's Little Helper and Star of Instagram, Elf on the Shelf: Gendered Labour, Normalising Surveillance and Digitis-ing a Childhood Phenomenon. In D. Holloway, M. Willson, K. Murcia, C. Archer, &amp; F. Stoc-co (Eds.), Young Children's Rights in a Digital World: Play, Design and Practice (pp. 299\u2013312). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65916-5_22", 
  "publisher_place": "Cham", 
  "type": "chapter", 
  "id": "5513584"
}