The Autonomous Child: Theorizing Socialization

123 Pages·2016·1.196 MB·English

by  Ivar Frønes (auth.)

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN WELLBEING AND
QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH
Ivar Frønes
The Autonomous
Child
Theorizing
Socialization
123
SpringerBriefs in Well-Being and Quality
of Life Research
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10150
Ivar Frønes
The Autonomous Child
Theorizing Socialization
1 3
Ivar Frønes
Department of Sociology and Human
Geography
University of Oslo
Oslo
Norway
ISSN 2211-7644 ISSN 2211-7652 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs in Well-Being and Quality of Life Research
ISBN 978-3-319-25098-4 ISBN 978-3-319-25100-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-25100-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015953642
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
© The Author(s) 2016
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Jill Korbin and Asher Ben-Arieh, who read and gave me feedback
on the book, Leah Florence for language editing, and Danel Hammer for comments
on content and readability from a student perspective.
v
Contents
1 What Is Socialization ....................................... 1
1.1 The Organisation of the Book ............................ 1
1.2 Understanding Socialization ............................. 2
1.3 The Child as an Object or a Subject; Socialization
and the Question of Agency .............................. 3
1.4 Basic Dimensions of Socialization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
References ................................................. 7
Part I Socialization in the Social Sciences
2 Socialization in Sociological Perspectives ....................... 11
2.1 Socialization, Social Structure and Cultural Patterns .......... 11
2.2 Primary Versus Secondary Socialization .................... 13
2.3 Socialization Through Role Models and Roles ............... 15
2.4 Play, Role Play and the Perspective of the Other .............. 17
2.5 Cultural Discourses and Socialization; the Cultural
Constitution of the Subject ............................... 19
2.6 The Cultural Landscape of Media and Consumption .......... 21
2.7 Socialization and the Images of Children and Childhood ....... 22
2.8 Disciplination and Cultural Release ........................ 24
2.9 Individuation and Individualization ........................ 25
2.10 Socialization and Class Culture ........................... 26
2.11 Socialization and Well-Being ............................. 28
2.12 The Constitution of Meaning and Reflexivity ................ 29
2.13 The Social Roots of Motivation ........................... 31
References ................................................. 32
3 Socialization in Anthropological Perspectives ................... 37
3.1 Socialization and Cultural Variation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 Culture and Personality ................................. 40
3.3 Institutionalized Socialization ............................ 41
vii
viii Contents
3.4 Language Games; Socialization into the Unions
of Meaning and Praxes .................................. 43
3.5 Transitions, Liminality and Twilight Zones .................. 46
References ................................................. 48
4 Socialization in Psychological Perspectives ...................... 51
4.1 Socialization in Psychoanalytic Understanding ............... 51
4.2 Cognitive Developmental Psychology ...................... 54
4.3 Social Decentering; Taking the Perspective of the Other ........ 56
4.4 Social-Cognitive Development ........................... 57
4.5 Phases in Childhood and Adolescence
in Psychological Theory ................................. 58
4.6 Socialization and the Family ............................. 60
4.7 Socialization and Peers ................................. 62
References ................................................. 64
5 Socialization and Life Course Analyses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.1 Demographics, Life Course Analyses and Socialization ........ 67
5.2 Life Course, Life Phases and Historical Change .............. 69
5.3 Life Course and Identity Construction ...................... 71
5.4 Generations and Generation Gaps ......................... 72
5.5 Life Course and Generational Exchange .................... 74
5.6 Socialization, Life Course and Well-Being .................. 75
References ................................................. 76
6 Socialization as Biological-Social Interaction .................... 79
6.1 The Evolutionary Frameworks of Socialization ............... 79
6.2 Vulnerability and Development ........................... 82
6.3 Social Background as a Process ........................... 85
References ................................................. 86
7 Understanding Socialization ................................. 89
7.1 Culturalization, Differentiation and Emancipation ............ 89
7.2 Desire, Language and the Symbolic Order .................. 91
7.3 The Driving Forces of Socialization ....................... 92
7.4 The Desire for Recognition .............................. 93
7.5 The Will to Meaning ................................... 95
References ................................................. 96
Part II T he Knowledge Societies and the Structuring
of Socialization and the Life Course
8 The Knowledge Society ...................................... 101
8.1 The Coming of the Knowledge Society ..................... 101
8.2 Socialization in the Knowledge-Based Economies ............ 104
8.3 Capability and Transformative Learning .................... 106
References ................................................. 107
Contents ix
9 The Knowledge Society and Life Phase Dynamics ................ 109
9.1 Life Course and Life Phases ............................. 109
9.2 Babyhood and Toddlerhood: The Foundation of Development ... 110
9.3 Middle Childhood: From Latency to Learning ............... 111
9.4 Tweens and Puberty: From Confusion to Navigation .......... 111
9.5 Adolescence: From Liminality to Qualification ............... 112
9.6 Singles, Friends and Navigation: From Instant
Family to Emerging Adulthood ........................... 113
9.7 Family and Peers in the Knowledge Society ................. 114
9.8 The Restructuring of Girls’ Social World:
From Family and Traditions to Peers ....................... 115
References ................................................. 116
10 Understanding Socialization: Some Concluding Reflections ....... 117
10.1 The Autonomous Child: The Meaning of Agency ............. 117
10.2 Existence Precedes Essence .............................. 118
References ................................................. 119
Chapter 1
What Is Socialization
Abstract Socialization is a fundamental concept in the social sciences, but the
different disciplines have only to a limited degree sought to provide a coherent
understanding of the processes of socialization, which has to encompass the
interplay of social, psychological and genetic factors. This introduction outlines
the organisation of the book, the basic dimensions of socialization, and underlines
an important an important perspective in the book: the child as a subject.
Keywords The child as a subject · Dimensions of socialization
1.1 The Organisation of the Book
The social sciences offer a variety of theories on how children develop, and vari-
ous theories and disciplines apply their own vocabularies and conceptualise dif-
ferent aspects of the processes of socialization. Socialization does not represent a
fixed trajectory into a static social order, and different disciplines meet the chal-
lenges of complex developmental processes and changing environments in differ-
ent ways. Socialization is a fundamental concept in sociology, but sociology has
only to a limited degree sought to produce a coherent understanding of the pro-
cesses of socialization, which has to encompass the interplay of societal, psycho-
logical and genetic factors. The present work has the ambitious goal of providing
such an understanding, by going through the various disciplines and perspectives,
and then –hopefully– drawing the different threads together.
The theorizing of socialization in sociology, anthropology, psychology, in
the life course approach and as the interplay of genetics and environmental fac-
tors makes up the major part of the book. The analyses of the various disciplines
and viewpoints seek to present the dominant perspectives within each discipline
© The Author(s) 2016 1
I. Frønes, The Autonomous Child, SpringerBriefs in Well-Being
and Quality of Life Research, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-25100-4_1