Call for paper

⚠️ Postponement of the conference ENFANCE + CULTURE = SOCIALISATION between 11 and 14 January 2021. The symposium will take place online.  

This symposium is designed as a space for discussing and contextualising recent work on the cultural socialization of children. We define childhood according to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child as the period of life between 0 and 18 years of age. Transdisciplinary and/or comparative approaches will be welcome, as will various social science and humanities approaches, be they cross-sectional, longitudinal or retrospective. Socialization will be taken in the broad sense, encompassing not only conscious actions aimed at familiarising children with practices and encouraging them to acquire certain cultural habits, tastes and knowledge, but also a more diffuse process of impregnation and appropriation, as well as the actions of children themselves in these processes. 

The question of cultural socialization will be approached from four main angles:

1. Age as a social construct and agent.

The gradual recognition of childhood as a specific period of life, requiring particular analysis, brings with it the issue of how ages are socially constructed (their links, transitions, implicit and explicit models, operationality, various representations according to social class, their transnational transferability, etc.) and also, the gradual construction of autonomy (what is possible to do, alone or accompanied, at each age). With what content and cultural practices are children socialized according to their age, gender, and social and national contexts, and under what forms of supervision? Are these various cultural contents and practices specifically aimed at children? What effect do children’s practices have on adults in return? Are they more closely associated with legitimate (relating to public or subsidised cultural institutions) or commercial (linked to the cultural industries) outlets?

Conversely, how do these cultural practices, habits and associations influence the social construction of childhood and its sub-divisions? How have the idealist and/or technicist discourses surrounding “digital natives” created representations both of ages and cultural practices? And what social, professional or economic factors influence the age-group divisions in various cultural leisure sectors, from the most institutional to the most commercial?

 These kinds of questions require a coordinated analysis of the supply, mediation and reception of cultural goods. What are the cultural dispositions solicited and/or instilled at each age, what are the associated norms, values or even moral codes? And what practices do we try to protect children from, out of fear, or moral panic?

In terms of methodology, it would also be possible to look at the effects of categorisations by age in research: does it help or hinder the conceptualisation of cultural socialization?

 

2. The reconfiguration of cultural socialization.

This first series of questions is intimately linked with a second, relating to the reconfiguration of socialization in a context where children’s cultural practices can be seen as a way to both autonomy and personal development. The social redefining of childhood goes hand in hand with a redefinition of the forms taken by cultural socialization and the roles and coordination of its agents. How do broader changes in socialization (vertical and horizontal, strong/weak family and friendship ties, the renewal of socialization via digital technology, retro-socialization of parents by children etc.) shed light on cultural socialization?

The diverse changes in socialization environments lead us to rethink the interplay between them and the ways they are combined, substituted and opposed: changing family structures, the rising influence of media and screen consumption, as well as increased emphasis on artistic and cultural education, and the expectations therefore placed on the relevant educational institutions etc. Above all, we wish to invite speakers to interrelate these phenomena: is the increasing importance of peer socialization, in particular via digital contents from cultural industries and within the framework of social networks, in contradiction with vertical transmissions about more legitimate contents supported by educational institutions in the broad sense?

In particular we will look at cultural mediations for children in non-commercial sectors, examining the representations of childhood, approaches and objectives, and contrasting them with those of commercial stakeholders (for example, sales and marketing professionals). These stakeholders’ own cultural socialization (in particular within the family unit) and its influence on their vision of their professions’ ethos and norms could also be examined. Finally, an analysis of the conditions of cultural socialization could also provide an opportunity to reflect on the way they are understood (in terms of forms of child agency, social constraints, the formation of dispositions, etc.), and to coordinate these analytical perspectives.

 

3. Socio-cognitive and emotional dispositions elicited by children’s material and immaterial cultural objects.

Within the framework of an analysis of the early construction of cultural tastes and dispositions, the aim here is to investigate the dispositions elicited by the cultural objects consumed by children (not limited to objects and content specifically designed for them) and the way in which these objects contribute to cultural socialization. These dispositions arise as much from the cognitive realm, relating to forms of reasoning, as from the emotional realm, for example, by evoking personal and affective concerns. Approaches analysing the way these two realms interact are welcome.

In this way, an analysis of the characteristics and content of cultural goods themselves could be developed, and juxtaposed with the process of their creation, and the relationship to culture and representations of childhood of those to contribute to this process. In addition, the dispositions developed by children could be explored in relation to the various spheres of socialization they come into contact with: do children take up the reception schemas associated with cultural goods? Or develop heterodox forms of appropriation (their internal logic and their effects in terms of socialization could then be described).

Within this framework we will invite speakers to investigate the structural homology hypothesis (formulated for adults), in the case of childhood culture, and the way it is manifested. Can it be applied to the field of cultural production? Can we link the cultural socialization of cultural producers and intermediaries with that of the children receiving these cultural goods? Do these dispositions (those of mediators and/or children) converge with those elicited by the cultural products?

Finally, exploring the role of cultural objects in socialization also lends itself to a longitudinal and retrospective perspective enabling the analysis of the genesis of the dispositions observed in adults with regards to culture (the focus must however remain centred on childhood and the construction of these dispositions).

 

4. Cultural socialization against the backdrop of political and economic changes in the cultural sphere.

The fourth series of questions relates to changes in the modern world and their effects on forms of cultural socialization. How has the globalisation of culture influenced the cultural socialization of younger generations, as opposed to their elders, where do we see a flattening and an homogenisation or a cultural hybridisation and cosmopolitanism? And how can we understand these effects given their manifold and even contradictory nature, depending on the types of cultural practices, content or sectors?

How should we apprehend the various forms of “participative culture” developed amongst younger generations via online technology (such as fan fiction and the performed reviews of cultural goods) and their transformative effects on cultural socialization, but also on the marketing and/or mediation of cultural works and content? And what representations of childhood do they promote? The aim is also to deconstruct the broadly shared vision of childhood amongst cultural mediation and marketing professionals, which leads them to prefer participatory reception; playful tools and content; peer reference points, in particular via digital media; themes and references close to the interests and daily lives of children (given the assumption of children’s ethical-practical attitudes); and transmedia approaches.

Finally, we could also examine the growing role accorded to culture by public policy in the education of individuals, with artistic and cultural education often aiming towards socialization far beyond the cultural (relating to living as a community, citizenship, success in school, personal development etc.). We will therefore look into institutional stakeholders’ approaches to the distinction between “education in” and “education via” culture, as well as the uses of this distinction in education more broadly. These approaches could be analysed as “justification logics”, both in the educational strategies of parents and educators and in institutional policies. We will also look at the impact of the frequent co-existence of different “justification logics” on the meaning attributed by children to cultural prompts, highlighting, for example, how this may create interference between different educational objectives. Lastly, we will be able to contextualise these different logics according to their target audience, looking in particular at the “re-socialization” function that can be associated with artistic education when it is aimed at children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

Download the call for papers :

CFP-CULTURAL_SOCIALISATION_2020 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Communication proposals will be submitted via the dedicated module of this website : 

Submission tool

 

 Proposals can be in French or English. They will be examined by the research committee in double-blind and will have to meet the following standards:


- Title of the proposed communication
- Summary of the proposal, of 2,000 signs (spaces included), which will mention the problem, the data on which the analysis is based, the methodological and disciplinary approaches mobilized and the main results.
- A bibliography of a maximum of 5 references, to be entered in the "Comment" section of the submission tool.
- Keywords (maximum 5)
- Surname, first name of the author(s)
- Home institution(s)
- E-mail address(es)

 

CALENDAR

- Delivery of communication proposals: 12 April 2020

EXTENSION OF THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING COMMUNICATIONS : JUNE 28th, 2020. 

- Selection of communication proposals: April-May 2020

- Date for submission of the text of the communication: 2 November 2020

- Symposium date: 9-10-11 December 2020  11-14 january 2021 

 

Contact :  socialisationculturelle@gmail.com

  

 

Online user: 2 Privacy
Loading...