Culture for or by the child? ‘Children's culture’ and cultural policy

Abstract

The concept of a ‘children's culture’ emerged both in the sociology of childhood and some national cultural policies in the 1970s, and has persisted since, although with changing definitions. This article traces the discourses that have shaped and influenced the notion of children's culture in sociology, public policy and specifically in cultural policies. It examines case studies of cultural policy directed at children from the ‘child-friendly’ Nordic nations of Denmark, Norway and Finland. It argues that while children's culture was an invention and beneficiary of the late twentieth-century policy emphasis on cultural democracy, issues such as the extension of rights to children and the perceived threats of globalisation and communications technology have recently caused cultural policy agencies to redefine the role of the state in cultural policies for children.