Growing Up in the Post-Modern Age: On the Child's Situation in the Modern Family, and on the Position of the Family in the Modern Welfare State

Abstract

Referring to an ongoing comparative study of Childhood, Society, and Devel opment in the Nordic countries (the BASUN project), led by Lars Dencik at Roskilde University in Denmark, the paper presents a perspective on the transformations of the everyday life of parents and children in the Nordic welfare states In the analysis particular attention is paid to the implications of a quickening social acceleration It is stated that the parental model tends to become invalidated and that the family is becoming increasingly an intimacy sanctuary, a zone of stability and a decoding center for the family members. By contrast young children in public institutions like day-care centers are seen to develop a capacity to exercise self-control with respect to affective behavior This in interpreted in terms of a civilizing process (Elias). The notion of 'dual- socialization is introduced as a vehicle to grasp the actual process of child socialization in modern childhood. A strongly increased demand on the chil dren to be able to make continuous and flexible adjustments is noted, as well as a strengthened tendency among children to develop their competence to do so. Implications of this in terms of a tendency to 'pedagogize' the child's life and to 'pathologize' undesired features in what might be as a matter of fact quite a normal behavioral repertoire of the child are observed. Tentative conclusions are drawn with respect to how some significant tendencies on the societal level may affect the development of emotional dispositions and social competences with the young children growing up in the post-modern age.