Will you sign my autograph book? Using autograph books for a sociohistorical study of youth and social frameworks

Abstract

This paper suggest that autograph books can be used as a tool for the study of attitudes among youth. Content analysis of 4,131 entries of 130 Israeli autograph books, written by 12–14 year-old students, during a 55 year peiod (1925–1980) was conducted. The analysis reveals two major changes: first, a diminishing of collective orientation coupled with an increase in individualism; second, an increase in the salience of schools and teachers coupled with a persistence in the significance of youth movements. Schooling ideology mainly serves the interests of the dominant groups, individualism raises the question of the legitimacy of the role of the state, while the youth movement ideology combines commitment to basic values of the collective with self-confidence and desire for individual careers. The findings are interpreted both in terms of normative changes in Israeli society (from quasi-socialism to advanced capitalism) and in terms of Habermas' theory of a “crisis of legitimation.” The analysis also reveals a dialectic situation in which contradictory norms and values exist together.