Connected Kids - Children`s Socialisation in a Changing Media Environment (ConKids)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Rudolf Kammerl; Dr. Claudia Lampert
• Subject Area: Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism ; Communication Sciences
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 395562718

This project analyses the consequences of a changing media environment for children‘s socialization in a long-term perspective. By adopting the constructivist approach of communicative figurations, we contribute to the advancement of the traditional perspective of socialization in which different agents of socialization are considered (e.g. family, peer groups, school). Against the background of the communicative figuration approach, these agents are seen as communicatively constructed ‘social domains’, in which media are increasingly important (e.g. for communication or information). The theoretical framework requires both a qualitative and longitudinal approach. Using a qualitative panel design with two cohorts, we reconstruct communicative practices and the changing functions of media, focusing on important transitions in life courses as well as on the negotiation of belonging and distinction. In our study, we focus on the following questions: 1. Which media-related negotiation processes between children and their social domains can be identified? How do they change over time (in relation to the changing media environment and to individual life courses)? 2. Which role do children’s media repertoires, their communicative needs, practices and competencies play in coping with developmental tasks and further challenges? 3. How does the socialisation performance of families (as a social domain) change in connection with other social domains? 4. To what extent does the socialisation process of children differ depending on media ensembles and related prevailing attitudes and values in the social domains? The present proposal is a follow-up application. In the first funding period, we were able to conduct two survey waves with 32 families from two different regions of Germany. By considering two cohorts (children were either just leaving kindergarten for primary school or was moving on to secondary school), we were able to consider the impact of institutional transitions on both the media use and media literacy. In order to understand the role of media repertoires and the significance of the media in various relationships, we have developed our own child-oriented survey instrument (map of ‘media-actors-constellations’). To draw a consistent picture of the interactive socialization process, we include the children’s perspectives as well as the view of their parents.In a second funding phase, we would like to continue and deepen the case-related and cross-case evaluations over a further three years in order to make an empirically sound and methodologically innovative contribution to socialisation research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants