‘The meaning of my life will always be to defend our Motherland’

EnglishThe point of departure of this paper is that childhood is socially constructed and continuously re-defined through public policies, laws, practices and ideologies. The paper explores the perspectives on children, upbringing and socialization as reflected in the manuals, forms and questionnaires of social workers in a child protection institution in Mexico. It employs a theoretical lens borrowed from Childhood Studies, using three dominant images of childhood—the Dionysian, Apollonian and Athenian—to examine the links between discursive constructions of childhood and ways of governing institutionalized children. Four overarching themes were identified as representative of predominant concepts of values concerning children and child rearing in an institutionalized context in the documents: (1) Patriotism, (2) Work ethics, (3) Hygiene, and (4) Physical experiences and sexuality. The analysis reveals how children are perceived primarily as future citizens, with their upbringing being a part of a wider nation-building project. Hence, there is an emphasis on how to become a ‘decent’ labourer, internalize the values of- and loyalty to the nation-state, and develop into a ‘moral’ and ‘civilized’ citizen. It is argued that institutional socialization is part and parcel of a political ideology that reinforces the idea of children as relatively passive socialization objects. Spanish"El sentido de mi vida siempre será defender nuestra patria”: Criando y educando ciudadanos en instituciones de protección infantil en México. El punto de partida de este artículo es que la infancia es construida socialmente, y que es continuamente redefinida a través de las políticas públicas, las leyes, las prácticas y las ideologías. Este artículo explora las perspectivas sobre los niños, la crianza, y la socialización según se reflejan en los manuales, planillas y cuestionarios de los trabajadores sociales en una institución de protección infantil en México. Se emplea la propuesta teórica tomada de los Estudios de la Infancia, usando tres imágenes dominantes (Dionisíaca, Apolínea y Ateniense) para examinar los vínculos entre las construcciones discursivas sobre la infancia y las formas que gobiernan a los niños institucionalizados. Se identificaron cuatro temas relevantes como representativos de los conceptos de valores predominantes en los documentos respecto a los niños, y cuidado infantil en un contexto institucionalizado: (1) Patriotismo, (2) Ética de trabajo, (3) Higiene, y (4) Experiencias físicas y sexualidad. El análisis revela cómo los niños son percibidos primeramente como futuros ciudadanos, y su crianza es parte de un proyecto más amplio de construcción de la nación. De este modo hay un énfasis en cómo convertirse en un trabajador “decente”, internalizar los valores de y la lealtad al Estado nación, y desarrollar un ciudadano moral y civilizado. Se afirma que la socialización institucional es parte de la ideología política que refuerza la idea de los niños como objetos de socialización relativamente pasivos.

Naming of Parts: Observations of Institutional Socialization in the First Week of British Army Phase 1 Training

This article examines the formative socialization of British Army recruits in the first week of their Phase 1 Initial Training. Contextualized by individual and collective cultural variables, an extended participant observational case study commented on the process by which the British Army seeks to instill discipline and military identity in the early stages of transition from civilian to trained soldier. The person-environment relationship and individual exosystemic themes emerged as apparent influential variables, noting that a relationship appeared to exist between an early internalization of military values and subsequent formation of a moral identity, with associated primary and secondary adjustment behaviors.

Types of Socialization and Their Importance in Understanding the Phenomena of Socialization

Depending on various criteria, the specialized literature defined several types of socialization. After socialization factors and the age at which the process are studied, we have primary socialization and secondary socialization (and continues), according to the assessment of society there are positive or negative socialization, and as awareness of how socialization process is distinguished there is formal or informal socialisation, depending on the objective pursued by already created effects, we have anticipatory or adaptive socialization , depending on the intervention of legitimate power we can talk about associative or institutional socialization after as contents and the results expressed in statuses and roles, gender socialization may be , professional, marital, according to methods of making can speak about planned, spontaneous, law enforcement, participatory socializing depending on the purpose we have societal, national, political, ideological-partisan socialization etc.. These types are not individualized in an environment amorphous, but they intermingle, they complement and, by correlation, manage to describe the complex phenomenon of socialization. The contribution of those who have defined numerous types of socialization should not be approached holistically, nor in opposition with each other, but as a complement to the comprehensive and specialized understanding of socialization. In this context, we propose a new criterion for classification, namely the extent of socialization, which assumes a total socialization of one partial socialization and a zero socialization, void. In regards the overall socialization, this is an ideal and not a reality. However, at least in theory, we could use this terminology as, for example, education sciences use the term " ideal educational " or how physics used the notion of "ideal environment". The concept of "zero socialization" could be the social equivalent of the expression used by Aristotel in his "De anima": a kind of "blank slate" for the socialization.

Neighborhood Racial Composition, Institutional Socialization, and Intraracial Feelings of Closeness among Black Americans

Relying on nationally representative data from the most recent wave of the National Survey of Black Americans (NSBA), the current study examines how past and present neighborhood racial composition is associated with feelings of closeness toward black Americans, black Africans, and black West Indians. In addition, this research tests whether race-based socialization messages received from caregivers or religious socialization messages explain this relationship among a sample from the adult black US population. The findings show that past neighborhood composition is associated with present feelings of closeness toward black Americans and black West Indians but are not associated with close feelings toward black Africans. Current neighborhood racial composition is not associated with feelings of closeness toward any of the groups. Racial socialization messages are associated with closeness towards them all but are found to be largely a function of having a two-parent family during childhood. Religious socialization is also associated with intraracial feelings of closeness. Results suggest that neighborhood racial composition is important to help facilitate positive feelings toward others who share the same race but a different ethnicity.

Canadian and American Voting Strategies: Does Institutional Socialization Matter?

This paper uses data from an online voting experiment to examine the impact of institutional socialization on the vote decision process. More specifically, we examine how Canadian and American voters differ in their vote decision processes in two- and four-party elections. Our expectation is that Canadian voters, who are more familiar with multiparty electoral context, will adjust to the increased complexity of the four-party competition by engaging in a more detailed decision process. Alternatively, we expect US voters, who are less familiar with multiparty competitions, will not undertake such an adjustment, perhaps even engaging in a less detailed vote calculus under more complex conditions. Results lend support to our expectations, offering insight into how institutional design and socialization can affect voter decision processes.Résumé. Cet article utilise des données tirées d'une expérience de vote en ligne pour examiner l'impact de la socialisation institutionnelle sur le processus décisionnel menant au vote. Nous examinons en particulier comment les électeurs canadiens et américains diffèrent dans leur processus décisionnel lors d'élections à deux et à quatre partis. Nos attentes sont les suivantes : Les électeurs canadiens, plus familiers avec le multipartisme, s'ajusteront à la plus grande complexité d'une élection à quatre partis en s'engageant dans un processus décisionnel plus sophistiqué. Les électeurs américains, quant à eux habitués davantage au bipartisme, ne feront pas de tels ajustements lorsque le contexte électoral se complexifiera et auront peut-être même tendance à simplifier leur processus décisionnel. Nos résultats tendent à confirmer nos attentes, offrant ainsi un aperçu de la façon dont le contexte institutionnel et la socialisation qui en résulte peuvent influencer le processus décisionnel des électeurs.