Family, school, and media: a field with new configurations

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the specificity of the process of socialization and construction of identities of the subjects in the contemporary world. To develop this line of reasoning the text is founded on the idea that the traditional instances of education -- family and school -- share with the mediatic institutions a pedagogical responsibility. By the identification of a new structure in the field of socialization, a relational perspective of analysis is searched between those instances with a view to apprehend the specificity of the process of construction of identity of the subject nowadays. Based on Norbert Elias' concept of configuration, the hypothesis is made that the culture of modernity institutes a new socializing practice, distinct from others in history. The current process of socialization is seen as a plural space of multiple identitory references. That is, modernity is characterized by its supply of a social environment in which the individual finds conditions to assemble a system of references that merges family, school, and mediatic influences (amongst others) into a coherent, albeit hybrid and fragmentary, scheme. In this sense, the specificity of that socialization derives not just from the interdependence of the two traditional instances of education, but also from their interdependence with the media.