Using aesthetics as an approach to defining a new children's cultural foundation within the library and information science curriculum

Abstract

In postmodern knowledge society, we are facing fundamental changes affecting the concepts of childhood and children's culture. These changes are characterized by a shift of focus away from a chiefly pedagogic and literary orientation in modern society to an aesthetically founded concept of children's culture in postmodern knowledge-based society. Arguments are presented in support of a necessary and real paradigm shift that considers the rationale underlying the functions and future of children's libraries. In arguing for a change of paradigms, the author uses developments in Danish library history and the history of enlightenment efforts in Denmark, which in many respects are similar to developments in the field in other European countries, as a case. This change of paradigms has decisively influenced the design of the children's library of the future. As a consequence, the author proposes that library and information science programs be changed and that greater focus be placed on teaching as a democratic and creative process and on the aesthetics of daily life. Introduction Major theorists on the nature and development of societies such as Anthony Giddens and Zygmunt Baumann agree that from the late 1960s onwards Western European societies have been faced with a number of radical changes, which towards the millennium have brought about a transformation of the societies and their culture: A move away from industrial society to knowledge society, from a largely uniform culture toward a pluralistic culture, and from a culture of writing and the written record towards a multimedia-based culture.1 Explanations for the transformation processes lend themselves to discussion, but it seems generally agreed that new visual and digital technologies along with a boom in media and communications, coupled with new prospects of social, economic and cultural internationalization play a major role here. There is also agreement on how to portray the trends that embody the changes: de-traditionalization, culturalization, aesthetization, globalization and new forms of reflexivity and self-reflexivity challenge the old industrial societies' enlightenment, cultural and educational traditions, their social institutions, established authority structures and cultural and quality-specific hierarchies. A rapid glance at the changes of children's conditions of life from World War II until today illustrates the world-shattering consequences of the above trends. The childhood of the 1950s with a few, but well-defined social relations, a few organized activities where children with both parents working were latchkey kids, where the school was the major institution and with children's libraries and books being the primary source of leisure-time experiences - these are all things of the past. Long gone are the childhood times when playmates were living just around the corner, when families of brothers and sisters - the younger and the elder ones - were getting on wel 1 with each other, when children's play activities most frequently took place in such outdoor play environments as backyards, streets and lanes, woods and creeks and was of a physical nature, when money did not exist and when access to consumption was limited to those dreams that could be created by the few store catalogs. The childhood of the 1960s has become institutionalized, differentiated, technologized, capitalized, de-traditionalized and politicized. Today, children's life is chacterized by new types of families consisting of full and half as well as bonus brothers and sisters along with working parents and, accordingly, care facilities ranging from nursery schools and daycare centers to after-school centers and various kinds of organized leisure-time activities, which create changing arenas and generate changing social relations. What we see now are less free time, fewer families of brothers and sisters, less contact between younger and older children, and more interaction among those who are of the same age because nurseries and centers gather chi ldren who are at the same age level . …

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 4 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.