ABSTRACT
Today, the notion of socialization has become a convenient label. It covers studies dealing with the different learning experiences the individual goes through, especially when he is young (linguistic, cognitive, symbolic, normative, etc., learning experiences). Some of these studies attempt to describe the stages of the fundamental socialization processes that are conceived as being independent from particular cultures and social contexts. This is the case, for instance with Piaget’s studies on the formation of moral judgement in the child, or with some of Kohlberg’s works. But the great majority of works dealing with socialization adopt a comparative perspective. The comparison may be international as in the works of Hagen, Inkeles, Pye, McCelland, or Almond and Verba. These studies, which were mostly conducted in the 1960s, discuss the effect of the values
transmitted by educational practices on adults’ behaviours and representation. They often appear as being motivated by an hypothesis which was popular in that time of growth, when ‘developmentalism’ had an important role: the Weberinspired hypothesis according to which social, economical, and political development depends on values interiorized by individuals and, therefore, on socialization processes (cf. ‘Development’). Thus, in an explosive way, specialities sprang up and started to become institutionalized: ‘political socialization’ became a favourite research subject.
