Social communication as control and imagination

Abstract

For about a decade, the “Initiative der Verschickungskinder” has been drawing attention to the predominantly negative experiences made by children that were sentto recreation resorts in the Federal Republic of Germany. Between 1950 and 1990, an estimated 10 million children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 14 were sent to these institutions for 6 weeks for recreational purposes and cared for there. The theoretical framework of the article is formed by the concepts of institutional rationality and social communication. It is assumed that institutions follow certain criteria of rationality and guiding ideas, while it is up to social communication to enforcethese criteria in practice. The article explores the questions of how former “Verschickungskinder” describe their stay, what image of the institutional structure is visible in their experiences and how big the discrepancy is between the guiding ideas of the sending-away-system and the reality experienced by the children. The “Initiative der Verschickungskinder” mainly focuses on the social control imposed by these institutions. However, their criticism resonates with the idea and expectation that the institutional purpose must not be exhausted in social control. Rather, institutions of child and youth welfare are supposed to stand for care, development and organizational clarity. Social communication is therefore understood both as social control and as an expression of social fantasy and creative imagination. In every critique, then, there is the design of a better order.Keywords: Sent-Away-Children; Social Communication and Social Criticism, Rationality Criteria and Total Institutions, Coming to Terms with the Past