The presentation reports the results of the first step of a study focusing on how different areas of responsibility for children’s lives at after-school settings are allocated among parents, children and teachers in Finland and in Sweden. In the presentation the views of those who organize activities in Finland will be dealt with. 

 In Finland the way how and where children spent after-school time while parents are still working became an issue after the mid 1990s. The time young school-age children spent time at home without the supervision of adults began to be seen as a risk to the child (Forsberg & Strandell 2006). Thus since autumn 2004 the Act on children’s morning and after-school care (2003) guarantees municipal after school care for all Finnish first and second graders. In most cases this care has been arranged in the school premises.

Scholars, for instance Forsberg and Strandell (2006), suggest that the concern about risks in children daily lives is linked to institutionalization of childhood. Institutionalization of childhood refers to ways in which institutions, such as day care and school, structure children’s daily life and social contacts. Two stages in the institutionalization on childhood can be differentiated (see e.g. Kampmann 2004). The first stage is characterized by concentration on the quantity of care and control, for instance, meaning in the Finnish context the expansion of time the child is regarded as needing adults’ care and control.  The second stage of institutionalization of childhood means “ a qualitatively new and deeper interest in childhood on behalf of society, largely arguing in terms of risk and control” (Forsberg and Strandell 2006, 9). In Finland both stages appear at the same time while, for instance, Sweden is moving from stage one (quantity) to stage two (quality).

Responsibility seems to be one of the key concepts in policy-making and public debate about the lives of children. (Such & Walker, 2004). A theoretical model of present-day life which relates to responsibility, is the theory of individualization ( Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002). On the one hand, individualization means the disintegration of previous social forms, like family. On the other hand it means that new forms of demands, controls and constraints are imposed. The suggested disintegration of family has given rise to moral disapproval and individualization thesis has been interpreted to suggest that parents have become increasingly selfish and have abandoned their parental responsibility, the thesis becoming more a moral rant than a sociological analysis (Smart & Shipman, 2004, p. 493). On the other hand parents can be increasingly made responsible for the care and upbringing of children and the youth (see e.g., Kelly 2001). After-school settings provide an interesting context in which to study responsibility and the ways in which responsibility has to be negotiated between parents, teachers and children. However, after school settings are not “natural”, instead, they are arranged by somebody with ideas of their own. Thus we begin the study by focussing on the organisers’ views of after-school settings in the Finnish context.

Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Individualization: Institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences. London: Sage. Forsberg, Hannele & Strandell, Harriet (2007) “After-school hours and the meanings of home – Re-defining Finnish childhood space.” Children’s Geographies, 5 (4), 398-408. Forsberg, Hannele & Strandell, Harriet (2006) “After-school hours: a risk of being alone? Plenary lecture. In A. Oksanen, E. Paavilainen & T. Pösö (eds.) Comparing children, families and risk. childhood and Family Research Unit Net Series. Tampere University Press. http://tampub.uta.fi/childhood/951-44-6654-3.pdf Gibson,W.J. & Brown, A. (2009). Working with Qualitative Data. London: Sage Kapmann, Jan (2004). Societalization of Childhood: New opportunities? New demands? In Helene, Brembek, Barbro Johansson, and Jan Kampmaan (Eds.) Beyond the competent child. Exploring contemporary childhood in the Nordic welfare societies. Roskilde: Roskilde university press, Denmark (pp. 127 -152) Kelly, P. (2001). Youth at risk: process of individualisation and responsibilisation in the risk society. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 22(1), 23-33.