This paper is based on a larger anthropological research project called Civilising Institutions in a Modern Welfare State. The aim of this project is to explore the practices, ideals and consequences of upbringing in Danish families, kindergartens and schools: Which ideals and visions of upbringing do we see in these various institutions? How and what are children taught about proper behaviour and interaction through institutional upbringing? What notions of proper citizenship and which social divisions does this reflect and establish?

The project is based on Norbert Elias’ historical study of civilising processes (1939/1994; 1998). Fundamental to Elias’ discussion is the rise of state institutions, which he regards as civilising agents of vital importance for the forms of social organization developed in Western European countries. He thus argues that state institutions were part and parcel of a process of civilisation in Western Europe, in which norms and ambitions of the higher classes became standardised and disseminated into society, creating parallel processes of social distinction.

Though focusing on contemporary civilising missions and practices, our study of child institutions follows this line of thought. Yet in this study we look closer at the civilising aims and practices which manifest themselves in institutional upbringing. It is our argument, that child institutions and their upbringing practices are privileged sites for the analysis of cultural values and understandings in a given society. Educational projects focusing on children are always societal projects reflecting cultural ideals – at once directed to give each child good opportunities for developing potentials and to form citizens of the right mould. A Scandinavian welfare state such as the Danish is particularly interesting in this regard and might – by way of being an extreme case - tell us something about the role of child institutions in Europe in general. The extensive focus on children, the investment of time and money that is put into their care and upbringing in Denmark, and the massive institutionalisation of childhood this investment has resulted in, show us that the welfare state cannot leave the practice of upbringing to random parents but must ensure the proper civilizing of the up-growing citizens.

In this paper we discuss, how the formative work with children, as it occurs in the everyday practices of schools, relates to broader cultural ideals of personhood, citizens and societies developed in Denmark since the Second World War. Through analysis of one empirical case, we show how cultural ideals of interaction and good communities are taught to school-children by way of adapting them to the life of the school class. As the example illuminates, it will be argued, that ideals are never simply translated into institutional practices, but developed in a dialectical process. On the one hand upbringing in child-institutions reflect broader cultural ideals and visions; on the other hand, through the vast institutionalisation of children in Denmark, the framework and conditions of everyday life in these institutions has also made a large impact on  the very ideas of proper citizenship and community.

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