Secondary socialization as one of the basic social processes in modern society

The paper considers the concept of secondary socialization and its place in the system of social processes in modern society. The study is based on the idea of the secondary socialization by P. Berger and T. Luckmann conveyed in the book “The Social Construction of Reality”. P. Berger and T. Luckmann were the pioneers who had studied the secondary socialization in full. At the same time, they did not discuss many issues in their work. For example, the actors of secondary socialization were not distinguished. In this regard, the author reviews the modern concepts of domestic and international researchers in order to gain a broader view of secondary socialization. Although this term is widely used, and the phenomenon is regularly mentioned in the context of socialization in general and as an independent component in particular, there are not enough theories explaining or interpreting the secondary socialization both in Russia and abroad. Focusing on the researches of A.I. Kovaleva, A.I. Kravchenko, and I. Frønes, the author proposes the original definition of secondary socialization. In the author’s opinion, there are three types of secondary socialization: 1) natural, 2) formalized, 3) purposeful ones. Arguing with P. Berger and T. Luckmann, the author stands for the fact that the main agents of secondary socialization are the significant others. The latter have an impact on a person within the secondary socialization. Affected by the socializing information, the individual changes his view on social reality. P. Berger and T. Luckmann called this process the change from one sub-world to another. In this changed social reality, the individual changes himself trying to adapt to it, become relevant in this transformed social world.