The multifaceted phenomenon of animation: Analysing the background and aims of different types of animations

The word animation is used in different contexts (film, theatre, computers,culture). The object of this study is animation in the context of social pedagogy, socialwork and pastoral care. The importance of animation in education lies in nondirectiveeducational influence, which is enabled by the use of the animation approach. Theessence of animation is derived not only from the etymology of the word animation(imparting life), but also from its understanding in the particular historical development.The authors analysed in detail the development of animation in France andthen in other countries (Italy, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic,Slovakia). They drew on foundational works of renowned authors in the field (Gillet,Opaschowski, Pollo) as well as on the comparison of the individual – often fragmented– bits of information that can be found on animation in educational literature. Theresult is an attempt to summarise common and different attributes of various typesof animation in the social science fields in Europe. It seems that all current types ofanimation are created on foundations of at least two of the four social variables: thesociety – education – culture – art.