Histories of Child Welfare Across Europe– Project Proposal for the European Network of Historical Studies of Gender and Social Work

Coordinators, : Mirja Satka, Dagmar Schulte and Caroline Skehill. 

Objective:
• To produce a book entitled ‘Histories of Child Welfare Across Europe 1870-2000’ which provides discussion on parallels, differences and commonalities across regimes in relation to: ISSUES, WELFARE REGIMES AND METHODS in different jurisdictions based on existing histories of child welfare.   The book will argue that a critical insight into child welfare histories across regimes can provide new perspectives on present dilemmas and future possibilities in practice.   It will offer new insights into the nature of child welfare by emphasizing the historical dimension, methodologies and the selected themes. 

Aims of the Project:
• To organize an initial seminar on ‘histories of child welfare across Europe’ as a parallel event alongside the ATHENA meeting in Slovenia in November 13th 2008.
• To invite speakers to present a paper which covers one or more of the themes below
• To encourage co-working with partners across Europe, with a particular emphasis on ‘across regions in Europe’ to build on existing knowledge base and facilitate co-writing for book chapters, each of which will involve some comparative OR parallel commentaries covering at least two countries.

Possibility of funding for the research: from British Academy to be sought to support this for Jan 15th Deadline 2009 – see excerpt below. For more information, see http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding//guide/intl/index.html.
• To organize a second seminar in 2009 to present joint papers /confirm book chapters.
• To produce a book in 2010 based on the outcomes of this project.

PROPOSED THEMES/PANELS FOR SEMINAR IN NOVEMBER13th 2008
’HISTORIES OF CHILD WELFARE ACROSS REGIMES PROJECT’

1.  CHILD WELFARE IN EUROPE – SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND CHANGE a. Overview of social transformations/change processes in child welfare in specific countries
b. Comparative accounts of child welfare developments in two or more countries
c. Theorizing the connection between social welfare change and child welfare/social work developments
d. Consider the particular nature of child welfare under certain types of governance (socialism; social democracy etc)

2. ISSUES FOR CHILD WELFARE AND PROTECTION
a. Managing the care control dilemma
b. Child Protection and Family Support- getting the balance right
c. Child Welfare in Institutions: Discipline and Group Care
d. Doing Child Protection Work: Dilemmas and challenges
e. ETC

3. METHODS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND ANALYSISING THE HISTORY OF CHILD WELFARE
a. Case files as access to practice perspectives
b. Use of history of the present as a method
c. Use of Institutional Ethnography as  method
d. Historians and Sociologists/social workers doing history- commonalities, challenges and possibilities

4. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN CHILD WELFARE 
a. Impact of concepts of attachment and maternal deprivation
b. Medical vs. Social Discourses in Caring for Children
c. ‘Generational Relations’ as a theoretical construct in child welfare
d. Eugenics: A thing of the past in child care?
e. ETC