Inscrutable patchwork: exploring inconsistencies in the history of twentieth-century residential childcare

Hauss, Gisela

doi:10.1080/13691457.2020.1751592

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The present insights into the results of our study imply that there is significant potential for development on the level of individual cases, and at the same time rebut any assumptions of determination caused by socio-structural risk factors or people’s biological or genetic dispositions. As well as a re-assessment of how their upbringing, education and social circumstances affect their life course; however, it also brings to mind topics relating to institutional criticism and reform, such as relevance of participation and relationships, or necessary reflections on family metaphors, inconsistencies and contradictions ( Kendrick, 2013 ; ten Brummelaar et al, 2018 ; Hauss, 2020 ). Thus, the quality of their social networks and the recognition and the subjective degree of free rein children enjoy inside and outside the children’s home appear to have an important influence on their biographical trajectories and various spheres of their adult life.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability and Well-Being Decades After Leaving Care

Gabriel

Keller

Bombach³

2021

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One of the most important goals of out of home placements is to reduce vulnerability and to enable well-being in the long term. This article hermeneutically reconstructs biographies decades after leaving-care to understand the impact of residential care experiences on selected dimensions of care-leavers’ well-being, that were discovered in the data material. For this article three analytic areas were selected from the core of the narratives of former care leavers: Social networks, parenthood and state interventions. The selected findings on long-term outcomes presented here are based on a qualitative research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on life trajectories after residential care (1950–1990). The authors have conducted 37 biographical narrative interviews with former children placed in residential care between 1950 and 1990 in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. The analysis of these narrative interviews was structured by the inductive procedures of Grounded Theory. Its foundation is the conceptualisation and dimensionalisation of data through inductive coding within the narratives. Research question: We mainly were interested in aspects of transitions exclusively relevant from the actors’ point of view. The objective of this paper is to learn for the future by taking biographical experiences and long-term outcome in account. As we know residential care facilities have changed in last decades, but structurally some key figures are still continuing. They still interrupt the life course two times: when you start to the live in the institution and when you leave. One main question is how young people manage to integrate residential experiences through their life course and where they keep on struggling until the end of their lives. From a life-course perspective, the impact of social service intention on individual life courses, behind sending the individuals to such facilities, are important to investigate. They implicate relevant information concerning current practice and impact of placing children in residential care. Social networks and experiences of parenthood show why we must frame and accompany transitions out of care.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability and Well-Being Decades After Leaving Care

Gabriel

Keller

Bombach³

2021

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[26] (p. 79) For staff, there was an element of care as a commitment to community living. The task was seen, in some respects, as a vocation or 'calling' [27,28]. This was reflected in the expectation that staff stay on-site, with working hours that were long and that, at times, needed to be flexible.…”

Section: Scene Place or Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encounters with Care in a Scottish Residential School in the 1980s

Smith

2024

Youth

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The meaning of care in residential child care is under-developed. It can often be represented through its absence, seen as offering at best basic physical tending but lacking emotional connection or warmth. At worst, residential care settings said to be institutionally abusive can be characterised as being antithetical to what we might imagine care should be. Residential schools and especially those run by religious orders attract particular opprobrium in this regard. In this article, I adopt a broadly autoethnographic approach to reflect on how boys (now men in their late 40s and early 50s) brought up in the 1980s in a Scottish residential school recall being cared for. The article uses Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition and its three pillars of love, rights and solidarity to group themes from how former pupils speak about their experiences of care. These accounts challenge the received narrative of such settings failing to offer care. The discussion reflects some ideas around care and about how we understand public care historically.

show abstract