Contours of social policies (assistance-education) to Portuguese disabled childhood (19th-20th century)

Abstract

The problem of care and education to poor, abandoned or disabled children, called 'Another childhood', presented different approaches of analysis and discourses, which had social (political) responses, according to the historical period, addressed (19th and part of the 20th century). The historiographic purpose is guided by educational and protective care for that type of childhood. We used documentary sources, the press, legislation, theses and monographs of institutions, etc. that allowed the development of the argumentation, of hermeneutic nature, which is a method whose field of action involves the understanding and depth of subjective aspects and research objectives. The theoretical-conceptual framework is based on a broad basis of references to protection and social assistance, social economy, legal provisions, the role of nursing homes institutions, etc. The structure of the study is divided into 3 points: the social representation of childhood and its social constructions; social assistance regulated by local administrative arrangements; perspective of institutions from hospitalization to childhood is invalidated.