ABSTRACT
This article examines how social policies and programmes implemented in Argentina shape the political and social organization of childcare. The author seeks to analyse how welfare institutions are currently responding to emerging needs, and to what extent they facilitate the defamilialization of childcare for different social classes. Because Argentina lacks a truly unified 'care policy', four different kinds of facilities and programmes are examined: employment-based childcare services; pre-school schemes; social assistance care services; and poverty reduction strategies. It is argued that far from offering equal rights and services with a universalist cast, these 'caring' institutions reflect the ethos of the current welfare model in Argentina: a fragmented set of social policies based on different assumptions for different social groups, which in turn filter down to the social organization of childcare.
Subject(s)
Child Care , Child Day Care Centers , Public Policy , Social Responsibility , Argentina/ethnology , Child , Child Care/economics , Child Care/history , Child Care/legislation & jurisprudence , Child Care/psychology , Child Day Care Centers/economics , Child Day Care Centers/education , Child Day Care Centers/history , Child Day Care Centers/legislation & jurisprudence , Child, Preschool , Family/ethnology , Family/history , Family/psychology , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Politics , Public Policy/economics , Public Policy/history , Public Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , Social Welfare/economics , Social Welfare/ethnology , Social Welfare/history , Social Welfare/legislation & jurisprudence , Social Welfare/psychologyABSTRACT
This article analyses, from a human rights' approach, a group of social programmes implemented in Argentina from the year 2002, at the time of the biggest socioeconomic crisis that the country has suffered in the last decades. The main characteristics of the programmes are reviewed, and their anti-poverty strategy, along with design and implementation, are evaluated in relation to human rights. An assessment is also made of the existence of mechanisms for citizens to present claims. Finally, a set of recommendations are made to facilitate the adaptation of the programmes analysed to the duties the State of Argentina has as result of its adherence to international laws on human rights. The analytical methodology proposed by this article could be applied to other policy areas.
