Child welfare discourses and practices in the Czech lands: the segregation of Roma and disabled children during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Child welfare discourses and practices in the Czech lands: the segregation of Roma and disabled children during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Author(s): Victoria Shmidt
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Social Sciences, Education, Sociology, Political history, Social history, Recent History (1900 till today), Welfare systems, History of Education, Welfare services, 19th Century, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Child welfare; Czech lands; segregation of Roma; 19th-20th century; Education; Egalitarianism against Elitism;
Summary/Abstract: In terms of methodological approaches, this book puts together eugenic studies and the segregation of Roma in order to indicate the new approaches to exploring the impact of the past on the current policies and routine practices in post-socialist world. It is possible to differentiate two camps of social scientists who practice historical method for reinforcing their attitudes towards the segregation of the Roma. In terms of retrospective analysis, both camps focuson the socialist period as a source of current issues regarding Roma, their discrimination and the intractability of practices. The main difference between these camps is the way of explaining the issue of segregation. Performed by applied scientists who study the strategies for well-balanced co-existence of the Czech and Roma, the first camp of scholars reproduces various essentialist concepts regarding Roma – putting forward the insuperable difference between the “white” majority and Roma as a call for more tolerant attitude. Utilising trans-historical disclosure of “traditional” values, the other camp leads the sources of segregation to the inappropriate discourses disseminated amongst public as well as professionals. Catching others in the act of producing essentialist notion, these scholars often criticise the first camp but remain unable to construct the sustainable alternative to segregation. While the critical response to the first camp connects it with the previous practices and policies of segregation, the critical deconstruction of post-socialist trans-historis mensures the necessity of deeper contextualization in order to recognise options for sustainable integration.

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