A Cry for Care But not Justice: Embodied Vulnerabilities and the Moral Economy of Child Welfare. Issue 2 (May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Knezevic, Zlatana
• Is Part Of: Affilia. Volume 35:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 231
• Page End: 245
• Publication Date: 2020-05
• Subjects: child and family welfare -- gender-based violence -- race and ethnicity -- social justice -- vulnerability; Social work with women -- Periodicals; Women social workers -- Periodicals; 362.8305
• DOI: 10.1177/0886109919878272
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0886-1099

Abstract

This study explores the pivotal role of the body for political recognition and rights claims in child welfare "moral" interventions. I examine how the bodily figures in child welfare assessments, linking these manifestations to the concept of the moral economy of care. A sample of assessment reports from a Swedish municipality, all addressing violations of children's bodies or integrity, are used as empirical material. I show how the psychosomatically suffering child is being best "heard" as vulnerable. I also argue that such a moral economy of care silences children's accounts of gendered and racial injustices. Furthermore, racialized moral divides are indicated when assessments of different child bodies are considered. A concluding remark points to a need for a child welfare moral economy of social justice that responds to structural intersecting injustices in childhoods, including to those of a racialized child welfare and its individualized and symptom-oriented services.