Displaying 1 - 10 of 13
Abstract
The concluding chapter of Care of the State: Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary draws together the main findings of my research into four themes. I first highlight how rooting analysis in care gives a clearer picture of how relationships are created, maintained and dissolved. It lets us take the…
Abstract
This chapter from Care of the State: Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary centres on relationships outside the family, namely to carers, teachers, villagers and peers, as well as belonging to an ethnic community. These potential relationships were all devalued by the primacy accorded to biological…
Abstract
Research has rarely looked at the relations of children in care to their birth parents and siblings, the image of the orphan seemingly having blocked such a perspective. The various examples in this chapter from Care of the State: Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary show that children in care…
Abstract
This chapter of Care of the State: Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary explores negotiations between parents and state officials about the care of their children, showing that gendered norms of parenting and ‘appropriate’ family units were implicit parts of child protection policies in state socialist…
Abstract
This chapter from Care of the State: Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary looks at child protection in Hungary from the 1950s to the 1980s, arguing that the organisational structures of state welfare bolstered parent-child ties yet restricted sibling relations. I show that this period was characterised…
Abstract
In this introduction I present the conceptual frame for my book [Care of the State: Relationships, Kinship and the State in Children’s Homes in Late Socialist Hungary]. The starting premise of the book is that state care offers an entry point to explore the mutual construction of state and kinship. I first draw on recent theorisation of care and kinship to argue…
Care of the State blends archival, oral history, interview and ethnographic data to study the changing relationships and kinship ties of children who lived in state residential care in socialist Hungary. It advances anthropological understanding of kinship and the workings of the state by exploring how various state actors and practices shaped kin ties. Jennifer Rasell shows that norms and processes in the Hungarian welfare system placed symbolic weight on nuclear families whilst restricting and devaluing other possible ties for children in care, in particular to siblings,…
The Opening Doors 2018 country factsheets provide an update about the progress with the transition from institutional to family- and community-based care (also known as deinstitutionalisation). The new generation of country snapshots covers 12 EU Member States, 2 EU pre-accession and 2 EU neighbouring countries. This factsheet highlights the developments and challenges still ahead in Hungary and offers key recommendations to the EU and the national government to ensure that children are cared for in family-based settings.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Experiences of abuse and violence have devastating consequences for children, and in some cases, these consequences are lifelong. Loss of trust, feelings of rejection and abandonment, trauma, fear, anxiety, insecurity, and shattered self-esteem are just some of the impacts of ill-treatment on the wellbeing of children. Consequences are far-reaching, extending well into adulthood, and they include increased prevalence of mental health issues, a higher likelihood of experiencing violence from a wider range of perpetrators and high socio-economic impacts and costs. Further,…
Tophaz Special Home, a 220-bed state institution for the disabled in Hungary, is to be closed following a shock report by a human rights group.