THE UNIVERSITY OF SANTA URSULA
CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON CHILDHOOD
CESPI
RIO DE JANEIRO - BRAZIL
Titles available in English:
· Rizzini, Irene (Ed). Children in Brazil Today : a Challenge for the Third Millennium. Rio de Janeiro : EDUSU, 1994.
· Rizzini, Irene, Rizzini, Irma, Muñoz, Monica, Galeano, Lidia. "Brazil : a New Concept of Childhood". In: Urban Children in Distress. Global Predicaments and Innovative Strategies. New York : UNICEF/Gordon and Breach, 1994.
· Rizzini, Irene. "Children in the City of Violence : the Case of Brazil". In: The Culture of Violence. Tokio : United Nations University Press, 1994.
· Rizzini, Irene, Lusk, Mark. "Street Children : Latin American Lost Generation". USA : Children and Youth Services Review, V.17, 3 : 387-396, 1995.
· Impelizieri, Flávia. Street Children and ONGs in Rio. A Follow up Study of Non-Governmental Projects. Rio de Janeiro : AMAIS, 1995.
· Rizzini, Irene. "Street Children : an Excluded Generation in Latin America". CHILDHOOD. A Global Journal of Child Research. London : Sage Publications, volume 3, number 2, 1996.
· Rizzini, Irene. "Philanthropy and repression : children in the construction of Brazil's national identity". Trondheim : Urban Childhood Conference, 1997.
· Rizzini, Irene. "Poor children in Latin America : a case example of social inequality", ABA Center on Children & the Law. Loyola University Chicago School of Law : Children,s Legal Rights Journal, Vol 18, Number 1, winter 1998.
Forthcoming (1998):
· Rizzini, Irene, Barker, Gary, Cassaniga, Neide. "Children, participation and democracy : a case study of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent in Brazil". University of South Carolina : Family Futures Magazine.
· Barker, Gary, Cassaniga, Neide, Rizzini, Irene. From street children to all children : a review of the recent evolution of children and youth policies and programs in Brazil.
New publications from CESPI
Project: Children in the History of Brazil
Since 1988, the CESPI/USU team has been working on a project which aims to portray the history of childhood in Brazil. Ever since the first census in Brazil in 1872, the child-youth population has made up nearly half the total population of the country. We believe that it is important to bring to the foreground the social and political role of children in the country.
Various institutions have participated in the project, including FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Pesquisas no Brasil"Funder of Studies and Research in Brazil), UNICEF (the United Nations Children´s Fund), the Petrobras Distributor, and the Ministry of Culture.
In 1995, in the National Congress, the book, "The Art of Governing Children: The History of Social Policies, Legislation, and Assistance for Children in Brazil" was presented - a text that provides a general overview of children in the history of the country.
This year, the historical roots of Brazil´s public policies have become the focus of our Project. Historical documents from the period 1800 to 1997 have been analyzed and catalogued. As part of this Project, the following products are now available:
1. Books:
"The Lost Century: The Historical Roots of Public Policies on Children in Brazil," by Irene Rizzini.
The author analyzes national and international ideas on the importance of "saving the child as a way of saving the country". These ideas were debated in Brazil at the time the country became a Republic, with the collapse of the monarchy. Also discussed are the various child welfare policies formulated at the time. The author argues that the country lost a great opportunity to fulfil what it had promised--that is, to transform Brazil into a cultured and civilized nation--when it prioritized exclusionary legal and social policies for abandoned and delinquent minors rather than public policies capable of forming responnsible and educated citizens.
"Images of the Child in Brazil 19th and 20th Centuries", by Irene Rizzini, (ed.) Irma Rizzini, Carla Silvana Daniel Sartor, Martha Abreu, Alessandra Frota Martinez, Maria Luiza Marcilio, Renato Pinto Venancio.
In this collection of articles, the authors discuss relevant themes on children in the 19th and 20th centuries, researched from CESPI/USU´s vast resource center. These include an analysis of the main topics debated in the period: abandoned children, institutions for orphans and exposed children, slave mothers and their free children, and pedagogical philosophies about poor children, among others.
"Street Rhetorics: Educator, Child and Dialogues," by Monica Rabello de Castro.
This book portrays the present historical moment. It discusses the challenges street educators face in their task of educating street children. The author offers new insights into this world of social relationships and shows that the rhetoric of dialogue is not an ornament, but is essential to understanding the phenomenon.
2. CD ROM:
"Bibliographic Database about Childhood and Adolescence in Brazil (1800-1997)" CESPI/USU Childhood Documentation Center
This is the first database about the available historical documents on children in Brazil to be produced on CD ROM. The database will allow the general public to have quick and easy access to documents and information about the topic in different historical periods.
3. Film:
"The Lost Century," by Jose Luis Peixoto (Director) and Bernardo Sabino (Producer).
An adaptation of the book, "The Lost Century" by Irene Rizzini. The film documents, through images and discussions, the ideas and practices referring to children and youth from the end of the 19th century to the present day.