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.