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In this submission I use previously published works, my book Rethinking Residential Child Care and two articles ‘Reading Bauman for Social Work’ and ‘Care Ethics in Residential Child Care: A Different Voice’, to develop a critical account of changing rationalities of care in the context of residential child care. Much of my writing draws upon professional experience gained over 20 years of residential child care practice and I begin this account by justifying the use of this experience as the basis of professional and academic knowledge. I then go on to explicate some of the discursive influences that have fed into the way that residential child care is currently constituted. Specifically, I locate many current assumptions and practices within dominant neoliberal political systems and assumptions. This has led to the commodification, instrumentalisation and, within an increasingly regulated polity, the bureaucratisation of public care. Against this backdrop, public care is conceived of in narrow and abstract concerns around rights and protection. The concepts of care itself and of upbringing that ought to be at the heart of adult engagement with children are left, largely, unarticulated. I seek to address this gap by developing possible conceptualisations of care and upbringing. I conclude by arguing that residential child care and, indeed, much public care, is governed by the wrong rationalities, by economic and administrative priorities rather than caring and relational ones. Finally, I suggest some directions that future work might take.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87).

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我國每年有將近4,000名基於家庭功能喪失、遭受虐待抑或本身行為等因素而進入安置機構的兒童及少年，這些兒少是我們社會中最為弱勢的一群人之一，他們在機構內是否獲得必要之協助及照顧，對於這群兒少未來的成長及發展係至關重要。然而近年來國內許多學者針對機構內兒少權益遭受剝奪或侵害的問題已提出應有所變革的呼籲及建言，希望能獲得政府及社會的關注。本文希望能藉由對於國內相關法律規範之整理以及比較法的研究，對於社會工作研究者所提出 之種種涉及機構內兒少權益的問題提出法律面的觀點及思考。 聯合國1989年兒童權利公約已明確宣示兒童為權利的主體，此一宣示對於兒童具有劃時代的意義。兒童從過去歷史中「不被看見的人」轉而成為「被保護的客體」，如今已然具有「權利主體」的地位。依據聯合國兒童權利委員會就兒童權利公約所為之闡釋，唯有將兒童的法律地位由「被保護的客體」提升為「權利主體」，即所謂「典範移轉」(paradigm shift)的思維，方能具體落實兒童的權利主體性。藉由近年來英國學者對於英國法院就兒童權利之判解實務所提出之批評及思辨，筆者嘗試說明除應於法律制定時正視兒童各項權利及其保障外，在司法審判實務上，「典範移轉」所要求的是法院應將兒童的權利置於裁判的天平並確實加以檢視。在英國，法院長期以「兒童福祉」而非「兒童權利」作為判決考量中心點的做法，亦已引發學者批評為不符合兒童權利的思潮發展。 對於國家究竟應如何提供被安置兒少所需之安置服務以及應如何確保其權利，本文係以英國為比較法之借鏡，並說明英國兒童安置之法律規範係以兒童權利為核心，特別著重就安置服務的提供應彰顯兒童的個體性，以及兒童應獲得必要的協助以確保其權利的行使。具體而言，本文指出英國為保障被安置兒童之權益建置了諸多的法律機制，其中包括藉由不同位階之法律規範及指導方針縝密地規範安置保護的執行、安置事件中法律監護人的設置、地方政府與民間安置機構委外契約就兒童安置成果約定的具體化、被安置兒童申訴機制的完備、以及由獨立性外部機關來執行安置機構的評鑑等。本文最後並藉由國際公約及比較法的省思，對我國相關法制提出初步之修法建議。 / Around 4,000 children in Taiwan today live in residential institutions due to domestic violence, family dysfunction or as a consequence of their own behaviour. These children are among the country’s most vulnerable. In this thesis, I intend to consider the rights of children living in such institutions, with a view to recommending that Taiwan’s legal framework be based on a ‘child rights’ approach’. The importance of the status of children as rights-holders has long been recognised by the international community. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child stated that a ‘paradigm shift’ is needed to change the perception of children as ‘objects in need of assistance and protection’ to holders of non-negotiable rights. To bring about this ‘paradigm shift’, as argued by leading children’s law academics in England, I shall stress that not only is there a need for children’s rights to be given prominence in domestic legislation, but domestic courts, lawyers, social workers and those who work with children must also take children’s rights more seriously. In this thesis, in an overview of the English child-care legislative framework, I shall identify the key features of a child-care system that I believe is centred on children and their rights. I shall then reflect on the present state of institutional child care in Taiwan, placing emphasis on those aspects of the English model that I consider may be used as references for its development.