Philanthropy and philanthropic associations and organizations were highly active in European countries in the 19th century, because of the widespread poverty that affected people of the lower class. Poverty, and solutions for it, was highly debated and resulted in different policies that affected the image of and conditions for the population in need. In this time of distress, people of the philanthropic organizations, made it possible for children to be relocated to other families, to be under better conditions during their growth. Because of the religious roots and agenda that philanthropic organizations possessed, it is interesting to investigate how this might have been an act of controlling, disciplining and monitoring the socially vulnerable. This thesis intended to study the underlying motives of the said institution by analyzing discourses of the children and parents through subject positions, discipline mechanisms and surveillance. The results demonstrated that there were acts of normalization and discipline of the poor by taking them out of their said to be morally corrupted homes and conditioning them in another with Christian morality and rituals. Children and their parents were monitored through the community and children were highly observed through follow-ups when committed in the association. There were also acts of othering by describing children and parents as the opposite of the desirable norms and therefore increasing the distance between the socially vulnerable and the upper class. Mothers were especially vulnerable when describing the parents as immoral, frivolous and prurient.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-110075 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Buchalle, Julia |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0011 seconds