Family Ties and Juridical Expertise: An Analysis of the Construction of Affection as a Child's Right
Author: Wohnrath, Vinicius P., vinicius.wohnrath@gmail.com
Department: Faculty of Education (Department: Education, Knowledge, Language and Art)
University: University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
Supervisor: Agueda Bittencourt
Year of completion: 2012
Language of dissertation: Portuguese
Keywords:
Child and adolescent
, Family law
, Law and education
, Law and politics
Areas of Research:
Education
, Law
, Family Research
Abstract
The aim of this research is to elucidate the social conditions that helped foster a public debate about parental affection. Presently, there are three law projects that follow legal channels. The intent of these law projects is create a legislative mandate for parents to love their children – a juridical resource which has not yet been integrated to Brazilian legislation. At the intersection of studies about family organization and children’s rights, this dissertation explored the founding speeches, the strategies, the connections and the practical actions of advocates of this family law. To explore the repertoire articulated by these agents, this research drew on their biographies, available in specialized dictionaries (family origin, habitus, academic formation, professional actuation, national and international relations, etc.), institutional documents, memoirs, the law projects, speeches made by members of the parliamentary as well as the speeches made by selected committees. By inquiring into the social construction of affection as obligation, and by relating it to the trajectories of the advocates who put into circulation determined patterns, this dissertation tries to denaturalize the law; the analysis sheds light on the disputes within the juridical and political fields to officialize specific ways of domestic acquaintanceship over the last three decades.
