Negotiating Educational Spaces in Residential Childcare 1970-1990. An Interdisciplinary Comparison of Transformation Processes in Austria, Germany and Switzerland

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Mechthild Bereswill
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; General Education and History of Education
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 449102739

The 1970s have commonly been considered to mark the end of restrictive residential care for children in the German-speaking area. However, preliminary studies for this project have shown that this thesis is only partially true. In the 1970s-1980s, the residential childcare systems in different welfare regions in Austria, Germany and Switzerland developed at varying speeds and degrees. In the wake of 1968, widespread criticism of residential care led to reform initiatives with different levels of effectiveness. But, many areas actually lacked substantial change. A significant number of children and youths experienced only slightly altered conditions in residential care institutions for at least another two decades. Little research has been done on this transition period marked by change and persistence. This project aims to close this research gap. What are the dynamics of the transformation processes in the welfare regions under investigation? Which reciprocal effects do they lead to – on a local, regional, national and transnational level? Which established institutional practices and structures, which fields of discourse and which constellations of protagonists determine the degree and speed of transformation? This study uses a comparative approach. Six case studies will serve as empirical research units. They have been selected to represent three prototypical and contrasting welfare regions that reflect the non-simultaneous conditions of development in the period under investigation: Tyrol/Vorarlberg (Austria), Hesse (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland). Data will be drawn from extensive archival sources as well as from several dozen interviews to be conducted with eyewitnesses from the transition period. The project will examine how changes in educational spaces in residential childcare were negotiated. The specific welfare landscapes along with their respective welfare regimes provide the contextual conditions for these negotiations. A relational and activity-theoretical spatial theory is used as a research perspective. The purpose of the trilateral cross-border project is to deliver an appropriate and differentiated description of this under researched transition period, not only to provide new findings related to the recent history of out-of-home care, but also to seek new methodologies in researching welfare state transformations. This project is jointly conducted by the universities of Innsbruck (M. Ralser), Kassel (M. Bereswill) and Nordwestschweiz (G. Hauss). It includes researchers from several disciplines ranging from Educational Science and History to Sociology and Social Work.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Switzerland
• Partner Organisation: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Gisela Hauss; Professorin Dr. Michaela Ralser