Inscrutable patchwork: exploring inconsistencies in the history of twentieth-century residential childcare

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s, historical child abuse and violence in institutional care have been widely researched across western countries. This article contributes to this research by exploring the conception of residential childcare in Switzerland. Based on the results of a major national study (an interdisciplinary research network funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation 2014–2018), the author examines the inconsistency between the educational ideals circulating in academic and professional milieus and the long prevailing and often violent pedagogy of obedience in Swiss welfare administration and childcare institutions. How far can this practice be explained by the ambivalent conceptions of a ‘right’, ‘just’ or ‘ideal’ education, which were presented simultaneously and often inconsistently in different places? What role did the heterogeneity of the welfare system play? This article thus contributes to helping social work understand its past. It illuminates the success stories of a still young profession as well as the fateful interventions, omissions, professional closures and conflicts shaping the history of the profession. It argues that the current professional discussion on the basic values that were violated in the past not only urgent but also needs to gain historical depth and critical reflexivity.

ABSTRAKT

Seit den 90er Jahren werden Gewalt und sexuelle Ausbeutung in der ausserfamiliären Erziehung in den westlichen Industriestaaten historische aufgearbeitet. Der Artikel leistet hierzu einen Beitrag wobei der Blick vor allem auf die in der professionellen Sozialen Arbeit verhandelten Konzepte zur ausserfamiliären Erziehung gerichtet wird. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen des gesamtschweizerischen, vergleichenden Forschungsprojektes ‘Placing Children in Care. Child Welfare in Switzerland 1940–1990’ (finanziert durch den Schweizerischen Nationalfonds), interessieren die unübersehbaren Widersprüche zwischen den in akademischen und professionellen Milieus zirkulierenden Erziehungsvorstellungen und der weit verbreiteten, oft mit Gewalt einhergehenden ‘Gehorsamspädagogik’ in den Zuweisungsprozessen sowie in den Einrichtungen der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe. Inwieweit lässt sich diese Praxis durch Ambivalenzen in den Idealen selbst bezüglich einer ‘richtigen’, ‘gerechten’ oder ‘idealen’ Erziehung erklären, die an verschiedenen Orten gleichzeitig und oft inkonsistent präsentiert wurden? Welche Rolle spielte die Heterogenität des Sozialwesens? Der Artikel trägt mit diesen Fragen dazu bei, dass die Profession Soziale Arbeit ihre Vergangenheit in den Blick nimmt. Er beleuchtet die Erfolgsgeschichten einer noch jungen Profession ebenso wie verhängnisvolle Interventionen, geschehene Unterlassungen, Schliessungsprozesse und Konflikte. Es wird argumentiert, dass die aktuelle Soziale Arbeit in der Verantwortung steht, sich neu der aktuellen Gültigkeit in der Vergangenheit verletzter Grundwerte zu vergewissern.

KEYWORDS:

• Reappraisal of institutional care
• history of social work
• child and youth welfare
• history of residential childcare in Switzerland

SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER:

• Aufarbeitung der Heimerziehung
• Geschichte der Sozialen Arbeit
• Kinder- und Jugendhilfe
• Geschichte der Heimerziehung in der Schweiz

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Gisela Hauss is professor of social work at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW. Her current research focuses on the history of social work, in particular child and youth welfare and child protection. Her second main focus is inequality and unemployment. She has conducted extensive research in both areas and has published widely, nationally and internationally. From 2015 to 2019, she was appointed by the Swiss Federal Government as a member of the ‘Independent Expert Commission on Administrative Detention.’

Notes

1 ‘Placing Children in Care: Child Welfare in Switzerland, 1940–1990. Funded by the Swiss Science Foundation within the framework of ‘Sinergia’, a programme dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary collaboration between two to four research groups promising breakthrough research. Project number 147695, Gisela Hauss (leading house) Joëlle Droux, Thomas Gabriel, Anne-Françoise Praz, Nadja Ramsauer, Martin Lengwiler (cooperation partner); duration: 2014–2017.

2 University of Applied Sciences (FHNW), School of Social Work (Leading House), University of Basel, Department of History, University of Fribourg, Historical Sciences, University of Geneva, Education Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) Social Work.

3 I would like to thank Markus Bossert and Sara Galle, research associates for sub-project 1 for their support with data collection and analysis.

4 Zeitschrift Verein für Schweizerisches Heim- und Anstaltswesen [Journal of the Association for Swiss residential care] (VSA). 11–60 (1940–1989); Zeitschrift Schweizerischer Katholischen Anstalten-Verband [Journal of the Swiss Catholic Association for residential care] (SKAV) 7–51 (1945–1989).

5 Interview sampling follows the maximum contrast method (Strauss & Corbin) in order to differentiate denominational orientations. Interview transcriptions served as the basis of content analysis. This article cites from three interviews: I. Abbt (personal communication, October 30, 2017); H. Tanner (personal communication, October 16, 2017); H. Zindel (personal communication October 10, 2017).

6 For a presentation of the research results, see Hauss (in print).

7 see VSA 1949/5, footnote 4

8 VSA, 1956/04, see footnote 4

9 For further details on the reformatory efforts in Geneva, see Gardet and Ruchat (2014), Lenhard and Wehr (2013, p. 81), Oelkers (2007), and Hofstetter (2010).