Project

Title

Lost Children

(Trans-)national out-of area placement of South Tyrolean children in Italy and Austria (1945-1970)
A regional study on the historical background of the inclusive care and education system in Italy

Description

The project examines the placement of German-speaking South Tyrolean children in residential care outside of South Tyrol in Italy and in western Austria in the period from 1945 to 1970. By focusing on the exclusion of children with disabilities, health and family problems, we shall take a regional case in point to trace the historical background of the inclusive care and education system in Italy which evolved from the 1970. The project focuses 1) on the relation between concepts of childhood and welfare state placement measures in the period in question, 2) on the experiences and interpretations of affected individuals, and 3) on the after-effects of the placement for their lives. On the one hand, we thus choose a subject-oriented approach for our research topic, on the other, the placement measures will be embedded in the context of their emergence. In terms of method, we implement this orientation on the subject and the contextualization through narrative-biographical interviews and an analysis of historical documents.

This project will be the first to systematically examine the practice of (trans-)national placement of German-speaking South Tyrolean children outside of South Tyrol, induced by the situation in the post-war decades, and so initiate a historical reflection on more recent developments of inclusion in South Tyrol. The (trans- )national orientation of the project is an innovative approach on child welfare history and promises to stimulate international research in analysing welfare-state issues beyond national categories of thought. This will be achieved by transnational cooperation of an Austrian with an Italian research team of educationalists and historians from the University of Innsbruck (A) and the Free University Bolzano (I).

Funding

 

Research Südtirol/Alto Adige – Wettbewerbsausschreibung 2022

Duration of the project

01/06/2024 – 31/05/2027