Loyalties, silence and conflicts: Being one of the “grown ups” in a family care institution

Abstract

This article refers to the child as a social actor and producer of culture and acting in social relations in which it participates. Considering that the emergence of this concept in anthropology, coincides historically with the process of recognizing the child as a full individual of rights, the analysis is part of a broader project that aims to interrogate their various positions when different authority figures - judges, educators, technicians etc. – they act to ensure the protection of their rights against their families of origin. Based on ethnographic data collected over two years in an institution of the French system of infancy protection, for the so called monoparental families in difficulty, we analyze the daily practices of children aged from seven to eleven years old in a complex relational context in which their parents are under suspicion regarding the capability and the possibility to educating them.