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Taking Care of Disabled Children: the Centre International de l’Enfance and Transnational Network, France-North Atlantic-Africa (1959-1989)

Project description

Filling in the knowledge gap in francophone studies on disability

The International Children’s Centre (CIE), established in 1949 in Paris, rose to become a prominent voice for supporting children. The EU-funded CIE-NET4DISCHILD project will study the CIE in terms of how it considered the needs of children with disabilities, and uncover the role it played in shaping the North Atlantic modern approach to the rehabilitation of those with disabilities. This analysis will play a pivotal role in establishing how, between the 1960s and the 1980s, disability became an important global issue that needed to be considered when it came to any health and advocacy perspectives regarding children. The project’s work will enhance current debates on the inclusion of disabled children in Europe.

Objective

By exploring the intersection between disability and childhood issues from a diachronic perspective, this project aims to demonstrate how disability gradually became, between the 1960s and 1980s, a key global issue that must be taken into account in any health and advocacy perspective targeting children. In order to respond to this general objective and thus fill a historical silence, the project studies the Centre international de l'enfance - CIE’s consideration of the needs of children with disabilities by identifying its role and measuring its influence within transnational networks. Created in 1949 by the French paediatrician Robert Debré, the CIE emerged as a major player in the transnational space of advocating for children, playing a complementary role to UNICEF.

This project addresses important research gaps by studying the little-known and essential contribution of the Centre international de l'enfance to the development of the North Atlantic modern approach to the rehabilitation of people with disabilities. It fills major gaps in the historiography of children with disabilities in Africa and on the role and exchange of knowledge between CIE experts and local professionals in a de/postcolonial perspective. Through its interdisciplinary research focus and theoretical framework, this project makes an unprecedented contribution to a field of multidisciplinary studies that is still largely unexplored and in full emergence: Francophone studies on disability. Moreover, it aims to document the past of disabled children who have remained largely forgotten and invisible. Revealing the past of disabled children, this research addresses crucial and current questions on care, health issues, social policies for vulnerable populations. Finally, this pioneering project will discuss ethical and delicate issues about discrimination, exclusion or segregation, thus contributing to shape current debates on inclusion of disabled children in European society.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITE D'ANGERS
Net EU contribution
€ 196 707,84
Address
RUE DE RENNES 40
49035 Angers Cedex 01
France
Region
Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire Maine-et-Loire
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 196 707,84