To unravel events, to asses subjects and to produce truths in order to “restore children rights”. An approach centered in the everyday intervention practices in a state device in the Buenos Aires conurbation

Abstract

One of the most praised elements in the recent legislative changes related to children and their rights is the so called “un-judicialization” of social care. It has been argued that, this transformation resulted in a reduction in the arbitrariness to which children and families from popular strata were subjected in courts. In this paper, I hope to suspend this assumption in order to move forward in the reflections on its implications in the everyday dimension of the state practices designed to "restore rights". To do this, I inquire here from an ethnographic perspective, in the actions of state agents from a Servicio Local de Protección de Derechos de Niños in a township from the Buenos Aires conurbation in contexts signed by social inequality. Particularly those deployed to deal with problematic situations of children marked by adult practices, usually interpreted as criminal activities - such as child abuse or sexual abuse-.