Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Compassion and Control

1997; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 4; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/0907568297004002006

1461-7013

Natan Sznaider,

Foucault, Power, and Ethics

This article analyzes the formation and expression of collective interest in the moral and physical well-being of children. `Compassion' is the term used to define a concern with the suffering of others, accompanied by the urge to help. Responses to the suffering of children offer a rich empirical site for studying the conditions under which public compassion emerges. The current social science literature on reform movements works primarily within a `discourse of suspicion', presenting reform as an imposition of one social group over another, or a desire to control. The purpose of this article is to look beyond this view. Source material relating to the Children's Aid Society and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has been used to illustrate the issues involved in this debate.