ANTHROPOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON CHILD-CENTERED PUBLIC POLICIES: an initial study on the “City of Children Project” and its implementation in the city of Jundiaí (SP/Brazil)

Abstract

This essay aims to analyze the developments of the “City of Children Project” in Jundiaí, a Brazilian city located in the state of São Paulo. It is an international initiative in municipal management, founded in Italy in 1991, which seeks to put children at the center of public policies. Since 2018, the municipality in the state of São Paulo has been implementing Project actions in its territory, which will be analyzed here, highlighting the role of the current municipal management. Understanding the field of public policies as a multidisciplinary field, we bring an anthropological perspective to this analysis paying attention to different motivations and relationships between agents who act in the creation and implementation of policies. Through an online survey and a brief field trip to Jundiaí (in which, above all, exploratory walking techniques, informal conversations and direct and participant observation were used), the text presents the analyses of an ethnography of early-stage public policies. The work hopes to demonstrate the relevance of anthropology in action beyond the academic sphere, bringing reflections on public policies based on current research about and with children.