PUBLIC POLICIES OF CHILD ASSISTANCE AND THE RECONFIGURATIONS OF CARE/EDUCATION IN THE CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the current public policies intended for childhood and, particularly, some assistance programs and projects, by analyzing the ways in which these policies have reconfigured practices of care/education of contemporary childhood. The paper uses the notion of neoliberal governmentality as developed by Foucault and especially the Human Capital Theory. From the analyses, it is possible to state that early childhood education has grown in visibility, and again the field of assistance has been intertwined with the field of educational policies for childhood. The investments in childhood by means of public policies of assistance to childhood such as, for instance, the Caring Brazil Action, can be regarded as strategies of neoliberal governmentality aimed at restraining social risks.