La Junta de Protecció de la Infància de Barcelona, 1908-1985: algunes claus del seu naixement, funcionament institucional i recorregut històric = The Junta de Protecció de la Infància de Barcelona, 1908-1985: Key factors in its constitution, functioning and history

Abstract

The bursting into scene of childhood as both a sociological and historical subject, and the following shaping of social action and intervention in this social sector, appears to the eyes of researchers, technicians and citizens as one of the most new and interesting aspects of the end of the 19th century setting. It also signifies a change in the social paradigm. The «Junta de Protecció de la Infància de Barcelona»1 was created in 1908: until then, what had been done for the protection of childhood and services to this sector of population? Why was it that, at this given time, childhood makes its appearance and such an institution is set up? The article wants to underline and make evident why and how it was created. It also aims, through the reference to this institution -understood as a connecting thread given that its institutional life covers almost the whole century - how social action for children in Catalunya and in Barcelona was understood throughout the 20th century. To contextualize this institution and to help in the understanding of why it was born and of how it was shaped, a quick and short reference is made to the definition of the concept of childhood and to the different considerations relating to it as well as to the social and educational actions towards childhood which have been developed through history. We will contribute a few references to the institutional life of the «Junta», from a chronological setting (through an external analysis) and from a logical explanation of its institutional life (through a diachronic analysis), providing an explanation that sets it as a result and a social answer in a given sociohistorical moment of change in the existing systems of values and social functions, stemming from the new bourgeois system and the springing of the social protostate. The article stages the moment of the specific appearance of the institution object of the study. It also introduces some of the most relevant economic, sociological, social, political, institutional, etc. elements in the city of Barcelona at the beginning of the 20th century in order to illustrate the numerous factors which converged in the setting up and consolidation of the «Junta». The article's last two sections are somewhat different: the first provides information on the name and localization of the JPIB's Archive. The last is intended to offer a set of conclusions.