Ebook: Set to See Us Fail: Debating Inequalities in the Child Welfare System of New York

Examining the interaction between families and professionals in the child welfare system of New York, this book focuses on how inequalities are reproduced, measured, managed, and contested. The book describes how state institutions and neoliberal governance police the groups which are most represented in the child welfare system, including low income, female-headed families living in racialized neighborhoods. The book also shows how these forms of policing produce unstable terrains, and give rise to contestation among families, communities, and professionals. It questions and re-thinks how state welfare and protection is administered.

Viola Castellano is Senior Research Associate at the Chair of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Bayreuth. Previously, she worked at the Department of Education of Bologna University and at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning. Her research interests revolve around ethnography of institutions, welfare and migration policies, borders externalization and global inequalities.