Childhood and Public Policy in Uruguay: Analysis of Social Representations in the CAIF Plan (1988–2017)

Abstract

This article analyzes the social representations of childhood that shape state action in Uruguay, taking the CAIF Plan—the country’s main interinstitutional early childhood care and education policy (1988–2017)—as a case study. The qualitative research combines the analysis of 34 institutional documents and 12 in-depth interviews to identify the core meanings that guide conceptions of childhood, care, and community. Drawing on the structural approach to social representations, it examines both institutional documents and the discourses of technical-political actors involved in the program’s design and management. The qualitative research design combines documentary analysis and in-depth interviews to identify the core meanings that guide conceptions of childhood, care, and community. The findings reveal persistent tensions between community-based participatory models and technical-administrative logics, as well as the coexistence of notions linked to protection, development, and child citizenship. The study provides a transferable methodological strategy for exploring the symbolic dimension of public policies and contributes to understanding how institutional representations of childhood influence forms of state intervention and the configuration of the early childhood field.