Children’s Culture and Citizenship in Argentina: A History of Billiken Magazine (1919–2019)

Le 18 juillet 1994 à 9 h 53, une bombe faisait exploser le siège de la AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina), au cœur du quartier Once à Buenos Aires, faisant 85 morts et près de 250 blessés. Cet attentat, qui faisait suite à celui du 17 mars 1992 contre l’ambassade d’Israël en Argentine (qui avait causé la mort de 29 personnes), n’est à ce jour toujours pas formellement élucidé et reste le plus meurtrier qu’a connu le pays. Cet article s’intéresse aux manifestations politiques et aux dispositifs mémoriels liés à l’attentat contre la AMIA, en interrogeant notamment la manière dont ils s’inscrivent dans la ville de Buenos Aires et contribuent à questionner la place des juifs dans la vie politique argentine. Deux tendances en partie contradictoires peuvent à ce titre être identifiées : une tendance au repli et à l’allogénisation des espaces communautaires juifs, matérialisée notamment par l’ensemble des dispositifs sécuritaires qui les protègent ; une tendance inverse à la « citoyennisation » de la présence juive en Argentine, à travers la convergence des revendications politiques liées à l’attentat avec d’autres luttes politiques associées au processus de transition démocratique de l’Argentine post-dictatoriale.

This chapter argues that immigrant teachers and their pupils broadened the definition of citizenship in Argentina. Those who ran these schools and the parents who sent their children to them clearly believed that pluralism and Argentine belonging could coexist. Parents and teachers wanted children and young adults to grow up with an advanced proficiency in German, alongside Spanish, and with knowledge about both central Europe and Argentina. Through their actions and ideas, the children and adults involved with German-Spanish bilingual schools took an active interest in the future. Although they had various opinions about the educational project of the adults involved, Argentine-born children of German heritage grew up in contact not only with the German language and German culture but also with the Spanish language and Argentine civic education.

This article relations international migration and citizenship using a case study: the Argentine migration in Madrid (Spain) across the last three decades. The qualitative analysis of interviews with political and economic migrants offers the possibility to approach two migration flows that responses to diverging political and social contexts in origin (1976 dictatorship and 2001 crisis) and, at the same time, to show the transformation of receptions contexts. It is assumed that the migration responds to a deficit of citizenship in Argentina that is tried to get back in the receiving country. To investigate this, it focuses (i) the experiences of the interviewee before migration and (ii) the adaptation process in Spain; (iii) it thinks about the conformation of new forms of citizenship.

This article presents a summary of the rationale for citizenship education in Argentina and highlights one program as exemplar. The focus of this education is the development and implementation of educational values through civil culture.

Argentina’s Billiken was the world’s longest-running children’s magazine, publishing 5144 issues over one hundred years. It educated and entertained generations of schoolchildren and came to occupy a central role in Argentine cultural life. This volume offers the first academic history of the whole lifespan of Billiken as a print magazine, through to its transition into a digital brand. As an editorial project founded at the time of the massification of print culture, Billiken was in the business of creating future citizens. From its transnational and literary beginnings, Billiken quickly became organised around the school year, offering valuable extra-curricular material aligned to the patriotic drivers of state schooling. Billiken told the story of the Argentine nation, cyclically and repeatedly, gaining such momentum that it became part of the nation’s story itself. This volume adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to take account of the many different facets of Billiken’s content born from a combination of ideological, commercial, political and cultural drivers. This history of Billiken examines the changes, contradictions and continuities in the magazine over time as it responded to political events, adapted to new commercial realities, and made use of technological advances. It explores how Billiken magazine not only reflected society, but shaped it through its influence on childhoods, children’s culture and education, and provides an alternative window onto the history and politics of a tumultuous hundred years for Argentina.

In Latin America, public policies were promoted to encourage students to attend university and to create new institutions. However, the resources used for these purposes were scarce, as were those used to promote the integration of students from the most vulnerable social sectors. This research will carry out a comparative study and analysis of the evolution of government policies on education and education for citizenship in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru based on the analysis of two variables: (1) public policies for higher education for citizenship and (2) the reception and impact of these policies on public and private universities and their impact on the education system.

<i>Children's Culture and Citizenship in Argentina: A History of</i> Billiken <i>Magazine (1919–2019)</i> by Lauren Rea

Preface, Enrique Krauze 1. Introduction, Francis Fukuyuma Part One: The Historical Context 2. Two Centuries of South American Reflections on the Development Gap between the United States and Latin America, Tulio Halperin Donghi 3. Looking at Them: A Mexican Perspective on the Gap with the United Status, Enrique Krauze 4. Explaining Latin America's Lagging Development in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: Growth Strategies, Inequality, and Economic Crises, Jorge I. Dominguez Part Two: The Politics of Underdevelopment in Latin America 5. Does Politics Explain the Economic Gap between the United States and Latin America?, Adam Przeworski and Carolina Curvale 6. The Role of High Stakes Politics in Latin America's Development Gap, Riordan Roett and Francisco E. Gonzalez Part Three: Institutional Factors in Latin America's Development 7. Institutions and the Latin American Equilibrium, James A. Robinson 8. Do Defective Institutions Explain the Development Gap Between the United States and Latin America?, Francis Fukuyama 9. Why Institutions Matter: Fiscal Citizenship in Argentina and the United States, Natalio R. Botana Part Four: Conclusions 10. Conclusion, Francis Fukuyama

The paper presents findings from research on political subjectivity and citizenship with two public‐sector trade unions in Buenos Aires. I outline some of the relations between trade unionism and citizenship in Argentina and then explore the concept of ‘ contención’ (‘containment’), a group‐based technology of the self which is fundamental to the construction of political agency and citizenship within the most active members of these trade unions.

Previous articleNext article No AccessGuest Editorial EssayThe State and Public Education in Latin AmericaCarlos Alberto Torres and Adriana PuiggrósCarlos Alberto Torres Search for more articles by this author and Adriana Puiggrós Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 39, Number 1Feb., 1995Special Issue on Education in Latin America Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/447287 Views: 51Total views on this site Citations: 20Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1995 The Comparative and International Education SocietyPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Edith Mukudi Omwami, Robin Shields The development of theory in comparative and international education: An analysis of doctoral theses at North American universities, Research in Comparative and International Education 2 (Jul 2022): 174549992211122.https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999221112231Carolyn Silva ‘Africa has a history’: an Afro-diasporic examination of Black education in Colombia and Brazil, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 17, no.33 (Sep 2021): 296–319.https://doi.org/10.1080/17442222.2021.1974588S. Ramaila A comparative analysis of school physics curriculum content in selected countries, Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1512, no.11 (Apr 2020): 012011.https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1512/1/012011Lauren Rea Education, popular literature and future citizenship in Argentina’s Billiken children’s magazine (1919–1944), Global Studies of Childhood 8, no.33 (Sep 2018): 281–291.https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610618797403William Medina-Jerez Science Education Research Trends in Latin America, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 16, no.33 (Dec 2016): 465–485.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-016-9785-zStacey Bose, Laura Roberts, George White The Perceived Value and Impact of the Transference of a U.S. Model of Accreditation to National Christian Schools in Latin America, Journal of Research on Christian Education 26, no.22 (Aug 2017): 144–171.https://doi.org/10.1080/10656219.2017.1331774Mariano Narodowski, Mauro Moschetti The growth of private education in Argentina: evidence and explanations, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 45, no.11 (Sep 2013): 47–69.https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2013.829348Benjamin G. Gibbs, Tim B. Heaton Drop out from primary to secondary school in Mexico: A life course perspective, International Journal of Educational Development 36 (May 2014): 63–71.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2013.11.005Greg Misiaszek Transformative Environmental Education Within Social Justice Models: Lessons from Comparing Adult Ecopedagogy Within North and South America, (Nov 2011): 423–440.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2360-3_26Carlos Alberto Torres Dancing on the deck of the Titanic? Adult education, the nation-state and new social movements, International Review of Education 57, no.1-21-2 (Apr 2011): 39–55.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-011-9193-0Tom G. Griffiths, Lisa Knezevic Wallerstein’s world-systems analysis in comparative education: A case study, PROSPECTS 40, no.44 (Nov 2010): 447–463.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-010-9168-0Erika Mein Literacy, Knowledge Production, and Grassroots Civil Society: Constructing Critical Responses to Neoliberal Dominance, Anthropology & Education Quarterly 40, no.44 (Dec 2009): 350–368.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2009.01056.xNuzzly Ruiz de Forsberg State and Parental Roles in the Decentralised Education System in Nicaragua, (Jul 2009): 195–215.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2703-0_11Ben Meade, Alec Ian Gershberg Making education reform work for the poor: accountability and decentralization in Latin America, Journal of Education Policy 23, no.33 (May 2008): 299–322.https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930801923823Gustavo E. Fischman Persistence and ruptures: the feminization of teaching and teacher education in Argentina, Gender and Education 19, no.33 (May 2007): 353–368.https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250701295502Dean Neu, Elizabeth Ocampo Gomez, Cameron Graham, Monica Heincke “Informing” technologies and the World Bank, Accounting, Organizations and Society 31, no.77 (Oct 2006): 635–662.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2005.07.002Florencia Carlino CENTRALLY-MANDATED TESTING SYSTEMS IN THE NEOLIBERAL EDUCATIONAL REFORM: CONTRADICTIONS AND TENSIONS OF THE ARGENTINE EXPERIENCE1, The Latin Americanist 48, no.22 (Jun 2008): 29–56.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1557-203X.2005.tb00033.xJorge M. Gorostiaga Derqui Educational decentralization policies in Argentina and Brazil: exploring the new trends, Journal of Education Policy 16, no.66 (Nov 2001): 561–583.https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930110087825Pia L. Wong, Ramon Balestino Prioritizing the education of marginalized young people in Brazil: a collaborative approach, Journal of Education Policy 16, no.66 (Nov 2001): 597–618.https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930110087843Carlos Alberto Torres Chapter 6: State and Education Revisited: Why Educational Researchers Should Think Politically About Education, Review of Research in Education 21, no.11 (Jun 2016): 255–331.https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X021001255

El presente trabajo se propone reflexionar sobre la relación entre guerra y política. El punto de partida de son algunas indicaciones realizadas por Juan Carlos Marín acerca de la necesidad de producir una crítica del fetichismo de las armas presente en las concepciones militaristas del estatuto de la guerra en el marco del capitalismo que sea paralela a la crítica del fetichismo de la mercancía en Marx. Para pensar este paralelismo se toman los conceptos de “estado-nación” y “ciudadano” como las claves de la construcción de la fuerza armada de la burguesía. La “ciudadanización” como proceso de disciplinamiento de los cuerpos fundamental del capitalismo es explorada a partir de dos autores. Por un lado, se retoma a Louis Althusser, quien afirma que en la lucha de clases lo que se enfrentan no son solo dos clases, sino también dos formas de lucha. Por otra parte, se explora esta tesis a partir de los análisis que Dardo Scavino hace del dispositivo sarmientino de la oposición entre "Civilización y Barbarie" como modelo de constitución de la lucha de clases burguesa y proceso de ciudadanización en la Argentina. Por último, en las conclusiones se exploran los límites de la noción de "ciudadano" en el marco de las políticas neoliberales impuestas por las dictaduras latinoamericanas y el dominio del capital financiero en el ultra-imperialismo

This article places the study of Argentina’s Billiken magazine, the world’s longest-running children’s weekly, at the intersection between Popular Culture Studies and Childhood Studies to uncover how historical understandings of Argentine popular culture are challenged and transformed when the popular culture in question is made for children. Billiken is identified with the promotion of Argentine culture and history yet excludes the ultimate expression of Argentine national identity, the gaucho, from its popular literary content in favour of characters taken from, or inspired by, European children’s literature. This editorial decision is determined by Billiken’s construction of the child reader in terms of his or her future potential. Billiken’s self-imposed educational remit extends to the magazine’s popular cultural content which it employs as a way of socialising the child reader and forming notions of taste. The editorial construction of children as future citizens is used here as the lens through which to view the different and, at times, contradictory, ideological, pedagogical and commercial agendas found within this product of children’s popular culture.