SOCIAL STRATIFICATION, CHILDCARE PROVISION, AND COLONIALITY OF POWER: A THEORETICAL REFLECTION FROM ENTRE RÍOS

Gabriel Emiliano Atelman

Abstract

This article offers a theoretical review aimed at reflecting on the relationship between the provision of childcare and processes of social stratification, with a focus on the case of Entre Ríos. Social stratification is understood to be the hierarchical organization of groups or strata within a society (Bottomore, 1973, as cited in López Pérez, 1989). We posit that reproductive processes are both shaped by and embedded within specific modes of social structuring and that multiple inequalities arise from them. The article begins with an analysis of historical perspectives on inequality, thus inviting a critical examination of how social categorizations differentiate life trajectories. 
It then proceeds to reveal an approach to childcare provision as a social, political, and historical phenomenon, wherein structures of power and domination interact to produce particularised relationships and identities. To deepen the existent problematization of these processes, insights from decolonial theory are incorporated with the aim of unpacking the over-
lapping categorizations that intersect childhood and childcare practices. The article concludes by posing a series of questions and reflections to further explore and question these issues.