Across nannies and children: ethnographic perspectives on the subjectification and whiteness in the city of São Paulo.

• Grant number: 24/16512-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Gustavo Freitas Rossi
• Grantee: Rafaella Massuia Vaz
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This proposal aims to understand, through ethnographic research, how children make sense of the women who work as their nannies and the care relationships and hierarchies established with them. With the sociology and anthropology of care and race relations, as well as the anthropology of children, as the main fields of interlocution, the fieldwork has taken place in the city of São Paulo, more specifically at Rosa Alves da Silva Square. The choice of this location was the result of the fieldwork process already underway and is justified by the high circulation of working women dressed in white pushing children's strollers, as well as by the fact that it is an area considered to be middle/upper class. In this way, the aim is to partially approach the middle/upper class world of São Paulo, understanding some ideas and meanings about domesticity, class and race relations, especially with regard to discussions about whiteness. This project is based on the perception that there is a certain gap regarding the presence of nannies in the central discussions of anthropology. In addition, it adds to the debate the experiences of children on the subject, aiming to bring their perspectives into their own terms. Finally, we hope to contribute to the fields of knowledge that deal with the issue of care, especially with regard to paid domestic work and its relationship with the world of children, race relations and anthropological theory.