摘要：Abstract The political and normative production about children social welfare, especially the one produced in the European Union, is usually based on methodological references that use values and ideas unproblematically taken. These references are related to the scientific research that supports public policies, reproducing conceptions that are not problematized about the referential terms used, having consequences on the mobilized methodological apparatus. These studies are generally supported by statistics that adds to its extensive nature a very short capacity of dealing with differences and dissimilarities between children. Moreover, these methodologies are usually based on epistemological proceedings that analyses the children from points of view focused on adults or ethnicity. The questions about children alterity, cultural diversity and even social dissimilarity find weak expression on the investigative production in several reports, especially the ones produced in important international and European organizations. At the same time, subjects like action and childhood cultures are hardly seen in studies about welfare. From an alternative perspective, we tried to set in this article the theoric, epistemological and methodological basis that allow, at the children welfare analyses, the crossing of structural indicators and subjectivity dimensions and also the crossing of social factors and comprehension and action of children as concrete social actors. Key words : Childhood, social welfare, public policies, social investigation
