Il principio del superiore interesse nei servizi specialistici di tutela minorile. La sfida dell’alterità culturale e l’urgenza dell’ascolto

This article intends to problematize the concept of well-being as a privileged object of publicwelfare policies, especially with respect to its declination in the context of social services dedi-cated to child protection, where it is recognized and pursued in terms of an unspecified “superiorinterest”. Starting from an anthropological perspective, and leveraging a historical-comparativeapproach, I will propose the deconstruction of these ethnocentric representations, to show theirculturally situated nature. Even before that, the deconstruction of the very concept of childhoodand “minority” will be proposed, even problematizing the more general concept of family. Thegoal of this contribution – also thanks to some significant ethnographic testimonies personallycollected as part of a research carried out in the framework of the project “Families.Strengthening territorial ties to support vulnerable families” (FAMI 2014-2020) – is to solicitcritical reflections in child protection services in order to implement the adoption of more awareand adequate interpretative and operational tools, also in the face of dynamics of cultural essen-tialization and social stereotyping potentially prejudicial for the fulfillment of the professionalmandate to which service operators are called, especially when engaged in activities such as as-sistance and taking charge of users of foreign origin.