Philanthropy, Education and Football: The Charitable Work of Max Bembo in Barcelona (1907-1922)

Abstract

The last century has been considered as the rights of children. At the beginning of the twentieth century the economic, industrial and cultural development of the city of Barcelona entails a very important urban transformation whose effects are felt in a dense concentration of the working population that has to face a multitude of hardships and social inequalities. In this context, there is a movement of institutional beneficences that aim at education and protection of the destitute children. Among all these initiatives is the unpublished charitable work of Max Bembo (José Ruiz Rodríguez), figure in which we focus the object of study of this research. A documentary review of primary sources of hemerographic nature and the subsequent analysis of the selected texts support an interpretation around Critical Theory. Max Bembo’s philanthropic work transcends the beneficial concept and is incorporated into the field of social justice by using football as a standardization and citizen integration device. With this article, we have proposed to overcome the residual space that still has the History of Social Education and advance in the construction of a discipline that supports broad social (political, cultural, economic …) connections.