Children and Adolescents in Times of Crises in Europe (eBook)

Acknowledgments 6
Introduction: Children and Adolescents in Times of Crisis in Europe 7
Current State of Research 8
Complex Crises 9
The Contributions 10
References 14
Contents 15
About the Contributors 17
Part I: Methodological Challenges of a Child-Oriented Crises Research 21
Chapter 1: Theories for a Childhood and Youth-Related Crisis Research 22
Introduction 22
Social-Theoretical Recourse 24
Durkheim and Moral Crisis 24
Breaching or Crisis Experiments of Ethnomethodology 26
Bourdieu and the Crises of Dispositional Systems 27
Society Within the Subject and the Subject of Society 29
Problem-Related Convergences 29
Epistemological Divergences 29
Habitus as Analytical Concept 30
Conclusion 32
References 33
Chapter 2: Crises and Future Expectations from the Perspective of Children and Adolescents 35
Introduction 35
The Neoliberal Crisis: Bourdieu’s Social Theory and Its Empirical Access 37
Crisis Research: The Actors as Focus 39
Bourdieu’s Missing Developmental Perspective 41
Bourdieu’s Missing Perspective in Childhood and Adolescent Research 42
The Weight of the World on Children and Adolescents 43
Conclusion 45
References 45
Chapter 3: Epistemological Questions of Qualitative Crisis Research. Exploring the Attitudes of Children and Adolescents on Migration and Meritocratic Ideas of Society 47
Exploratory Interviews 48
Nisrin “Do They Just Sit Around at Home All Day?” 49
Johanna “The First Thing Is to Do Away with War…” 51
Exploring Children’s Subjectivity 54
Foundations of Childhood- and Adolescence-Centred Crisis Research 56
Children and Adolescents on the Subjective Level 56
Pedagogical Conditions 57
Conclusion 58
References 58
Part II: Impacts of Crises 60
Chapter 4: Insecure Right from the Start? Socialization Effects of Parental Self-Perceived Job Insecurity 61
Introduction 61
Job Insecurity and Its Currently Known Intergenerational Consequences 63
Socialization Effects of Parental Job Loss Worries on the Occupational Development of Adolescent Children 65
Data, Measures, and Analysis Strategy 67
Data and Sample 67
Measures 67
Analysis Strategy 68
Findings 69
Descriptive Results 69
Multivariate Results 71
Summary and Conclusion 74
References 76
Chapter 5: Child Wellbeing: From Crisis in Families to Crisis of Welfare 79
Introduction 79
Studies on Child Wellbeing and Family Change 81
Economic Crisis, Family Structure and Child Subjective Wellbeing 84
Incidence of Parenting on Child Subjective Wellbeing 87
Marital Status, Quality of Partner Relationships and Child Subjective Wellbeing 87
Socioeconomic Crisis, Parental Involvement and Child Subjective Wellbeing 89
Conclusions 90
References 90
Chapter 6: On the Extremes: Poverty of Young Adults in Greece and Germany (2008–2012) 97
Introduction 97
Poverty in Households with Young People 99
Household Structure and Poverty in Young Adulthood 99
Social Protection in the German and Greek Welfare States 100
Research Questions and Considerations for the Analysis 101
Data, Indicators and Methods 102
Poverty Profiles of Young People in Greece and Germany 104
Changes in the Poverty Risks of Young Adults by Household Context 105
Household Composition in Germany and Greece 106
Risk Factors of Relative Income Poverty and Material Deprivation 106
Decomposition of Changes in Poverty Risks in Times of Crisis 111
Discussion 116
References 118
Part III: Policy Responses and Public Discourses on Crises 120
Chapter 7: Transforming Children and Adolescents in Human Capital. Changes of Youth Policies in Post-Crisis Austria 121
Introduction 121
Human Capital Formation and Employability as Crisis Management 123
Developments and Tensions in (Early) Childcare in Austria 127
Institutional Developments 127
Emerging Tensions 130
Developments and Tensions in Policies for Adolescents in Austria 131
Institutional Developments 131
Emerging Tensions 132
Conclusions 134
References 135
Chapter 8: The German Child Poverty Discourse and its Rhetoric of Crisis 138
Introduction: Child Poverty as a Diverse Phenomenon 138
Minimum Change Approach Between Conservation and Evolution 139
Child Poverty as Virtue Poverty 140
Child Poverty as Educational Poverty 141
Maximum Change Approach Between Revolution and Progression 143
Child Poverty as Monetary Poverty 144
Child Poverty as Rights Poverty 146
The Link Between ‘Child Poverty’ and ‘Crisis’ 148
Virtue Poverty and the Economic Crisis 148
Educational Poverty and the Structural Crisis 149
Monetary Poverty and the Capitalism Crisis 150
Rights Poverty and the Refugee Crisis 151
Conclusion: The ‘Double Political Character’ of Child Poverty 151
References 152
Chapter 9: Global Social Policy on Children in the Global Economic Crisis 155
Introduction 155
Global Social Policy: Actors and Ideas 156
Global Social Policy in the Context of the Global Economic Crisis 157
Global Social Policy Crisis Ideas and the Role of Children 159
Comparing International Organisations’ Approaches: UNICEF, ILO, OECD and World Bank 160
United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) 160
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 161
International Labour Organization (ILO) 162
World Bank 163
Conclusions 163
References 165
Chapter 10: Policies of Crises in the European Union Youth Field: How a Political Agenda Shapes the Concept of Youth 168
Introduction 168
The Economic Crisis and Its Impact on European Youth 169
The Social Construction of European Youth 170
Individualisation of Youth and the “Entrepreneurial Self” 171
Youth Policy Approaches and the Concept of Youth: Existing Classifications 172
Youth Policy of the European Union 174
Addressing Youth as “Entrepreneurial Self”: The Concept of Youth in the EU Youth Strategy 175
The EU Youth Strategy Reflects Increasing Uncertainty and Risk of Youth in the Aftermath of the Crisis 175
Investing and Empowering as Core Objectives of the EU Youth Strategy 176
Promoting Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship 177
Skills Development and the “Project Me” 178
Conclusions 178
Limitation and Outlook 179
References 180
Part IV: Subjective Processing of Crises 183
Chapter 11: The Second Generation in Switzerland in Times of Crises: Biographies Between Meritocratic Promise and Experiences of Inequality and Insecurity 184
Structural Crises and Subjective Perceptions 184
Europe in Crisis – and Switzerland? 186
Immigration and Integration Policies Under the Prevailing Insecurity and Activation 187
A Biographical Longitudinal Study of Adolescence in the Context of Migration and Inequality 188
Biographies in the Contradiction Between Meritocratic Promise and Unequal Opportunities 190
Accentuations of the Contradictory Basic Constellation in the Shadow of the “Crisis” 192
Processes of Symbolic and Political-Legal Precarization 192
The Perception of Transnational Economic Disparities 195
Discussion: Adolescents’ Space of Opportunity in the Context of (Cross-Border) Social Inequalities 197
References 199
Chapter 12: Attitudes of Children and Adolescents in Times of Crisis: Empirical Findings from Germany Between 2015 and 2018 202
The Analysis Context: Germany’s Political Situation Since the Arrival of Refugees in 2015 202
Childhood-Related Attitude Research 204
Resentment Among Adolescents 205
Economy 206
Migration 207
Identities Within the Area of Tension 209
Democracy and Populism 212
Conclusion 213
References 214