Opponent:
Anna Angelin, Associate Professor, School of Social Work. Lund University
Title:
Child poverty and the housing issue in a conditional welfare state
Abstract:
This thesis examines how the changing forms of child poverty can be understood in relation to the restructuring of the welfare state, with particular analytical emphasis on the issue of housing. As housing provision is increasingly organized through market logic, selective forms of support and municipally differentiated interventions, the relationship of housing to the general security principles of the welfare state is shifting. The thesis explores how this development affects the economic vulnerability of families with children and how housing simultaneously functions as both an expression of and a driving force in processes of poverty.
Methodologically, the project entails a multidisciplinary mixed methods approach where quantitative and qualitative analyses are integrated. The main empirical material consists of applications submitted to the non-profit organization Majblomman by families with children over an eleven-year period. Through a longitudinal content analysis of this material, the study examines changes over time in need structures, language use and the forms of support requested. This enables an in-depth understanding of how the everyday expressions of poverty change in relation to broader societal transformation processes.
The empirical material is supplemented by policy and document analyses of changes in housing provision, social support and welfare policy at both national and municipal levels, as well as with interviews with families, volunteer workers, municipal housing planners and social workers. In addition, a comparative municipal analysis is conducted in which municipalities with different housing policy conditions and varying degrees of welfare interventions are analyzed.
The thesis is organized into four sub-studies which together aims to highlight how child poverty is shaped at the intersection of welfare state retrenchment, municipal governance, and the changing status of housing as a social right.