Abstract
This article reports on childhood studies in Germany including two empirical research projects. It concentrates on children living in poverty and on findings regarding how children conceive justice and the “good life.” Starting with an overview of the state of the art in German childhood studies, it reports the methods and major findings of the World Vision Survey. Although this representative study of 1,600 children clearly confirms the growth of child poverty in Germany, it was unable to show how the children themselves experience their situation. This leads to the second study of 200 really poor children from Hamburg and Berlin. Focusing on how these children define justice and the good life along with what they understand by these terms, it examined how Martha Nussbaum’s Capability Approach can contribute to progress in childhood studies.
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Notes
The reformulation of the relative poverty concept from 50% to 60% of the median equivalent income (average net income) has shifted the definition from exposure to poverty toward exposure to the risk of poverty. In contrast, the international discussion talks about “severe poverty” when people have only 40% of average net income at their disposal (see Mertens 2007).
This study defines relative poverty as less than 50% of average net income.
The main groups of migrants in Germany come from Turkey, former Yugoslavia, Russia and Greek (World Vision 2007)
Based decisively on parents’ educational background, parents’ household income and housing conditions, and children’s estimates on the number of books in the home.
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Andresen, S., Fegter, S. Children Growing Up in Poverty and Their Ideas on What Constitutes a Good Life: Childhood Studies in Germany. Child Ind Res 4, 1–19 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-010-9073-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-010-9073-3