Children and Participation: Mapping Social Inequalities within Concepts of Well-Being in Qualitative Research

Abstract

From the perspective of children, the ability to participate in social life is closely linked to well-being. In the context of the CUWB study we collected qualitative data on concepts of children’s well-being. Our goal in this contribution is to use these data to reconstruct the significance of social participation and to show methodologically the relevance for well-being of social inequalities and power systems established through generation, class, gender, race and body. In our methodological approach, we focus on case studies and will use two examples to show how specific concepts of well-being are linked to participation. Using the issue of participation, we want to illuminate how social inequalities are inscribed in concepts of well-being. We argue that it is not sufficient to reconstruct children’s subjective perspectives on well-being. Instead, our reconstructions show how social conditions are internalized so that the ideas, dreams and wishes of an individual reflect the constraints of social contexts and structures. This also means that such constraints need to be considered in methodology: well-being can be analyzed systematically only in the interplay of subjective and objective conditions.