Abstract
The recent debt crisis in Greece severely affected the Welfare State, as well as the overall social policy of the country. Families facing severe material deprivation and depending on the local soup kitchens have grown rapidly in number over the past decade. In drawing upon the given risks, this paper explores the church community workers’ and volunteers’ conceptions of poor children’s living conditions. It is worth noting that the volunteers reflect on the situation of the poor beneficiaries as they often are at risk of poverty themselves. The analysis is based on a mixed methods study (Quan–Qual) that was conducted in 2016–2017, and which covered the area of Thessaloniki (northern Greece) with a special focus on the neighborhoods suffering the most from the impacts of recession. The results show how the children living in “new poor” households experience the degradation of their well-being, as perceived by the volunteers, and what the main social services are they are receiving through the church family support. According to our findings, the pressure of the economic crisis broke the traditional welfare networks and left children vulnerable to risks in terms of their cultural, social, biological and psychological development. Furthermore, the results reveal how traditional family support is reaching its limits as the economic crisis gets more complex and prolonged.
Highlights
As Leena Alanen (2014) suggests we are witnessing a “theoretical turn” in childhood sociology already from the second half of the 1980s
This study aimed to examine how the community workers and volunteers involved in family and child support services perceive the ways the economic crisis in Greece affects the well-being conditions of the younger family members
The study emphasized on the attendance at soup kitchens as the most evident and absolute element of deprivation
Summary
As Leena Alanen (2014) suggests we are witnessing a “theoretical turn” in childhood sociology already from the second half of the 1980s. The emergence of a child-centered perspective in sociological analysis focused on a new consideration of childhood as a distinctive and highly influential phase of the life-circle (Qvortrup, 2008, 1994; MacNaughton et al, 2007; Olk, 2006; Ben-Arieh, 2005; Alanen, 2001) This perspective, replacing the idea of childhood as an intermediate stage on the way to adulthood, was interrelated with the recognition of Children’s Rights and eventually marked a paradigm shift in the study of childhood (Fernandes et al, 2011; Lippman et al, 2011; Andresen and Albus, 2010; Kahn, 2010; McAuley and Rose, 2010; Ben-Arieh, 2007; Bradshaw et al, 2007; Hubner, 2004; Ben-Arieh et al, 2001; Andrews and Kaufman, 1999). A redefined concept of child well-being is, guided by two underlying assumptions: that children are entitled to dignity and basic human rights and that childhood is a stage deserving our attention and respect in its own terms (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Articles 6, 24, and 27)
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