Exploring Children's Views and Experiences in the Frontline of Poverty in Catalonia: A Qualitative and Participatory Approach

Abstract

One in three children and adolescents is currently living in poverty in Catalonia. Most specialised research has been concerned with assessing and questioning current legal frameworks and policies to combat child poverty mainly through quantitative approaches. However, these approaches neglect the specific experiences, perspectives, and visions of children and their potential to provide important clues for the design and evaluation of policies to eradicate poverty. It is also uncommon to include the experiences and views of social intervention staff who often work in situations of extreme budgetary reductions with remedial - not transformative - models. The article presents some findings from a qualitative study commissioned by UNICEF to explore this double experience from the point of view of its protagonists on the front line, drawing on fieldwork carried out before the Covid‐19 pandemic that aggravated the living conditions of the most vulnerable sectors of society. The results show a shared perception of the impact of material deprivation in all spheres of life, but also diversity in coping perspectives and understanding of the structural factors that cause inequality and poverty, as well as the possible responses to overcome them. They also reveal the need to further explore child poverty as a gendered experience.