Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka hur vissa svenska tidningar rapporterar om barnfattigdom. Däri skulle bilden av barnfattigdom analyseras och relateras till vetenskaplig forskning om barnfattigdom och dess konsekvenser. Med hjälp av tidigare studier visas de följder ignoransen av den reella verkligheten många barn lever i kan få. Rädda Barnens och UNICEF:s senaste rapporter diskuteras i uppsatsen. Sammanfattningsvis förmedlar tidningarna en mörk bild av barnfamiljer och deras fattigdom. Situationen i Sverige berör och upprör skribenterna på många olika sätt.

Child poverty in Sweden as a social phenomenon has been highlighted in various debates and in poverty research during the recent years. Children's economic vulnerability has gotten more place in research. An interest to highlight child poverty awakened and this study highlights child poverty through a resource perspective among children in preschools. This study aims to examine how preschool teachers perceive the child's assets to various resources as well as how preschool teachers perceive the impact of the preschool where they work on children's access to these resources. The study is qualitative and has used interviews as a tool. The respondents' answers were analyzed using previous research, and Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical concepts capital, field and habitus as analytical tools. Four preschool teachers in two different preschools in the area Norsborg were interviewed. The results show that preschool teachers perceive that there are differences between children in access to different resources. Some lacks in resource assets has proven to be clearer than others, such as children's clothing. However, the causes of children's access to various resources have been harder to understand. Another result of this study is that preschools in various ways contribute to children's different resource assets by example that all activities that kids do with preschools will be free for children and their parents. Another way for preschools that affect children's access to resources is the way preschools informs the children’s parents about different activities. But there are also differences between the preschools where one of the preschools in this study allows kids to bring their own toys from home, which can contribute to resource differences between the children in the preschool. / Barnfattigdom i Sverige som ett samhällsfenomen har på senare år lyfts fram i olika debatter. Inom fattigdomsforskning har studier om just barns ekonomiska utsatthet fått allt större plats. Utifrån detta väcktes ett intresse att belysa barnfattigdom bland barn på förskolor genom ett resursperspektiv. Denna studies syfte är att undersöka hur förskolepedagoger uppfattar barns tillgångar till olika resurser samt om förskolepedagogerna uppfattar om den förskola de arbetar på påverkar barns tillgång till dessa resurser. Studien har använt sig av kvalitativa intervjuer där respondenternas svar har analyserats med hjälp av tidigare forskning och Pierre Bourdieus teoretiska begrepp fält, habitus och kapital som analysverktyg. Fyra förskolepedagoger på två olika förskolor i området Norsborg har intervjuats. Resultaten visar att förskolepedagogerna uppfattar att det finns skillnader mellan barn avseende tillgång till olika resurser. Några bestämda brister i resurstillgångar har visat sig vara tydligare än andra så som barns kläder. Däremot har det varit svårare att kartlägga orsakerna till barns olika tillgångar. Ett annat resultat av denna studie är att förskolorna på olika sätt bidrar till barns olika resurstillgångar genom exempelvis att alla aktiviteter som barnen gör med förskolorna är kostnadsfria för barn och deras föräldrar. Ett annat sätt för förskolorna att påverka barns tillgång till resurser är att förskolorna sprider information om olika fritidsaktiviter till barnens föräldrar. Men det finns även skillnader mellan förskolorna där en av förskolorna för denna studie tillåter barn att ta med egna leksaker hemifrån, vilket kan bidra till resursskillnader mellan barnen på förskolan.

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine and understand how teachers see and handle the signs of child poverty within a classroom context. The paper is based on an interview study involving 8 teachers in 2 Swedish schools for children between the ages of 6 to 12 years old. Poverty is a complex word and there are many definitions of it. What do teachers interpret as signs of child poverty in the school context? How do they act when they think it’s necessary to protect a child from being affected by it, and how can we understand their choice of action with the help of action theory? We discovered that the teachers notice different things as signs of child poverty, and they all react in both different and similar ways. But one thing do they have in common: They discuss neither the signs nor their actions with each other. They act mainly on basis of individual choices and opinions, even though they are a part of a larger context in the school organization.

This is a qualitative study about child poverty within the school environment. The purpose is to examine how financial resources can affect the social standings of teenagers and how that affects them in school; how the school system view and work with child poverty as well as how they act within the legal framework that requires the school to be free of charge. This was done through analyzing earlier research and conducting five interviews with personnel at three schools for children ages 13-15. Our results show that social standing can be affected by a lack of financial resources, partially due to not having certain mobile phones or brand clothing, partially because they cannot afford to join in on social activities. Furthermore, teenagers view child poverty as shameful and a risk factor for social exclusion. The schools all saw child poverty as a problem that they work with through preemptive methods.

This independent project is about child poverty from a preschool teacher perspective. The aim of the study is to examine how a team of preschool teachers converse about the concept of child poverty, and how they discuss their professional role, in relation to children who live in economic vulnerability. Questions of the study are: What image of the concept of child poverty appears in the preschool teachers’ conversations? How do the preschool teachers regard their room for manoeuvre and their social responsibility, in relation to children who live in economical vulnerability? The results of the study were gathered through the method of focus group and the results processed through a qualitative content analysis. Conclusions show that the representation of child poverty that appears in the preschool teachers’ conversation, indicates that it is an invisible phenomenon that is hard to define, and that it strongly connects to expected feelings of shame among children and parents. This representation is setting the frame of how the preschool teachers regard their room for manoeuvre and their social responsibility. Foremost they express difficulties in supporting the economically vulnerable children and their families in a way that is non demonstrative and in the same time retains a relation of confidence to the parents. / Detta examensarbete handlar om barnfattigdom ur ett förskollärarperspektiv. Syftet för studien är att undersöka hur ett arbetslag av förskollärare samtalar om begreppet barnfattigdom, och hur de diskuterar sin professionella roll, i relation till barn som lever i ekonomisk utsatthet. Studiens frågeställningar är: Vilken bild av begreppet barnfattigdom framträder i förskollärarnas samtal? Hur ser förskollärarna på sitt handlingsutrymme och sociala ansvar, i relation till barn som lever i ekonomisk utsatthet? Studiens resultat samlades in genom metoden fokusgrupp, och resultatet bearbetades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Slutsatserna visar att den bild av barnfattigdom, som framträder i förskollärarnas samtal, indikerar att det är ett svårdefinierat och osynligt fenomen, som starkt kopplas till förväntade skamkänslor hos barn och föräldrar. Denna bild sätter sedan ramarna för hur förskollärarna ser på sitt handlingsutrymme och sociala ansvar. Framförallt uttrycker de en svårighet i att kunna stödja de ekonomiskt utsatta barnen och deras familjer på ett sätt, som inte är utpekande och som samtidigt bevarar en förtroendefull relation till föräldrarna.

This essay is included as a sub-study of a survey about child poverty, which the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, the Ombudsman for Children and Gillbergska Stiftelsen (the Gillberg’s foundation) has been commissioned by Uppsala Town to implement. The intent of this essay is to investigate how three pre-school managers in the municipal preschool in Uppsala describe child poverty, how they see the preschool’s social responsibility and how they manage child poverty in their practical operation. The essay is a qualitative study and informants' responses has been analyzed and related to symbolic interactionism, the thesis theoretical basis. The results show that pre-school managers' understanding and description of child poverty differ. Child poverty is not a topic discussed very much in early childhood education and insight into families' financial situation is very small. Preschool managers testify that families rarely talk about their financial situation and poverty seem to be seen as something private that the school should not put themselves in, poverty also seems to be associated with shame. Preschool heads out that preschool has responsibility for all children within the business and is responsible for getting views on child abuse but preschool's role in relation to economically disadvantaged children seems to be unclear and there are no general guidelines on how to act if a child is struggling financially. / Denna uppsats ingår som en delstudie i ett kartläggningsprojekt om barnfattigdom som Sociologiska Institutionen vid Uppsala Universitet, Barnombudsmannen och Gillbergska Stiftelsen fått i uppdrag från Uppsala kommun att genomföra. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur tre förskolechefer inom den kommunala förskoleverksamheten i Uppsala beskriver barnfattigdom, hur de ser på förskolans sociala ansvar samt hur man arbetar med och hanterar barnfattigdom inom verksamheten i praktiken. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ intervjustudie och informanternas svar har analyserats utifrån meningskoncentrerad innehållsanalys kopplat till tidigare forskning och begrepp från symbolisk interaktionism, uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkt. Resultaten visar att förskolechefernas förståelse och beskrivning av barnfattigdom skiljer sig åt. Barnfattigdom är inget ämne som diskuteras speciellt mycket inom förskoleverksamheten och insynen i familjernas ekonomiska situation är mycket liten. Resultaten visar att det finns en välvilja hos personalen att hjälpa utsatta barn men att det är svårt att tala om fattigdom med föräldrarna eftersom det är förknippat med skam. Fattigdom tycks ses som något privat och något som förskolan inte ska lägga sig i ifall inte familjerna själva väljer att öppna sig, vilket familjer tycks göra i mycket liten utsträckning. Förskole-cheferna påpekar att förskolan har ansvar för alla barn inom verksamheten och är ansvarig för att få syn på barn som far illa men förskolans roll i förhållande till ekonomiskt utsatta barn tycks vara oklar och det saknas generella riktlinjer för hur man ska agera om ett barn har det svårt ekonomiskt.

ABSTRACT Poverty, and in particular child poverty, is a serious social problem. Statistics show that the number of children living in poverty has increased over the last ten years. Earlier research shows that there are huge gaps in our knowledge of how the actors in civil society handle child poverty. With this study we hope to help fill this gap. The aim of our study is to look at how four different organisations working in the civil society in Uppsala perceive and handle child poverty. We have chosen to conduct an empirical study of fieldwork interviews. Our informants were selected from organisations in the municipality of Uppsala that were known to us as working with children's needs.   The results show that our informants consider child poverty an overly narrow and one-sided concept and rather see child poverty as a multifaceted social phenomenon. They view poverty as not only a matter of lack of economic resources but also as other welfare deficits – a view which agrees with previous research (Bitterman and Franzén 2008:243). All our informants express and, to a great extent, practice a children's rights perspective (Archard 2009). They construct children as citizens and bearers of rights, with the idea that adults have a common responsibility to supply for children’s needs of care and participation. None of the four organisations have a family poverty approach to the children. Instead they view children as unique individuals with their own needs beyond the family. The selection process is based on trust. There is no means test or strict investigation though the concept of need is an important criterion. All our informants’ organisations position themselves as something other than social services. They see their role as a complement to social services and public welfare. None of our informants express any desire to replace it.   Key Words: child poverty, economic vulnerability, civil society, voluntary work, child rights perspective.

This essay is regarding the problematic facts about child poverty in Sweden. Since the beginning of the new millennium child poverty has increased, in Sweden. The last report which came out in the spring this year (2012) opened up for a lively political debate as well as big headlines in news papers and other media. The attention it got in Society became hard for the politicians to avoid. The Swedish section of Save the Children, demanded in their report concerning child poverty in Sweden that the Swedish Government need to do an inquiry about the increasing child poverty.    Today in Sweden, there are two big parties, and they have been the biggest for a long time now. The two are Socialdemokraterna and Moderata Samlingspartiet. The first mentioned one is representing a socialist policy whilst the second one is representing a right-wing party. This study will deal with whether the parties have changed over time or not. The big question will be whether they have changed their opinions and positions since the beginning of 1960. This year is chosen in particular because it was during this period the largest development of the welfare state of Sweden started. It will be about if the parties changed according to, in particular poverty in Sweden. There are two main questions that I intend to answer throughout the text, to finally analyze the questions in the last part of this essay.

The aim with this study is to understand how social workers at the individual- and family sector think about child poverty and how they work with and reason about the preventive and facilitate work they do for financial vulnerable families. We have in our study used qualitative method through semi-structured interviews with social workers at the individual- and family sector to answer our purpose. The results showed that child poverty is a concept hard to define and not well established. The social workers have divided views on child poverty but still at the same time mean that it exists amongst the families they meet. There is also a big difference between municipalities and their reasoning on what a reasonable standard of living is for a financial vulnerable family and how they work with preventing child poverty. The social workers shows different ways on how to work with prevention but there is lack of understanding if their work really benefits the child.

Salonen (2012a) skriver att Sverige är ett av världens rikaste länder där välståndet har ökat. I samma veva som välståndet har ökat har även klyftorna mellan rika och fattiga ökat och därmed har siffran gällande barnfattigdom stigit (Salonen 2012a). Syftet med studien är att undersöka och beskriva hur fem aktörer inom den ideella sektorn definierar begreppet barnfattigdom. Målet är att identifiera och förstå hur organisationer arbetar med att förbättra barnens livssituation. Våra tre forskningsfrågor är: Hur definierar aktörerna barnfattigdom i sin yrkesroll? Vilka problem kring barnfattigdom har aktörerna identifierat? Hur beskriver aktörerna sitt arbete mot barnfattigdom och på vilket sätt kan de förbättra sitt arbete? Vi har valt att använda oss av empowerment teorin för att våra informanter beskriver att deras arbete till mycket handlar om att stödja och stärka individer som lever i en utsatt situation. Genom detta arbete försöker man skapa en grund för barnens rätt att delta på samma villkor. Den andra teorin vi har valt är organisationsteori som beskriver att organisationer anpassar sig utifrån det omgivningen behöver och intresset av ömsesidiga och kulturella band mellan organisation och omgivning är centralt. Vi har utgått från en kvalitativ vetenskaplig metod där studien är uppbyggd på en empirisk studie grundad på intervjuer. Intervjuerna gjordes med tio informanter från organisationerna: Rädda Barnen, Majblomman, Svenska kyrkan, Frälsningsarmén och Stadsmissionen. Frågorna utgick ifrån vilken uppfattning de har kring barnfattigdom i Stockholm och hur deras arbete och problemidentifiering kring barfattigdom såg ut. Resultatet från vår studie visar att informanterna upplever att barnfattigdom finns i Stockholm, men dem definierar det på olika sätt. Alla våra informanter upplever många gånger samma problem kring barnfattigdom. De berättar att det finns olika problemområden och lyfter fram den problematik de själva har sett. Våra informanter berättar främst om det utanförskap som uppstår, vidare berättar de även om andra problemområden inom barnfattigdom. De lyfter fram att flera organisationer måste arbeta med påtryckningar och opinionsbildning för att påverka dagens politiker och göra allmänheten medvetna om barnfattigdomen i Sverige. / Salonen (2012a) writes that Sweden is one of the richest countries where the wealth has increased. In the same time while prosperity has increased, the gap between rich and poor people has increased and the figure of child poverty has risen. The study aims to explore and describe how five actors in the nonprofit sector define the definition of child poverty and to identify and understand how organizations are working to improve children's lives. Our three research questions are: How do the actors define child poverty as professionals? What problems around child poverty have the actors identified? How do they describe the work against child poverty and how can they work to improve their work against child poverty? We have chosen to use the theory of empowerment because our informants describe their work about supporting individuals living in a vulnerable situation and are working to enable children to participate on an equal basis by strengthening children. The second theory we have chosen is the organizational theory that describes that the organizations adapt, based on the needs and environment of mutual interest and cultural ties between organization and environment. We have used a qualitative research method in which the study has been based on an empirical study, based on interviews. Our interviews were conducted with ten informants from the organizations: Save the Children, Mayflower, Swedish Church, the Salvation Army and the City Mission. The questions were based on what perception they have about child poverty in Stockholm and how their work and problem identification around child poverty looked like. The result of our study shows that respondents perceive the fact that there exists child poverty in Stockholm, but the definitions vary. Many times all of our informants see the same problems around child poverty. They tell us that there are various problem areas and highlight the problems they have seen themselves. All of our informants tell us about the alienation that occurs, further they explain the other areas of concern about child poverty. They also told us that more organizations need to work with pressure and advocacy to influence today's politicians and make an awareness of child poverty in Sweden.