Combat Poverty Research Seminar
Poverty and the Life-Cycle in 20th Century Ireland: A Childhood Centred Analysis Researcher: Dr. Jane GrayDepartment of Sociology and National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, NUI MaynoothDate: Tuesday 16th June, 2009 Time: 12.30 – 2pmVenue: The Auditorium, Department of Social and Family Affairs, Goldsmith House, (beside Garda Station), Pearse Street, Dublin 2 Abstract: Previous research carried out for the Combat Poverty Agency demonstrated that childhood disadvantage is strongly linked to exposure to poverty in adulthood. At the same time, most people who experienced poverty in childhood are not poor as adults. Individual life trajectories are complex and diverse, and shaped by human agency as people mobilize changing personal and social resources across the life course. The transition from childhood to early adulthood has been identified as a key ‘turning point’ in individual lives, when most people are likely to experience a reduced risk of poverty, unless other circumstances intervene.Qualitative research has the potential to enhance our understanding of these complex processes. This study drew on a major new qualitative database of life history interviews (comprising both life stories and retrospective life calendars), conducted with respondents in three birth cohorts who participated in the ‘Living in Ireland’ study from 1994 to 2001. The analysis comprised a thematic examination of memories of childhood and ‘starting out’ amongst all forty-seven respondents whose households experienced ‘some’ or ‘great difficulty’ when they were growing up, and a more detailed, comparative examination of a selection of nine life histories (three in each cohort), of respondents who also experienced income poverty during the 1990s. Three distinct historical patterns linking childhood and adult exposure to poverty were identified: (1) selection as ‘kin keeper’ within the family economy of small-farm households in the 1930s and 40s; (2) thwarted social mobility due to adverse circumstance in the 1950s and 60s; (3) ‘ill-timed’ early life transitions in the 1970s and 80s. The analysis emphasizes the extent to which individual life trajectories must be understood in the context of changing socio-historical and social policy environments.If you would like to attend please contact Anne:Phone: 01-602 6612 Email: research.admin@combatpoverty.iepage published on June 10
Poverty and the Life-Cycle in 20th Century Ireland: A Childhood Centred Analysis Researcher: Dr. Jane GrayDepartment of Sociology and National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, NUI MaynoothDate: Tuesday 16th June, 2009 Time: 12.30 – 2pmVenue: The Auditorium, Department of Social and Family Affairs, Goldsmith House, (beside Garda Station), Pearse Street, Dublin 2 Abstract: Previous research carried out for the Combat Poverty Agency demonstrated that childhood disadvantage is strongly linked to exposure to poverty in adulthood. At the same time, most people who experienced poverty in childhood are not poor as adults. Individual life trajectories are complex and diverse, and shaped by human agency as people mobilize changing personal and social resources across the life course. The transition from childhood to early adulthood has been identified as a key ‘turning point’ in individual lives, when most people are likely to experience a reduced risk of poverty, unless other circumstances intervene.Qualitative research has the potential to enhance our understanding of these complex processes. This study drew on a major new qualitative database of life history interviews (comprising both life stories and retrospective life calendars), conducted with respondents in three birth cohorts who participated in the ‘Living in Ireland’ study from 1994 to 2001. The analysis comprised a thematic examination of memories of childhood and ‘starting out’ amongst all forty-seven respondents whose households experienced ‘some’ or ‘great difficulty’ when they were growing up, and a more detailed, comparative examination of a selection of nine life histories (three in each cohort), of respondents who also experienced income poverty during the 1990s. Three distinct historical patterns linking childhood and adult exposure to poverty were identified: (1) selection as ‘kin keeper’ within the family economy of small-farm households in the 1930s and 40s; (2) thwarted social mobility due to adverse circumstance in the 1950s and 60s; (3) ‘ill-timed’ early life transitions in the 1970s and 80s. The analysis emphasizes the extent to which individual life trajectories must be understood in the context of changing socio-historical and social policy environments.If you would like to attend please contact Anne:Phone: 01-602 6612 Email: research.admin@combatpoverty.iepage published on June 10
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