Child poverty: The link between poor adults and children's rights

Rooted in the macrosociological approach of the ‘new sociology of childhood’ (Qvortrup) we analyse the current welfare state regulation of child poverty in Germany. With this example we intend to demonstrate a specific link that can be generalised to other countries: the link between the political regulation of adult citizens in poverty on the one hand and the realisation of children’s rights on the other. Hereby, we focus our analysis on the economic level of the multi-dimensional phenomenon of child poverty. Hence, in terms of poverty and social justice research we focus on a crucial capability of every individual in a market-based society as well as a relevant factor of growing up – in terms of macrosociological childhood research.

In this particular focus, we investigate the thesis that a specific perception, construction and regulation of different parental groups is crucial for the ring-fencing of welfare state funding linked to a significant expansion of economic redistribution for children in poverty. To verify this assumption we introduce two central sorting criteria, which in the current political discourse, are relevant to the perception of (potential) parents and their relationship with society: the will to (labour market)-inclusion and to reproduction.

With regard to the political regulation of two different, ideal typical (potential) groups of parents we demonstrate via a discourse-analytic approach that this analytic heuristic also has a social political relevance and forms a serious obstacle for realising children’s social rights. Our conclusion in terms of social justice in the sense of ‘justice as recognition’ is that social justice for children cannot be realised without realising social justice for adult citizens in poverty.