Child poverty is an increasing issue in Denmark. Even though Denmark is a welfare state it needs to be addressed and discussed. Surveys show that during the last couple of years, there have been an increasing number of poor families with children. Furthermore, the surveys show that children, who live in poverty experience privations. The purpose of this project is to examine how social workers in the Children and Family field apply their knowledge and understanding of poverty, when working with vulnerable children. In addition, the project will examine how social workers work with the subject poverty in practice and what their professional views are. Throughout this project, we used the hermeneutic method to interpret parts of our informants’ statements, in order to form a whole with the purpose of putting the main problem into perspective. By using the hermeneutic method, the project will attempt to achieve a horizontal fusion in order to obtain a proper understanding of our informants’ insight. The abductive approach will be used, since the project has had a shifting focus between being inductive and deductive. The projects theoretical background is based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory. These will be used in the analytical part of the project. Based on the project’s analysis and the interviews conducted, it can be concluded that social workers have insight into the consequences children may face when growing up in poverty. Furthermore, they are aware of the privations and stigmatization children may experience. When it comes to children living in poverty it can be concluded that due to common law, social workers have limited options in regards to working with the subject poverty. Therefore, they must involve private and voluntary organizations in order to remedy children’s privations. Additionally, the project revealed that social workers are working in various manners, when it comes to the subject poverty. Due to its findings, the projects contributes to the discussion of child poverty in Denmark and the role social workers have in this topic.
Gruppe 21