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- Convenors:
-
Graciela Tonon
(Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora)
Jhonatan Clausen (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru)
Meaghan Malloy (IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society)
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- Chair:
-
Graciela Tonon
(Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora)
- Format:
- Thematic Panel
- Theme:
- Equalities and inequalities for children and youth
Short Abstract:
This panel is an integrated proposal of works by members of the Regional Network Latin America and Thematic Group Children and Youth. It presents studies carried out with young people in Argentina, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The studies analyze the inequalities and poverty situations of the populations under study with the aim to propose the development of youth agency.
Long Abstract:
This panel is an integrated proposal of works by members of the Regional Network Latin America and Thematic Group Children and Youth. In this panel we present studies carried out with young people in Latin America. Two of them are from South American countries: Argentina and Peru and the others are from Central American countries: Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. In these studies inequalities and poverty situations of the populations under study are analyzed, to propose the development of youth agency.
Sen (2000) argues that the analysis of inequality must consider the choice of space, that is, the variable in terms of which inequality is assessed. He also explains (2000, pp. 137-138) that inequality has been traditionally assessed in terms of income, neglecting other types of inequality, such as poor health, lack of education and/or social exclusion.
The first study presents an ongoing research project that aims to analyze inequalities in urban communities, from the perspective of the young students at the School of Social Sciences of the National University of Lomas de Zamora, Argentina. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study, by quantitative method with the use of a questionnaire, specifically designed with objective and subjective indicators, which include the use of closed and open questions and Likert scales. The questionnaire was organized into dimensions of analysis: demographic information, life in the community, urban mobility and access and respect at work. It has been applied to 221 university students (18-20 years old) using an electronic format, designed specifically for this research, through the Google Forms application. The results of our research show a map of the inequalities in which young people live, being our objective to propose the use of the results of research on human capabilities for the formulation of policies that allow authorities to identify the needs of young people and generate programs to reduce their inequalities (Tonon, 2022, p.18). We consider that an equal society protects and promotes equality of valuable capabilities – the central and important things that people are able to do and become – so that everyone may enjoy the substantial freedom to live in the ways that they value and choose. Moreover, an equal society recognizes the individuals´ diverse needs, situations, and goals, and seeks to expand their capabilities by doing away with discrimination and prejudice while tackling the economic, political, legal, social, and physical conditions that constrain people’s achievements and limit their substantial freedom (Buchardt and Vizard, 2007, p. 3), that is, a society that identifies its existing inequalities and makes decisions to solve them.
The second presentation delves into the phenomenon of subjective well-being adaptation to multidimensional poverty, focusing specifically on adolescents in Peru, a middle-income country in Latin America. By using data from four waves of the Young Lives project database spanning the years 2002, 2006, 2009, and 2013, we aim to scrutinize the extent to which Peruvian adolescents entrenched in contexts of multidimensional poverty adjust their subjective self-evaluations of life-as-a-whole amidst encounters with multiple concurrent deprivations. The methodology underpinning this research entails the utilization of a Cantril scale to gauge adolescents' subjective well-being. This measure is juxtaposed with a comprehensive metric comprising nine distinct deprivation indicators strategically designed to capture the multifaceted nature of poverty, thus enabling a thorough examination of multidimensional poverty. The analysis reveals a trend: individuals grappling with a higher number of deprivations consistently tend to report lower levels of subjective well-being. Additionally, a notable disparity in subjective well-being emerges between those who manage to transition out of poverty between periods and those who persistently remain in poverty for consecutive periods. Specifically, individuals who successfully extricate themselves from poverty exhibit significantly higher levels of subjective well-being, indicating a marked resistance to adaptation to the multidimensional deprivations experienced among the sampled adolescents. The findings underscore the critical importance of contextualizing multidimensional poverty and subjective well-being within an adaptive framework. This needs the implementation of targeted interventions aimed at addressing the multifaceted nature of poverty to effectuate meaningful enhancements in individuals' overall well-being.
The third presentation reflects on different interpretations of the idea of youth agency in educational settings. Drawing from the perspectives of young people involved in NGO education projects in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, through participatory field work conducted in 2023, the paper considers what different interpretations may tell us about agency in relation to youths’ wider capability sets in diverse crisis-affected contexts. Using the capability approach as a theoretical framework and drawing on concepts of agency as understood by Sen (1999, 2002, 2009) and later elaborated on by Crocker (2018, 2019), this research explores similarities and differences between youths’ interpretations of agency within and across the three countries. The paper aims to generate culturally and locally situated information about youth agency that is intended to be useful for youth, their communities, national processes for social inclusion, and international organizations and NGOs implementing education projects with aims of developing youth agency in the region. By analysing youths’ responses in focus group discussions and artwork produced around the prompt: “things you want to change in your community”, this paper traces how 36 young people living in peri-urban communities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras (12 young people per country), interpret and navigate agency in relation to their wider school, family and community environments, how they understand what it means to be a positive ‘agent of change’, and what they may need from us to be one. Key themes emerging from the analysis highlight how significant relations in the local environment are to a sense of agency. It also distils a number of points of silence, in which agency is opaque, raising issues for refining theorization in this area.
The analyzes carried out in the three works show that the capability approach provides an overarching structure for the understanding and measuring of equality, which focuses on what matters to people, recognizes diversity in needs, lays emphasis on barriers, constraints, structures, and processes, while recognizing diversity as regards goals (Buchardt & Vizard, 2007, p. 7.
Accepted papers:
Paper short abstract:
This presentation analyzes youth inequalities in urban communities. It is a study with 221 young students of Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora Argentina, through Google Forms application. The results propose using research on HC for the formulation of policies to reduce youth inequalities.
Paper long abstract:
Sen (2000) argues that the analysis of inequality must consider the choice of space, that is, the variable in terms of which inequality is assessed. He also explains (2000, pp. 137-138) that inequality has been traditionally assessed in terms of income, neglecting other types of inequality, such as poor health, lack of education and/or social exclusion. When dealing with the different types of inequalities, in Latin America during the XXI Century, we can specifically point out the inequalities by age and by gender, which are considered among the determining axes of the distribution of well-being and power in society, because they are one of the bases of the social organization around which responsibilities and roles are assigned (ECLAC, 2016). This is the case of young people who do not form a homogenous group therefore in this regard it is not possible to generalize about youth. The concept of youth is a social construction built conjointly by all members of society in the context of the historical moment they are living in. To this end, we are developing a research project that aims to analyze inequalities in urban communities, from the perspective of the young students at the School of Social Sciences of the National University of Lomas de Zamora, Argentina. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study, by quantitative method with the use of a questionnaire, specifically designed with objective and subjective indicators, which include the use of closed and open questions and Likert scales. The questionnaire was organized into dimensions of analysis: demographic information, life in the community, urban mobility and access and respect at work. It has been applied to 221 university students (18-20 years old) using an electronic format, designed specifically for this research, through the Google Forms application. The results of our research show a map of the inequalities in which young people live, being our objective to propose the use of the results of research on human capabilities for the formulation of policies that allow authorities to identify the needs of young people and generate programs to reduce their inequalities (Tonon, 2022). We consider that an equal society protects and promotes equality of valuable capabilities – the central and important things that people are able to do and become – so that everyone may enjoy the substantial freedom to live in the ways that they value and choose.
Keywords: inequalities, capabilities, university students.
Paper short abstract:
Our study examines how Peruvian adolescents adapt to multidimensional poverty using Young Lives project data. Those facing more deprivations report lower subjective well-being. Those leaving poverty show higher well-being than persistently poor individuals, aligning with Latin American research.
Paper long abstract:
The hypothesis of adaptive preferences remains a subject of debate among capabiliarian scholars, rooted in Amartya Sen's critiques of utility and subjective well-being evaluation. Our study explores subjective well-being adaptation to multidimensional poverty, focusing on adolescents in Peru, a middle-income country in Latin America. Using data from four waves of the Young Lives project spanning 2002 to 2013, we aim to scrutinize the extent to which Peruvian adolescents entrenched in contexts of multidimensional poverty adjust their subjective self-evaluations of life-as-a-whole amidst encounters with multiple concurrent deprivations.
The methodology underpinning our investigation entails the utilization of a Cantril scale to gauge adolescents' subjective well-being. This measure is juxtaposed with a comprehensive metric comprising nine distinct deprivation indicators strategically designed to capture the multifaceted nature of poverty, enabling a thorough examination of multidimensional poverty. Our analysis reveals a trend: individuals grappling with a higher number of deprivations consistently tend to report lower levels of subjective well-being. Additionally, a notable disparity in subjective well-being emerges between those who manage to transition out of poverty between periods and those who persistently remain in poverty for consecutive periods. Specifically, individuals who successfully extricate themselves from poverty exhibit significantly higher levels of subjective well-being, indicating a marked resistance to adaptation to the multidimensional deprivations experienced among the sampled adolescents.
This empirical finding aligns with previous research in various Latin American countries, including Chile and Uruguay. This congruence serves to bolster the proposition that individuals confronting multidimensional poverty are predisposed to resisting normalization or acceptance of their disadvantaged circumstances. Furthermore, our study introduces a novel aspect by incorporating a wealth index, meticulously capturing living conditions across three distinct dimensions. This innovative approach reveals a nuanced pattern: individuals slipping into poverty between periods consistently report lower levels of well-being compared to their counterparts who remain entrenched in poverty over successive periods. This subtle distinction suggests the presence of adaptive mechanisms at play among individuals grappling with persistent deprivation.
Our study represents a pioneering endeavor, leveraging longitudinal data to delve into the dynamics of subjective well-being adaptation within the context of multidimensional poverty in a middle-income country. By adopting a longitudinal approach, we contribute substantially to a deeper understanding of the nuanced responses exhibited by individuals confronting prolonged deprivation, thereby shedding invaluable insights into the complexities inherent in the assessment of subjective well-being within diverse socio-economic settings.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing from the perspectives of young people in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, this paper critically reflects on different interpretations of youth agency in educational settings and what these may tell us about agency in relation to youths’ wider capability sets in crisis-affected contexts.
Paper long abstract:
This paper critically reflects on different interpretations of the idea of youth agency in educational settings. Drawing from the perspectives of young people involved in NGO education projects in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, through participatory field work conducted in 2023, the paper explores similarities and differences between youths’ interpretations of agency within and across the three countries and considers what different interpretations may tell us about agency in relation to youths’ wider capability sets in crisis-affected contexts. Using the capability approach as the theoretical framework and drawing on concepts of agency as understood by Sen (1999, 2002, 2009) and later elaborated on by Crocker (2018, 2019), the paper aims to generate culturally and locally situated information about youth agency that is intended to be useful for youth, their communities, national processes for social inclusion, and international organizations and NGOs implementing education projects with aims of developing youth agency in the region.
Global policy dialogues are increasingly calling on youth to act as ‘agents of change’ in development (GPE, 2022; UN, 2018) and this terminology is increasingly featuring in Central American education initiatives that aim to equip youth with knowledge and skills to effect positive change in their communities (Plan International, 2022; UN, 2021; USAID, 2022b). While these global commitments are creating new opportunities for global and local education stakeholders to engage with youth, they are also raising some questions around expectations, and how to interpret and balance global strategies to enhance agency in one domain that may reduce well-being or increase vulnerability in another (Khader 2012, 2020). What agency looks like to a Honduran boy and Guatemalan girl may differ, especially if the two are facing different issues of violence, poverty, gender discrimination and other intersecting inequalities, as distilled to be some of the key analysts of these processes (Crenshaw 1991; Kabeer 2020).
By analyzing youths’ responses in focus group discussions and artwork produced during participatory fieldwork, this paper traces how 36 young people living in peri-urban communities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, interpret and navigate agency in relation to their environments, and how they understand what it means to be an ‘agent of change’. Key themes emerging from the analysis highlight how significant relations in the local environment are to a sense of agency. It also distils a number of points of silence, in which agency is opaque, raising issues for refining theorization in this area.