Child poverty - a discussion on conceptualization and measurement. A Portuguese case study

This work deals with child poverty. Although it is a very topical issue, it is scarcely studied by the social scientists. The analysis of this problem normally appears as a sub-product of poverty. In fact the living conditions of children cannot be divorced from the family context. Nevertheless poverty at the level of children displays its own specific features, along with a number of consequences that justify the study of childhood poverty per se. In this work the child is assumed to be a statistical unit. Therefore, from the economic point of view, the analysis of its living conditions is undertaken by considering those elements felt to be more important to its well being. In this context, a direct methodology has been adopted to directly evaluate child poverty. The paper begins by presenting the objectives of the study, as well the methodology used. The second and third points address questions related to conceptualization of the phenomenon and its quantification. This analysis allows one to make an initial distinction between the overall poverty problem and that of child poverty. The conclusions prove that, although they are interconnected, the two phenomena could be studied autonomously. The fourth point synthesizes the results of an empirical analysis of the phenomenon reviewed. To perform this analysis, a survey on the well-being of children living in an urban area was conducted through a sampling process, and its results were subsequently modeled. An econometric methodology was used to accurately verify the conclusions arising from the survey. The techniques employed are not that common in poverty studies.

Estimation of Gender wage Discrimination in the Portuguese labour market

Gender wage discrimination is a reality in the Portuguese labour markets although no study has been until now carried on to measure its dimension. We think that economists should contribute to the knowledge of the dimension and significance of this phenomenon by giving orientation for the definition of political measures towards its reduction. In this paper we measure the size of gender wage discrimination in the Portuguese labour market. Furthermore, we evaluate this measure for the five Portuguese main regions. In recent literature about the measurement of gender wage discrimination the Oaxaca decomposition and its developments is a commonly used approach. We extend this approach using bootstrap techniques for statistical inference purposes.

Analysis of grade repetition through multilevel models: A study from Portugal

This paper investigates grade repetition in Portugal using microdata. Drawing on multilevel models, we analyse the number of times the student repeated a grade in compulsory education – our dependent variable – in association with children’s individual characteristics, household sociodemographic and economic background, and children’s living conditions – our covariates. Furthermore, we also attempt to shed light on the impact of schools on the endogenous variable. Our results confi rm the importance of individual, family, and neighbourhood characteristics on the rate of grade repetition. In terms of schools, the results obtained show that the student’s probability of failure vary across schools, demonstrating the importance of the impact of the school itself on grade repetition.Este artigo investiga a retenção escolar em Portugal usando microdados. Com a aplicação de modelos multinível, analisa-se o número de retenções no ensino obrigatório – variável explicada –, considerando como potenciais variáveis explicativas – características individuais do aluno, seu contexto familiar em termos sociodemográfi cos e econômicos e suas condições de vida. Também se investiga o impacto da escola de per si na variável endógena. Os resultados obtidos confi rmam a importância das características individuais e familiares e das condições de vida na retenção escolar. A análise empírica mostra que a probabilidade de reprovação de um aluno varia de escola para escola, demonstrando a importância do impacto da escola de per si na retenção escolar.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How do work and public policies interact with child poverty?

Child poverty is a problem firmly recognized in the industrialized world. In the EU nearly one in every five children was poor in 2008 (for the population as a whole the risk of poverty was around 17 per cent). The dimension of the problem and its consequences point out for the importance of knowing the processes behind it. This paper aims to investigate how labour market issues and public policies have been impact on child poverty, over recent years. Based on microdata gathered by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU_SILC) for the period 2004-08 we give a portrait of child income poverty in European Southern countries such as: Italy, Portugal and Spain and also in Poland. Moreover, we investigate the major changes in social policies that could impact on child poverty such benefits target on family and child allowances. The international comparison will allow the identification of children’s poverty profile and pattern across the countries analysed and also design the different compositions between labour market elements / public policies in such countries. This exercise of comparison also enables a first test of the efficiency of these policies. The methodological framework used varies from descriptive methods to econometric models in order to sustain the discussion of the subject under study

A Measure of Child Exposure to Household Material Deprivation: Empirical Evidence from the Portuguese EU-SILC

Although monitoring and evaluating child poverty has been recognized as important, there is little statistical information focused on children. Because the annual EUStatistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey does not include child-specific information on an annual basis, this study proposes a measure of child exposure to household material deprivation based on this dataset. The study considers four domains of deprivation that have a direct impact on child development: housing conditions, household financial capacity, household durable goods, and environmental living conditions. Although developing a child-centered measurement of child deprivation is important, the EU-SILC considers the household as the unit of measurement. Therefore, our proposal is household-based, allowing annual monitoring of children’s exposure to deprivation—an important insight for social policy purposes to tackle the problem of child poverty. Using the 2017 Portuguese sample, we applied graded response models to assess the psychometric properties of the EU-SILC items and fit separate indexes per domain and the composite index. Item selection was based on their characteristic curves and information functions. The results allow for the selection of more informative items for every domain to obtain the composite index. In general, the empirical analysis confirmed the theoretical approach for item selection. The methodology may be directly applied to the full EU dataset or to each country individually.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Local type conditions for the C∗C^*-crossed product and sufficient families of representations

The local trajectories method establishes invertibility in an algebra $\mathcal{B}= \operatorname{alg}(\mathcal{A}, U_G)$, for a unital $C^*$-algebra $\mathcal{A}$ and a unitary group action $U_g$, $g\in G$, of a discrete amenable group $G$ on $\mathcal{A}$. We introduce here a local type condition that allows to establish an isomorphism between $\mathcal{B}$ and a $C^*$-crossed product, which is fundamental for the method to work. The influence of the structure of the fixed points of the group action is analysed and a new equivalent condition is introduced that applies when the action is not topologically free. If $\mathcal{A}$ is commutative, the referred conditions are related to the subalgebra $\operatorname{alg}(U_G)$ yielding, in particular, a sufficient condition that depends only on the action. It is shown that in $\pi(\mathcal{B})$, with $\pi$ the local trajectories representation, the local type condition is verified, which allows establishing the isomorphism on the local trajectories method. It is analysed whether the family of representations of the local trajectories method is sufficient using the notions of strictly norming and exhaustive families. It is shown that if $\mathcal{A}$ is a commutative algebra or a matrix algebra of continuous functions the family is sufficient

Employment insecurity and material deprivation in families with children in the post-great recession period: An analysis for Spain and Portugal

Producción CientíficaThe aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between household employment insecurity and the risk of children's exposure to household material deprivation in Spain and Portugal. Specifically, using EU-SILC microdata for 2012, 2016 and 2020, it examines how this relationship evolved during the Post-Great Recession period. Although in both countries there was an improvement in the employment situation of individuals and families after the Great Recession, the main find- ings reflect an increase in the risk of children's exposure to material deprivation in households where no adults have a secure job. However, there are some differences between the two countries. In the case of Spain, the results seem to indicate that the incidence of household employment insecurity on material deprivation was higher in 2016 and 2020 than in 2012. In Portugal, the increase in the effect of employment insecurity on deprivation seems to have occurred only in 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic began.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Bienestar infantil y privaciones materiales ante los nuevos escenarios familiares de precariedad en España) - (project RTI2018-099666-B-100)FCT/MCTES (Project CEMAPRE/REM - UIDB/05069/2020)Publicación en abierto financiada por el Consorcio de Bibliotecas Universitarias de Castilla y León (BUCLE), con cargo al Programa Operativo 2014ES16RFOP009 FEDER 2014-2020 DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN, Actuación:20007-CL - Apoyo Consorcio BUCL

Entre o urbano e o social: uma intervenção

A arquitectura condiciona os lugares e as pessoas, a sociedade e a cidade. O objecto arquitectónico deve ser visto como solução a uma problemática social cada vez mais observada nos dias de hoje. A arquitectura deve ser considerada como algo vivo, capaz de motivar e dinamizar a envolvente, sem a ferir. O objecto arquitectónico como catalisador social de uma zona, que atrai as pessoas e as convidando a permanecer em lugares que antes passavam despercebidos. Esta é uma arte com potencialidade de alterar espacialmente os lugares e provocar mudanças no comportamento do indivíduo.Architecture determines places, people, society and city. The architectural object should be considered as a solution to social problems increased nowadays. It should be thought as something alive, able to motivate and energize its environment, without harming it. The architectural object is social catalyst, attracting people and inviting them to stay in places that previously went unnoticed. This is an art space with potential to change places and cause changes in the individual’s behavior

Gender and labour in times of austerity : Ireland, Italy and Portugal in comparative perspective

Using Eurostat data for 2007, 2010 and 2012, the authors examine the effects of the 2008 crisis on the situation of male and female workers in Italy, Ireland and Portugal, with particular attention to changing labour market dynamics, (intra-household) employment patterns, and incomes. The gender gaps in employment, unemployment and precarious employment are narrowing, but this trend cannot be interpreted as progress toward gender equality: it is driven by men’s increasingly vulnerable position resulting from the generalized deterioration of labour market conditions, including the growth of precarious and/or low-paid employment, unemployment and poverty to the detriment of household living standards.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Escola para todos e cada um: proposta de síntese entre planejamento coletivo e planejamento individualizado

The guarantee of access in non-restrictive school environments, with equal opportunities, is one of the premises of the inclusion politics. Such guarantee, according to the vygotskyan perspective, can be also taken as alternative to development, considering that the school is the environment whose practices can culminate in learning of disable students. Vygotsky lived in a different cultural and historical context, but his theory principles concerning the disabled people development could be guiding to an inclusive school proposal. The present article was instigated by the vygotskyan proposition of dialectic synthesis between the standard education and the specialized education, highlighting the collaborative work in inclusive school. It aims a proposal of synthesis between the individualized planning and the collective planning, organized, respectively, in proposals as the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It is configured as a theoretic essay that searches approaches between Vygotsky works and the education organization forms in the inclusive perspective. Rather than polarizing the different education planning designs, it comprises the potential of a collaborative planning proposal, that aggregates both the collective (such as the UDL) and the individualized (such as the IEP) in order to construct synthesis that overcome limitations, preserving the nature of each one of these methodological approaches. Therefore, we present planning guidelines, from a collaborative perspective, that is collective and individualized, as construction of the dialectical synthesis.La garantía de acceso en ambientes escolares no restrictivos, con igualdad de oportunidades, es una de las premisas de las políticas de inclusión. Esa garantía, en la perspectiva vygotskiana, también puede tomarse como una alternativa al desarrollo, considerando que la escuela es un espacio cuyas prácticas pueden culminar en el aprendizaje para los estudiantes con discapacidad. Vygotski vivió en un contexto histórico y cultural diferente, pero los principios de su teoría acerca del desarrollo de las personas con discapacidad pueden orientar la propuesta de una escuela inclusiva. Este artículo tiene su origen en la proposición vygotskiana de síntesis dialéctica entre la educación común y la educación especializada, destacando el trabajo colaborativo en la escuela inclusiva. Posee como objetivo una propuesta se síntesis entre la planificación individualizada y la planificación colectiva, organizados, respectivamente, en propuestas como la Planificación Educacional Individualizada (PEI) y el Diseño Universal para el Aprendizaje (DUA). Se configura como un ensayo teórico que busca acercarse por medio de los escritos de Vygotski y las formas de organización de la enseñanza desde una perspectiva inclusiva. En lugar de polarizar los distintos diseños de planificación de la enseñanza, entendemos el potencial de una propuesta de planificación colaborativa, que sume tanto lo colectivo (como el DUA) como lo individual (como el PEI) para construir una síntesis que sobrepase a las limitaciones, preservando la esencia de cada uno de estos enfoques metodológicos. De esta forma, se presentan directrices para la planificación, desde una perspectiva colaborativa, que es colectiva e individualizada, como construcción de la síntesis dialéctica.A garantia de acesso em ambientes escolares não restritivos, com igualdade de oportunidades, é uma das premissas das políticas de inclusão. Tal garantia, na perspectiva vigotskiana, pode ser também tomada como alternativa ao desenvolvimento, considerando ser a escola um espaço cujas práticas podem culminar em aprendizagem para estudantes com deficiência. Vigotski viveu noutro contexto histórico e cultural, contudo, os princípios da sua teoria acerca do desenvolvimento das pessoas com deficiência podem ser orientadores para uma proposta de escola inclusiva. Este artigo é desencadeado pela proposição vigotskiana de síntese dialética entre o ensino comum e o ensino especializado, destacando o trabalho colaborativo na escola inclusiva. Tem como objetivo propor uma síntese entre o planejamento individualizado e o planejamento coletivo, organizados, respectivamente, em propostas, como o Planejamento Educacional Individualizado (PEI) e o Desenho Universal para a Aprendizagem (DUA). Configura-se como um ensaio teórico que busca aproximações entre os escritos de Vigotski e as formas de organização do ensino na perspectiva inclusiva. Ao invés de polarizar os diferentes designs de planejamento do ensino, compreende-se o potencial de uma proposta de planejamento colaborativa, que agregue tanto o coletivo (como o DUA) quanto o individual (como o PEI) para a construção de síntese que supere limitações, preservando a essência de cada uma dessas abordagens metodológicas. Desse modo, apresentam-se orientações para o planejamento, que é coletivo e individualizado, a partir de uma perspectiva colaborativa, como construção da síntese dialética