Research Information System
Sosyal Siyaset Konferansları Dergisi/Journal of Social Policy Conferences, no.79, pp.1-26, 2020 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Although the static dimension of child poverty, which corresponds to deprivations experienced in daily
life, is a field of interest in both research and policy, study of the dynamic dimension of child poverty,
which corresponds to children’s reactions, is mostly neglected in Turkey. Based on this deficiency, this study
focuses on poor child types in relation to the findings obtained as a consequence of the phenomenological
investigation of children’s coping strategies with poverty in daily life. The findings rely on field research,
which was conducted with children between the ages of 11 and 15 living in the poor regions of Istanbul
and state-subsidized ones. The differences among poor children were divided into four different child types:
Rescuer child, substituting child, foundation-integrated child, and protectionist child. This typology, which
is the outcome of the phenomenological approach, was expressed as the phenomenological model of child
poverty. This model has brought both the heterogeneous quality of child poverty and structural and cultural
factors neglected in coping strategies into the forefront. Besides, the agency possibilities of poor children in
certain contexts are revealed by means of this model.