Insights and directions for sociological approaches to saving: The case of a Financial Education Programme for children in Portugal

Abstract

The recent contexts of financial and economic crises have fostered discourses and initiatives for encouraging people to save. Despite there being, for the sake of sustainability, a generalized support to educational measures for increasing savings from early childhood, a complete understanding of why and how people save has not yet been attained. The absence of sociological attention to the engagement of consumers in such financial decisions is particularly scant. This article takes the case-study of a financial education programme for children to suggest future directions for the sociological investigation of savings. Literature review and the analysis of a Portuguese programme revealed a clear absence of sociological insights in financial education programmes' contents and procedures. However, sociological research has already come to relevant findings about social aspects and processes of financial decisions that allow for a better understanding of how consumers, and children in particular, learn about and behave in relation to money, consumption and savings. In our view, the study of savings should pay more attention to several adjoining, concurrent and complimentary practices encompassed in the consumption process. This article contributes not only to fill in the literature gaps identified by the study, but also to counter-offer non-judgemental research regarding current literature on the subject.

Spend as I say, not as I do: Children, families and household consumption in different socio‐economic contexts

“…Research about children's consumption reveals that money is used by children to satisfy material and emotional needs, enhance relationships, share knowledge, pursue collective goals and reach commonly agreed decisions within households. It is, besides, a means to pay for daily expenses and also to fulfil aspirations, express solidarity and emotions (Ribeiro & Soares, ). Consumption and savings are used by children to connect to their family and friends, to feel integrated and not necessarily to engage in adult‐like competitions (Pugh, , p. 14).…”

“…Since the influential "The Affluent Worker" by Goldthorpe, Lockwood, Bechhofer, and Platt (), scholars' attention (see Savage, ) has been drawn to the contrast between the middle classes (defined by a confident and ambitious approach to life, future orientation and deferred gratification attitudes) and the lower classes (usually described in terms of their "proletarian attitude" of fatalism, present‐day orientation and preference for immediate gratification). While the working classes tended to believe in luck as the key to a better future, the middle classes revealed initiative for creating opportunities and a belief in temporary sacrifice in order to reap better results in the future (Ribeiro & Soares, ). Middle classes appear to be more future‐oriented, more rational, more confident and more prone to abstract thinking, whereas lower classes seem to be more present‐oriented, less rational, more limited, more concerned with security and more concrete in their thinking (Abrantes, ).…”

“…Several factors concur to the consumption habits of children as well as their understanding of economic matters and their financial education. Ribeiro, and Soares (2016) particularly emphasize the role played by family, peers, school and social capital latu sensu, in the building of social relations, socialization processes, symbolic meanings and moral values that affect children's relationship with money and consumption. Social capital has been defined as social gains (Pinho & Soares, 2015), formed by negotiated ties and relationships (Holland, Reynolds, & Weller, 2007) which individuals, families and groups derive from social engagement and networking (Butler & Muir, 2017).…”

“…A substantial body of literature indicates that patterns of consumption, including spending and savings, vary considerably according to socio-economic contexts (Luhr, 2018;Ribeiro & Soares, 2016). Such contexts seem to influence not only the level and structure of spending but also the ways in which money, consumption and savings are valued and perceived.…”

“…Associations of long-term planning, self-responsibility and stronger financial discipline have been pointed out as regards more privileged socio-economic contexts (Otto, 2013). In contrast, lack of willpower and little restraint when dealing with money have been attributed to the disadvantaged (Ribeiro & Soares, 2016). Still, research has not yet fully understood the dynamic between children, families, socio-economic context and consumption.…”