Suffering and thriving: Children’s perspectives and interpretations of poverty and well-being in rural Zambia

Phiri, Douglas Tendai; Abebe, Tatek

doi:10.1177/0907568216637654

Cited by 46 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Research with children in majority world contexts has brought into sharp relief the complexities of ‘glocal’ research, including the undifferentiated pathologizing of ‘lack’ in children’s lives, especially in the Global South (Hanson et al 2018; Phiri and Abebe, 2016). With respect to African childhoods, Imoh (2016) speaks of the need to recognize the complex local as well as global dynamics at play in children’s everyday lives.…”

Section: Education and Development As Fields Of Inter-generational Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming ‘brilliant’: Generationing education and development in rural Sierra Leone

et al. 2021

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This paper explores the generationing of education and development in five villages in Northern Sierra Leone. Understood as ‘fields’ governed by power dynamics, we consider how the interactive ‘fields’ of generation, education and development coalesce, re/structuring adult and child ‘being’ and ‘doing’. We explore the tensions that arise between transformation and preservation in the field in light of wider social, cultural and economic change, and the negotiation of the generational contract in contexts of high risk and inter-dependency.

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Section: Education and Development As Fields Of Inter-generational Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming ‘brilliant’: Generationing education and development in rural Sierra Leone

et al. 2021

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“…In most rural African communities, children's reproductive and productive, paid and unpaid work contribution is often seen in the context of interdependence and social responsibility to their rural families, households, communities etc. (see also Abebe and Kjørholt 2013;Phiri 2016;Phiri and Abebe 2016;Klocker 2007). According to Panelli (2002), this involves negotiated means by which young people experience and actively build their lives working through their contexts to perform both required and voluntary aspects of their lives.…”

Section: Concluding Discussion: Consideration In Studying Intergenermentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Thus, children's contributions to rural social economy are largely hidden. Yet, existing research informed by children reveals the unique ways in which poverty unfolds in their lives and how they respond and interpret its effects for their future life prospects (Phiri 2016;Phiri and Abebe 2016).…”

Section: The Convergence Of Political Economy (Inter) Generation Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying intergenerational processes in 21st century rural African societies

Phiri¹

2019

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This paper illustrates the impact of political economy on young people's life courses and intergenerational processes in rural Africa. Rapid transformations and social changes in rural Africa often as a result of political economy contributes to the increasing malleability of rural contexts and tensions across the life courses of children and youth. The temporality and spatiality of globalisation are illustrated using the neo-liberal policies in the Economic Structural Adjustments Programmes (ESAPs) and the global educational policies in the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). The paper discusses the epistemological and methodological implications of political economy in rural African societies including approaches that capture complex interpenetrating factors contributing towards "constructions of young lives", "contexts and identities" and "agency and social responsibilities".

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“…The Zambian children in Phiri's and Abebe's (2016) study on the other hand bring up the importance of the home when being classified as poor or rich. They point out that a house with a grass roof is a sign of poverty, whereas a metal roof is a sign of wealth.…”

Section: Studies On Children's Experiences Of Poverty In Developing Cmentioning

confidence: 97%

An Ethnographer’s Time in Mwanza : Reflecting Tanzanian Children’s Experiences of Poverty

Häärä¹

2020

Preprint

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In my master’s thesis I have aimed to find out what kind of experiences Tanzanian children attending public schools have about poverty, and how these experiences are related to the poverty experiences of Northern European children. This thesis has been done with a phenomenological epistemology and a holistic idea of man. Following the framework of childhood sociology I understand children as active agents. Within this framework, I want to bring out the voices of children behind the statistics about child poverty. Plenty of research has been done on child poverty, but the children’s own experiences are seldom listened to. This is especially true for children in developing countries, who at the same time appear in countless pictures provided by international charities. This creates an illusion of poor children being far away, and nowhere near us. However, as research on childhood poverty experiences has revealed, Northern European children have diverse experiences of poverty as well. To lessen the comparison and simplification, I have found it important to listen to children themselves and to reflect Tanzanian and Northern European children’s experiences. I carried out my ethnographic field work in the beginning of 2018 while I did a three-month social work apprenticeship in a small and local NGO working with families in the Tanzanian city of Mwanza. As a part of my weekly work in the organization, I organized group sessions for two groups of children aged 8–16, who were living in small mountain villages. It was in these groups that I gathered most of my research material, through group discussions, writing tasks, and drawings. In addition, I also wrote notes in my daily life. As an ethnographer, I reflected everything I saw to the context of Finland and to the literature review I had previously made about Northern European children’s experiences of poverty. Hence, I have had a reflective approach to my work all the way. I approached my material by qualitative content analysis, and soon recognized that it contains some of the categories found in Northern European research on children’s experiences of poverty.A central finding of this study is that Tanzanian children’s experiences of poverty are indeed quite similar to those of Northern European children. Both have experiences of poverty related to deprivation of basic needs, and the effect this deprivation causes on friendships is also pointed out. In addition, poverty causes tension in families, which stems from the contradiction between scarce resources and the demands of the environment. This tension requires children to use various coping strategies in order to balance between the family conditions, their own needs and the expectations of friends. The experienced deprivation of basic needs is described as deficiencies in food, school materials, clothes, home environment, and health. These deficiencies are in turn described as leading to experiences of alienation, otherness, bullying, and to the need of children to regulate the amount of money spent together with friends. However, the Tanzanian children also have experiences that cannot be found in Northern European studies. In the category of food deficiencies, these include the lack of food in schools, the obligation to participate in buying food for the household, and the shame that is put on buying unnecessary snacks. Additionally, some possibilities that are self-evident for all Northern European children raise doubt in Tanzanian children. These include possibilities to attend school, to get health care and to live at home instead of in the street. From the viewpoint of friendships, it is common for Tanzanian children to spend time in free play, whereas Northern European children often see paid hobbies as a must in order to participate fully. Further, the Tanzanian children are strong moral agents in teaching their friends in how to use money properly. Having respect for elders and a willingness to help parents is especially important to Tanzanian children. The strong authority of Tanzanian parents is seen in my material as a low level of communication between parents and children, for example in parents not sharing shame or economic trouble with their children.The children I have encountered present multiple explanations to poverty, and also share varied ways of helping poor people. The children see everyone’s role important in preventing poverty, and they hope for this work to be done together from the individual level all the way to the cultural level. In my work I have moved between different levels, considering individual situations and reflecting them culturally. The aim of this thesis is to bring new perspective on poverty as a phenomenon experienced by children.

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Suffering and thriving: Children’s perspectives and interpretations of poverty and well-being in rural Zambia

Cited by 46 publications

References 24 publications

Becoming ‘brilliant’: Generationing education and development in rural Sierra Leone

Becoming ‘brilliant’: Generationing education and development in rural Sierra Leone

Studying intergenerational processes in 21st century rural African societies

An Ethnographer’s Time in Mwanza : Reflecting Tanzanian Children’s Experiences of Poverty

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