Magistrska naloga
Autonomous Cash Benefit as a Welfare State Tool for Battling the Poverty and Social Exclusion of Disadvantaged Adolescents on Grounds of Social Justice
The purpose of this study is to examine a possibility of a social policy for tackling social exclusion and for poverty alleviation. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with adolescents who have received such an allowance in the Slovenian context, the study provides an applied philosophy approach through empirical research to connect human experience of social (in)justice with the creation of welfare policies. Findings center specifically on adolescents since, among all European children, the 15-17 years old adolescents are at the greatest risk of poverty and social exclusion. The findings document the importance of an autonomous economic resource for tackling social exclusion which helps to confirm and extend the philosophical framework of Brian Barry’s luck-egalitarian and Jonathan Wolff’s social-egalitarian stance on social exclusion. The emerged theory reveals a cycle of autonomous economic resource reinforcement (via social inclusion) that could alleviate poverty. This study yields unexpected and new findings for future research on poverty: a narrative device of contradictory statements and the ambivalence towards the benefit on grounds of shame and stigmatisation. The results importantly explicate the ability of consumption as an integral part of social justice. Noteworthy is also this study’s contribution to an argument for the Universal Basic Income.
Povezava: »You know, it’s so pitiful when you don’t have your own cash …« (PDF)