Well -being, risk an marginalization

1. Well-being, risk an marginalization In the Aristotelian perspective being is understood as being now -and as the potentials for being. (The “being” of a caterpillar includes the transformation into a butterfly). Being as the unfolding of potentials can be related toarticle 29a: The development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential. (Within the framework of “Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”) Being is a process as well as a series of states Well-being has to be related to being at the present - and being as a process

2. Understanding well-being • The classic Nordic studies on living conditions saw well-being as rooted in three areas: 1) material conditions (termed having), 2) social relations, as neighbors, family and friends (termed loving), and 3) citizenship and social and political participation (termed being) • In Amartya Sen’s approach to welfare economics, well-being is understood as related to rights, opportunities and participation more than to utilities, as happiness and satisfaction. • Ben- Arieh: rights are an extension of personhood and personality. • The Convention depicts children as participants– participation requires capacities (individual resources) and opportunities (structural resources) • Capacities are developed through participation • Rights and participation are related to recognition in Hegel’s sense

3. The dynamics of well-being • Sen's perspective on well-being is fruitful in relation to child well- being, as it points to the child’s right to develop its potentials, and the right to use this abilities in accordance with the child’s own choice • Well-being requires agency: agency requires the capacity to act- and an opportunity structure making action possible • Well-being is understood as created through the interaction between resources/capacities and opportunity structures • At the core of the process of well-being is inclusion versus exclusion • The problematic of inclusion changes with societal development; from industrial to the postindustrial educational society • The industrial society; strong mechanisms for integration into adult roles through work and family (Willis; Learning to labour; integration and restricted opportunities ) • Knowledge/educational society: Increased opportunities but weaker mechanisms of inclusion. • Stronger requirements of agency and competence • Increased vulnerability and risk for exclusion.

4. School as the mediator and generator of marginalization • A review of Swedish studies (Social Agency Social Report 2010) show that grades in primary school is a dominant explanatory factor in relation to future marginalization. This is the most comprehensive examination of this relationship in the Nordic countries, and undoubtedly one of the most systematic carried out in OECD countries • Various factors such as ethnicity and social background, parental education, family size, etc. influence the achievements in school, but within the same grade levels in elementary school, there is little variation with these factors • The strongest protective, in relation to future marginalization, the report concludes, was "fråvaron av skolmisslyckande "- the absence of failure in school”.

5. Indicators in the analysis • Fathers and mothers relation to the labourmarket. (Sum of years at work and relative income) • Relative poverty; less than 50% of the median income. Calculated in accordance with OECD procedures • Mother got her first child at 19 or younger • Number of siblings • Criminal charges • Grades at the final year of compulsory schooling ( operationalized as “grade – points”)

6. Grades when leaving compulsory schooling, related to parents employment level and the number of children in the family. Children born 1986- 1991 Dependent variable: percentage with less than 40 points

7. Factors influencing school gradesLogistic regressionDependent variable; over/under 40 grade-points when leaving compulsory schooling

8. Contact with the child welfare systemLogistic regression Dependent variable: Contact/no contact with the child welfare system For a child living in relative poverty according to the OECD standard, and with parents with low integration in the labour marked, the probability of being in contact with the child welfare system is 34% with under 40 points when leaving compulsory schooling, 7% for children with more than 40 points.

9. Charged with any criminal activityLogistic regression Dependent variable; charged/not charged with crime Among children with parents with low integration into the labour market, and less that 50% of median family income and under 40 grade-points when leaving compulsory schooling, 27% of boy and 6% of girls were charged with crime, with 40points or more the percentages was 5 and 0. Grades seem to overshadow other background factors related to the probability for being charged with crime.

10. Absence of failure • Well-being, as the development capacities and access to opportunities/rights), is understood as a process of inclusion/exclusion. For children at risk, well-being may gradually be decreasing • The knowledge societies requires a certain basic competence and constitute a “level of failure”, different from the agrarian and industrial societies. This level is highly correlated with (and indicated by), but not identical to, failure at school. Lack of literacy, and numerical literacy, are at the core of the level of failure. • Schools act as mediator of social and genetic factors • Educational institutions, as institutional, cultural and social contexts and educational praxes, contribute to the processes of failure and decreasing well-being • Being in contact with child welfare correlates with failure at school • The child welfare systems do not seem to provide relevant supportrelated to the clients cardinal challenge; educational achievements at the level of “basic competence” • Vulnerability in the transition to adulthood increases the importance of the early years . • The identification of the “level of failure” and the dynamics of failure in various economical and cultural contexts requires further research. • At the core of this problematic is the relationship between “basic competence” and indicators of inclusion/exclusion. If we regard this as a dynamic relationship, as possible processes of vicious cycles, one consequence of this model is increased emphasis on early intervention, and child welfare systems increasingly focusing educational achievements and failure.