The Relationship Between the Discourse of Self-Responsibility in Poverty and the Discourse of Child Poverty: from a Content Analysis of Magazine Articles Referring to Poverty

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the current relationship between the discourse of self-responsibility in poverty and the discourse of child poverty, which is expected to play a counter role to it.

The analysis is twofold. First, I analyzed the transition of both the child poverty theory and the self-responsibility theory of adult poverty. As a result, we found that although we cannot deny the possibility that the discourse of child poverty was connected to the suppression of the discourse of self-responsibility in adult poverty, the extent of this connection seems to have been limited. Second, I analyzed the rhetoric that connects the discourse on child poverty and the discourse on adult poverty. As a result, it became clear that the scope of “adults” as a target to be linked to child poverty was limited to only the parents of the children or at most the parents’ generation.