The master’s thesis examines the understanding of the everyday life of vulnerable families from an intersectional perspective and highlights how the categorisation and institutional discourses relate to the experiences, challenges, needs and forms of support for vulnerable families.
The theoretical part of the thesis presents the everyday life of vulnerable families, describes the characteristics of working with them, and offers a critical reflection on professional practices and the discourses that construct them. Intersectionality is illustrated as a key concept for understanding complex inequalities, along with a conceptual model of intersectionality that enables the analysis of the interplay of complex challenges faced by vulnerable families at the systemic level.
The purpose of the empirical part is to examine how, in everyday life, the categories into which vulnerable families are placed intersect with one another and how structural factors and the institutional and professional discourses that arise from them affect the accessibility and adequacy of existing forms of support. The conlusion reflects on how the intersectional approach contributes to understanding the complexity of the everyday lives of vulnerable families and to developing more holistic and flexible forms of support.
The research is based on a single case study that includes participant observation notes and the reflection on a year and a half of working with one family. The data is analysed using an qualitative content analysis method focusing on intersectional perspective. The research findings indicate that the use of the conceptual model of intersectionality contributes significantly to overcoming a one-dimensional understanding and treatment of vulnerability, which is exacerbated in the family precisely because of its position in the grey area between inclusion and exclusion from support processes. The study outlines the intersectional approach as one of the key concepts that acknowledges the intertwining of various axes of inequality and reveals how these intersections shape the social experiences and life opportunities of vulnerable families.
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