Constituting ‘The Poor’: A Critical Frame Analysis of Substantive Claims

Abstract

Following recent trends in the literature, substantive representation does not only take place in parliament by elected actors, but in a wide range of arenas involving diverse actors. In this article we study substantive claims about ‘the poor’ in newspaper articles using Critical Frame Analysis. Our aim is twofold: exploring which actors represent the interests of poor people, and how ‘the poor’ as a group are giving meaning to. Our findings show that poor people depend largely on a broad range of non-elected actors, including actors usually not associated with interest representation, such as academics. As for defining the group at stake, about half of the claims framed ‘the poor’ as an abstract group, while the other half address a multiplicity of subgroups, with child poverty as most prominent one. Nevertheless, some subgroups (even those with a high risk on poverty) are not addressed at all.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An earlier version of this paper was presented in the panel ‘The study of women’s political representation: power, privilege and disadvantage’ at the ECPR General Conference (3–6 September 2014, Glasgow). We want to thank Eline Severs, Silvia Erzeel and other participants in that panel for their inspiring comments.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Defined by the national and regional government as a network of social exclusion on various interrelated dimensions of individual and social life (e.g., work, education, housing, health, civic and cultural participation), in which financial difficulties can serve both as a cause and as a consequence (POD Maatschappelijke Integratie 2012; Studiedienst van de Vlaamse regering 2014).

2. We conducted eight semi-structured in-depth interviews and one focus group (with five participants) from 12 until 22 November 2013. Respondents were randomly selected, until thematic saturation was reached. Their status of ‘poor’ was based upon their membership of organisations from the poor.

3. There are three main newspaper publishing companies within Flanders. ‘De Standaard’ is published by Het Mediahuis, ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ is published by De Persgroep, and ‘Metro’ is published by Mass Transit Media.

4. Our query included keywords related to poverty, on the one hand, and housing and health on the other hand. We are fully aware that this approach may have caused us to miss some implicit claims for the poor that are not mentioning this group explicitly.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anke Schouteden

Anke Schouteden was a junior researcher at the Department of Political Sciences of Ghent University. She has a master’s degree in Public Management and Public Policy (University College Ghent). She worked on a PhD project concerning the political representation of socially disadvantaged groups.

Bram Wauters

Bram Wauters is an associate professor at the Department of Political Sciences of the Ghent University, where he leads the research group GASPAR. His research interests include political representation, elections and political parties, with special attention to diversity. He has recently published on these topics in journals such as Political Studies, Government & Opposition, Journal of Legislative Studies, Local Government Studies and Acta Politica.