NURSERY SCHOOLS NEIGHBOURHOODS
Municipal nursery schools in Barcelona’s neighbourhoods: opportunity structures for the most vulnerable children
The objective is to improve access to municipal nursery schools (EBM) as educational, social, and community spaces in the most vulnerable neighbourhoods of Barcelona.
Center: Institut Metròpolis
Although early childhood education services are a social policy tool with the potential to break the cycle of inequality among children, existing research warns that it is precisely the families with the greatest socioeconomic needs who benefit from them the least. In the city of Barcelona, despite the introduction of income-based pricing since the 2017–2018 academic year—which has led to a nearly 17% increase in families from lower-income brackets—children at the highest risk of poverty are those who make the least use of EBM. Socioeconomic inequality among children is reflected in Barcelona’s territory as urban inequality, and the neighbourhood defines the living conditions and opportunity structures available to children. This research focuses on the city’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods to identify which populations are absent from EBM and to explore which community-based opportunity structures can be generated.
