Poverty

1. Poverty

2. Lisa • 24 yearsold • Lonemother of two (divorced w/ spurioussupportfrom her ex-husband) • Works at a callcenterandtakes on extrawork as a cleaner • Her mothertakescare of her children • She has planstoget a betterjob, moveto a betterneighborhood, tolead a healthier life • Not dependent on welfare!

3. Lisalives in UK, a welfarestatewhichensuresthateveryone(??) has enoughmoneyto pay fortheirbasicneedsand no one is forcedtolive in conditions of absolutepoverty. • Welfarestatesdiffer in • thetypes of benefitstheyprovidefortheircitizens • Underlyingphilosophies

4. Underlyingphilosophies • Providing a ‘basicsafety net’ • Widerange of servicesavailable ‘fromcradletograve’ • Minimal welfarestatewherebenefitsarelinkedtocommitmenttowork Welfareprovisiondiffersfromonecountrytoanother, beingmorecomprehensive in somethan in others. Why do peopleliving in some of therichestcountries in theworldstilllive in poverty?

5. BacktoLisa • Why is Lisapoor? (individual/social) • Her povertyandlowposition in societyareresults of her naturalabilitiesor a consequence of her personalupbringing • She is not working hard enoughtoovercome her difficultsituation • It’sallstructural Howdoessociologyevaluatewhichanswer is moreaccurate?

6. CarolWalker, 1994 • How do peopleliving on income-support (means-testedbenefitforcertaingroups of peoplewhocannotworkfull time and do not haveenoughmoneytolive on) organize theirlives? • Is living on welfare an easyoption? • Deterioration in livingstandards (unemployedliving on welfare) • Life is a struggle; justgettingby • Food can be cutbackwhenmoney is short • Result of a traumaticevent in life (loss of job/partner/health)  Living on socialassistance is not an optionmostpeoplewouldchooseiftheywereoffered a genuinealternative.

7. OECD 2000 Report • AlongwithItaly, Spain, Portugalandthe USA, the UK had one of theworstchildpovertyrecords in thedevelopedworld. • Childpoverty rate > 15% • Turkey, 21%

8. What is poverty? • Absolute poverty • Idea of subsistence, the basic conditions that must be met in order to sustain a physically healthy existence • Peoplewholackthesefundamentalrequirementssuch as • Sufficientfood • Shelter • Clothing aresaidtolive in poverty. • Universally applicable concept • Anyindividualanywhere in theworld can be saidtolive in povertyiftheyfallbelowtheuniversalstandard.

9. Universalmeasure of absolutepoverty • Commonlyusedmeasure of absoluteorextremepoverty is thenumber of peoplewholive on lessthen $1 perday. • 1.5 billion in 1981 • 1 billion in 2004 • Morethan 40% of population in sub-SaharanAfrica in 2004 • Inequalitiesbetween vs inequalitieswithincountries • Starkcontrastsbetweendevelopedanddevelopingcountries. • Whatifwecomparetheshare of nationalrevenuethatgoestothebottomfifth?

10. Relative poverty • It is not possibletoidentify a universalstandard of absolutepoverty • Manypeople in thedevelopedworldthatare in relativepovertywillsuffermoreillnessanddieearlierthanwealthiersocialgroups • Needs differ between time and place, ‘culturally defined’ • Humanneedsare not identical, theydifferwithinandacrosssocieties (forexample ??) • As societies grow, standards for poverty are continually revised upwards • Relativepovertyrelatespovertytooverallstandard of livingthatprevails in thatparticularsociety

11. Eventhedefiniton of absolutepoverty is relative (changedover time accordingtoavailableknowledge) • ‘Povertyline’ tomeasureabsolutepoverty • Theprice of basicgoodsneededforhumansurvival in a particularsociety • Individualsorhouseholdswhoseincomefallsbelowthepovertylinearesaidtolive in poverty. • Singlecriterion of poverty is problematic • Variation in humanneedswithinandbetweensocieties • Someassessed as abovepovertylinewhentheirincomedoes not meettheirbasicsubsistenceneeds

12. As societiesdevelop, theunderstanding of andstandardsforrelativepovertychangeandaregraduallyadjustedupwards as societiesbecomemoreaffluent. • ‘The invention of permanent poverty’

13. Measuring Poverty • Use of deprivation index, not income statistics • Townsend’s twelve items – 22.9% of population in poverty • Relatedtosocialexclusion – denyingfullcitizenshiptopeople in poverty • Mack and Lansley’sBreadline Britain used 22-item index based on respondents’ own definitions • Gordon’s Poverty and Social Exclusion was partial replication of BB and showed that number of households without key items had grown

14. Who is poor? • Regional dimension – North-South divide • Child poverty – more than doubled in twenty years from 1979 from 14 to 34% • Female poverty – women account for 58% of all adults in poverty • Ethnic minorities (Pakistani/Bangladeshi) due to high unemployment, low employment rates, labour market segregation

15. People in somesocialgroupsaremorelikelyto be poorthanothers • Children • Women (feminization of poverty) • Ethnicminorities • Olderpeople Peoplewhoaredisadvantagedordiscriminatedagainst in otheraspects of life aremorelikelyto be in poverty.

16. Why are the poor poor? • Theories that see poor individuals as responsible for their own poverty • Theories that view poverty as (re)produced by structural forces in society • Murray’s work on the dependency culture – welfare state undermines self-help and personal ambition • WJ Wilson – economic restructuring hypothesis,jobs flee to the suburbs, fall in numbers of marriageable men, vicious cycle of disadvantage

17. Blamethevictim • Blamethesystem • Poverty as an aspect of socialinequality. • Reducestructuralinequalitytotacklepoverty. • Socialpolicy!

18. Social Exclusion Firstintroducedbysociologiststorefertonewsources of inequality. Continuestoinformappliedsocialresearch, whichaimstounderstandandtackledisadvantageandinequality. - Peoplewholive in a dilapidatedhousingestate, withpoorschoolsandfewemploymentopportunitiesmay be deniedtheopportunitiesfor self-bettermentthatmostpeople in societyhave.

19. Socialexclusionimpliesitsopposite: socialinclusion. • Attemptstofosterinclusion of marginalizedgroupsarenowpart of agenda of modern politics (thoughhowthis is done differsaccrosssocieties).

20. Ways in which individuals become cut off from full involvement in wider society: • Either by decisions lying outside their control • Banksrefusingcredittopeopleliving in a certainpostcodearea • Insurancerejectedbecause of personalhistory/background • Employeelaid-offlater in life refusedfurtherjobduetoage • Or by self-exclusion: ‘drop outs’, ‘non-voters’ • Be conscious of theinteractionbetweenhumanagencyandresponsibility on theonehand, andthe role of socialforces in shapingpeople’scircumstances on theother.

21. Weakandstrongversions of socialexclusion. • Weakversion: Seesthecentralissue as ensuringtheinclusion of thecurrentlyexcluded • Strongversion: Alsoseekssocialinclusion, but in additiontriestotackletheprocessesthroughwhichrelativelypowerfulsocialgroups ‘exercisetheircapacitytoexclude’. • Factorsthatpreventindividualsorgroupsfromhavingthesameopportunitiesthatareopentothemajority of thepopulation.

22. Fourdimensionstosocialexclusion • Povertyorexclusionfromadequateincomeorresources • Labour market exclusion • Service exclusion • Exclusion from social relations

23. Labor market exclusion • Work is not onlyimportantfor an adequateincome but it also is an important arena forsocialinteraction • Labor market exclusion, thus, can leadtootherforms of exclusion • Not beingpart of thelabor market does not onlymeanbeingunemployed • Retired • Involved in domesticorcaringactivities • Unabletowork (disability) • Students

24. Service exclusion • Lack of accesstobasicservices • Inthehome (powerandwatersupplies) • Outside (accesstopublic transport, shops, financialservices, schools, hospitals) • Individualexclusion • An individualcannotuse a service becausecannotafford it • Collectiveexclusion • A service is not availabletothecommunity

25. Exclusionfromsocialrelations • Unabletoparticipate in commonsocialactivities (visitingfriendsandfamily, celebrations, hobbies, holidays) • Beingisolatedfromfriendsandfamily • Lack of practicalandemotionalsupport in times of need • Lack of civicengagement (voting, gettinginvolved in politics) • Beingconfinedtohome (disability, caringresponsibilities, pathology)

26. Examples of Social Exclusion • Housing and neighbourhoods • Large stratified housing market • Dependent upon existing and projected resources • Both at household and community level • Exclusion can take on a spatialdimension (Tarlabaşı) • Rural areas • Sparsely populated areas have less access to goods, services and facilities • Transport is a key need leading to car dependence

27. Homelessness • No address makes participation in society difficult • Mental health patients, young people, others suffering from single or multiple personal disasters • Mostvulnerabletohomelessnessarepeoplefromlowerworking-classbackgroundswhohave no specificjobskillsandverylowincomes. • Longtermjoblessness. • Victims of violence on thestreets but excludedfromthesystems of legal andpoliceprotection. • Provision of moreadequateforms of housing

28. Crimeandsocialexclusion • Thestandards of economicstatusandconsumptionpromotedwithinsocietycannot be met throughlegitimatemeansbythesociallyexcludedpopulation. (Rememberyoung men stealingto buy theirgirlfriendsdiamondringsforvalentine’sday!) • Labeling of theyouth in poorareas as anti-social, susceptibletocrimeandintolerant of work.

29. Socialexclusion at the top • A minority of individuals at the top of society can optout of participation in mainstreaminstitutionsbymerit of theiraffluence, influenceandconnections. • Retreatfrompubliceducationandhealthcareservices; closedoffresidentialcommunities. • Escapefromtheirsocialandfinancialresponsibilitiesinto a closed, privaterealm, separatefromthe rest of thesociety. • Underminessocialsolidarityandcohesion, detrimentalto an integratedsociety.