...Theories of Poverty and Community Development Jozette M. Broughton Introduction to Sociology Prof. Jeremy Bennett December 09, 2012 Abstract In this paper I will explore how two competing theories of poverty shape anti-poverty strategies. Since most rural community development efforts aim to relieve causes or symptoms of poverty, it makes a difference which theory of poverty is believed to be responsible for the problem being addressed. In this paper three theories of poverty are discussed from research in different news articles. It will be shown that two theories of poverty, not that these are the only two, place its origin from 1) individual deficiencies and 2) cumulative and circumstantial origins. Then, I show how each theory of poverty finds expression in common policy discussion and community development programs aimed to address the causes of poverty. Building a full understanding of each of these competing theories of poverty shows how they shape different community development approaches. While no one theory explains all instances of poverty, this paper aims to show how community development practices that address the complex and issues of poverty more effectively by reducing poverty compared to programs that address a single theory. Theories of Poverty and Community Development Community development has a variety of strategies available to meet the needs of those persons and groups who are less advantaged...
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...POVERTY IN AMERICA Donice Wright Excelsior College Business Ethics for Managers 523 30033567 Dr. Sharlyn Moore 21 May 2015 Introduction and situational analysis Residents of Lakewood, Ohio have seen an upsurge in people living below the poverty line. “Between 1998-99 and 2009-10, the share of Lakewood high students receiving free and reduced price lunches increased dramatically, from 9-46%.” (Shaw, 2013, p. 13). As globalization increases more immigrants and refugees are moving to areas outside of the inner city. Tukwila, Washington has seen much of the same waves of immigration and refugee populations seeking work and affordable housing. Poverty in Tukwila went from 10 percent to over 24 percent during the period 2006-10. Job opportunities are rooted in service jobs such as retail, hotels, construction and other services. P. (38). The inner city used to be the location for jobs and opportunity however, the trend now includes urban job opportunities, affordable housing, and better schools. This migration from the inner city to the outlying areas is called, “the suburbanization of poverty.” P. (38) Understanding poverty calls for understanding the economy. According to Brooking Institute researchers Emily Monea and Isabel Sawhill, “even if the national unemployment rate fell to 5 percent within the next five years, by 2020 the nation’s poverty rate will likely remain above 14 percent. P. (39) Inter-generational poverty needs to be addressed. Inner cities have several...
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...Understanding Poverty From Multiple Social Science Perspectives A Learning Resource for Staff Development In Social Service Agencies Michael J. Austin, PhD, Editor BASSC Staff Director Mack Professor of Nonprofit Management School of Social Welfare University of California, Berkeley 510-642-7066 mjaustin@berkeley.edu August 2006 1 Table of Contents Introduction – Michael J. Austin, Guest Editor Part I Multiple Social Science Perspectives of Poverty Theories of Poverty: Findings from Textbooks on Human Behavior and the Social Environment Amanda J. Lehning, Catherine M. Vu, & Indira Pintak Economic Theories of Poverty Sun Young Jung & Richard Smith Sociological Theories of Poverty in Urban America Jennifer Price Wolf Psychological Theories of Poverty Kelly Turner & Amanda Lehning An Anthropological View of Poverty Kristine Frerer & Catherine Vu Political Science Perspectives on Poverty Amanda Lehning Theories of Global Poverty in the Developed and Developing World Jennifer Morazes & Indira Pintak Part II Theory Integration and Practitioner Perspectives Social Capital and Neighborhood Poverty: Toward an Ecologically-Grounded Model of Neighborhood Effects Kathy Lemon Osterling Social Work Students’ Perceptions of Poverty Sherrill Clark The Explosive Nature of the Culture of Poverty: A Teaching Case Based on An Agency-based Training Program Catherine Vu & Michael J. Austin 2 Understanding Poverty From Multiple...
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...POVERTY Name: Professor: Course Title: Intro to Sociology Date: 19 Nov 2012 Introduction Social issues are problems in the society today that are described as wrong, widespread and changeable. A category of conditions that people believe need to be changed. Poverty is a serious social issue in the society today. According to Peilin (2012), poverty brings hardships to families and individuals as well as political thereby negatively affecting the social stability and social development and posing a severe threat to human security (p. 243). This paper focuses on poverty as a social issue in today’s society. First, it gives a succinct introduction of the social issue, and then describes how it fits into the field of sociology. It also evaluates the sociological theories and terminology that relate to the social issue. The section that follows evaluates what is known and unknown about the particular social issue. This is followed by a discussion regarding the value of sociological research into the issue determining the available or possible practical implications of the sociological inquiry. The information presented here is strongly supported by the concepts and theories derived from reliable sources. Poverty as a social Issue Poverty is generally defined as a state of deprivation in well-being. The conventional perspective connects well-being basically to control over commodities, so the poor are individuals who do not have sufficient...
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...Poverty and Social Classes Societal Problems There are three major sociological paradigms that directs the way society thinks. These paradigms are functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction. The first, functionalism, is a theory that suggests that each aspect of society serves its own purpose in order to make the society run. An example of functionalism would be that you have a government that imposes taxes on its citizens. Those citizens work in order to pay the taxes. The taxes are used to pay for a police force in order to protect the citizens. Each piece works for the other in order to make the society work. The next paradigm is conflict theory. Unlike the functional theory where everything has its purpose, this theory suggests people are essentially fighting over resources. An example of conflict theory would be how women have for years been fighting for equal pay for equal work. The third paradigm is symbolic interaction. This theory differs from the other two because it deals with individual people rather than a group of people. It teaches that people interact with one another through gestures and symbols and this sets the tone for relationships. These gestures and symbols also define the way people think and react in certain situations. An example would be two people from the United States meeting for the first time would be more likely to shake hands whereas two people from Japan may...
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...Poverty can be defined as the state in which a person or family is considered extremely poor. A report provided by the World Bank, stated that the poverty line was a dollar per day. In order for a family to be considered poor, they must follow the poverty threshold. HFF states that a family of four must have a monthly income of 1,863. As I tried to budget a family with that income, I found it quite difficult as it seemed impossible for this family survive without sacrificing housing, groceries, and utilities. If this family were to live in a motel or some form of low income housing they would still be affected by the loss of their income. Food and transportation cannot be seen as a fixed rate because the prices vary monthly. Also, the poverty threshold is the same for everyone across the country, even though the cost of living determines on where the person lives. Unless this family is granted some form of assistance, it will not be realistic for a family to successfully live off this amount per month. Personally, as a single individual, it hard for me to live off one thousand dollars per month, so I could only imagine a family of four successfully surviving off this income. In the movie, Hard Times Generation, it focuses on children who are living in motels with their families in a town a few miles outside Disney World. One surprising fact that I learned from this movie is that the percentage of children in poverty is higher than adults. A lot of these families were not in poverty...
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...have had this issue and actually lost a job due to it. The social construction of sexual orientation is based on the symbolic-interaction theory and conflict theory. It is mostly based on the conflict theory due to the conflict it has caused in many areas throughout society. Sociological theories of suicide has had a great impact on many lives throughout time and some of these suicides does affect society as a whole, especially when it is someone who is well known or famous. Every day there is a suicide that takes place in every state or community. There are many different theories to why suicide takes place but in reality no one can really say why someone feels the need to take their own life because with each individual there is always a different motive to it. A sociological theory of suicide goes with both the conflict theory and the symbolic theory because of the kind of impact it has on other people lives. The purpose of poverty in America was one that I found to be offset from my original two topics I chose and thought maybe it be interesting to learn more about. Poverty takes place on a daily bases throughout the United States and continues to grow with the way the world is today. There are many ways to help with poverty and lower the amount of poverty that takes place. The purpose of poverty is the structural-functional theory as well as conflict...
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...IMPACT OF POVERTY ON DRUG AND CRIME Asfandyar Humayun Zephyr STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: The problem under discussion is the impact of poverty leading to crime and drugs. This essentially means how under privileged people or worse go towards the dark side of life that is crime and drugs. PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: The reason why this topic is being highlighted is because the crime rate in teenagers is on the rise, these teenagers rather than going to school, playing cricket, having a chilled latte etc are getting involved in target killing, street mugging, doing very hard drugs and are ruining their lives. They should be contributing positively to the society as the youth are the future of the society rather than ruining our social order. Crime has severe backlashes and one them is on economy a key factor here to note is that economy is the backbone of the country. OBJECTIVES: The basic aim of the research is to establish a relationship between poverty and crime and drugs. Here poverty covers slums people deprived of basic needs the primary focus is on teenagers and this research will highlight how poverty single handedly ruins lives of so many people directly and...
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...Poverty Student’s names Professor’s name Course Title Poverty Poverty is a state of not accessing basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. Poverty is primarily caused by hunger, illness, and thirst and affects the entire society by generating many problems and making people to live substandard lives. It is normally classified in absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty refers to a state of not being able to obtain basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing that are very important in sustaining life. Relative poverty, on the other hand, is a state of not being able to obtain resources in relation to a certain mean resource and normally applies to people who are not able to meet societal social needs. According to Townsend (1979), a family is considered to be in relative poverty if it is not able to afford the required diet, get involved in societal activities, and use basic health and educational facilities. Problems connected to poverty bring political, economic, and social disorder in the society. There are two theories that apply to poverty; conflict theory and structural theory. Conflict theory explains that poverty leads to class conflict in a society (Giddens & Simon, 2006). This comes as a result of the oppression of the poor by the rich. It says that conflict must remain in order to create a positive change in the society and that the wide gap between the rich and the poor is very significant. Structural function...
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...QSN : POVERTY IS A CAUSE OF INDIVIDUAL DEFICIENCIES.DISCUSS Poverty in its most general sense is the lack of necessities. Basic food, shelter, medical care, and safety are generally thought necessary based on shared values of human dignity. Some societies focus on individual failures and deficiencies to explain the occurrence and patterns of poverty. Personal characteristics such as laziness or lack of ability are seen as the primary causes of poverty. The poor are blamed for being poor and solutions to poverty are assumed to lie within their individual control. But this approach fails to acknowledge that poverty is not random. The likelihood of poverty varies sharply depending on age, gender, family structure, health, education, economic conditions and where you live. In other words, it is not the poor choices and ‘bad’ behaviour of individuals that lead to poverty, but structural failings which stack the odds against certain people and make it difficult for them to escape deprivation or reach their full potential. In other words however individual deficiencies may lead to poverty but only to a lesser extent since they are many more factors that may lead to poverty which include cultural belief systems, geographical disparities, and economic, political and social distortions or discrimination. These are some of the factors that lead to poverty which will be expanded in the essay below. Failure in life may be due to some inborn deficiencies such as physical or mental handicap...
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...Poverty as a problem A. Describe the social problem. Poverty is a state in which income is insufficient to provide basic needs. Lack of control over resources, lack of education and poor health. There is a multidimensional component which may cause one to lack the ability to care for the basic needs for themselves as well as their families. Poverty can cause alienation and be very distressing. On a very concerning level are the indirect effects of poverty on the development and ones continued wellbeing in regards to emotional, behavioral and psychiatric problems. Measurement of poverty is based on income and consumption levels. People are considered poor if their consumption or income levels fall below the poverty line. The poverty line is the minimum level necessary to meet basic needs (Townsend, 1979). B. Analyze the social problem. According to article (Poverty, social inequality and mental health, 2004, para2). Poverty and social inequality have direct and indirect effects on the social, mental, and physical wellbeing of an individual or group of people. Income inequality produces psychological and psychosocial stress. This stress will trickle down and may cause increased health problems and an influx in mortality rates over time in these lower socioeconomic classes. This is caused by a lack in community investment in the social and physical infrastructure (Wilkinson, 1996). The effects of income inequality also trickle down into society. This trickle...
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...places or with certain people? Interestingly, severe crime has fallen sharply throughout the past 25 years (Gramlich). But even with that, there has always been law breaking behavior throughout time. It is something that no matter the place or time, people will always try to go against with the law. Now there are many reasons and theories as to why people break laws. There are many theories such as social control, social learning, routine activities and life course but for this pastirculare case I’m going to be focussing on why people break laws based on Social Disorganization theory. If we look in the whole city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Homicide Map, the Social Disorganization Theory can be applicable. The reason why it this theory can apply to Los Angeles is because the three main factors of this theory does occur in Los Angeles since it is very popular but other than the state of California has both the ultrarich and the worst poverty rate in America (Tobar). This is mainly because of cities like Los Angeles since it is kind of looking like a “Third World” City. In order for crime to happen according to the Social Disorganization Theory, one of the main structural socioeconomic factors shaping...
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...In reality, treating people equally is not the most important moral principle for resolving issues of poverty, sexism and disabilities, notwithstanding the fact that the counter proposition is often propounded. Many people hold the view that we are responsible for looking after the world’s population by treating everyone the same and by providing equal treatment to everyone, regardless of the fact that individual situations may not allow for such actions. Unfortunately although this viewpoint is seen to hold ethical significance, it is simply not a reality that translates to a possibility. This paper argues in support of the ethical viewpoint, that treating people equally is not the most important moral principle in resolving issues of poverty, by employing fundamental arguments and supporting frameworks to contribute to this conclusion. Ethical grounds for my arguments shall be explored, such as theories propounded by Aristotle, Bentham, Stuart Mill and Kant, in order to support the framework and provide supporting claims. Education and the opportunities that learning environments provide, are fundamental to the measurable successes and accomplishments within our modern day society. However, the great disparity in education standards across the globe are grounds to base an argument on the fact that subsequently treating people equally regardless of access or the ability to achieve certain levels of education, is not equitable and reasonable. Unfortunately it has been estimated...
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...Analyse the importance of poverty as an explanation of social class differences in educational achievement Introduction Sociologists have argued that social class differences in educational achievement can be explained in terms of 4 not necessarily mutually exclusive kinds of theory: IQ theory; theories emphasising social class differences in material circumstances; theories emphasising social class differences in subcultural attitudes and values; and theories emphasising the importance of within school labelling processes. Sociologists tend to be critical of IQ theory for several reasons and point out that there is good evidence to show that social class is a major determinant of educational success even independently of measured differences in IQ. I shall therefore concentrate upon the three more sociological approaches and in each case it may be argued that the factors which may disadvantage working class students in general are especially likely to disadvantage those working class students who experience poverty. However before analysing the possible effects of poverty on educational achievement some preliminary investigation of the nature and extent of poverty in the UK is first necessary and for these purposes we must first distinguish between absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is said to occur when individuals lack the money necessary to ensure their basis physical survival whereas relative poverty exists where individuals have insufficient money to...
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...structural differences and similarities in characteristics2.3 General characteristics2.4 Growth and development 2.4.1 Characteristics of Kuznet’s Growth model 2.4.2 Limitations of Kuznet’s model | Discussing similarities and differences in structure and economic characteristics in the developing world | 6 | Lecture and discussions | * LCD projector * Ms Ppoint * OHP * Slaid * White Board * SAS | | 5-6 | 3.0 CLASSICAL THEORIES OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT3.1 Linear Growth Theories 3.1.1 Rostow’s stages of development Theory 3.1.2 Harrod-Domar Growth Model3.2 Structural Change Model 3.2.1 Lewis theory of development3.3 International Dependence Revolution 3.3.1 Neo-classical dependency Model 3.3.2 False Paradigm Model3.4 The Neoclassical development Approach 3.4.1 Free Market, Public Choice, and Market Friendly.3.5 Contemporary Models of Development 3.5.1 New Growth Theory: Romer’s...
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