Poverty As A Social Problem

Poverty As A Social Problem

Ekaterina Rogozhina,

1st year MA SES

In spite of the overall wealth of the European Union, poverty in the EU is still at a relatively high level. Nearly 1 in 7 people are at risk of poverty. The figures are even higher for some groups such as children and older people. However, the extent and seriousness of the problem is often not well understood either by policy makers or the general public. As a result sufficient urgency is not given to its eradication. Often this is because people only think of poverty as being something which is so extreme that it threatens people's very existence and they associate this mainly with developing countries. However, the reality is that poverty in the EU is a very real problem which brings misery to the lives of many people. This is a direct attack on people's fundamental rights, limits the opportunities they have to achieve their full potential, brings high costs to society and hampers sustainable economic growth. Poverty also reflects failures in the systems for redistributing resources and opportunities in a fair and equitable manner. These lead to deep-seated inequalities and thus to the contrast of excessive wealth concentrated in the hands of a few while others are forced to live restricted and marginalised lives, even though they are living in a rich economic area.

What it is

One of the problems with discussing poverty is clarifying what it means and how it can be defined. I would generally define poverty as a lack of resources necessary for material well-being: food, water, housing, land, and health care. Unlike inequality, which shows how resources are distributed across the whole society, poverty concentrates on the situation of those at bottom of society. Nevertheless, poverty remains primarily the consequence of the way society is organised and resources are allocated, whether these are financial or other resources such as access to housing, health and social services, education and other economic, social and cultural services.

Within the current debate at EU level, poverty is generally divided into two types, absolute or extreme poverty and relative poverty.

Absolute or extreme poverty is when people lack the basic necessities for survival, what leads to hunger and physical deprivation. For instance they may be starving, lack clean water, proper housing, sufficient clothing or medicines and be struggling to stay alive. This is most common in developing countries but some people in the European Union (EU), for instance homeless people or the Roma in some settlements, still experience this type of extreme poverty.

Relative poverty is where some people's way of life and income is so much worse than the general standard of living in the country or region in which they live that they struggle to live a normal life and to participate in ordinary economic, social and cultural activities. What this means will vary from country to country, depending on the standard of living enjoyed by the majority. While not as extreme as absolute poverty, relative poverty is still very serious and harmful.

The United Nations tends to focus its efforts on eliminating absolute or extreme poverty. The first goal of The United Nations Millenium Development Goals is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Eradicating extreme poverty is translated into an objective to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. However, poverty in most EU countries is more generally understood as relative poverty.

Some factors:

- more than ¼ of the world’s population live on less than $2 a day and about 1,4 billion people live on less than $1,25 a day;

- every day, nearly 1 in 5 of the world’s population goes hungry;

- the richest 1% in the world own 40% of global household wealth; the richest 2% own more than half of global wealth; and the richest 10% own 85% of total global wealth.

Manifistations of poverty:

- Lack of basic necessities

- Isolation

- Bureaucracy and lack of information

- Lack of respect and lack of hope

- Lack of decent work

- Fear for one's children

The debate on poverty in the EU is often closely associated with social exclusion. The term social exclusion is used to emphasise the processes which push people to the edge of society, which limit their access to resources and opportunities, curtail their participation in normal social and cultural life leaving them feeling marginalised, powerless and discriminated against. Another common term associated with poverty is vulnerability. People are in a vulnerable situation when their personal well-being is put at risk because they lack sufficient resources, are at risk of being in debt, suffer poor health, experience educational disadvantage and live in inadequate housing and environment. These are important related concepts. However, not all people who are socially excluded or vulnerable are poor.

Human Poverty Index (HPI)

Based on three measures of deprivation:

1. Deprivation of life.

2. Deprivation of knowledge.

3. Deprivation in living standards.

Who is in the group of risk

In terms of individuals, some key factors are seen as making a person more at risk of being in poverty such as:

· unemployment or having a poor quality (i.e. low paid or precarious) job as this limits access to a decent income and cuts people off from social networks;

· low levels of education and skills because this limits people's ability to access decent jobs to develop themselves and participate fully in society;

· the size and type of family i.e. large families and lone parent families tend to be at greater risk of poverty because they have higher costs, lower incomes and more difficulty in gaining well paid employment;

· gender - women are generally at higher risk of poverty than men as they are less likely to be in paid employment, tend to have lower pensions, are more involved in unpaid caring responsibilities and when they are in work, are frequently paid less;

· disability or ill-health because this limits ability to access employment and also leads to increased day to day costs;

· being a member of minority ethnic groups such as the Roma and immigrants/undocumented migrants as they suffer particularly from discrimination and racism and thus have less chance to access employment, often are forced to live in worse physical environments and have poorer access to essential services;

· living in a remote or very disadvantaged community where access to services is worse.

All these factors create additional barriers and difficulties, but should be seen within the overall structural context of how a particular country chooses to distribute wealth and tackle inequality.

Theoretical Frames

Poverty in terms of sociological theory: possible approaches.

Theoretical perspective	Major assumptions
Functionalism	Stratification is necessary to induce people with special intelligence, knowledge, and skills to enter the most important occupations. For this reason, stratification is necessary and inevitable.
Conflict theory	Stratification results from lack of opportunity and from discrimination and prejudice against the poor, women, and people of color. It is neither necessary nor inevitable.
Symbolic interactionism	Stratification affects people’s beliefs, lifestyles, daily interaction, and conceptions of themselves.

1) Structural-functionalists perspective. Functionalist theory assumes that society’s structures and processes exist because they serve important functions for society’s stability and continuity. In line with this view, functionalist theorists in sociology assume that stratification exists because it also serves important functions for society. Particularly, poverty and economic inequality serve some positive functions for society:

- low-paid, poor workers are willing to do dirty, dangerous, difficult work others refuse to do;

- poverty provides work for those in ‘poverty industry’ (welfare workers);

- poor people provide market for inferior goods.

Ex.: Some jobs are more important than other jobs. For example, the job of a brain surgeon is more important than the job of shoe shining. Some jobs require more skills and knowledge than other jobs. To stay with our example, it takes more skills and knowledge to perform brain surgery than to shine shoes.

2) Conflict perspective assumes that stratification stems from a fundamental conflict between the needs and interests of the powerful, or “haves,” in society and those of the weak, or “have-nots”. It attributess stratification and thus poverty from lack of opportunity, from discrimination and prejudice against the poor, women, and people of color:

- economical inequality and poverty which it causes result from bourqeusie exploting proletariat.

- free-market policy benefits wealthy corporations and investors, but increases poverty.

3) Symbolic interactionism tries to understand stratification and thus poverty by looking at people’s interaction and understandings in their daily lives. Unlike the functionalist and conflict views, it does not try to explain why we have stratification in the first place. Rather, it examines the differences that stratification makes for people’s lifestyles and their interaction with other people. Persons who are labeled ‘poor’ are stigmatized as lazy; irresponsible; lacking in motivation, ability and moratls; whilst wealthy persons are viewed as capable, hard working, motivated, deserving on wealth.

Explanation	Major assumptions
Individualistic	Poverty results from the fact that poor people lack the motivation to work and have certain beliefs and values that contribute to their poverty.
Structural	Poverty results from problems in society that lead to a lack of opportunity and a lack of jobs.

Poverty as a social problem affects every dimension of the society and culture. Living in poverty has many implications on the life of an individual and also the society. It is much more than living on low income. This affects assess to services, the right to participate in the society, attainment of education, health, and many life chances. Poverty leads to family problems, illnesses, homelessness, victimization, and criminalization, etc.It is a social problem because it includes, not being able to access services such as markets, health care, education, sanitation, transportation, communication, and lack of ability to make decisions. It is the spirit of poverty which allows people to share and believe in despair, apathy, hopelessness, and timidity (Iceland, J 2006). The factors which contribute to poverty are social problem, and the solutions to poverty are social. Poverty can not be fought by alleviating the symptoms, but through attacking the factors of poverty. By just giving money to the victims of poverty will not help in reducing poverty or eradicating it. It merely will lessen the poverty symptoms within a short time. This will not be a durable solution. Poverty being a social problem requires a social solution. This solution need to be clear, deliberate, and conscious in the removal of the factors of poverty.

Sources:

1. Joint report on social protection and social Inclusion: supporting Document, 2007, European Commission / [Access: 3.10.2014]

2. Poverty and Inequlity in European Union. European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) / http://www.poverty.org.uk/summary/eapn.shtml / [Access: 6.10.2014]

3. http://www.poverty.ac.uk/tags/inequality / [Access: 10.10.2014]

4. Poverty Manual, All, JH Revision of August 8, 2005 / [Access: 10.10.2014]

5. DeNavas-Walt, C., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J. C. Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2010 (Current Population Report P60-239). Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.

6. Dikhanov, Y. Trends in global income distribution, 1970–2000, and scenarios for 2015. New York, NY: United Nations Development Programme

7. Barkan, S. E. A Primer on Social Problems. Ch. 2 / Access: http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/a-primer-on-social-problems/index.html

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04