Chapter 2 Flashcards
Wealth vs Income
Income is economic gain from wages, income transfers (eg. From government) or ownership.
Distribution of income in Canada has been quite stable since at least the 1970s until the mid 1990s when inequality increased
Wealth is the value of all economic assets, including income and savings.
Measuring Poverty
1) Relative poverty
2) Absolute Poverty
Relative Poverty
LICOs (Low Income Cut Offs) = a “poverty line” drawn for households that on average spend 6% of their after tax on food, clothing, and shelter
Figures vary for size of households and communities
It s relative because the calculation and expenditure for the general population
Absolute Poverty
Market Basket Measure based on an essential basket of goods and services deemed necessary for physical survival
Eg food, clothing, personal care items, rent including utilities, transportation
May include food bank use, charity, used products and only remedial (vs preventative) health care
Absolute vs Relative Poverty
Absolute Poverty measure - asks what level of income is requires to enable people to afford the basic necessities of life?
Relative Approach asks: What level of income is required to maintain anc acceptable standard of living relative to the average of society
A social problem (by definition and impact)? Political implications (budget, social services)
Comparing Canada to the World
Social spending has stayed relatively the same from 2007 - 2016 in Canada.
Canada also falls below OECD 2016
Comparing Canada to the third world
Gini coefficient of 0=complete equality
1= complete inequality
Canada sits at .30 behind Korea
Absolute Poverty
A condition that exists when people do have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life (food, costing and shelter)
Relative Poverty
A condition that exists when people can afford the basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter but cannot maintain an average standard of living in comparison to that of other members of their society or group.
Populations of low and middle class nations
The population is set to increase in these nations by 60%, versus 11% in high income nations.
This is despite the disparity in life chances
“New International Labour” perspective - the answer is in the global organization of manufacturing production.
Social Stratification
Hierarchical arrangement of large social groups on the basis of their control over resources
Social Classes
Karl Marx - divides capitalist society into two groups (bourgeoisie capitalist class, proletariat,working class)
Economic factors were important in determining social location
Weber - multidimensional model of wealth, power and prestige
Weber - social Class
Was interested in peoples life chances - the extent to which individuals have access to important societal resources such as food, clothing, eduction, and health care. Multidimensional model of class position
Wealth
Is the value of all economic assets including income and savings personal property and income producing property minus ones liabilities or debts
Income
Refers to the economic gain derived from wages salaries and income transfers (governmental aid such as income assistance welfare or ownership of property.
Canada has higher income inequality than Europe and lower than the US
Power
Is the ability of people to achieve their goals despite opposition from others
Prestige
The respect,esteem, or regard accorded to an individual or group by others
Wright - says neither Marx nor Weber defines classes in modern capitalist society more explains economic disparity 4 criteria for placement in the class structure:
4 criteria:
1) Ownership of the means of production
2) purchase of the labour of others
3) control of the labour of others
4) sale of one’s own labour
social stratification
hierarchical arrangement of large social groups on the basis of their control over basic resources
widening ga in wealth linked to global stratification
Wealth and Income Inequality
correlate with life chances
If there was no inequality in income in Canada, each 5th of the population would receive 20 percent of the available income
from 1976 each income quintile remains stable until the mid 1990s
Canada’s Lower Class
20% of the population and comprises the working poor and the chronically poor
Measuring Poverty: Low Income Measure(LIM)
is half of the median family income. those below that level have a low-inomce. The LIM is adjusted for family size.
Measuring Poverty: Low Income Cut Off (LIC)
the income level below which a family would devote 50+% of their income on food clothing and shelter - this is adjusted for family and community size and before or after taxes.
Market Basket Measure (MBM)
the income a family would need to be able to purchase a basket of goods that includes food, shelter, transportation and other basic needs.
Canada High Income Nation
one in which a high proportion of people live in poverty has made it a target of international criticism
Poverty: Age, family structure, sex, Immigration and Indigenous Status
children are much more likely to be poor than seniors
18-64 - greater risk of having low income(10.1%)
people under 18 years (8.2%)
female lone parent home (21.8)
single males (11.5)
Health and Nutrition
Canadian Association of food Banks -within a domestic context food insecurity and hunger are consequences of extreme poverty
Consequences of Poverty: Statistics as Predictors
being poor not only means economic insecurity, it also wreaks havoc on one’s mental and physical health
Health and Nutrition
Good nutrition is important in health
emergency food assistance is pronounced in urban areas
greater need recently in rural areas
First Food Bank
First food bank opened its doors in Edmonton in 1981
Food Bank Use
50% of households were recipients of social assistance 43% were single person households 25% were lone parent families 16% living on disability related income 11% self identify as First Nations 11% of people are immigrants
Food banks
only provide food for 4-5 days
when people rely on food banks over a long period the consequences are detrimental and severe
Homeless Statistics
1.3 million Canadians have experienced homelessness or extremely insecure housing
200,000 Canadians experience homelessness in a year
30,000 people are homeless in a given night
Homeless Statistics
8.2% experience moderate or severe food insecurity
4000 to 8000 people are chronically homeless
50 days is the median length of stay in a shelter
single males, youth and indigenous people are overrepresented
How Canada Deals with Poverty?
structural poverty is dealt with as if it is an individual problem
eliminating poverty or dealing with poverty is dealt with temporary assistance
temporary assistance is received through charity
State of Emergency Declaration
It is a National Non Strategy
UN and the federal government began taking steps to look at the problem of poverty - 1990-200s
federal, provincial and municipal - cost sharing expenses for infrastructure spending
no funding was spent on housing rather sewers and water supply
Employment Insurance (EI)
37% of applicants meet the criteria compared to 74% a decade prior
waiting periods have lengthened
EI has run a surplus to pay off the deficit
individuals who receive income assistance have to pay it back when they receive EI
used to be up to 75% of income earning, but now 55%
Welfare State
Nation in which the government intervenes in the welfare of its citizens through various social policies, programs, standards and regulations
Canadian Assistance Plan (CAP)
The welfare state smoothes the economic inequality and placates and social implications of such inequality (Teeple)
The purpose of the plan was to outline the ways that the federal government could cost share
Canadian Assistance Plan Criterion
Based on the idea that all Canadians had certain basic humans rights.
1) the right to income assistance when in need
2) the right to an amount of income that meets the basic requirements
3) the right to appeal decisions
4) the right to not have to work or train in order to receive income assistance 5) the right to collect assistance regardless of jurisdiction
Neoliberalism in Canada
1970s capitalism shifted from a national to an international economic system - capitalism became global
Capitalism could easily move capitalism from nation to nation
International capitalism put pressure on governments to enact policies reducing government intervention.
1990s- healthcare was seen as too expensive
CHST
Bill C-76 signalled the end of the CAP
1996 CAP was replaced with Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) - these transfers account for 19% of provincial revenues
Part of a broader re-entrenchment of decreasing its responsibilities for the welfare of its citizens
Canadian Welfare State Distinctive Features:
Sylvia Morel (2002) - one of the distinctive features of Canadian reform policy is the classification of social assistance recipients according to fitness to work. CHST - ended participation in the U.N. Covenant of Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights which Canada signed in 1976
Workfare
Used to describe a particular direction taken by governments as they reform social assistance with a particular focus on the shift from income assistance based on need to some type of mandatory employment activity in exchange for benefit.
Based on two groups of people: the deserving poor, and the undeserving
George Orwell - 1984
Created in order to shape and direct citizen’s understanding of social political life in particular ways
Swanson
Social Policy experts corporate lobby groups, and right wing politicians devised a new language of blame that serves to obscure the truth about welfare and workfare programs
!) people on welfare need to be forced to take work because they are lazy
2)that enough employment, paying living wages exist.
Breaking the cycle of poverty
Implies that children in poverty are taught to be poor by adults
Bring Social Programs in the 21st Century
Typically means cut and slash social programming
Self-Esteem
Most often need to be employed to build and maintain their self esteem
It implies that a single parent must build her self esteem at a low wage in an exploitative job, rather than by staying home to raise children to be a good citizen.
Training for Jobs of the Future
Plan to get the unemployed training in high tech jobs like computer programming and air traffic control to get them off welfare
However, there aren’t enough tech jobs for everyone.
Why do governments insist on moving ahead with workfare programs?
It’s true that people typically only use assistance in times of need, as was intended and forced workfare programs don’t work
Harper- viewed that it was necessary to keep the government in compartments
Permits provinces to make their own plans.
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
Examines poverty from the perspective of meanings,definitions, labels.
Meritocracy - suggests that if people wish to succeed that they can
Success- rarely discussed
Blaming the victim - a practice suggesting that the cause of a social problem Emirates from the individual or group - lack of flaw
Interactionists
Interested in what it means to be poor, stigma, impacts on self concepts
Cultural background affects people value s and behaviours
Interactionist Oscar Lewis (1966)
Different values and beliefs than people from the middle and upper classes, and so, develop a separate self perpetuating system of attitudes and behaviours that keep them in poverty
Inability to delay gratification or plan for the future, feelings of apathy, hostility and suspicion towards others, and a decided lack of participation in social institutions
Critics of the culture of poverty thesis
Just like people who are not poor, develop attitudes and behaviours as responses and ways of coping with stigma and other limitations and barriers placed on their participation
These notions are paternalistic and based on stereotypes
Cultural Capital Thesis (Bourdieu and Passerson
Social assets such as values, beliefs, attitudes, and competencies in language and culture that are learned at home and required for success and social advancement.
Suggests that people on poverty do not have enough cultural capital to succeed in a competitive global economy.
Structural Functionalist Perspective
Wilson (1996)
Changes in the economy that have dramatically altered employment opportunities for people, particularly those with the least power,wealth and prestige
Social inequality serves an important function because it motivates people to work hard to acquire scarce resources
Structural Functionalist Perspective
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore
Social stratification exists in every society in some form and therefore must be functional
Important to maintain a desperate pool of workers in order to fill positions
Criticized - inequalities in pay and prestige exist are functional in society
Poverty industry good for those want second rate or inferior quality items
Conflict Perspective - structural explanation - macro level
The wage squeeze - downward pressure on real take home wages over the past three decades
Corporate downsizing and new technologies that replace workers- by continuing to impoverishment of middle income people (reserve army) - casual labour
Feminist Perspective
Trend of women being disproportionately represented among individuals living in poverty has been called the feminization of poverty.
Examine factors that propel women into poverty, divorce, children, especially problematic when women make lower wages
Feminist Perspective - social feminist
Gender and class, or patriarchy and capitalism
Engels - private property was at the heart of the patriarchy
Private property was at the heart of patriarchy
With capitalism came private ownership of the means of producing goods and the desire to pass it on to offspring- monogamy and the subjugation of women became necessary
“The world-historical defeat of women”
Feminism - most recent Intersectionality
Rather than seeing men and women as opposing classes, analyze a variety of ways that gender, racial inaction, and class intersect within a capitalist economic system.
How can Poverty be reduced? Cultural Solutions
cultural solutions - suggest enhancement of cultural capital, job training, school programming Job training, youth entrepreneur programming things they need to succeed in a white middle class world
Structural Solutions
Suggest that capitalism need abolished and new means of distributing valued good and services established
Feminist Solutions
Truly open society we need to improve the life chances so that there is not as much of a disparity between the wealthy and the poor.
Canadian Centre for Policy alternatives suggested most effective poverty reduction plan includes:
Target and timeline
Accountability
Comprehensively: with multiple dimensions of poverty
Focus on Marginalized groups: populations where poverty is most acute
Community involvement: consultation process - directly form poverty
National Council on Welfare - “Solving Poverty”
Adequate and accessible income, improve earnings and working conditions, address the needs of those most likely living in poverty, address homelessness, provide universal publically funded child care, training and education, promote the health of all citizens.
Radicalized Group
Category of people who have been singled out, by others or themselves, as inferior or superior on the basis of subjetively selected physical characteristics such as skin colour, hair colour, hair texture, and eye shape.
Why does Race matter?
Not because of innate differences between people, but because radicalized individuals and groups have been treated as though certain characteristics matter in certain ways.
Historical Roots of Race: Fleas and Elliot (1999)
Define race as the classification of people into categories on the basis of preconceived attributes
Virtue of predetermined properties that are seen as fixed and permanent because of real of alleged characteristics
Racial Purity is a myth, however the politics of race are hotly debated - race matters because people perceive others to be different and rely on these perceptions to justify unequal treatment and condone indifference
Minority Group
Members because of supposed physical or cultural characteristics are disadvantaged and subjected to negative discriminatory treatment by the majority group and regard themselves as objects of collective racism
White Priviledge
In Canada - whiteness holds, political, economic, and moral power
Normalization of privilege is manifested and typically all members of society are judged against the characteristics or attributes of those who are privilege is manifested when all members of society.
Objectivity is the dominant groups subjectivity
All the ways that white people learn that they are normal, feel included, and do not think of themselves as “other” or different.
The special Case of Indigenous Peoples
First Nations, Métis and Inuit
First Nations people being the largest group at over 800,000 people.
Most disadvantaged
Were exploited, driven off their land, or killed
Four Central ways: life expectancy, education, income, incarceration
Statistics Indigenous People
Employment rates are likely lower than the unemployment rates off reserve
Non Indigenous People 25-54 earn about $33,000, while First Nations People earn $19,000, Métis earn about $28,000.
Manitoba and Saskatewan - 70% of those in custody
Disadvantage - the result of the disappearance of Indigenous Women 1100
Racism
A set of attitudes , beliefs and practices used to justify the superior treatment of one racialized or ethnic group and the inferior treatment of another racialized or ethnic group.
Prejudice
Negative attitude about people based on such characteristics as racialization gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation
Rooted in ethnocentrism the assumption that one’s own group and way of life are superior to all others
Singing the national anthem is a form of positive ethnocentrism
Negative ethnocentrism: Other groups are inferior and should be treated that way
Institutionalize discrimination
Consists of the day to day practices of organizations and institutions that have a harmful impact on members of subordinate groups.
Result in the negative or differential treatment of people - the result of policies and procedures.
Anti-Semitisim
Prejudice and discriminatory behaviour directed at Jews. Not the same as racism.
The distribution of hate propaganda, increasingly over the internet
Solidarity is not built on pretending that we all experience the same struggles
Racism and antisemitism
Come from histories of oppression and distinct struggles and not become complicit with people’s oppression through competition
Comparing One’s Experience with Another’s
Can ease the process of comprehension and pave the way for greater understanding
Can perpetuate existing relations of domination and thus cause more pain by cantering on and shifting focus back tot he analogizer issues or by taking over or denying existence of pain
70% of the population, but who they represent 100%
The way for balancing people’s demands for inclusion is to create separate systems or add ones with the belief that these ass ones will sufficiently meet the needs of those previously excluded.
Historical Roots of Racism
Europeans participated in campaigns to expand their empires
Came into contact with “exotic others”.
Pseudo Scientific “race” theories explained that some people were superior to others
“Racial” Supremacy
Europeans defined themselves as top of the hierarchy
Darwinism - survival of the fittest - legitimized colonial expansion - those who were adapted would survive
Colonialism was viewed as natural and inevitable process
Racism is not a uniform process:
Fleas and Elliot (1999) outline three categories:
Interpersonal, institutional, and cultural racism
Interpersonal racism
Occurs between individuals and directed at an individual because of who or what he or she stands for.
Eg. The bubba stereotype.
Polite Racism
Ways that people may couch criticism of radicalized others in band tones or use language that appears non-prejudicial.
Institutional Racism
Refers to various organizational practices, policies, and procedures that discriminate, wither purposely or inadvertently
Systematic Racism
Embedded int he design of the organizations, is formalized, and is legally sanctioned by the state.
Systematic Racism
Embedded in the organizatio, procedures, and norms of an organization
Can be impersonal and unconscious in that discrimination is unintended but has the effect of discriminating anyway.
Seemingly neutral rules are applied naturally to all, even when this may be inappropriate. Eg. RCMP Headgear policy.
Societal Racism
Refers to the generalized and typical unconscious patterns of interaction between people that perpetuate a radicalized social order.
Everyday Racism
Refers to general and seemingly benign ideas about the relative superiority and inferiority of certain groups.
The main way that ideas are transmitted is through language, which is held to be neutral.
Active Racism - Philomena Essex
Includes any act that is motivated by the intention of excluding or making a person or group feel inferior because of their minority status.
Cultural Racism
Manifested in the notion that minority groups are acceptable in Canada as long as they know and understand their place in society.
Cultural values support equality but measures toward ensuring that it happens are resisted,
Cultural notions for support of equal opportunity- hostility toward equity
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
Radicalized socialization is a process of social interaction that contains specific messages and practices concerning the nature of one radicalized or ethnic status: personal group identity 2)inter group and inter individual relationships 3)one’s position in the social stratification system. Affects how people view themselves, others and the world.
Symbolic Interactionist Racialized Socialization (Christine Sleeter)
Racial bonding occurs when White people act in ways that reaffirm the common stance of ethnic or cultural issues.
Functionalist Perspective: Assimilation
“Racial” or ethnic discord, urban unrest and riots are dysfunctional and must be eliminated or contained
1) focus on assimilation- subordinates are absorbed into the dominant culture
View this as a stabilizing force
Functionalist Perspective: Amalgamation
Process in which the cultural attributes of diverse radicalized or ethnic groups are blended together to form a new society incorporating the unique contributions of each group.
Functionalist Perspective: Ethnic Pluralism
The coexistence of diverse racialized,ethnic groups with separate identities and cultures within a society
Political and economic systems link diverse groups, but maintain enough separation from the dominant group to guarantee that their group and ethnic cultural traditions continue.
Functionalist Perspective:Anglo Conformity
Refers to a pattern of assimilation in which members of a subordinate radicalized,ethnic groups are expected to conform to the culture of the dominant (white) group.
Functionalist Perspective: Segregation
Spatial and social separation of catagories of people by racialization, ethnicity, class, gender, religion or other social characteristics.
Conflict Perspective:
Explain this in terms of race or ethnic inequality in terms of economic stratification and access to power
Conflict Perspective: Class Perspectives
Radicalized and ethnic inequalities highlight the role of the capitalist class in Radicalized exploitation. Oliver C. Cox - cause of slavery was the capitalist desire for profit, not radicalized prejudice
Conflict Perspective: Split Labour Theory
The economy is divided into two employment sectors a primary sectors composed of high paid workers and a secondary sector composed of lower paid workers in jobs that often involve hazardous working conditions and little job security.
Critical Conflict Perspective: Internal Colonization
A process that occurs when members of a radicalized
,ethnic group are conquered or colonized and forcibly placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group.
Blaine’s - subjected to internal colonization remain in subordinate positions in society much longer than people in groups that voluntarily migrate.
Critical conflict Perspective: Genocide
The deliberate systematic killing of an entire people or nation. The capitalist class acquired cheap labour and land, frequently through government sanctioned radicalized exploitation
Critical Conflict Perspective: Theory of Racial Formation
The government substantially defines radicalized and ethnic relations
Radicalized and ethnic actions tend to be rooted in government actions, ranging from legislation to imprisonment of groups deemed to be a threat to society. has resulted in the unequal treatment of Indigenous people and visible minorities.
Feminist Perspective: based on critical conflict perspective and links gender and race
Gendered Racism ma be defined as the interactive effect of racism and sexism in exploitation get indigenous women and women of colour
Not all people are exploited equally by capitalism
Indigenous women used to be domestic servants
Anti-Racist Feminism: Challenges the notion that all women experience share under capitalism and focuses on the specific ways that gender,race, and ethnicity play out in its interconnections
Bannerji- erasing race and immigration prevent understanding of economy
Dua(1999) race is foundational to the creation and maintenance of the political economy as are capitalist relations and patriarchy
Canadian Ant-Racist Feminists
1) interrogate feminist theory and practice to assess it complicity
2) Raise questions about the ways in which race and gender are theorized
3) to continue to document the ways that radicalized differences are created and maintained
Feminist Perspective: Standpoint
Theorizing and analysis from the situated standpoint of the person and her experiences employing a kind of outsider within perspective
Stasiulis (1999) Feminist Intersectional Theorizing
Understanding the myriad of ways that oppressions are linked and the impacts on individuals and groups of those intersections Focus on: nationality, language, sexism, religion, citizenship, ability. And so on Triad of issues: race, sexism, class exploitation
How can Radicalized Inequalities be reduced? Symbolic Interactionist
Racism is learned and can be unlearned
Government and political leaders or academic elites can bring about greater ethnic equality
Eg. Anti-racist education
Functionalist: How to reduce radicalized and Ethnic Inequalities
Arnold Rose (1951) discrimination robs society of talents and leadership abilities of many people especially people of colour.
Foster inclusion and eliminating institutional discrimination in education, housing, employment, and the criminal justice system
Negatively effects employment relations with other nations
Conflict Perspective: How to reduce racialized and ethnic Inequality
Based on exploitation of subordinate groups
Political intervention is needed to bring about social change
Dealing with inequality directly and forcefully
