Existance And Persistence Flashcards
What are individualistic explanations?
Poverty is a product of the alleged deficiencies of poor people as individuals - lazy, disorganised, unable to budget, lacking in self control and feckless.
What are 3 criticisms of individualistic explanations of poverty?
They fail to recognise people belong to social groups which shape them, they have no control over this. They fail to see poverty as a social phenomenon. They imply the poor are inherently different despite the fact that people move in and out of poverty in their life.
What are dependency based theories?
The poor are the cause of their own poverty/the welfare system makes people dependant on it by providing an alternative to work.
Oscar Lewis - 1966
Dependency based - ‘The culture of Poverty’
Blames the E&P of poverty on the individuals culture/way of life that has been brought about in a class stratified system. Studied a poor community in Mexico and found their way of life was trapping them.
Fatalism
Immediate gratification
Present time orientation
Give 3 criticisms of Oscar Lewis - 1966
Subjective - how do you measure norms and values?
Can this be applied to modern UK?
Ignores the lack of jobs/education at that time.
Murray 1989
Dependency based - ‘underclass/benefits culture’
Poverty is a response to cultural, economic and welfare changes. Some people prefer to live off the state rather than engage in work but there is no real reason for people in the UK to be poor. There are 3 ways to identify the underclass:
Crime - a high % of violent crime is a low % of the population.
Illegitimacy - product of/creator
Economic inactivity - hidden economy + benefits
Lister 1996
Criticises Murray 1989 Argues the underclass is to elastic/imprecise to shape sociological research
Give 3 criticisms of Murray 1989
Illegitimacy is not confined to one group, 47.5% in 2012.
Assumes poverty can be explained by looking at only those in poverty not external influences.
Most benefit claims are short term less than 50% claim JSA for more than 13 weeks.
Marsland 1996
Dependency based - reflects murrays views in ‘Welfare State’
1) undermines capitalism
2) relative poverty not important
3) bankrupting Britain
4) ineffective
5) more harm than good
What are exclusion based theories?
Concencus/conflict derived theories using capitalism and functionalism to explain poverty, it is at the fault of government and wider society.
Gans 1972
Exclusion based - Functionalism Poverty exists because it is useful to a number of groups in society. 1) certain professions stay in business 2) acts as an incentive 3) cultural Heros 4) to have a top there must be a bottom 5) jobs others may not want to do 6) buy poor quality/reduced food - less waste 7) makes others feel good - charity work 8) pay high % of tax on some items 9) provide entertainment 10) gives the M/C someone to blame
Give 3 criticisms of Gans - functionalism…
No explanation of why the extent of poverty may vary over time. Interrelation of groups and the sources and conditions of their power. Functional alternatives?
Feminism
Exclusion based
Women are more likely to be in poverty than men because of the unequal distribution of caring roles between men and women. The majority of unpaid informal caring of children, disabled and elderly are done by women. 91% of single parents are women.
Patriarchal society
Intersectionality
Give a criticism of feminism
Men are in poverty too
Marxism
Exclusion based Poverty is the inevitable outcome of a capitalist society. The B pay the P low wages to maximise profit, wealth. The Ps suffer false class conscientiousness thinking their wages are fair and reasonable. Some are rich because some are poor.
