“Vulnerability is not the same as poverty. It means not lack or want, but defenselessness, insecurity and exposure to risk, shocks and stress... vulnerability has remained curiously neglected in analysis and policy, perhaps because of its confusion with poverty. Yet vulnerability and its opposite, security, stand out as recurrent concerns of poor people which professional definitions of poverty overlook.” (Beck, T. 1989 in Moser, C. 1995, p.166)
In a time where, according to UN, poverty has been drastically diminished over the last half century, more than during the last five hundred years, still we find that the percentage of the world’s population is living in poverty conditions is above 25%. To analyze and understand what this data signifies, we must unpack the concept of poverty used to collect those figures. The measurement of poverty has been done traditionally based on a quantitative conceptualization of poverty, which only considers indicators of income and consumption, resulting in a flat and static perspective of poverty. Thus the measurements of poverty and its variations from one place to another and through time are based on statistical data. To sustain human life in society, people must have to access to basic needs and services, and deprivation of one of those is a sign that something is not working in a supposedly balanced society. Following this logic, the income necessary to obtain those basic goods is the indicator used to define poverty and separate poor from non-poor. However, poverty is not a straight linear process, it is attached to a specific and finite context, as it interacts with societies, politics, economies, culture, environments, class, gender.
Not dismissing the fact that this static data collec...
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... that create inequalities and only represent particular interest in detriment of the poor sectors. On the other hand, these groups in civil society can be weakened by powerful local sates, in retreat of social capital essential for democratisation. To find the balance between the role of local governments and the power of civic groups is one of the main challenges of good urban governance in the context of decentralisation.
In order to do so assure the true democratisation of the local level in decentralisation processes“…effective channels of political participation and representation must be developed that reinforce and support decentralized planning and administration, and that allow citizens, and especially the poor, to express their needs and demands and to press claims for national and local development resources.” (Beck, T. 1989 in Moser, C. 1995, p.166)
Municipal control or an alternative delivery method? This is the question that has intrigued all levels of local government and created intense debates between taxpayers across municipalities. The services that municipalities provide are often vital to the existence of a local area. The issues of accountability, cost savings, quality of service and democracy often arise when choosing the best options to deliver services to a municipal area. In recent years the concepts of privatization, alternative service delivery and public-private partnerships are often promoted as ways cut down on overburdened annual city budgets and promote a higher quality of service to citizens. Municipalities have historically always provided basic services such as fire protection, water purification/treatment and recreational facilities. However, would private companies or another municipality be able to better deliver the same services more efficiently or at a lower cost? The city or town often provides a political grass roots approach to most local problems. Municipalities are better positioned and have a wider scope to provide services to their constituents in order to ensure quality of service that does not erode accountability and transparency, or drive the municipality deeper into debt.
When beginning the readings in the module about poverty, I was struck by a sense of shame. Jenson & Fraser (2011) have some pretty hard-hitting statistics and the graphs did a really good job illustrating the prevalence and trends in poverty; I really appreciated graph 2.1, which displays the racial and ethnic disparities that exist for children experiencing poverty, because it demonstrates how the national rate of childhood poverty can be deceptive (26-30).
Similar to a well oiled machine, a political system is concerned with processing the demands of a society to then provide the goods and services demanded while ensuring its own establishment (Berg 1). However, considering that the idea of a political system is a social construct, its form is subject to a myriad of complex and conflicting forces. The most palpable force is that of a city’s financial needs. Any locale has the burden of satisfying the demands of its constituents with limited resources. In addition to having limited resources, urban cities are also usually comprised of many diverse ethnic backgrounds with different demands and needs. Equitable distribution of limited resources to different ethnic and social backgrounds could have
Today there is a split in American politics on how to combat poverty. Throughout history, how America combats poverty has changed depending on what party is running the government. There has been a number of different parties however, Republican, Democrat, The Bull Moose Party, and other various ones. However, these views can be put into two main categories: The Liberal ideology and the Conservative ideology.
Poverty has been a growing problem in America, and it most likely will never stop being one. Someone who is identified as being in poverty lives beneath the poverty line determined by the Federal government. The poverty line in 2015 for a family of four was $24,250. These are the people who are really considered poor. Poverty isn’t just a problem in the United States; in fact, other countries struggle just as much, if not more, than the United States does. Many people struggle to keep themselves above the government’s poverty line, shown by the fact that the percent of poor people in America hasn’t drastically changed over the years. However, it is possible to get out of, and ultimately stay out of, poverty.
According to Schwartz-Nobel, America will lose as much as 130 billion in future productive capacity for every year that 14.5 American children continue to live in poverty (Koppelman and Goodhart, 2007). Sadly the seriousness of poverty is still often clouded by myths and misunderstandings by society at large. This essay studies the issue of poverty and classism in today's society.
In America, there are two very different versions of the word “poverty” used daily, with two completely different definitions. The first version of poverty, a version more commonly known, is the Federal poverty ...
The documentary, Poor Us: An Animated History of Poverty, takes viewers through a detailed history of poverty on Earth. From hunter-gatherers to modern times, poverty in the world is demonstrated in the documentary. One can ask many questions while watching the documentary such as, “What is poverty?” and “Why does poverty exist today?” These questions are partially answered and speculated on in the documentary, although it may be hard to completely answer the questions as it can be argued that there is no one single answer. Poverty, according to the documentary, is the struggle to obtain resources in order to continue living. These resources are basic needs such as clean water, food, shelter and health care. The documentary, however, argues
According to Saunders (2005) what are the consequences of living in poverty? How does it affect children and family life?
...h municipalities. A simultaneous establishment of municipalities across the country requires more and more tangible materials to build them. This means that national budget that needs to be allocated for resources and materials in building constructions and setting up administration will be a vast amount.
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 income or consumption to place them above some adequate bare minimum threshold (Lyman et al, 2004). Poverty is also tied to a particular type of consumption, for instance people may be considered health poor, house poor or food poor. The poverty dimensions can often be determined directly. For instance it can be measured by assessing malnutrition or levels of literacy (Alla...
Poverty, also known as the silent killer, exists in every corner of the world. In fact, almost half of the world’s population lives in poverty. According to the United States Census Bureau, there were 46.7 million people living in poverty the year of 2014 (1). Unfortunately, thousands of people die each year due to this world-wide problem. Some people view poverty as individuals or families not being able to afford an occupational meal or having to skip a meal to save money. However, this is not the true definition of poverty. According to the author of The Position of Poverty, John Kenneth Galbraith, “people are poverty-stricken when their income, even if adequate for survival, falls radically behind that of the community”, which means people
Poverty is an issue dealt with throughout the world, but we are not all aware of its conditions. Poverty is a very serious problem around the world. Poverty is defined as the equality of poorness and impoverishment -- (the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions). A question to ask ourselves is: “Should poverty be defined strictly in terms of monetary income, as opposed to some qualitative formula which takes into consideration styles of life as well as material possessions?” (Sheppard 13) Because there are so many different ways we can express the term poverty, maybe there should be a certain way we can determine poverty worldwide?
Poverty is a global epidemic that contributes to the deaths of millions each year. However, poverty is more prominent in some areas around the world than others. The Oxford dictionary defines poverty as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support, but it’s so much more. Poverty can be defined as being hungry, lacking shelter, being unable to go to school, being unable to see a doctor, or being powerless and having a lack of freedom. The reason behind the many descriptions of poverty is that poverty has many faces, and its definition changes depending on the place and time, however the effects of poverty on the poor are always the same.
Political decentralization supports transparency for one of its aims is to better inform it people on the decision process that is taking place in the government. By this, the citizens of that state or that region are given the chance to participate more and can further influence the decision making of their own government. The citizens’ local interests are better represented because its representatives cannot hide from them and by this many will be more enthusiastic about participating and be more interested in the government and this in return will make the citizens complain less and accept rules or policies that will be passed or implemented by their government. This will create less chaos and opposition from the citizens and will result to faster implementation of rules and many will acknowledge the passed rule or policy at a much quicker pace since they were a part in all of the process.