Theories of Long-Term Poverty - Essay Example

A “Culture of poverty” represents poverty exactly in this manner. Moreover, structuralists claim that instability of the society is the result of poverty. Unlike this approach, conflict theory approach considers poor people the victims of the world and society they live in. Thus, the countries with high rates of poverty do not put too much effort in order to improve the life level of poor people. They are more concerned about poor people as the integrative part of the society. Further on, such negative consequences as job losses and constant relocations occur in the American society.

The negative outcomes lead to the differences in social structuralism. Poverty in terms of structural-functionalist approach Structural-functionalist approach is characterized by the following features: the importance of present events, an important role of family, friends and education. The culture of poverty, which is focused on the issue of fatalism, saves the individual from the disappointments of poverty. Poor people are happy, because they live at the present moment and do not think about their future.

Poor people have strong interconnections between their family and friends; during hard times these people support each other. Therefore, it is necessary to correct such type of behavior and socialize poor people with regards to the practices of the rest of the society. It is almost impossible to save the people from poverty. Fatalism discourages plans of poor people; they do not put much effort to become educated professionals and are not interested in such sources of money. The poor cannot appreciate their time and, even if they have time and money, spend it for the sake of the present moment.

Therefore, it is necessary for the society to develop different opportunities of socialization and internalization. There is a need for poor people to have opportunities of their development and any kind of progress in their life. Moreover, the American society is on the way of social programs development, directed on the elimination of poverty in the society. Children’s poverty, which reaches 20%, is one of the most intimidating factors for the American society. The main social practices should concern socialization of the children from poor families.

These children should not be excluded from the society only because their parents are poor. Moreover, poor people should be more focused on the practices of social inclusion and internalization. In other words, the American society should be more focused on involvement of poor people in different social practices. Social workers are the major players, who can change the rules of the game and to shift the accents of poverty (Macionis, 2011). Conflict theory approach On the other hand, poverty is an integrative part of the society and the economic system of the world presupposes leaving a certain percentage of population in poverty.

A certain percentage of poor people are out of work and education institutions, thus they are out of possibility to become educated persons. Consequently, these people do not have an opportunity to obtain high-paid jobs in the future. With respect to this approach, these people are not poor because of their desire not to work. They are poor because of the economy of the country they live in. Therefore, the supporters of this approach criticize the “culture of poverty”, because poor people are the victims of the world they live in and not the victims of themselves.

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