How Social Sciences Help to Explain Poverty - Essay Example

How social sciences help to explain "poverty" INTRODUCTION Social sciences have studied the phenomenon of poverty with a growing emphasis on the socio-cultural aspect but without a consistent and universally-acceptable set of theories on an issue that affects the society as a whole as well as the individual and more importantly hampers a synergistic action. According to MacPherson and Silburn (1998), poverty can be defined in many ways, ranging from lack of the barest necessities for subsistence to an uncomfortable feeling of social exclusion or powerlessness. It can also be measured in a number of ways: by pre-transfer and post-transfer income; by assets; by expenditures; by activities or their lack; by self-reports and by hypothetical questions. The units used can be the individual, the family unit, or differentially-defined family units. The poverty line can be drawn using absolute, relative, subjective or normative criteria. (p. 268) However, there is a vast gap between the understanding of the poverty concept in the literature. For instance, right-wing scholars would argue that people are poor because of a breakdown of "traditional values," lack of birth control etc and that it's their own fault. On the other hand those leaning towards the left would argue that poverty is caused by the class structure which permits the bourgeoisie to exploit the poor since it is in their interest that the poor, who produce and generate profit for them, remain poor. They would also argue that the state policy entwined in international relations is the major cause of wide spread poverty. Every government in the world has an elaborate poverty eradication plan, but their inaction caused by innate resistance by the bourgeoisie results in a persistent level of poverty. Ronald Reagan once said: "we waged a war against poverty, and poverty won." One may argue that the reason why social scientists do not agree on a universal definition of poverty is that they have never felt the "face-grinding, belly-gripping" agony of poverty themselves. And because social scientists do not seem to agree on a singular, universal concept of poverty, it is not surprising that the action against poverty lacks political will and is half-hearted and inconsistent at best. One needs to understand that poverty is not a simple or a limited phenomenon, but rather a persistent and a growing issue that has affected both the individual and the society since ancient times. Indeed, what academics, campaigners and politicians seem concerned about is describing poverty and not how to create a framework through which the research is prescriptive. This is not to suggest, however, that there is no need for the definition or statistical measurement of poverty. Alcock (1993) notes thus: "many people, including academics, campaigners and politicians talk about the problem of poverty, and underlying their discussion is the assumption that identifying the problem of poverty provides a basis for action upon which all will agree." SOCIAL SCIENCES: BRIEF HISTORY As an academic discipline social sciences transformed into an increasingly scientific discipline with the development of mathematical proof in the time of Thomas Hobbes who argued that deductive reasoning from axioms created a scientific framework and Isaac Newton who changed the basic framework by revolutionizing what was then called "natural philosophy" thus introducing a new understanding which was "scientific" in nature. Henceforth, one observes an accelerating trend towards using mathematical examples as models for social issues leading up to outright algorithmic computation and use of statistical data simply because numbers could be interpreted more quickly than text. The mathematical examples came to be known as "laws" for instance Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels who were one of the early thinkers to introduce scientific method in explaining history when they wrote Das Kapital in 1885. Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and an implied notion of racial/genetic inheritance seem to push biology towards "scientification" based on mathematical equations and laws of biology. Thus the origin of social sciences can be traced to the eighteenth century movement of the "encyclopedics" particularly the encyclopaedia of Diderot. Social sciences are sometimes criticized for a tendency to be compromised by political consideration, for instance, tyrannical rulers and powerful religious groups in the developing countries or even the providers of funds to the research institutions in advanced societies such the governments and large corporations. Empirical studies suggest a growing inequality at a global level. It is estimated that 25 percent of the world's population control 75 percent of the world's material resources (Poverty and Plenty, Harare II 1996, Conference of International Black Lutherans). This means that 75 percent of the world's population share 25 percent of the world's material resources. This fundamental economic inequality has left the majority of the world's population in dire need of resources for survival such as food, clothes and shelter. In sub-Sahara Africa alone, it is estimated that 40 to 50 percent of the population lives below subsistence level and pockets of famine devour hundreds if not thousands of people every year. When the poor are faced with the stark reality that they do not have the means to fetch food, drinking water and clothes and is quite certain that they will not be able to change the situation in future, they are likely to either seek solace in spirituality which attracts them towards religion and religious groups or they will go into a 'fight for survival" mode which could be anything from committing petty crimes like stealing to joining an organized group which, rightly or wrongly, believes that the poor are poor because the rich are rich: because the world resources are not equally distributed. On the other hand, a majority of the poor in some rural areas of the developing world may be quite content with their situation probably because they do not think about it or they believe life is like that. For example, a couple in Zimbabwe with twelve children living in the open, scavenging garbage heaps for food, drinking from a nearby sewage and wearing bare minimum clothes yet content with their condition. Compare that with an opulent family in Hollywood owning everything in abundance yet faced with problems such as emotional/psychological wellness arising out of competition in a capitalist society. The question is, does poverty mean a dearth of possession such as food, drinking water, house and clothes whereby life is guaranteed or is it the level of happiness Lewis (1961) lived in the slums of Mexico to experience poverty and came up with the idea of the culture of poverty. He defines poverty thus: "We know that the poor are not defined by lack of money only; they are not even those who fall below the poverty level. Rather they are those who belong to the culture of poverty." (Lewis, 1961) DEFINING POVERTY "At its simplest poverty refers to a basic lack of the means of survival; the poor are those who, even in normal circumstances, are unable to feed and clothe themselves properly and risk death as a consequence. This description would probably attract universal recognition and assent." (MacPherson and Silburn, 1998) The authors assert that poverty is a situation which has presented political and moral challenges to all societies at all times yet the perception of poverty depends upon the underlying concept one has in mind and therefore it is possible to define poverty in many different ways. The lack of consensus, one may argue, is basically what is hindering eradication of poverty as divergent definitions giving rise to different understandings of the meaning and significance of the term in turn lead to parallel approaches in the methods and measures used to tackle the issue. According to MacPherson and Silburn, (1998), despite vast differences between countries ranging from the most impoverished to the most industrialized, the groups that are more likely to be affected by poverty are the elderly (80 percent); single parents (70 percent); children, working poor and the unemployed (60 percent each); farmers (40 percent), disabled (30 percent); immigrants (20 percent) and indigenous people (20 percent). The basic needs definition of poverty adopted by the United Nations is a variant of the subsistence model above, moving somewhat towards a more relative approach. Basic needs are defined by the International Labour Organisation (1976) as follows: " the minimum standard of living which a society should set for the poorest groups of its people. The satisfaction of basic needs means meeting the minimum requirements of a family for personal consumption: food, shelter, clothing; it implies access to essential services, such as safe drinking-water, sanitation, transport, health and educationit should further imply the satisfaction of needs of a more qualitative nature: a healthy, humane and satisfying environment and popular participation in the making of decisions." The major importance of basic needs concept is that it is not confined to the physical needs for survival, but recognises the importance of a range of community services and facilities, often of an infrastructural kind, and beyond these some non-material qualitative assets. It recognises that the basic needs objectives will vary from one country to another in the light of specific circumstances, levels of development, climatic conditions, social and cultural values. "Basic needs are in large part a relative concept; but there are also certain minimum levels of personal consumption and access to social services which should be universally regarded as essential to a decent life." (International Labour Organisation, 1976) For those officially defined as poor, poverty is not simply a statistical figure. It is, in Gans's (1967) words, "face-grinding, belly-gripping" poverty. Or, as a United Nations publication (UN 1995) puts it: "a condition of life so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be below any reasonable definition of human decency." (Macpherson and Silburn, 1998) CONCLUSION Scientific studies into the concept of poverty began in earnest in the nineteenth century with no clear political and economic thought into the complexity of poverty. However, in recent years a growing number of studies concerned with the extent of poverty, its causes and possible solutions have gained importance possibly because of the environmental damage inflicted by the poor communities in the developing world, massive immigration to the developed countries: projections recorded in Social Trends data for the UK predict that net migration will exceed net natural changes (births and deaths) so that by 2011 net migration will account for 70 per cent of population change in the UK (Social Trends 2002) (Woodward, 2003), global crime and, lately, emergence of terrorism which is viewed by some as an act of defiance by the poor. Indeed, the emphasis laid on poverty in the academia and policy research organizations has attracted funding from international lending bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Possible reasons for social sciences failure to come up with a universally accepted definition of poverty range from differing perceptions, lack of observation, direct or indirect pressure from the rich and the powerful and differing locus standii on the concept of poverty. One may concede though that poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon which makes its measurement a daunting task indeed. There seems to be a sort of consensus on absolute, extreme or abject poverty such as observed in the least developed countries in Africa which threatens the mere survival of the poor. Studies agree that this is poverty, but so far as relative poverty is concerned the views are diverging. References Alcock, P. (1993). Understanding Poverty. London: MacMillian Press. Dixon, J. & Macarov, D. (Eds.). Poverty: A Persistent Global Reality. London: Routledge Giddens, Anthony, (2001). Sociology. Cambridge. Polity Press. Lewis, Oscar, (1961). The Children of Snchez. New York. Random House. Macpherson, S., & Silburn, R. (1998).The Meaning and Measurement of Poverty. In Poverty: A Persistent Global Reality, Dixon, J. & Macarov, D. (Eds.) London: Routledge. Michael Haralambos and Martin Holborn, (2002). Sociology: themes and perspectives. London. Collins Educational, Murray, Charles, (2006). In Our Hands: A Plan To Replace The Welfare State. Washington, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Woodward, K. (2003). Social Sciences: The Big Issues. London. Routledge Read More