The Nature, Cause, and Potential Solution to Poverty - Term Paper Example

397179 SOCIOLOGY THEORIES OF STRUCTURE AND AGENCY- CAUSE AND POTENTIAL SOLUTION TO POVERTY Student’s Name: Instructor: Institutional Affiliation Date Assignment is due: Sociology theories refer to hypotheses that help us to understand our society and social behavior therefore gaining deeper understanding of the sociology of the past and the present. This paper seeks to provide a focus on the sociological theories of structure and agency in dealing with poverty in urban areas. Before a focus on the sociological theories of structure and agency is provided, it is imperative to provide a general understanding of the sociological theories. Sociological theories are many but most fall under three categories: Structural functionalism theory, Symbolic interactionalism theory and Conflict theory1. Structural functionalism entails the relationship between the parts of the society and its aspects which are interdependent and their contribution to a functional society, for example poverty and education. Symbolic theory involves use of symbols to interpret real life situation in the society, which is interacting directly with each individual, for example attaching meaning on certain symbols and interpreting them in actions. Finally conflict theory is the competition that exists due to variance in the endowment of the resources. This analyses how the halves control the weak and halve nots in the society. Structural and Symbolic/agency theories are of the major concern in studying human behavior. Agency refers to the ability to act independently or freely as per their conscience. This traces its origin to the Max Weber assertion that individuals act according to their own interpretation of the meaning of their world2. However structure is a bit contradictory to agency as it entails certain arranged patterns which influence or restrict the opportunities and choices that individuals has. Social structure is completely dependent on the subject issue being dealt with in the society. It limits our choices to those that are acceptable or consumable in the society. Or it can relationally hinder by limiting the impact of our choices regardless of what we may think or do3. structure believes that society is held together by social cohesion or consensus in which members of the society agree upon and work together to achieve the best as per their capability. This cohesion could be in two forms: Mechanical solidarity, which result when people in the society maintain similar norms, values and beliefs and they engage in similar type of work and organic solidarity which occurs when people in the society are interdependent, but held to varying values and beliefs and they do engage in different works. Poverty is one of the social problems which refer to a state of lack of possession to material resources or money. Alternatively it refers to a state when one lacks basic human needs such as shelter, nutrition, fresh water and education. Both the two theories of structure and agency explain a lot on the poverty as a social problem. Poverty is a social structure in its own. It is perceived to be dependent on the other factors so for it occur. On the other hand, according to agency, poverty is perceived to be inevitable and that is its nature. Some of its causes include overpopulation in urban areas. This implies high population in a given urban center. It is a situation of having large number of people as compared to the resources in the area. This result from high population density and scarce resource in the area and this depends on the number of people to be supported in the land. If the resources are scarce, then few people will be supported and if they are a lot then the population of the people to be supported will be high. Sociology of structure is evident here in the event that, the level of poverty is dependent on the population and on the other hand population is influenced by the endowment of resources i.e. if resources are low, poverty level will be high and small number of people will be supported in the area but in case the area is highly populated with low resources then the poverty level will be high. Everywhere in the world where families have the largest number of children determines the status quo in such society4.Usually the overpopulated areas are associated with high rate of poverty. High population leads to flooding of lobour and the market is small thus leading to unemployment to many individuals. Unemployment is another cause of poverty due to the fact that, unemployed individual will not be able to gather for the high cost of living in urban areas. Social structure ascertains that unemployment is dependent on overpopulation whereas low cost of living is on unemployment due to the fact that there is no income to pursue the high cost of living in urban areas. Unequal distribution of resources is another cause of poverty in most towns. Urban centers are endowed differently with resources. This variation could be advocated by the nature thereby determining the poverty level of urban area as compared to other. These resources include raw materials for industries which determine the state and development of urban centers. Industry set up in an area is determined by the endowment of resources such as raw materials, power, and human resource, power generating facilities, transportation facilities and water in the area. Sociology of structure entails the relationship that each and every factor has in the development of the industry and on the other hand in how these factors could analyse the level of poverty in the absence of others. Poverty level in most developing cities is high due to the fact that they cannot set up many industries thereby depending on the manufactured goods from other cities which actually are quite expensive to them. High standards of living also contribute to poverty. To achieve high standard of living is expensive that is simply to mean that the cost of gathering it is also high. Most developing urban areas for example in Africa have residents whose standards of living are low as compared to other cities in the United States5. This is because of the difference in the cost of living. Consequently the standards and cost of living is determined by the endowment of resource which entirely determines the development. Poverty is also rampant in an area where the human resource lacks proper knowledge and skills in production. Illiteracy is a key poverty contributing factor in most developing urban areas. In rural areas of most developing countries, few children attend school to get education while majority remain illiterate. Without education, most people cannot get white collar jobs which are associated with high income earning. Therefore with education and skills, poverty level is reduced. Environmental problems due to environmental degradation (destruction of the natural environment, including water, soil and atmosphere),have led to insufficient food stuff, fresh water, good shelter and other essential basic human resources like air and land to mention. This environmental degradation is dependent on other social factors for example production processes in industries which leads to pollution and also most repeated farming methods that leads to soil exhaustion. In addition, depending on forests as the source of energy in most rural areas encourages deforestation. Poverty is a social structure with its own logic therefore this advocates that social structures consists of two main interconnected elements i.e. systems of social relations which compiles patterns of relationship, roles and forms of domination according to which individual could be categorized into class, sex, gender and systems of meaning which commonly known as the ‘culture’ including the norms and values of the group and their social cohesion. Poverty being one of the social structures is interdependent on other factors and these could be altered to reduce or eradicate it. Below follows a discussion of some of the potential solutions to poverty reduction. The most voiced solution to poverty eradication is through formal education and provision of health care provision of education to individuals6. This is because it is one of the factors that determine the level of poverty. Provision of education increases people’s chances and capacity and understanding of ways to make decent living. An educated person will be able to get a white collar job and thus high income to improve their standards of living. It also helps individuals to choose political leaders of sound mind to lead them well and ensure growth and development in the country. Health is also as good as education; it is the well being of an individual. This will help reduce poverty in that individuals will be able to use education just because the issue of mental impairment and malnutrition will have been solved leaving them strong to deal with eradication of poverty .Primary health care systems should be administered to the population, These systems include disease prevention, through various programs like vaccination and health monitoring which should be emphasized on children and pregnant women. Strong emphasis should also be put on family planning programmes to avoid overpopulation which is the major cause of poverty. Finally human health should be ensured by provision of adequate nutrition to the uncared group in the society that is the children and the elderly. In order to reduce unemployment which is part and parcel of poverty cause, means of production and job creation should be introduced. This is one of the sustainable development programs which will ensure that local and regional economies are directly or indirectly stimulated. In the developed countries, public investment would create job opportunities to the citizens as well as other government projects construction of infrastructure. Soil conservation in the poor countries should be introduced as well as construction of dams and reservoirs. Campaigns by the governments or states should be carried out in order to eradicate poverty. This should be started early so that it can be finished early before individuals start to believe that poverty is inevitable. This should be started to children while they are still young and be allowed to finish while they are in school and the issue of drop outs should be discouraged especially to students from poor families. In cases where a student is unable to complete their studies, they should be taken to a special school until they comes of age and able to make wise sound decisions about their future. Social elites should also be made aware of the possibility of removing thus removing the opinion by the public as suggested by the agency that poverty cannot be avoided and so it is inevitable, so the individuals such as the civil servants should instill the attitudes and skills aimed at various sustainable development programs. In conclusion, the above discussion points out that the sociology theory of structure and agency assist in the understanding of the society. The example of how it can be used in the analysis of poverty as a social problem in urban areas clearly indicates how structure and agency are helpful in understanding social problems. REFENCE LIST J H Turner, Handbook of Sociological Theory, Springer, New York, 2006, pp 67. J S Western, KDwan, et al., ‘The importance of visibility for social inequality research’ Australian Journal of Social Issues, 40(1), 2005 pp 125-141. K Harold, Social Stratification and Inequality: Class Conflict in Historical and Comparative Perspective,WCB/McGraw-Hill , Boston, 1996, pp 64. M J Austin, K Lemon & E Leer, ‘Promising Practices and Procedures to Serve Low-income Families in High-poverty Neighborhoods’, Special Issue, Health and Social Policy, 21 (1) (2006) pp 65. R Lister, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Polity,London, 2004 pp 68.J N S Pierre, ’From poverty to exclusion: a wage earning society or a society of human rights’, International Social Science Journal,148, 1996, pp 173-190. Read More