Saurabh Divakaran
Professor Heidi Steinour
SYG 2000
25 October 2016
The Culture of Poverty and the Underclass.
Poverty is defined as the state in which income of an individual is insufficient to provide basic necessities, such as food, shelter, or clothing. On the basis of insufficiency, poverty is broadly classified into two types, namely, absolute poverty and relative poverty. (Steinour, 2016) Absolute poverty occurs when the insufficiency is so severe that it is life threatening. For example, cases where an individual is unable to afford basic amenities like medicines, a safe home, food, that could lead to the death of that individual is said to be absolute poverty. On the other hand, relative poverty is the type of poverty where the insufficiency is substantially greater than that of most others in the society. (Steinour, 2016)
The concept of culture of poverty is a contentious theory, according to which individuals belonging to the lower income societies follow cultural patterns that make poverty a way of their lives. The society adopts practices and methods that differ from the conventional methods in order to adapt and survive economic deficiencies. The theory stands for a set of principles and morals which are thought to exist among the poorer sections of the society, thus preventing them from evading poverty. The theory was suggested by Oscar Lewis, who proposed that the poor follow a culture of poverty. According to this theory, the poor are unwilling to work and hence, do not strategize for their future, thus making less effort to move out of their economical situation. (Steinour, 2016) As research suggests, the families of the urban poor are described by high divorce, teenage pregnancy and abortion rates. Not only this, there has been an increase in the amount of illegal work, number of multifamily households and cases of serial relationships. Individual are characterized by feelings of relegation, vulnerability and subordination to name a few. People living this way do not participate in community events, thus making less use of public amenities like hospitals, banks, shopping malls and parks. Lewis also adds that even if the circumstances for the poor were changed, that is, by increasing the minimum wage and providing more jobs, it would be very challenging for them to phase out of their conditions of poverty. (Schiller, 2016)
The underclass is an idea built on the existing ‘culture of poverty’ theory. In easier terms, it is a stigmatized approach to the culture of poverty theory where a society consisting of poor members is considered dangerous and aberrant. (Steinour, 2016) Since the poorer sections of the society cannot take complete advantage of all that the society has to offered, they are labelled as deviant. Many have argued against the underclass theory by proposing various structural reasons for poverty including globalization, industrialization and deindustrialization that could lead to poverty. The definition and meaning of the term ‘underclass’ has evolved since the mid 1900s to the 1980s. Every time, the change in the term definition got more understanding and specific. For the first time, it was Gunnar Myrdal who defined underclass as ‘one who is either an unemployable, unemployed or underemployed member of the society and whose family is at the bottom of the society in terms of social and economic status’. Herbert Gains in 1965 linked Myrdal’ definition to public housing, and in 1971, Andrew Brimmer linked the definition of underclass to welfare dependency, in which he says that welfare makes the poor dependent and helpless. (Schiller, 2016)
William Julius Wilson, a renowned sociologist, develops the theory of the underclass. In his book, The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions, published in 1978, Wilson claimed that class was becoming more vital than race in defining the predictions of African-Americans. For middle-class black Americans, Wilson wrote, there were lesser and lesser obstructions to achievement, whereas for the very poorer section of black Americans, opportunities were increasingly restricted. (Wilson, 1978) Unlike the theory of culture of poverty, Wilson does not blame the victim, but instead, writes about the socioeconomic situations and developments that occur in an individuals neighbourhood, which play an important role in determining that very individuals monetary conditions.
This bold statement made by Wilson angered the public. It also led to intraclass conflict; separating the middle class African Americans from the lower income class African Americans. It sparked debates and disagreement in mid 1980s. As it was almost difficult to recognize the members of the underclass, social scientists argued over the term and its application. The very idea of labelling black people and their societies as the urban poor and the members of the underclass, the definition was highly rejected by the leaders of the civil rights organizations and black politicians. According to Wilson, the main issue faced by the underclass was that the members suffered from unemployment, which was supported by an increase in social seclusion in a poverty stricken areas. He meant to say that people belonging to the underclass not only experienced low socioeconomic status, minimal to zero education but also lack of job opportunities. Furthermore, they are victims of lack of community resources. The crucial feature of the underclass is the absence of job opportunities, along with the absence of communal support. The poor youth has become socially isolated from mainstream social network that facilitate social and economic advancement, and become more vulnerable to gangs, cases of teenage pregnancy, dropping out of school and in many cases, drug usage and overdose. These behaviors obstruct their economic and social mobility. It affects the poor physically as well as psychologically.
In essence, the underclass associates to those people who are not able to enjoy the amenities which is similar to the mainstream population. These people fill in the bottommost sector of the population and are underprivileged, because the culture of poverty is passed on through generations. On the other hand, Wilson established that the poor are in their circumstances because of social remoteness which takes place in society. This leads to deprivation of an individuals economic conditions in society and causes the society to move from being service based to economic based.
Works Cited
Conley, Dalton. You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking like a Sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015. Print.
“William Julius Wilson Facts, Information, Pictures …” N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/panama-history-biographies/william-julius-wilson>.
Wilson, William J. The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1978. Print.
Steinour, Heidi. Poverty. 2016. [PowerPoint slides]
Schiller. Ch. 9: The Underclass: Culture and Race. 2016. [PowerPoint Slides]