what is the culture of poverty?

Answer 1

The culture of poverty concept is a social theory explaining the cycle of poverty. Based on the concept that the poor have a unique value system, the culture of poverty theory suggests the poor remain in poverty because of their adaptations to the burdens of poverty.

The term "subculture of poverty" (later shortened to "culture of poverty") made its first prominent appearance in the ethnography Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty (1959) by anthropologist Oscar Lewis. Lewis struggled to render "the poor" as legitimate subjects whose lives were transformed by poverty. He argued that although the burdens of poverty were systemic and therefore imposed upon these members of society, they led to the formation of an autonomous subculture as children were socialized into behaviors and attitudes that perpetuated their inability to escape the underclass.

Lewis gave some seventy characteristics (1996 [1966], 1998) that indicated the presence of the culture of poverty, which he argued was not shared among all of the lower classes.

The people in the culture of poverty have a strong feeling of marginality, of helplessness, of dependency, of not belonging. They are like aliens in their own country, convinced that the existing institutions do not serve their interests and needs. Along with this feeling of powerlessness is a widespread feeling of inferiority, of personal unworthiness. This is true of the slum dwellers of Mexico City, who do not constitute a distinct ethnic or racial group and do not suffer from racial discrimination. In the United States the culture of poverty of the Negroes has the additional disadvantage of racial discrimination.

People with a culture of poverty have very little sense of history. They are a marginal people who know only their own troubles, their own local conditions, their own neighborhood, their own way of life. Usually, they have neither the knowledge, the vision nor the ideology to see the similarities between their problems and those of others like themselves elsewhere in the world. In other words, they are not class conscious, although they are very sensitive indeed to status distinctions. When the poor become class conscious or members of trade union organizations, or when they adopt an internationalist outlook on the world they are, in my view, no longer part of the culture of poverty although they may still be desperately poor. (Lewis 1998)

Although Lewis was concerned with poverty in the developing world, the culture of poverty concept proved attractive to US public policy makers and politicians. It strongly informed documents such as the Moynihan Report (1965) and the War on Poverty more generally.

Since the 1960s critics of culture of poverty explanations for the persistence of the underclasses have attempted to show that real world data do not fit Lewis' model (Goode and Eames, 1996). Despite decades of this criticism by prominent sociologists, anthropologists and other academics who argue that descriptions of the poor as being culturally unique have little explanatory power, the culture of poverty concept persists in popular culture.

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Answer 2

Culture Of Poverty

Answer 3

Poverty is more than just being poor there is a mind set attached with poverty, in some cases. For example many people who are poor have a hard time understanding how to budget money. So, if a poor person got a thousand dollars they may go buy name brand shoes and give away some of their money. Because they don't have the same mindset as someone in the middle class who understands the concept of saving money. Also in the culture of poverty paper work and documentation may not be as important as it is to people in the economic middle or upper class. So, the people who need different types of assistance from organizations that can help them may not be able to produce the paper work needed to get the assistance available to them. Another example is the mindset that if you try to get out of poverty that you are trying to "get above your raising's". Many people think that these are just examples of someone who is lazy and/or uneducated. When in fact these people have never been taught what it takes to rise about their situation. Teaching skills needed to get out of poverty is more that telling someone something once.

Answer 4

A myth, that says one is poor because that is what one is used to. Living inpoverty is difficult and the pay day loans, high interest due to poor credit or income, a culture of tranportation by car, payments ins, mainatance, sprawling cities, all make things difficult for the poor. There are futher finacial penaIties for not keeping up fiancially. I've a friend in a major city with excellent public transportaion. He does well for not having to pay for a car.

Answer 5

Well, in the city, there were a wholr lot of impoverished people - NYC, of course. LOL.
There was a beautiful development built across the way, called LeFrak City. There were mandates that low-income housing must be developed.
Many apartments remained empty. The people who were eligible were just mentally and socially stuck in the slums, rahter than able to pull out of their roots and settle in the new Bronx settlements.
They couldn't fill them, they couldn't give them away.
The poor just sat and rotted where they were.
Good example, if not definition.

Answer 6

Addicted gave you the complete answer. God bless****