Understanding Poverty

People in poverty suffer daily under misconceptions about economic hardship and its causes. Providing the most comprehensive consideration to date of poverty in the United States, Elizabeth Seale tackles how we think about issues of culture, behavior, and poverty, cutting straight to the heart of debates about social class. The book addresses tough questions, including how being poor affects individual behavior, and how we can make sense of that in a larger social and political context. The central premise is that to understand the behavior and lives of people in poverty, one must consider their relational context, especially relations of vulnerability and the human need for dignity. Poverty is a social problem we should address as a society by changing social relations that, as a matter of course, cause unnecessary and immense suffering. To do so, we must directly confront our lack of regard for people in poverty by recognizing that they are in fact worthy of an effort to induce major social change.

This critical introduction to poverty will be an important read for undergraduate students and above in sociology wanting to learn more about the growing social problems of poverty, inequality, and stratification. 1. On Understanding

Poverty in the U.S.

My Research Experience

How We Think and Talk about Poverty

A Relational Approach

What a Relational Approach Contributes

Relations of Vulnerability and the Desire for Dignity

Aims and Overview of the Book



2. Who Are the Poor?

Defining and Measuring Poverty

Mobility

Diversity

Similarity to and Difference from the Nonpoor

Conclusion



3. Family and Parenting

Single Mother Households

Young Moms

Child Maltreatment

Conclusion



4. Culture

Historical Context

Culture of Poverty and Policy

Problems with the Culture of Poverty Arguments

Contemporary Research on Culture and Poverty

A Culture of Dependency or a Culture of Blame?

Conclusion



5. Structure and Social Relations

How Structure Creates Poverty

Social Policy: Punishing the Poor

The Limits of Structuralism

A Relational Approach



6. Opportunity and Personal Autonomy

Going to College

Finding (Better) Employment

General Autonomy

Conclusion



7. Vulnerability and Dignity

The Relations of Poverty

Changing Our Thinking about Poverty

The Significance of a Relational Approach

Conclusion “Too often those in poverty encounter blame and disrespect. In this compelling and original book, Seale shifts attention to where it belongs: the social relationships of unequal power that produce and sustain poverty’s ill effects. Beautifully written and long overdue!”
Judith Levine, Temple University College of Liberal Arts

“Elizabeth Seale has gifted us with a wide-ranging introduction to poverty research and policy. Most importantly, she has reinterpreted past research through a thoroughly relational lens. She convincingly demonstrates that it is a mistake to think of poverty as the result of individuals making bad choices or groups having bad cultures or even societies having harmful structures. The central sociological insight that ties this book together is that poverty is produced in relationships that channel action, generate vulnerabilities, and in the end deny dignity.”
Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Elizabeth Seale is Professor of Sociology at SUNY Oneonta.