Showing papers on "Poverty published in 1969"

Poverty and discrimination

Abstract: Examines the causes of poverty, paying special attention to the interaction between poverty and racial discrimination.

The poor and the poorest

Abstract: Two assumptions have governed much economic thinking in Britain since the war. The first is that we have “abolished” poverty. The second is that we are a much more equal society: that the differences between the living standards of rich and poor are much smaller than they used to be.

On Understanding Poverty: Perspectives From the Social Sciences

Abstract: On Fighting Poverty: Perspectives From Experience, edited by James L. Sundquist, 288 pp, $8.50, New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1969.No longer can the problem of poverty be dismissed with Jesus' remark, "Ye have the poor with you always." Today, everyone, rich or poor, physicians or laymen, black-power advocates and white racists, must pay attention to the problems of the poor and the programs designed to solve them. Almost everyone feels qualified to express opinions, but few of us are well informed. In an effort to gather reliable information and significant ideas, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences organized a seminar. During the academic year 1966-1967, outstanding social scientists and officials in government programs met for ten weekends and discussed their viewpoints and experiences. These two volumes contain the fruit of their conferences.On Understanding Poverty includes 12 papers about the nature and causes of poverty. Is poverty a

The Effect of the Nigerian Extended Family on Entrepreneurial Activity

Abstract: Security against economic loss resulting from sickness, accidents, death, old age, poverty, and unemployment is valued highly by most societies. Social security, provident funds, old age pensions, life insurance, unemployment insurance, accident insurance, medical insurance, and welfare programs instituted by government (and business) provide much of this function of security in economically advanced countries. In contrast, this function is supplied by the institution of the extended family in many of the less developed couqtries such as Nigeria. It would be useful, though difficult, to compare the costs and benefits of providing the security through government on the one hand, and the extended family on the other. However, the problem under consideration in this study is more specific. Many development economists emphasize the importance of sociocultural variables as partial determinants of the supply of entrepreneurs and the rate of economic growth. This study analyzes the effect of one of these variables, family structure, on entrepreneurial activity. Development economists generally contend that the institution of the extended family is a major barrier to entrepreneurial activity.' The joint

Ethnicity, Poverty, and Selected Attitudes: A Test of the “Culture Of Poverty” Hypothesis

Abstract: It was hypothesized, to test an assumption implicit in the "culture of poverty" concept, that poor respondents of three separate ethnic groups (Anglo, Negro, and Spanish-speaking Americans) would not differ significantly from each other in their responses to 8 attitude areas related to the concept. Each ethnic group was divided on the basis of receipt or nonreceipt of public assistance, providing two separate tests of the significance of ethnic determinants for each attitude area measured. It was found that in 14 out of 16 instances ethnic groups differed significantly from each other. The hypothesis was rejected. In addition, the data suggest that (1) the Spanish-speaking poor are more likely to express the values commonly assigned to the culture of poverty, and that (2) extreme economic deprivation affects their scores on these values less than it does the comparable scores of Negro- and AngloAmericans.

Stages of Development in Poverty Program Neighborhood Action Committees

Abstract: As part of a larger study of a poverty intervention organization and social change, a team of participant observers attended, over a period of ig months, 174 meetings of 12poverty program neighborhood action committees. Seven stages of committee development are conceptualized: I. Orientation, II. Catharsis, III. Focus, IV. Action, V. Limbo, VI. Testing, and VII. Purposive; and modal individual and group behaviors bracketed by each stage are described. The stages are discussed, with the theorist in mind, as they relate to the relatively few previous studies and typologies of developmental sequence in small groups. It is suggested that "Action" or "Social Change" Groups be considered entities for intensive theoretical and empirical inquiry. The stages are discussed, with the practitioner in mind, as they relate to the dynamics of a poverty intervention organization and to the "maximum feasible participation" of the poor. Particular attention is given to those poverty intervention organization practices whic...

Legal Needs of the Poor in the City of Denver

Abstract: The provision of legal services without regard for the individual's ability to pay has long been a tradition of the American legal profession. It is a basic tenet of a democratic society that the protection of individual rights cannot turn on a matter of income or social class, since justice then becomes a luxury, available to a privileged few. Our society has met this problem largely by relying on the sense of professional responsibility of private practitioners and by developing legal aid societies. In the last decade, however, many people-including members of the American Bar-have expressed dissatisfaction with the level of effort in this area. In the first place, it has become more clearly recognized that the number of individuals needing legal services but whose need far outstrips their income is very large, particularly in urban areas (American Bar Association, 1965: 12). The gap between the need for legal services and the money to pay for them is most obvious, of course, for those living in poverty. The voluntary, part-time efforts of private practitioners and the services of legal aid societies using lawyers paid by funds contributed by the local community no longer appear to be sufficient (Lowenstein and Waggoner, 1967: 805-850).

The Poverty of Nations

Abstract: political, social and economic problems of Asia, particularly of the Indian subcontinent. Vol. I starts with a long methodological introduction on a &dquo;modernization ideals&dquo;, goes on to survey the political problems of South Asian countries after independence and concludes with a general descriptive section on the economic conditions in South Asia. Vol. 11, which is the meatiest part of the book, largely consists of two main sections: a study of political ideas behind the drive for economic planning in Asia, with a critical study of the practice of economic planning in some of the South Asian countries; and a critical analysis of prevailing views on the problems of labour

Breaking the Poverty Cycle: Strategic Points for Intervention

Abstract: ■ Analysis of the changing balance of needs and resources over the family life span highlights two periods when poverty-prone families would benefit most from an income maintenance program: ( I ) the childbearing stage (most vulnerable to stress owing to insufficiencies of instrumental resources) and (2) the period of adolescence when families face most acutely the social placement of their offspring. Income supplements at these two points would tend to keep families intact in the early years and later in the social placement period would break the current cycle of transmitting poverty patterns from generation to generation. ■ The day of taking families for granted is more than two centuries of neglect by drawing to a close in America. For too state and federal legislatures and govern long, families have been called upon to take ment agencies, families have become the up the slack in a poorly integrated social focus of concern and discussion, order. We have drifted along as a nation, Today America's Gross National Product assuming that families could and would is such that government programs can go be cope with the changes of industrialization yond keeping families from starvation and and urbanization without attention and seek to improve the general quality of support. Now the evidence of tension and family life. By supplying resources at criti insecurity among millions of families that cal junctures in the family's existence, such have not been able to adapt cannot be programs can increase the family's control denied. Research teams and national sta- over its own destiny. The nation has long tistics document the critical situation for left it to the individual to decide how best those who will listen. Under contemporary he can develop his capacities from the conditions of affluence, millions of families range of social opportunities available to of the underclass are not only not finding him. As with the individual, the authors exits from poverty but are experiencing believe each family is best qualified to de even greater deprivation because it is reia- termine what choices are optimal. But to tive deprivation. As a consequence, after insure that families do not experience a foreclosure of choices for financial reasons,