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Culture of Poverty

Wikipedia:
Culture of poverty
Oscar Lewis
poverty
Cycle of poverty

In the News . . .

from The Scout Report 25 October 2013, Volume 19, Number 43

How do you solve a problem like poverty?

Zen and the art of poverty reduction
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21588119-calm-and-confusion-worlds-biggest-development-institution-zen-and-art

World Bank President Pledges to Reduce Poverty in Half by 2020
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-09/world-bank-president-pledges-to-reduce-poverty-in-half-by-2020.html

Is the World bank reforming its approach?
http://tribune.com.pk/story/616278/is-the-world-bank-reforming-its-approach/

A Solutions Partnership to End Poverty
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2013/10/16/solutions-partnership-end-poverty

Poverty Home: World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty

World Bank Data: Poverty
http://data.worldbank.org/topic/poverty

Around the world, thousands of policy makers, elected officials, and NGOs work to address the problem of poverty. It is vastly different in the developing world of course, and many additional elements must be considered before rolling out a new set of policy initiatives. Recently, the World Bank released a new strategy earlier this month that announced that their "value proposition" is to end extreme poverty by 2030 and to foster income growth among the poorest 40% in every country. It's a worthy goal and to achieve this, commentators like policy experts at The Economist have noted that they will need to correctly diagnose "the worst constraints on poverty reduction and focus mainly on those." Others have noted that the Bank will need to address problems with functional "silos" within the organization that keep experts on different regions of the world from communicating best practices and difficulties with each other. [KMG]

The first link will take users to a recent piece from last week's Economist on the World Bank's shift in their focus on alleviating poverty throughout the world. The second link will take curious visitors to a recent piece from Bloomberg News about World Bank President Jim Yong Kim's official announcement about their pledge to reduce global poverty. The third link will take visitors to a piece by development consultant Syed Mohammad Ali that offers comments on this recent major decision. The fourth link will take visitors to the official transcript from World Bank Vice President Sanjay Pradhan of his speech regarding the organization's new strategy for reducing poverty. The fifth link will whisk users away to the official World Bank Poverty page. Here, visitors can read more about specific initiatives around the world and also find more details about their long-term goals. The last link will take visitors to the complete World Bank data archive for information on poverty around the world.

In the News . . .

from The Scout Report 22 October 2010, Volume 16, Number 42

The 'Culture of Poverty' moves to the suburbs, reviving old problems and generating new complications

Poverty in the suburbs: Mortgage or food
http://www.economist.com/node/17257857?story_id=17257857&fsrc=rss

How Important Is Economic Diversity in Schools?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130647610

Poorest school districts get least-qualified teachers; affluent districts get the best, survey finds
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/10/18/2556603/poorest-school-districts-get-least.html

A Culture of Poverty
http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2010/10/a-culture-of-poverty/64854/

Reconsidering the 'Culture of Poverty'
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130701401

The Great Recession and Poverty in Metropolitan America
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/1007_suburban_poverty_acs_kneebone.aspx

For much of America's history, urban areas contained the lion's share of the country's poor, an image reinforced by popular media depictions in film, television, and evening news reports. Recent news reports from the New York Times and The Economist would seem to indicate that suburban areas have larger numbers of poor people, and many are finding it hard to locate adequate social services, food banks, and other resources. This news drew on two new reports from the Brookings Institution, which found that the number of poor people in the suburbs has increased 37.4% over the past decade. Also, these findings come on the heels of a renewed discussion regarding the so-called "culture of poverty". When it was on the front page of policy discussions forty years ago, many politicians (including the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan) argued that there was in fact a unique set of cultural values and practices held by the poor that made it difficult, if not impossible, to make the transition out of poverty. As policy-makers continue to confront the shifting geography of poverty, all of these issues will require sustained conversation and significant soul-searching. [KMG]

The first link will take users to a news article from last Thursday's Economist which reports on growing suburban poverty trends, with particular attention to the city of Freeport on Long Island. The second link leads to a related piece from National Public Radio which talks about the performance of low-income students in schools with greater economic diversity. The third link leads to a timely story from this Monday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram which talks about a study that shows that less affluent areas (and as a result, school districts) often have the least-qualified teachers. Moving on, visitors will find a thoughtful piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic where he ruminates on his own experiences with the culture of poverty and related matters. The fifth link leads to an excellent discussion on the culture of poverty with Patricia Cohen of the New York Times and Professor Sudhir Venkatesh of Columbia University. The final link leads to the two aforementioned reports from the Brookings Institution, and visitors with an interest in this type of social transformation will want to give both of them a closer look.

• Culture of poverty -- Wikipedia