This slide I'm edited my self by collection from real culture book of CICI

1. វិទ្យោស� នសហ្របតិបតិ�ករណ៏ អន�រជាតិកម�ុជា
Cambodia International Cooperation Institute
Cultural Studies Y3, S2
Topic
The Causes of Poverty

2. CONTENTS
1. The Cause of Poverty…………………………………………………………………………………
2. The functionalist Perspective……………………………………………………………………
3. The Conflict Perspective…………………………………………………………………………..
4. Interactionist Perspective and Cultural Analysis……………………………………....
5. Future Prospects……………………………………………………………………………………
6. Full Employment……………………………………………………………………………...........
7. Education, Training, and Jobs…………………………………………………………….......
8. Income Maintenance Programs……………………………………....................................
9. Collective Action……………………………………………………………………………………
2

3. 1. The Cause of Poverty
The programs intended to alleviate poverty must rest on a clear
understanding of its causes, and those causes are complex. People often
focus on the weaknesses or failures of individuals as the causes of
poverty and ignore the part that societal factory play in generating
widespread poverty. The three sociology perspectives remedy this.
3

4. 2. The functionalist Perspective
4
Thus, the stratification system in society is an Essential mechanism for differentially allocating
rewards in order to motivation people to perform socially useful tasks. Furthermore, according to the
functionalist view, people who do not perform useful tasks should receive fewer rewards. Poverty ,
then , is society’s mechanism to discourage people from neglecting their social duties.
There are has been an ongoing debate over Davis and Moose’s functionalist approach to
poverty: are reward really related to the importance of a position or to the scarcity of qualified
personnel to fill it? There does appear to be a relationship between the contributions that people make
to society and the rewards the receive. However, some studies have found that the importance of
positions is unrelated told the reward people receive. When the link between what a person does and
what he or she receives become vague or broken entirely, then social disorganization can result.

5. The Economy According to the functionalist perspective, society is made up of
many interrelated and interdependent parts, and a change in one parts can have
implications for the other parts. In the realm of poverty, normal and some times
desirable change in the economy can affect the level of poverty. One of these
changes has to do with inflation. Many economists believe that unemployment is
related to inflation.
The Functions of Poverty According to some functionalists, one of the
reasons that poverty persists is that is performs some positive functions for
society or at least for some group society. Although it is difficult to think of
poverty in this light, this view illustrates a point that has been made elsewhere :
social conditions or practices that some find undesirable or even repugnant ,
such as poverty or crime may nonetheless make a positive contribution to
society. How can poverty be functional ?
5

6. 3. The Conflict perspective
6
Most conflict views of poverty derive at least in part from view of Kal Marx and his position
contrasts sharply with that of the functionalists. Marx viewed society as involving a constant struggle
between social classes over scarce resources with some groups managing to capture more of this
resources than other. Its should not be surprising that the affluent benefit in this ways, because it is the
affluent who write the tax laws, design the legal system and pay the police to enforce the law. they can
convince subordinate groups that e existing distribution of resources is “natural” or preferable to any
other. The one’s not having worked hard enough. Poverty is viewed as a personal problem rather that a
societal one and the poor are less inclined to demand changes in the system. One people have become
successful, they tend to pass on their success to their children, and this makes it more difficult for people
on the bottom to move up. Social mobility refers to the movement of people from in social position to
another in the stratification hierarchy. Although upward social mobility is fairly widespread I the United
States, our stratification system is also characterized by considerable stability with a high degree of
occupational inheritance.

7. In fact, a national tragedy is the fact that our society spends considerably less on
the education of poor children, who are more affluent desperately in need of these
resources, than it does on the education of affluent children.
From the conflict perspective, issues for poverty and inequality need to be
assessed from a global vantage point, as was dome in chapter 2. The emerging global
economy pits large corporations In a competition out of which some people benefit
while others suffer from an inability to find a job that will enable them to support
themselves and their families in a dignified fashion.
For the United State, this loss of good paying jobs has been one of the reasons for
the growth of an entrenched group of poor who do not have the education or skills
essential to landing a good job today. The group poverty has become a permanent
intergenerational problem.
7

8. 4. Interactionist Perspective and Cultural Analysis
8
The functionalist and conflict perspectives focus on the role of social and economic
structures in creating poverty. By contrast, the interactionist perspective focuses on the
importance of the subjective element of social reality how people define themselves and their
opportunities through day to day social interaction with others around them.
More recently, William J. Wilson (1991) has suggested that prolonged joblessness
contributes to this cultural orientation by leaving people with a general sense that they are
unable to achieve goals that they might set for them selves, that there is little point in making
efforts or taking on challenges.
With such a cultural orientation poor people may despair of ever improving their lot. They may see
little point in making efforts to change their circumstances because their fate the believe is out of
their

9. Cultural analysis has been criticized because it seems to blame the
victim poor people are blamed for their own difficulties by arguing that
poverty is due to the character flaws fo or lack of effort by those
affected.
A second criticism of the culture of poverty thesis is that research
suggests that is applies only to a limited number of poor people. In fact,
the traits that characterize the culture of poverty are probably found
among less than half of all poor people and are more common among
some poor. Research also shows that some poor people do improve
their lives, despite the culture of poverty may inhibit some poor people
from making things better for themselves, Its impact on perpetuating
poverty in general is probably limited although not unimportant.
9

10. 5. Future Prospects
10
Support for the fight againt poverty remains high in the United
States. A survey in the late 1990s found that two-thirds of people in
the United State felt that the governmetn should make a specialeffort
to help the poor and the government was identifiesd as the sociental
institution woth greatest responsibility for assisting the poor.
However, there has been a dramtic decline over the same periid in
people’s confidence that the governmetn con do the job properly. So
people continues to embrace the values that underlies poverty
programs but theu are frustrated woth the government’s record of
achievemetns in those programs.

11. 6. Full Employment
11
The Poverty is related in part to unemployment it seems sensible
to promote policies that encourage. Full employment a situation in
which everyone or nearly everyone who wants work a=can find a job.
Although most politicians would probably support such a concept the
control is over how to do it.
First, most of the poor as has been seen, are not able-bodied
nonworkers. Rather, they are people who would be largely unaffected
by the creation of more jobs children, the elderly the disable and
women raising their children alone.
If anything, unemployment in the United States seems to have in
creased somewhat over the years despite these policies.

12. 7.Education, Training, and Jobs
12
Some social policies aimed at reducing poverty focus on
preparing the poor to compete effectively in the job market. The
idea is that for some poor people the major factor holding them in
poverty is that the lack the education skills or motivation to fund
and keep good-paying jobs. A number of programs have been
created over the years to focus on these issues.
Early childhood Interventions One approach is to focus on
children by providing them with the educational and other
experiences at a young age that will increase their ability to find
and keep good jobs as adults.
Research over the decades on Heart Start and other early
childhood educational intervention has shown that such programs
do achieve may of their goals.

13. Jobs Programs Whereas Head Start is an indirect long-term approach to the
problem of poverty other programs have involved more direct and immediate efforts
to train people and to find them jobs.
A Jobs training program that focus on youth the job corps has proven to be
fairly effective. Focus on high school dropouts from poor neighborhoods, the job
corps gives participants academic education, vocational training counseling health
education and job placement assistance. Evaluation of the program.
In the late 1990s the then-existing welfare system was replaced with a
program called temporary assistance for needy families .On education and training
in order to help people find jobs and get off welfare. This policy change is
sufficiently important that the policy issue inert is devoted to a description and
assessment of it.
13

14. 8. Income Maintenance Programs
14
Modern Governments have taken on the responsibility of assisting those in need through
a variety of programs that provide them with some minimal level of resources.
Public assistance which is what most people mean when they use the term welfare,
refers to programs in which a person must pass a mean test to be eligible.
There are various social insurance programs in the United State. At both the federal
and state levels over $700 billion are spend on such programs each year.

15. Social Security old age survivors and disability insurance commonly referred to as social
security is intended to provide income for retired or disabled workers and their survivors.
Medicare is a health insurance program for the elderly and for some others who are
receiving social security. Its also provides supplementary medical insurance on return for a
monthly premium.
Supplemental security income is given to certain categories of poor people with little
income and few assets. Temporary assistance for need families .its provide temporary
assistance to parents and guardians who do not have the financial resources to support their
children but in return for the assistance the parents must seek work.
General Assistance is for people is for people in eligible. But only about half the states
have GA.
Medicaid is a program providing medical and hospital services to people who cannot pay
for them themselves. But it can also go to people who can provide for their own economic
support except for necessary medical care.
15

16. 9. Collective Action
16
Many of the programs intended to alleviate poverty have been designed by politicians
economists, sociologist, and other experts who are not themselves poor. This raises the
question of whether these experts have different from the poor or whether they have an
accurate and sincere understanding of poverty and its related problem.
Most want to work luck or circumstances, thy find themselves destitute. So the poor
may need to take matters into their own hands through some collective action that
would further their interests. In fact, the poor have poverty of the 1990s was in part a
reaction to the focus of the civil rights movement aimed at the problems of poor african
americans.

17. A strategy such as this has its dangers, of course. Its could create a backlash
against the poor and result in substantial reductions in public assistance.
However, it does illustrate the point that disadvantaged groups in the US have
traditionally used collective active action as one avenue to pursue their
interests.
17

18. Thank You So Much
Do you have any Questions?
18