Back ثقافة الفقر Arabic Cultura de la pobresa Catalan Kultura chudoby Czech Kultur der Armut German Cultura de la pobreza Spanish 貧困の文化 Japanese Budaya kemiskinan Malay Cultuur van de armoede Dutch Kultura ubóstwa Polish Культура бедности Russian
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The culture of poverty is a concept in social theory that asserts that the values of people experiencing poverty play a significant role in perpetuating their impoverished condition, sustaining a cycle of poverty across generations. It attracted policy attention in the 1970s, and received academic criticism (Goode & Eames 1996; Bourgois 2001), and made a comeback at the beginning of the 21st century.[1][2] It offers one way to explain why poverty exists despite anti-poverty programs. Early formations suggest that poor people lack resources and acquire a poverty-perpetuating value system. Critics of the early culture of poverty arguments insist that explanations of poverty must analyze how structural factors interact with and condition individual characteristics (Goode & Eames 1996; Bourgois 2001).[1] As put by Small & Harding (2010), "since human action is both constrained and enabled by the meaning people give to their actions, these dynamics should become central to our understanding of the production and reproduction of poverty and social inequality."[1] Further discourse suggests that Oscar Lewis's work was misunderstood.[3]
- ^ a b c Small, Mario Luis; Harding, David J.; Lamont, Michèle (2010-05-01). "Reconsidering Culture and Poverty". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 629 (1): 6–27. doi:10.1177/0002716210362077. ISSN 0002-7162.
- ^ Cohen, Patricia (2010-10-18). "'Culture of Poverty' Makes a Comeback". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-01-30.
- ^ Hill, Ronald Paul (September 2002). "Consumer Culture and the Culture of poverty: Implications for Marketingtheory and Practice". Marketing Theory. 2 (3): 273–293. doi:10.1177/1470593102002003279. ISSN 1470-5931. S2CID 145326406.