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People with disabilities are at a high risk to experience traumatic life events and to develop trauma sequelaes – especially when living in residential homes. A lack of social inclusion, poverty, low levels of education and deficient options of therapy and counselling often increase the risk. Traumapedagogy is an approach to create trauma informed residential homes and to offer a secure living environment. A chance also for residential homes for adult people with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article examines the relationship between poverty and subjective agency. It argues that experiences of disregard play a crucial role in this. People in poverty often undergo humiliations that undermine their self-conception and worldview. They begin to devalue their own situation and develop a sense of shameful self-contempt. This shame leads to resignation, demoralization, and passivity. The article elucidates the theoretical underpinnings of this argument and connects them with empirical cases. It is demonstrated that poverty not only leaves the impression of a blocked future but also brings with it a sense of social exclusion and detachment. In this context, the significance of social recognition and its influence on the constitution of the experiencing subject is emphasized. At the same time, the results also highlight that experiences of shame in poverty do not necessarily lead to self-contempt but can also lead to rebellion and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article analyses the main patterns of a culture and gender specific violence phenomenon among the Mossi of Burkina Faso: The sweba phenomenon. Women are accused, deprived of their livelihood, violently expelled from their villages, and permanently socially excluded. Based on qualitative and quantitative evidence from 1965–2009 of the two biggest shelters in the capital Ouagadougou, the argument is made that sweba accusations are the main reasons for female poverty and homelessness which rose at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s to a significant extend and led to change in social care structures. Conflicts over land use, economic interests, and a rising misogynist environment play a main role in the deprivation of women’s rights. In this context, the term “witchcraft” is part of a legitimizing discourse that helps hiding multiple forms of violence against women and must be rejected.

Most of the marginalised and underprivileged people across the globe live in the vicious cycle of poverty. Poverty is a thorny issue. The World Justice Project (WJP) estimated that two thirds of the world’s population are not only confronted by multiple injustices which include the civil, administrative, or criminal justices, but they are also living in a vicious cycle of being marginalised and underprivileged across the planet. The poverty-stricken victims are left hopeless and helpless due to unfair socio-economic and justice systems. Attempts are coming from different fronts on how to eradicate poverty. The researcher realised the two extreme ends of these attempts, namely the rich-oriented capitalist and the poor-oriented socialist extremist. Their debates around poverty tend more to a dichotomy contestation. The question is how can the best of their contestation be utilised for poverty eradication locally and globally. The problem that this article is addressing, is the underlying misconceptions which comes to the fore in the contestation between the rich and the poor in their attempts to eradicate poverty. When such misconceptions are left unchecked, they hinder any attempts or efforts from both sides to obey God’s missional call to eradicate poverty. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article adds the voice (value) regarding addressing the rich-oriented capitalist and the poor-oriented socialist extremist in their attempts to eradicate poverty, conscientizing them that, as they have the same make-up and Maker despite their positions and conditions in life and therefore, based on the ecodomy framework for equitable justice, they should make a conscious decision to eradicate poverty as their missional call before their Maker.

The article "Education and its Victims. A Kind of Damage Assessment in Three Case Studies" by Marion Pollmanns deals with the concept of "education victims" and its significance. The author compares this term with the term "poverty victims" and argues that the use of the term "education victims" aims to view education not as an individual attribute, but as a societal phenomenon. It is also pointed out that the advertisement referred to in the article is directed against the introduction of religious education in Berlin schools. The article raises the question of whether education should be considered something negative and whether those who impart education should be seen as perpetrators. [Extracted from the article]

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This study examines the origin of legal tools for the creation of systematic poor relief in the Austrian monarchy from the period of Joseph II. It is possible to find a certain kind of legal protection for Austrian state citizens in Joseph's Civil Code from 1786 and in the General Civil Code from 1811. The paper analyses the legal principles leading to the establishment of the home community principle for Austrian state citizens, which was essential for providing aid to the poor. Attention focuses on an interpretation of problematic legal terms such as „home settling" or „häusliche Niederlassung", the implementation of which was resolved in legal disputes between state authorities. The author discusses the decrees of the Supreme Court of Justice in Vienna from the last quarter of the 19th century which concerned disputes between municipalities relating to the reimbursement of the costs of poor relief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty in old age is a topic of mass communication. Reasons as well as interventions are presented on an individual as well as on a societal level. Regional and national newspapers and magazines, consumer magazines, online press releases and news from the digital offerings of TV and radio stations were researched for the article. The Google Alert search option was used. Since this can continuously display the changes in the WWW, these could also be considered. A descriptive overview was developed that omits quantitative aspects to concentrate on the content and arguments of the term “poverty in old age”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty in Germany is on the rise. All current empirical surveys record this ongoing trend, specifically among certain disadvantaged groups, including older women. Despite the fact that different surveys draw the objective poverty line at different absolute income levels, it is more important, from a comprehensive sociological viewpoint, to include the numerous non-monetary factors – social and infrastructural – that burden the life of a poor person both objectively and subjectively. The so-called relative poverty also examines the contextual conditions, stresses and strains in the surrounding life situations from which poor people suffer from and which limit their life chances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For about two decades, the number of people working beyond retirement age has been rising steadily. On the one hand, this is closely related to the improved health and qualification conditions of older people. On the other hand, it is also due to increasing financial pressure on retirement incomes. According to the motto “retirees just wanna have fun”, pensioners are looking for jobs that they can enjoy. The main motive, however, remains to be the generation of an additional income on top of their pension. If this is not taken into account, the precarious income and living situation often found with working pensioneers is overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the marginalization and poverty of older people in society. It emphasizes that the image of old age as an unproductive phase of life is a distorted deficit image and that social risks such as poverty have more to do with a person's social status than with age itself. The authors shed light on the role of age images and social norms in the marginalization of older people and highlight the importance of digital technologies for their social participation. Therefore, old-age poverty and marginalization in old age are underestimated phenomena with complex causes that will be examined in more detail in this special issue. [Extracted from the article]

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In 2020 the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread across the globe at a seemingly unstoppable rate. Countries implemented various lockdown regulations to curb the spread of the virus. South Africa was no different and went into lockdown on 26 March 2020 under a five-tier risk-adjusted strategy. Under the regulations, all non-essential economic activity was immediately suspended. This had dire financial consequences for all in the country. However, statistics show that the poorest and most vulnerable in society have borne a disproportionate brunt of the impact of the economic restrictions. In this context this article asks whether the economic restrictions implemented under the lockdown regulations (as promulgated in terms of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002) discriminated unfairly on the grounds of poverty. This is in line with a 2018 decision by the Equality Court of South Africa that poverty constitutes unlisted grounds for discrimination as envisioned under the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 (Social Justice Coalition v Minister of Police 2019 42 SA 82 (WCC)). In this article, the test for unfair discrimination laid down in Harksen v Lane 1998 1 SA 300 (CC) is applied to the economic restrictions implemented under the lockdown regulations to determine whether they constitute unfair discrimination. It is argued that a case of indirect discrimination on the grounds of poverty could be made. However, determining the justifiability (in terms of section 36 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996) of the regulations would require a thorough analysis based on expert evidence. Nevertheless this article lays the foundation for an actionable case that could be brought before a court against the government of South Africa on behalf of a specific community to determine whether the economic restrictions were unfairly discriminatory on the grounds of poverty. This would allow for the consideration of a suitable remedy. This could include the formulation and implementation of development programmes to rectify the harm caused.

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The article traces a unique network of voluntarily poor non-cloistered sisters and beguines re- sembling a religious order – but was formed without ecclesiastical or lay support. The first com- munity we know of was founded in 1291 at Cologne by a woman known as Odelind of Pyritz in Pomerania. A 1332 inquisition at Schweidnitz in Silesia targets a convent of women who called themselves the Daughters of Udilind; the protocol names a number of towns with similar communi- ties. Some twenty years later a convent in Augsburg, Swabia, identifies itself as the Sisters of Udelhild. Odelind/Udilind/Udelhild was apparently the inspirational figure of an unobtrusive, yet respected group of convents scattered across the German-speaking lands. The convents were self-sufficient, distant to mendicants and clergy, and maintained communication by the exchange of members and financial assistance. The Sisters and Daughters of Odelind are a new phenomenon of independent women creating their own religious lifestyle of strict poverty and self-sufficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charity is a complex concept. What someone does as charitable work is never just a response to the need of poor people, it also describes what kind of culture, civilization, system of thought or religion, as a motivation or base of charity, we are dealing with. Poverty, the conceptualization of poverty, the question of righteousness, the structure of society, the role of religion, the intertwining of different cultures, distinct urban or agrarian setting, the visibility of poverty and influence of religious elements, especially relationship toward history of religion – all these give research a special place. Charity has its own development through time which also reveals how Judaic charity influenced other approaches to the problem of poverty, in our case Christian approach. F. M. Loewenberg and G. E. Gardner are dealing with this problem each from their own point of view.

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The article focuses on the development and influence of the Franciscan Order's rule and way of life, initiated by Saint Francis of Assisi. Topics include the foundational role of Saint Francis in establishing a life of poverty and repentance, the evolution of the early rule known as "Regula Non Bullata," and its transformation into the more formalized "Regula Bullata" under Pope Honorius III in 1223. It mentions this transformation reflects a shift from a simpler to a evangelical lifestyle.

African neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) use their prophetic rituals like deliverance services and anointed objects such as anointed oil, to bring God’s presence to people to empower their human agency (power to act) and transcendence (power to overcome). This use of prophetic systems prompts the question: What does the NPPs’ teaching that Africans need prophetic rituals and anointed objects for God to empower their agency and transcendence communicate about God’s presence in Africa? A further question that emerges is: How can Christian doctrines like God’s transcendence (divine beyondness) and immanence (divine nearness) address the African reliance on NPPs’ prophetic systems for God’s power to exercise their human agency and transcendence to confront their context of poverty? Consequently, this article uses the doctrine of God’s transcendence and immanence to evaluate the implications of NPPs’ prophetic systems to empower Africans to act and overcome their undesirable situations in Africa. The article challenges NPPs to realise that the transcendent God is fully immanent in poor Africa and that poverty in Africa is not caused by the lack of God’s presence but evil socioeconomic and political structures that hinder the poor from exercising their human agency and transcendence. The contribution of the article is challenging African NPPs to be informed by a sound doctrine of God in their attempts to empower poor Africans to deal with their poverty. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article uses insights from the doctrine of God and African traditional religious (ATR) view of God to critique the use of NPPs’ rituals and anointed objects to empower African human agency and transcendence.

Historically, disability has been part of the human condition such that persons with disabilities have existed in virtually all societies from ancient to modern times. At the core of the experiences of persons with disabilities are contradictory perspectives which have essentially served as inclusion and exclusion mechanisms in the context of disability. The Old Testament (OT) presents such contradictory perspectives on disability in texts that discriminate against persons with disabilities (Lev 21:16–24; 22:17–22; Deut 28:28) as well as texts that call for non-discrimination (Lev 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:18). Accordingly, the negative and discriminatory perspectives on disability that provide the foundation for the systematic exclusion stigmatisation of and discrimination against persons with disabilities in African societies are partly rooted in the Church’s engagement with biblical texts on disability. Such exclusion is the primary mechanism that nurtures and perpetuates the connection between disability and poverty. Drawing insights from the Social Model of Disability, the chapter argues that there has to be a paradigm shift in the way that society has addressed the issue of disability. The Church should take appropriate action to guard against the systematic exclusion of persons with disabilities through a liberative reading of biblical texts that cultivate a social ideology of inclusion in the context of disability. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2022/v35n3a3

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The article "»Rich and Poor Meet Each Other« (Prov 22:2)" by Magdalena Lass discusses the reconciliation between the rich and the poor in biblical texts. The texts present various strategies for solidarity in overcoming social inequality and emphasize that poverty should not be a permanent condition. The contrast between the rich and the poor is also a current issue in our society, which is further exacerbated by the inflation resulting from crises. The biblical texts provide guidance and serve as a guide for possible reconciliation or balance between the rich and the poor. [Extracted from the article]

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Today, one of the most important causes of global income inequality and poverty is the unequal sharing of the increase in economic growth between countries and regions. The increase in income inequality creates an important obstacle to economic development as it reduces the share of the poor in economic growth. Therefore, reducing poverty and income inequality is a fundamental policy goal in the development process. Because in the process of poverty alleviation, providing a fair income distribution as well as growth is important in terms of obtaining more effective results. For this reason, the aim of the study is to analyze the direction of global income inequality and its change by using the nonparametric conditional density estimation method. The analysis provides evidence to support that global income inequality did not decrease between 1995 and 2017. This result indicates that the gap is widening between countries with more even distribution and countries with an unfair distribution of income. Besides, the other aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between income inequality, poverty and economic growth. In this context, countries are classified according to income groups and analyzed with cross-section data estimation method. The general findings of the study vary in income groups in accordance with the theoretical literature. According to the results for all income groups, economic growth decreases poverty and income inequality increases poverty. On the other hand, results show that while increasing income inequality in the middle-income group increases growth, in the high-income group the increase in growth decreases inequality.

Economic justice is a global issue; and in many areas of the world, it is a life-or-death issue. It is well known that the biblical prophets address economic inequities, poverty, and oppression; but the book of Psalms has not been viewed as a resource for promoting economic justice. The purpose of this article is to examine relevant texts in the Psalter that speak to a theology of economic justice. The objective is to construct an initial framework for talking about the Psalms and economics in the context of today’s church. Texts from the Psalms that mention the poor, the weak, the orphan, the widow, the alien are identified and examined exegetically and theologically. These texts are classified and outlined logically according to the following topics that emerged from the texts themselves: the poor and the covenant community, the nature of poverty in the psalter, God’s vindication of the poor, worship and justice, and the psalter’s encouragement of the poor. Results of the research showed that God created Israel to be a community of justice and equity; therefore, God acts on behalf of the poor, and God makes the worshipping community accountable to care for the poor. The study concluded further that privileged leaders who wield power in the community are responsible to care for the disadvantaged members of the community who lack the resources to fend for themselves. The Psalms also encourage the poor to cry out to God whenever they experience oppression and injustice. Potential implications of this article were offered that challenge modern individualism and the theology of private spirituality that is detached from concrete communal ethics. Contribution: This article contributed to a biblical theology of economic justice. It demonstrated that the book of Psalms challenges God’s people to engage in redemptive activities that minister to the poor and to the marginalised.

According to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the task of the Catholic Church is to observe the processes taking place in people's lives and to read God's plans in them, and, through events in the world, appeal to believers to take appropriate actions. The purpose of analyzing the final documents of the general conferences of Latin American bishops (CELAM) meeting Medellín (1968), Puebla (1979), Santo Domingo (1992) and Aparecida (2007) is to present their specific, i.e. pastoral theological approach to the situation of families in South and Central American countries. Taking into account sociological data, the Latin American bishops indicate the opportunities and threats which the modern family has to face. They do not forget that Catholic families are called to actively participate in shaping social life and to serve for the formation of mature personal attitudes of their members. Their particular task is to spread Gospel values in the world. Their implementation allows people to achieve the fullness of humanity. Thus, Latin American bishops show how to read the signs of the times and respond to them in the practice of Christian life.

The Masoretic text of Prov 13:23 (רָב־אֹ֭כֶל נִ֣יר רָאשִׁ֑ים וְיֵ֥שׁ נִ֜סְפֶּ֗ה בְּלֹ֣א מִשְׁפָּֽט) highlights the absence of mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט) as the cause of the poverty of the poor. This article reads Prov 13:23 in conversation with the contemporary conceptualisation of economic poverty. The concept of mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט) is theorised and hermeneutically applied to the issue of poverty in Africa. The key questions under investigation are: What is mishpat in the text and its context? How should mishpat be read in the African context? How does the biblical understanding of the poor and mishpat inform responses to Africa’s poverty? In this study, the assumptions are that poverty in Africa is the result of both socio-economic and political injustices of the West and Africans themselves. Africans are agents of their own poverty. The study employs a hermeneutical and multidisciplinary approach, drawing examples from the social sciences. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2022/v35n2a10

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Poverty and social exclusion are notions presented in the public sphere and scientific analysis. Their application is usually not accompanied by adequate definition. This article formulates the thesis that there is one (it is debatable) complex paradigm of poverty and social exclusion. It consists of four levels (called as paradigm elements in this article): (1) history and culture, (2) political concepts, (3) new definitions and attempts of their operationalisation, and (4) discursiveness. This division is based on the multidisciplinary criterion, which means that it may not be quite precise. The development of potential effective programmes to combat poverty and social exclusion requires prior defining (conceptually appropriate and taking into account their complex nature) these phenomena

The social value of this article is a demonstration of the impact of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative on Zambia and how, in response, faith-based organisations had attempted to influence public economic policy for the betterment of 80% of Zambians who lived under the ‘poverty datum line’ and spent one U.S. dollar a day per capita by 2002, when compared to almost a decade earlier, and who experienced a reduction in life expectancy from 54 years in the late 1980s to 37 years in 2002. The knowledge gap which this article sought to narrow is a lack of adequate reflections on the role of faith-based organisations in addressing economic instability and increasing poverty among majority citizens. The methods used were mainly qualitative in nature, which examined both primary and secondary sources of data. The findings were that the situation of adverse social dislocation of the majority was unlikely to be any better in and beyond 2002. Experience showed that in the year 2005, the socio-economic situation of the majority was still pathetic. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article sought to highlight the specific role which faith-based organisations played in the orientation of the state towards a ‘reconstructed society’ in Zambia. The paper challenged the view that socio-economic development matters are a preserve of development experts and politicians only. Instead, the paper argued that the path towards economic stability and prosperity called for the involvement of all stakeholders, including faith-based organisations.

This article is a public systematic theological analysis of the power of the anointed objects of African neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) on human agency and transcendence in the African context of enduring poverty and human brokenness. It analysed the public role played by anointed objects from a systematic theological perspective. The article argued that many African Christians rely on anointed objects without critically considering the negative implications on their human agency (power to act) and transcendence (power to overcome) as Africans. It highlighted the irony of teaching Africans to rely on anointed objects to overcome their poverty, while other races, especially white people in Western countries, continue to build prosperous economies even after rejecting religion and Christianity. This led to the question: What does the African reliance on anointed objects of the NPPs say about the state of African human agency and transcendence? The central argument was that anointed objects are fraught with Afro-pessimism, the negative connotations about African human agency and transcendence. A secondary question that emerged was: What is a biblical view of humanity that can be used to revive African human agency and transcendence, and lead to a meaningful response to poverty? As a public systematic theological critique, the question was answered by evaluating if the NPPs’ use of anointed objects to overcome poverty resonates with what the Bible teaches about human potential in Genesis 1:26–28 and the extent to which it promotes Afro-optimism that enhances human agency and transcendence in Africa. Contribution: This article calls African NPPs and their adherents to think critically and broadly about their public role in the context of poverty in Africa. It uses biblical doctrines and images to challenge NPPs to respond to poverty in ways that promote Afro-optimism by enhancing the human agency and transcendency of African people instead of the Afro-pessimism promoted by the relying on anointed objects.

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