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In the article "Dividing paradise: Rural inequality and the diminishing American dream," Jennifer Sherman explores the effects of gentrification and economic transformation in rural areas, focusing on Paradise Valley in Washington State. The area, once reliant on the timber industry, shifted to an amenity-based tourism economy, attracting retirees and second homeowners. Sherman examines the social class divides that have emerged and the increasing inequality in the community. She highlights the challenges faced by existing residents, who lack the resources and opportunities available to newcomers. The article raises questions about the resilience and agency of the rural poor and working class, as well as the role of race in the process of gentrification. [Extracted from the article]

Human rights NGOs contribute to the formation of norms and policies around penality, and inform social understandings of what constitutes acceptable punishment. This article turns to the symbolic group-making work of human rights workers as agents who work with prisoners, and who also construct the image of the prisoner for the rest of society. I zoom in on the case of prison NGO work in Russia, a non-democratic country, and answer two questions: first, how do prison NGOs construct the image of the prisoner, and articulate their relationship with their social base and their networks of civic engagement? Second, what organizational behaviors do these articulations encourage? Drawing on 18 semi-structured interviews and observation at prison NGOs based in Moscow, the study shows that Russian NGO workers often view themselves and act as members of a middle class social movement in Russia. While NGOs tend to focus on the most economically disadvantaged and socially isolated groups in their work, the prisoners they depict when addressing the public and the press tend to represent more educated groups with higher levels of symbolic capital (political prisoners, those convicted of economic crimes, and former state employees), reflecting a desire to put prison on the middle class agenda. At the same time, prison NGO employees employ a class lens in their work with prisoners, and determine how to help prisoners based on their assessment of how the socio-economic background of the prisoner intersects with ethnicity, religion, ability/disability, region where they are serving their sentence, and region where they are from. In other words, prison NGO workers view prisoners through the resources they can accumulate using the simultaneous, intersecting dimensions of their status and their relation to other groups both in prison and outside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africanist anthropology has tended to paint social relations on the continent in a positive light, giving the impression that a pro‐social relationality will provide the poor with economic assistance in moments of need. This article troubles these accounts by turning to Kenya, where a history of socioeconomic stratification has created a landscape of class closure. Rather than generously give, upwardly mobile families seek to distance themselves from potential requests for material assistance. Meanwhile, they valorize their own hard work as the source of their success, encouraging the poor to follow suit: to pursue economic independence. In this context, the article underscores the work of relation‐making as poor families attempt to keep social relationships with wealthy locals open by practising 'civility': hiding their anticipation of material support by concealing economic distress whilst outwardly performing their own success. Taking inspiration from F.G. Bailey's classic work on 'stratagems and spoils', the article emphasizes the interested, conscious effort of making relations as a means of combating economic exclusion in an unequal world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a methodological discussion of the quality of the life through narratives collected in the project "Social History of Poverty in Slovakia" from the Winter of 1995-96. The stories were narrated by family members of the economically and socially marginalised families. This discussion tries to trace the roots of broken hopes that accompany the research objective; that is, to use life histories as an access to the dialectics of social opportunities and life strategies of the families under study. First, the discussion aims at the problem of narrative `thinness' that is, on the absence of thick descriptions of ordinary activities in the collected narratives. Then it focuses on narrative constructions of the categories of "ordinary" and "extraordinary", as well as their use in self-description (or identity construction) of the narrators. Special attention has been given to the collective representations used in this process. The author discusses the hypothesis that the collected life-history narratives can bee seen as a performance aimed at "proving" one's inclusion into social majority and to distance oneself (and one's family) from the "deviant" label. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The poverty rate among the Palestinian-Arab minority in Israel is two to three times higher than in the Jewish majority. While Arab schools in Israel have been studied from an unequal national and cultural rights perspective, they have rarely been studied from an unequal economic and social rights perspective, which highlights the role of education in social mobility. Objective: Our study aims to add the perspective of social class to previous research. In this qualitative-phenomenological exploratory case study of an elementary school serving working-class Arab Israelis, we sought to identify and describe what, according to members of the school community, may promote or impede students' learning experiences. Methods: We conducted 45 interviews with school staff, parents, and regional administrators and 26 observations of classes and school surroundings. These were analysed using a phenomenological method. Results: Findings indicated that the school environment was complex, with different groups having unique needs and interests which sometimes clashed. Despite an impoverished, diverse, and challenging student population and a stressful working environment, many improvements were mentioned over time in students' achievements and attendance and relationships between staff members and parents, among others. A policy of student-centred teaching was emphasised at the school, including many extra-curricular enrichment activities. However, many teachers reported burnout and a sense that their needs were not appropriately met. Conclusions: An enriching child-centred school environment, parent involvement, and collaboration among staff may not be enough to contribute to significant changes in students' learning environment without addressing poverty on a governmental level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and youth are typically positioned as passive subjects in learning, and when talking about working class children in particular, the common belief is that attendance at school institutions will translate into social displacement; that is, that children and young people from this economic segment who invest in the study will be able rise economically. It is in this context that recent public policies aimed at maintaining and extending the presence of children and young people in educational institutions can be understood. Some of these policies aim to guarantee access by blacks and the poor to higher education, from which they have been historically excluded. This paper reports on a qualitative study that addresses the motivations that make young people from lower classes feel called to seek participation in higher education, and what are the subjective consequences of this movement. The study focused on 23 university students, beneficiaries of the Quota Law or the University for All Program, from two recognized quality higher education institutions located in Rio de Janeiro. The results demonstrate that the support of family and peers, a passion for studying per se, identification with the university as a life path, and the expectation of upward social mobility were factors that contributed to motivating young people toward higher education. As far as the university is concerned, we found that it delivers contradictory messages to young people from the lower classes. For one, entering an institution historically destined for another social class can make young people feel that they don't belong there, which promotes uncertainties about the future. Faced with these challenges, poor young people are driven to "bet on themselves" as a way of overcoming the hardships of the present. However, it was also observed that many of these young people want to use their knowledge and university status to bring about changes in reality. It is concluded that the university in the neoliberal context can reinforce a model of individualistic subjectivation, but that, on the other hand, it can also operate to open lines of escape from this model, in instrumentalizing the poor young person for action towards the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/Purpose Latina doctoral students' educational experiences are often mediated by their social class status, race, and gender. Latinas have sustained an increasing presence in doctoral programs at various colleges and universities across the United States; yet, they are continually underrepresented in doctoral programs at predominantly White institutions. The author identifies evidence-supported, personal and institutional factors that may contribute to working-class Latina doctoral students' successful persistence at predominantly White institutions. Background The tension between personal identities versus academic capability can make the doctoral education experience academically, socially, emotionally, and financially challenging for Latinas from low-income backgrounds. Latina/Latino Critical Race Theory and Multiracial Feminist Theory are introduced as lenses to examine aspects of the doctoral education experience that may impede or support Latina students' retention. Methodology As a conceptual article, this paper is an examination of research regarding the experiences of doctoral students of color at predominantly White institutions in the United States and summarizes how Latina doctoral students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds can succeed in these environments. Contribution This article outlines evidence-supported strategies that may influence workingclass Latina doctoral students' successful persistence at predominantly White institutions. Findings The research highlighted in this article emphasizes how factors such as embracing familismo, increasing faculty diversity, establishing peer networks, and creating inclusive class-conscious academic programs and new student orientations, may contribute to the doctoral persistence of Latinas from economically disadvantaged backgrounds attending predominantly White institutions. Recommendations for Practitioners Personal and institutional factors are recommended for faculty and student affairs professionals to support the doctoral persistence of Latina students such as embracing personal agency and academic efficacy, embracing familismo, recognizing the myth of meritocracy, establishing peer support networks, creating inclusive academic environments, establishing formal faculty mentorships, and fostering class conscious faculty. Recommendations for Researchers The literature presented in this paper provides ideas for future research opportunities that could further examine how supportive relationships and inclusiveness promote Latina doctoral students' educational success. Impact on Society Latinas experience overlapping forms of privilege and subordination depending on their race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and academic setting. Future Research Further development of transformative research on this topic may improve inclusive educational practices and potentially increase access to doctoral-level education for Latinas and other economically disadvantaged students of color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Perceived Social Status (PSS) is a measure of cumulative socioeconomic circumstances that takes perceived self‐control into account. It is hypothesized to better capture social class compared to socioeconomic status (SES) measures (i.e., education, occupation, and income). This study examined the association between PSS and dental utilization, comparing the strength of associations between dental utilization and PSS and SES measures among a low‐income adult Medicaid population. Methods: A cross‐sectional survey was administered to a random sample of low‐income adults in Iowa, United States with Medicaid dental insurance (N = 18,000) in the spring of 2018. Respondents were asked about PSS, dental utilization, and demographics. A set of multivariable logistic regression models examined the relative effects of PSS and SES measures on dental utilization, controlling for age, sex, health literacy, whether the respondent was aware they had dental insurance, transportation, and perceived need of dental care. Results: The adjusted response rate was 25%, with a final sample size of 2252. Mean PSS (range 1–10) was 5.3 (SD 1.9). PSS was significantly associated with dental utilization (OR = 1.11; CI = 1.05, 1.18) when adjusting for control variables, whereas other SES measures—education, employment, and income—were not. Conclusions: PSS demonstrated a small positive association with dental utilization. Results support the relative importance of PSS, in addition to SES measures, as PSS may capture aspects of social class that SES measures do not. Results suggest the need for future research to consider the effects of PSS on oral health outcomes and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in the UK has suggested that people in lower social classes or from poorer neighbourhoods are less likely than their more socially advantaged counterparts to agree that health and life expectancy are worse among more deprived population groups. The small body of previous research has either used qualitative approaches or coded open-ended responses to survey questions about causes of health and illness or of inequalities between areas. We examined lay perceptions by asking a direct question and using a quantitative, multivariate approach. Residents in three age groups (25, 45 and 65 years old) living in two socially contrasting localities in Glasgow, Scotland, were asked who were more likely to have accidents, cancer, heart disease, mental illness, to be fitter, and to live longer: rich people, poor people, or both equally. Across all the health categories, those in lower social classes or from poorer neighbourhoods were equally or less likely than their more socially advantaged counterparts to say the poor had worse health. In a model containing age, sex, class and locality, those in lower social classes and in the poorer locality were significantly less likely to say that richer people live longer (OR: 0.5). We have therefore confirmed earlier observations that those most at risk of ill health may be less likely to acknowledge the social gradient in health. We suggest a need to examine this apparent paradox in other contexts and in more detail, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For over 150 years, Hart Island in New York City has been a burial ground for the city's indigent and "unclaimed," over a million dead who because of race, immigration, poverty, and disease were buried in obscurity. For decades, the activist organization Hart Island Project (HIP) has labored to find the names and locate the bodies of those buried there, to destigmatize the island, and to memorialize the interred. More recently, HIP launched its "AIDS Initiative." Focusing on this initiative, we query: what specific modalities of remembering does the AIDS Initiative cultivate? And, given the crisis of the whitening of AIDS public memory, what are the initiative's capacities for interrogating and decentering whiteness? Amidst an abundant set of its activist practices and memory artifacts, we focus our analysis on the initiative's haunting artistic video, "Loneliness in a Beautiful Place," its five-part storytelling webseries, and its Traveling Cloud Museum. Performing indigent rhetorical criticism, we engage the problem of the "whitewashing" of AIDS remembering, interrogate who counts as a grievable AIDS subject, and practice historical and historicized frames of interpreting and remembering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Income is an important determinant of physical activity (PA) when analyzed in its different domains. Sociodemographic characteristics such as sex, age, education, and marital status reveal distinct population profiles when PA domains are analyzed in isolation. This study aimed to describe clusters of PA in domains within income inequalities and to investigate the associated sociodemographic characteristics of Brazilian adults. Methods: A secondary analysis of the National Health Survey was performed (N= 50,176). PA, sociodemographic characteristics, and family income were investigated. Low- (n = 9504) and highincome adults (n = 6330) were analyzed. Two-step cluster and Rao-Scott chi-square tests were employed. Results: High-income adults accumulated 1.06 times more PA in leisure time compared with low-income adults. Of the 3 clusters observed, the inactive cluster was more prevalent (low-income group: 65.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 64.1-67.5; high-income group: 84.5%; 95% CI, 82.9-86.0). Work/leisure activities (21.2%; 95% CI, 19.8-22.8) and commuting/household activities (12.9%; 95% CI, 11.8- 14.1) characterized low-income adults. Work/household activities (10.9%; 95% CI, 9.6-12.3) and commuting/leisure activities (4.6%, 95% CI, 3.9-5.4) characterized high-income adults. Sex (P < .001), age (P < .001), and marital status (P = .0023) were associated with low-income clusters. Conclusion: PA clustering differs within income inequalities. PA in leisure differentiates the opportunities in low- and high-income groups, but it is representative of a very small portion of the wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Discusses the health objectives in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Assertion that the goals do not address the needs of the poor; Analysis of the development goals and how they were established; Range of possible outcomes for poor populations in achieving the Millennium project goals; Need for a greater effort to reach poor population groups.

Sociolinguistics has integrated the study of language and society. A sociolinguistic viewpoint in film translation can uncover the maintenance or destruction of stereotypes. To contribute to the sociolinguistic study of film translations, Disney animations Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013) and their Persian dubbed versions were examined based on Androutsopoulos's (2012) framework that works on both macro and micro levels of analysis. The results showed that social class was influential in allocating specific linguistic varieties to the characters in the translations. Jaheli, which is an old-fashioned variety, was observed among the male leading roles that belonged to the poor or working class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article is a critique of class-based affirmative action. It begins by observing that many professed politically conservative individuals have championed class-based affirmative action. However, it observes that political conservatism is not typically identified as an ideology that generally approves of improving the poor's well-being through the means that class-based affirmative action employs--that is, through redistributing wealth by taking wealth from a wealthy individual and giving it directly to a poor person. This is precisely what class-based affirmative action does: it takes a seat in an incoming class (a species of wealth) from a wealthy individual and gives it directly to a poor person. This Article attempts to reconcile this apparent contradiction. Interestingly, engaging in this project of reconciliation reveals very little about conservatism, but a lot about class-based affirmative action. This Article proposes that class-based affirmative action enjoys widespread support from people across the political spectrum because it is imagined to benefit the "deserving poor." Unlike the "undeserving poor," the "deserving poor" are those who cannot be blamed for their poverty; their impoverishment is not due to individual behavioral or character flaws, but rather to structural or macro forces well outside of an individual's control. Class-based affirmative action enjoys bipartisan political popularity because it is imagined to benefit these respectable poor people--folks who are deserving of a "leg up" in the admissions competition and deserving of programs designed to assist them, even if those programs involve a direct transfer of wealth from the wealthy to the poor. However, that political conservatives and liberals alike currently imagine class-based affirmative action to benefit the deserving poor is a reason for alarm. Alarm bells should ring because, throughout history, the categories of the deserving and undeserving poor have been racialized--and, frequently, racist. To be precise, it has been difficult for people of color--black people, particularly--to access the ranks of the deserving poor. If history is a teacher, then we might expect that it will be difficult for society to continue to imagine that the beneficiaries of class-based affirmative action are the deserving poor if these class-conscious programs disproportionately benefit racial minorities. Indeed, if history is a teacher, then class-based affirmative action will lose its popularity if poor racial minorities--who have figured within the cultural imaginary as the embodiment of undeservingness--are (or are imagined to be) class-based affirmative action's primary beneficiaries. The Article explores the case of Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and unemployed single mothers as an example of the racist nature of deservingness. It argues that if class-based affirmative action functions to assist people of color in disproportionate numbers, it, like AFDC and TANF before it, will be reimagined to be a program that assists the undeserving poor, and its political tenability will suffer as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Counselling & Psychotherapy / Revue Canadienne de Counseling et de Psychothérapie is the property of Canadian Counselling & Psychotherapy Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Extant research demonstrates that individuals from higher-income families are more likely to become successful than individuals from lower-income families. This research aims at investigating how deserving people judge the same socioeconomic success when that success is achieved by individuals from higher- versus lower-income families. Building on the literature suggesting that people draw diverse inferences about others based on their socioeconomic status, seven preregistered experiments, conducted among participants from the United States, demonstrate that people deem the same socioeconomic success of an individual as less deserving when that individual comes from a higher- versus lower-income family. This difference in success deservingness judgments occurs because, in accomplishing the same success, people judge individuals from higher- versus lower-income families as less self-reliant, even when success can be attributed to individuals' own effort. Importantly, this discrepancy in judgments of self-reliance and success deservingness has critical behavioral consequences: people prefer to give less support to individuals from higher- versus lower-income families, even when these individuals have experienced the same economic downturn and have accomplished the same career success. Together, these results extend existing research on the consequences of social class stereotypes for individuals and society, contribute to the philosophical and socio-political discourse about the nature of deservingness, and caution against a potentially biased provision of support based on people's family background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Human & Society / İnsannsan ve Toplum is the property of Scientific Studies Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses people living in poverty, noting the difference between relative poverty and financial poverty indicators. The similarities between the middle class and those living below the poverty line are looked at. The author talks about other authors who have proposed ideas to remedy the plight of poverty including Jacob S. Hacker, Michael Sherraden, and Elizabeth Warren. Poverty is typically transferred from parents to their children through habits imposed upon them by unfortunate social circumstances. Children grow up receiving poor medical care and inadequate nutrition and do not receive proper schooling that might allow them to rise above their social class.

Copyright of Gümüshane University Journal of Social Sciences (GUSBID) / Gümüshane Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (GUSBID) is the property of Gumushane University Electronic Journal of the Institute of Social Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To explore the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and language domain (vocabulary, syntax, process), the QUILS was administered to 212 kindergartners. Children from very-high poverty schools performed significantly below children from high poverty and mid-low poverty schools. SES impacts language-learning processes (i.e., fast mapping) in addition to language products (i.e., vocabulary, syntax). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypertension is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among women in sub‐Saharan Africa. Although research on the relationship between individual‐level socioeconomic status (SES) and hypertension exists, to the best of our knowledge, limited empirical studies examined the effects of neighbourhood‐level SES/wealth on the risks of living with hypertension in Ghana. Using data from the 2009 Women's Health Study of Accra (WHSA‐II), and applying multilevel logistic regression, this study investigates the effects of both individual and neighbourhood wealth status on hypertension among women in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The results show that individual‐level SES/wealth is a significant determinant of hypertension among Ghanaian women in Accra. Specifically, wealthy women are more likely to be hypertensive compared to poorer women. However, the effect of neighbourhood SES/wealth was attenuated after adjusting for individual‐level SES/wealth. These findings suggest that it is important to develop health promotion programs targeted at a segment of SES group in the prevention, control and management of hypertension among women in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Historical Review is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 1931, Edgar Sydenstricker, the former statistician of the US Public Health Service, challenged the common belief that the 1918 influenza outbreak had affected "the rich and the poor alike." Using data from 112,317 participants in a 1918 US national survey, he observed that, on the contrary, both morbidity and mortality from the flu had been higher among the poor than among the rich. To explain these differences, Sydenstricker stratified the analyses by 2 measures of affluence collected in the survey: "economic status" (from "very poor" to "well-to-do") and household crowding (i.e. number of people per household room). Economic status was associated with influenza attack rates within categories of crowding, but not the opposite, suggesting that characteristics of poverty other than "household congestion" were the culprit of the poor's higher influenza burden. Attack rate ratios for influenza in infants and older adults were greater for the poor or very poor. Sydenstricker reanalyzed an already 12-year-old data set in the context of the Great Depression to build the evidence base relating poverty to ill health. For this purpose he used a stratification approach to assess confounding, mediation, and interaction before the concepts were formally named. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly known that in the United States women who are low income do not access reproductive healthcare services and information with the same reliability and regularity of women who are higher income. A qualitative research approach was undertaken to assess the root cause of this disparity. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 women divided among socioeconomic lines. The primary barriers to care for women who are low income are clinical staff attitudes, knowledge of care available and needed, and cost or lack of insurance. This study adds to the current understanding of the barriers to reproductive healthcare for women of different socioeconomic statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this moment of increasing social inequalities after the Great Recession, studying the psychological processes that contribute to maintaining such inequalities is an urgent task for scholars. These processes include specific social-class-member perceptions that function to make these disparities seemingly fair. In particular, stereotypes and dehumanizing images of low-status workers have become powerful means for perpetuating social disparities across history and cultures. In the present work, we aim to reveal the invariance of these images and their importance in maintaining the social hierarchies through an integrated approach that combines a historical perspective with an illustrative review of the empirical research. Further, we aim to show how the stigma of low-status work affects the workers' self-view and may lead them to accept the status quo. We conclude by discussing the implications of this work for enriching the understanding of social-class divides and suggesting avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do the rich and poor support different parties in some places? We argue that voting along class lines is more likely to occur where states can tax the income and assets of the wealthy. In low bureaucratic capacity states, the rich are less likely to participate in electoral politics because they have less to fear from redistributive policy. When wealthy citizens abstain from voting, politicians face a more impoverished electorate. Because politicians cannot credibly campaign on antitax platforms, they are less likely to emphasize redistribution and partisan preferences are less likely to diverge across income groups. Using cross-national survey data, we show that there is more class voting in countries with greater bureaucratic capacity. We also show that class voting and fiscal capacity were correlated in the United States in the mid-1930s when state-level revenue collection and party systems were less dependent on national economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses that regard 'the poor' as a sociological category need to take account of recent studies quantifying the extent of flux within these ranks. Frequent movements into and out of poverty regularly refresh the pool of the poor. Large numbers of poor people were not born poor: they have descended into poverty, some quite recently. Concurrently, many formerly poor people have escaped from poverty. Distinct subgroups are defined by these divergent trajectories. Members of different subgroups have diverse economic needs, political interests and mobilisation potential, making cohesive action as a political force unlikely (and certainly uncertain) among all of 'the poor'. Policies to assist poor people will be more effective, and political analysis will yield more fruitful results, if instead of working with any generic category of 'the poor' heed is taken of subgroup-specific experiences and demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lower-income citizens in the United States have distinct partisan and policy preferences from higher-income citizens. Lower-income citizens, however, have been numerically underrepresented in policymaking institutions throughout most of American history. This numerical underrepresentation of the working class is potentially problematic because members of Congress are consistently more responsive toward upper income constituents. This bias toward upper income constituents may be a result of the fact that members themselves are disproportionately wealthy. This paper seeks to determine what demographic relationships actually exist on the basis of legislator wealth. To ascertain this, we utilize data from Roll Call, which each year since 1990 has reviewed the financial disclosures of all 535 senators and representatives to determine the 50 richest members of Congress. For the first time, the report derived from forms covering 2014 went a step further by publishing a ranking of every single lawmaker by their minimum net worth. This analysis finds that there is not a straightforward relationship with legislator wealth and partisanship. There is, however, a strong relationships with race and legislative wealth. The wealthiest members of Congress tend to be disproportionately white Democrats and the least wealthy members non-whites. Along with being more likely to be white relatively wealthy members of Congress also tend to represent wealthier constituencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty reduction has emerged as a fundamental social objective of development, and has become a metric commonly used to assess the performance of public policy. This paper adapts the methodology of Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (2009) [2009. “Unconditional Quantile Regressions.”Econometrica77 (3): 953–973] to the measurement of the pro-poorness of income growth. The method allows the analyst to identify covariates that affect poverty reduction. The methodology is policy-relevant because policy-makers can better target these covariates than the average level of income, or the level of inequality. We demonstrate this by application to Bangladesh 2000–2010. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Academics, policy makers, and practitioners are slow to listen to the needs and experiences of poor people, even about their experiences of poverty [P. Beresford & S. Croft (1995) It's our problem too! Challenging the exclusion of poor people from poverty discourse. Critical Social Policy Issue, 44/45, 75-95]. Angela is a young middle-aged British woman who has survived numerous traumatic personal, family and social experiences. She has read copies of this journal and is convinced that discussions between academics, professionals, policy makers and poor people will lead to better mutual understanding, a view reflected in a recent multinational project [ATD Fourth World (1999) Introducing the knowledge of people living in poverty into an academic environment: Synopsis. London: ATD Fourth World UK]. Through discussions with one of the editors, Angela has contributed this account which highlights the emotional aspects of being at the receiving end of public services as well as of becoming active in a community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the theoretical foundations for an ongoing research project on elites and their perceptions of poverty and poor people within their own societies. The very broad connotations of the concepts "perceptions" and "poverty" allow them to be adapted to the wide array of circumstances that prevail in the very diverse societies that are to be studied in this comparative project. James Manor has applied the concept of social consciousness in a study of elites and their incapacities in coping with a mass poisoning of slum dwellers by illicit liquor in India. The most crucial set of data is drawn from open-ended interviews structured around predetermined topics with five to ten persons in each of 11 elite groups in every country under study. The interviews have the character of conversations, and should allow the reconstruction of some of the perceptions and personal motivations behind the positions displayed in public. Another set of data is drawn from observations of interaction and noninteraction between poor people and non-poor people, especially members of the elites, in business districts, shopping areas and thoroughfares. Such data yield an overall impression of the diverse ways in which visible poverty is dealt with.

This article comments on the article "Rent-Seeking or Dependency as Explanations of Why Poor People Stay Poor," by E. Weede. The key to explaining poverty, Weede argues, lies in the capacity of certain groups to achieve more or less oligopolistic status. Well organized and relatively smaller groups in nations have contrived transfers of wealth through engaging in distributional struggles, thereby abandoning of production and growth-seeking activities. Groups have worked to increase their earnings not by increasing their production, but through the back-door by increasing the prices of the quantities they produce. For Weede, dependency theory persists despite criticism because it identifies with the victim. To overcome it, what is needed is a contending paradigm which presumably does not blame the victim. Perhaps it is best to see rent-seeking and dependency theories not as contending but as complementary. They do rest on different ontological and to some extent, epistemological assumptions, but this is because rent-seeking theory is grounded in the modernization perspective. Rent-seeking theory is simply the use of insights from dependency theory within the modernization perspective. That in itself makes Weede's article a worthy contribution to explaining poverty.

The current trend in antipoverty policy emphasizes mandated empowerment: the poor are being handed the responsibility for making things better for themselves, largely without being asked whether this is what they want. Beneficiary control is now being built into public service delivery, while microcredit and small business promotion are seen as better ways to help the poor. The clear presumption is that the poor are both able and happy to exercise these new powers. This essay uses two examples to raise questions about these strategies. The first example is about entrepreneurship among the poor. Using data from a number of countries, we argue that there is no evidence that the median poor entrepreneur is trying his best to expand his existing businesses, even if we take into account the many constraints he faces. While many poor people own businesses, this seems to be more a survival strategy than something they want to do. The second example comes from an evaluation of a program in India that aims to involve poor rural parents in improving local public schools. The data suggest that despite being informed that they now have both the right to intervene in the school and access to funds for that purpose, and despite being made aware of how little the children were learning, parents opt to not get involved. Both examples raise concerns about committing ourselves entirely to antipoverty strategies that rely on the poor doing a lot of the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the exploratory study on the changes in the lives of the poor in Bangladesh. The different goals and means of reducing poverty includes protection to prevent decline in living standards and promotion to eliminate deprivation. Significantly, the holistic approaches encourage more complex program designs that seek to help poor people meet their material needs and gain access to health, educational, and other services. The study combined the participatory and comparative case study methods to address research questions. Insights of the study have implications for the future strategies of the Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction/Targeting the Ultra Poor Programme.

Discusses how the behavior of the society towards the elite affects poor people. How the British government addresses the problems of the poor; Impact of value-free policies on marriage; Negligence of British elites on their social responsibilities.

In the Groninger Veenkoloniën, a former peat region in the northeast of the Netherlands, persistent poverty is more prevalent compared to other rural regions in the country. Grounded in participant observations and supplemented by in-depth interviews capturing the social life history of 21 participants, this paper paints a detailed picture of the social networks and class practices of those experiencing persisting poverty in the examined town and surrounding region. In addition, we explore the relations between the rural context and lived experiences of class and poverty. Our findings highlight the complex experience as well as spatial embeddedness of persisting poverty. We find that, although the specific circumstances to which the participants are exposed vary greatly, the repercussions in terms of the characteristics of their social networks and practices are very similar. In general, the social networks of participants are fragmented and small, tightly knit, and characterized by clear power imbalances. The most formative experiences that result in the isolation of networks of poor are found to occur in the home and family situation during childhood years. We argue that poverty and the region's history are intricately interwoven resulting in a socio-spatial stigma which in turn contributes to the persistent and intergenerational character of poverty in the rural context of our study. Due to the long history of stigmatization, dismantling the socio-spatial stigma attached to the Groninger Veenkoloniën will presumably take multiple generations. • The experience of enduring rural poverty is highly complex and relational. • Diverse difficult circumstances over the lifecourse have similar impact on participants' social networks and practices • Generally, participants' social networks are fragmented and small, tightly knit, and display unfavorable power imbalances. • Socio-spatial stigma contributes to the enduring and intergenerational character of poverty in the Groninger Veenkoloniën. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses ethnographic data to engage a critical reflection on the tension between individual responsibility for the environment and inequality. While research has shown that the majority of sustainable consumers are middle and upper class, educated and white individuals, the study explores how the ethical injunction to ecological sustainability is being introduced to lower‐income neighbourhoods in France. It draws on the observation of a national programme which aims at supporting inhabitants of public housing estates in the process of greening their lifestyle in order to fight climate change and fuel poverty. The paper analyses how environmental responsibilization is specific in that it calls upon a responsibility towards others, towards the common good. Using the Foucauldian concept of 'subjectivation', it describes and analyses the moral work implied by such behaviour change programmes. It demonstrates that a negative representation of poor households and a moral framing of the responsibility for the environment lead to a moralization of their lifestyle under the heading of 'eco‐friendly behaviours'. A paradoxical result of such endeavours is that the social group with the least impactful lifestyle on the environment is the one which is moralized in the most intrusive and resolute manner. The article shows, however, that the tenants manage to resist the normalizing discourse on sustainable living, for reasons which are not anti‐environmentalist. This piece thus provides interesting results for sustainability studies as well as for the sociology of the regulation of underprivileged neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of the sociological research of the middle class in the Republic of Moldova. Analyzing the concepts of social stratification and middle class, the authors argue the methodology of the middle class research in the Republic of Moldova and come with arguments regarding the stratification of the population of the country into several social groups according to occupational status, material welfare and social self-positioning. According to their opinion, the level of education, the socio-occupational status and the level of well-being determine the positioning of individuals in different strata. Thus, the people with higher level of education, occupational status, and welfare, have higher chances to be positioned in the upper groups, and vice versa. Based on the analysis of social classes in the Republic of Moldova, the authors conclude that Moldovan society is very polarized - with a small number of wealthy people at the top of the pyramid and a very large number of poor people at the base of the pyramid. The middle class is not heterogeneous: it is divided into the lower middle class, the core middle class and the upper middle class. The core middle class has similar characteristics with the middle class in Western countries and is characterized by high socio-occupational status, high level of well-being and self-positioning in the middle class, but unfortunately it is quite low and constitutes only 3%-5% of the population. However, the research is showing that there is a strata ranged from 5% to 30% of population, depending of the parameters they combine, between the lower middle class and the core middle class. This social group, also called proto middle class, in certain circumstances could complement the core middle class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Boston, Massachusetts' poor population and how they utilized the city's Almshouse between 1795 and 1801. The authors explain that most Boston Almshouse inmates were from the Boston neighborhood known as the North End rather than from pastoral areas. They discuss the residential mobility and residential patterns of the Almshouse inmates, explore how immigrants seemed to cluster together at the Almshouse, and examine the relationship between economics, social class, and population density in the city.

Efforts to promote community-managed water supply and extend services to underserved low-income communities in urban areas in the developing world prescribe participation as a key component for success. Scholars and practitioners view participation as an empowering process designed to mobilise communities to become involved in planning, implementing and managing their own water supply systems. However, these well-intentioned efforts have had limited success in motivating households to participate. This paper attributes the decision by low-income households not to participate in community-managed water projects to resource constraints at the household level. We analyse survey data from three cities in central India to assess which households are more likely to participate in community-managed water supply and why. Our findings underscore the importance of contextual influences on participation and suggest that households with relatively fewer economic and social constraints are generally more inclined to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]