Skip to main content

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
Cancel
×
×
Home
  • Home
Chapter
  • This chapter is unavailable for purchase
  • Print publication year: 2012
  • Online publication date: June 2012

7 - The Working Poor and the Underclass

from II - Applications
Export citation
Summary

What does it mean to be poor? Or, more precisely, what material things comprise “What is enough?” This is the central question to scholars who study poverty. The number of people living in poverty varies by the agency that collects the data and the percentage of poor used by governmental agencies is only a general estimate. This chapter considers the definition of poverty and how this construction affects who is considered poor and eligible to receive assistance. We then turn to the determinants of poverty and sociological theories that seek to explain who are the poor and predict how many people will fall below the poverty line in any given period. We conclude with the consequences associated with poverty as well as broad national policies and their effectiveness at reducing poverty.

What Is Poverty?

Poverty is a dearth of resources such as money or material possessions that are needed for survival. In modern society, it is defined as the lack of both income and wealth. The official poverty measure reveals that about 14.3 percent of the nation or 1 in 7 people is experiencing poverty, the highest rate since 1994 (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). The aggregate poverty rate varies by region with the Northeast having the lowest rate of 12.2 percent and the South with the highest rate of 15.7 (U.S. Census 2010).

Recommend this book

Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this book to your organisation's collection.

Inequality
  • Online ISBN: 9780511842986
  • Book DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511842986
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Who would you like to send this to *

CAPTCHA *

Skip to the audio challenge
×
Works Cited
Aber, J. Lawrence Bennett, Neil G Conely, Dalton C Jiali, Li 1997 The Effects of Poverty on Child Health and Development Annual Review of Public Health 18 463
Allegretto, Sylvia A 2006
Alston, Philip 1998 Hardship in the Midst of Plenty The Progress of Nations 30 Washington, DC
Bishaw, Alemayahu Renwick, Trudi J 2009
Blau, Francine D Kahn, Lawrence M Waldfogel, Jane 2004 The Impact of Welfare Benefits on Single Motherhood and Headship of Young Women: Evidence from the Census Journal of Human Resources 39 382
Bourdieu, Pierre 1985 The Forms of Capital Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education Richardson, J. G 241 Westport, CT Greenwood Press
Currie, Janet Thomas, Duncan 1995 Does Head Start Make a Difference The American Economic Review 85 341
Davis, Kingsley Moore, Wilbert 1945 Some Principles of Stratification American Sociological Review 10 242
DeNavas, Carmen Proctor, Nernadette D Smith, Jessica C 2008
Duncan, Greg J Jean Yeung, W Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne Smith, Judith R 1998 How Much Does Childhood Poverty Affect the Life Chances of Children? American Sociological Review 63 406
Ehrenreich, Barbara 2001 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America NY Metropolitan Books
Fleming, Dan Burns, Patrick Haydamack, Brent 2004
Gans, Herbert 1995 The War Against the Poor: The Underclass and Antipoverty Policy Lanham, MD Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
Granovetter, Mark 1974 Getting a Job Cambridge Harvard University Press
Grusky, David B Kanbur, Ravi 2006 Poverty and Inequality Stanford, CA Stanford University Press
Halleröd, Björn 2004 What I Need and What the Poor Deserve: Analyzing the Gap between the Minimum Income Needed for Oneself and the View of an Adequate Norm for Social Assistance Social Forces 83 35
Holohan, T 1997
Iceland, John 2003 Poverty in America: A Handbook Berkeley University of California Press
Jencks, Christopher 1994 The Homeless Cambridge Harvard University Press
Kirschenman, Joleen Neckerman, Kathryn M 1991 We’d Love to Hire Them but…’: The Meaning of Race for Employers Social Problems 38 433
Lichter, Daniel T Crowley, Martha L 2002 Poverty in America: Beyond Welfare Reform Population Bulletin 57 36
Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority 2009
Lewis, Oscar 1959 Five Families New York A Mentor Books
Lewis, Oscar 1998 The Culture of Poverty Society 35 7
MacLeod, Jay 1995 Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood Boulder, CO Westview Press
Marx, Karl 1867 Capital: A Critique of Political Economy New York Vintage Books
McLaughlin, Christine C Luker, Kristin 2006 Young Single Mothers and Welfare Reform in the U.S When Children Become Parents: Welfare State Responses to Teenage Pregnancy Nativel, A. D. C 21 Bristol, UK The Policy Press
Mishel, Lawrence Bernstein, Jarod Shierholz, Heidi 2009 The State of Working America 2008/2009 Institute, A. E. P New York Sage
National Center for Homelessness 2002
National Coalition for the Homeless 1999
Orshansky, Mollie 1965
Russell, Judith 2003 Economics, Bureaucracy, and Race: How Keynesians Misguided the War on Poverty New York Columbia University Press
Shannon, Patrick 1998 Reading Poverty Westport, CT Heinemann
Shipler, David K 2004 The Working Poor: Invisible in America New York Alfred A. Knopf, Inc
Sorenson, Aage B 1996 The Structural Basis of Social Inequality The American Journal of Sociology 101 1333
Storm, Stephanie 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/13/national/nationalspecial/13charities.html
Tigges, Leann M Ziebarth, Ann Farnham, Jennifer 1998 Social Relationships in Locality and Livelihood: The Embeddedness of Rural Economic Restructuring Journal of Rural Studies 14 203
U.S. Census Bureau 2009
U.S. Census Bureau 2010
U.S. Census Bureau 2007
U.S. Census Bureau 2010
U.S. Conference of Mayors 2001
U.S. Department of Agriculture 2009
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2004
Wacquant, Loic J. D Wilson, William J 1989 The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 501 8
Wardrip, Keith E Pelletiere, Danilo Crowley, Sheila 2009
Wilson, William Julius 1997 When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor New York Vintage Books
Wolch, Jennifer Dear, Michael Blasi, Gary Flaming, Dan Tepper, Paul Koegel, Paul 2007
Zweig, Michael 2004 What’s Class Got to Do With It?: American Society in the Twenty-First Century NY ILR Press
Cancel
Confirm
×