The History of ‘Culture of Poverty’ and Implications for Contemporary Scholarship

• In Event: 1250 - Social Science and Social Justice: Engagements Past, Present and Future

Abstract

In this paper I discuss my examination of the culture of poverty tradition. While generally discredited in sociological circles, culture of poverty remains influential for how many people think about poverty, including policymakers and human services practitioners. In addition, there has been a resurgence of interest in questions of culture and experience for people in poverty among sociologists. In this review I rely on primary and secondary sources to carefully examine how culture of poverty developed, spread, and ended up stigmatizing people in poverty. Three specific issues are identified and discussed: 1) the need to engage with empirical comparisons and points of observation; 2) conceptualizing and measuring culture; and 3) balancing objectivity and subjectivity in interpretation. Although many critiques of culture of poverty exist, none of them systematically analyze the literature and identify the roots of the failure of this approach. This examination is useful for correcting common pitfalls as we move forward with scholarship on people in poverty.

Author

• Elizabeth K. Seale, SUNY-Oneonta