Sociological Perspectives on Poverty (AQA GCSE Sociology)

Functionalism & poverty

• When attempting to explain poverty, structural approaches such as functionalism reject the emphasis on individuals and groups

  • Rather, they emphasise the role that societal structure plays in poverty

• In order to fill functionally important positions, social inequality is required according to Davis and Moore's theory of stratification

• Other functionalist theories focus on the the positive function of poverty for some groups

  • For example, it helps ensure that dirty and dangerous work gets done cheaply

    • There would not be anyone to perform these unappealing jobs if there were no poor people

  • Poverty creates jobs for groups that deal with the poor

    • For example, the police, social workers, probation officers and charity workers

• However, critics contend that rather than trying to explain poverty, functionalism attempts to defend and justify its existence

Marxism & poverty

• Marxism is another structural approach which argues that poverty results from class-based inequalities that are built into capitalist society

  • As an economic system, capitalism creates extreme wealth for the bourgeoisie while producing poverty for the proletariat

• The bourgeoisie benefits from poverty because it allows them to hire and fire employees as needed

  • For instance, employers may threaten to replace employees if they demand higher pay

  • To keep wages low and profits high, workers can be disciplined by their fear of unemployment and poverty

  • They employ the services of the lumpenproletariat, who are the criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed

• Marxists argue that inequality is not inevitable and that poverty and exploitation can be removed by:

  • having revolutionary change in society

  • replacing private ownership of factories, land and capital

  • having communal ownership of the means of production

• Marxists also believe that welfare is a mechanism used by the ruling class to preserve capitalism, preventing the underclass from becoming class conscious

  • Providing the underclass with the bare minimum they need to survive stops them from demanding more or challenging the status quo

  • People feel grateful to the welfare state for supporting them to the point that they do not question why they are at the bottom of the social hierarchy

Feminism & poverty

• Feminists argue that women face a greater risk of poverty than men, especially lone mothers and older women living alone

• Possible reasons for women's greater risk include:

  • the gender pay gap

  • inequality in the division of caring responsibilities

  • longer life expectancy than men

• Feminists, such as Jan Pahl (1989), suggest that female poverty may be hidden in some couple households

  • For instance, when their male partners are relatively wealthy, women may be poor

    • This could be because income isn't always shared fairly within families

  • Mothers frequently forgo warmth, food, and clothing in order to provide for their children

    • Mothers are typically the ones who suffer the most from poverty when it comes to handling money in low-income households

• Women are more likely than men to be welfare dependent due to their greater risk of poverty

• However, the welfare state fails to adequately support women who are single parents or carers and reinforces a patriarchal society

• Welfare policies tend to support the traditional family and perpetuate reliance on a male breadwinner

Key thinker: Murray (1984): New Right & poverty

• New Right explanations of poverty focus on individual behaviour rather than structural causes of poverty

• New Right supporters stress the importance of traditional values and self-reliance

• They believe that welfare state provision is too generous and has created a culture of welfare dependency and an underclass

  • The underclass are dependent on welfare rather than taking responsibility for their own lives

The underclass in America

• American political scientist Charles Murray argued that American society had a growing underclass

  • He believed that government policies have encouraged the members of the underclass to become dependent on benefits

• In his view, American welfare reforms, which resulted in increased levels of benefit, have:

  • discouraged self-sufficiency

  • led a growing number of single parents and young people to lose interest in getting jobs

• According to Murray, the growing membership of the underclass posed a threat to the economic and social fabric of American society

  • This is because its members were a burden on tax payers and responsible for a rising crime rate

The underclass in the UK

• Murray visited Britain in 1989 and argued that Britain too was developing an underclass

  • By analysing official statistics, he argued that the UKs underclass is growing rapidly

• He focused on the behaviour of the 'undeserving poor' and identified three signs of the development of an underclass:

  • a rising crime rate

  • an increase in the number of births outside of marriage

  • an apparent unwillingness amongst some of Britain’s youth to seek employment

• Murray argued that welfare reform was needed as:

  • some people who needed help were not given help

  • national welfare systems made some social problems worse

    • For example, they encouraged crime, single parenthood and long-term unemployment

  • claiming benefits was easy and took away the incentive to work

    • This is because state provision is generous and has created a culture of dependency

• He believed that the values and morals of the underclass (e.g. tolerating anti-social behaviour) differ from mainstream values of hard work and honesty

Evaluation

• Murray's work is supported by Oscar Lewis, who argued that a distinct culture of poverty exists

  • The culture of poverty is a set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that develop among poor people

  • These values are passed down from one generation to the next, creating a cycle of poverty that is hard to break

• The underclass as a term is used as a label that:

  • 'blames the victims' for their misfortunes (Crompton, 2008)

  • stigmatises people and distances them from the rest of society

• Murray's work has been criticised for its poor evidence base

  • Much of the research evidence suggests that the benefit system does not have the effect that he claims

  • Welfare state provision is far from generous

• Many of the underclass actually have traditional attitudes and aspirations, such as having stable relationships and paid employment

• Members of the underclass can be seen as the victims of the structure of society rather than the cause of social problems

  • For example, during recessions, unemployment increases so poverty increases

  • Limited employment opportunities are creating increasing unemployment

  • Those from poorer backgrounds often struggle to achieve in school and this can limit their employment prospects

  • The benefits system fails to meet people's needs as they are too low

• The social democratic perspective argues that the welfare state does not create an underclass but:

  • protects the vulnerable from the inequality of capitalism

  • ensures that people with disabilities and limited qualifications can provide for themselves and their families

  • helps people that have ended up in their position due to circumstance and not by choice

• Sociologists argue that the focus should be on the 'overclass', i.e. the rich and powerful groups in society

Impact of globalisation on UK poverty

• Some commentators argue that globalisation, a by-product of capitalism, has increased inequality between countries and within them

• The downturn in the global economy led to a financial crisis and recession in the UK between 2008 and 2010

• This resulted in:

  • increased job insecurity

  • job losses

  • redundancies

  • unemployment

• At the same time, the rising costs of fuel and food led to increases in the costs of living, which affects those on low incomes

The cost of living crisis

• Since early 2021, the cost of living, or the amount of money people need for necessities such as food, shelter and energy, has been increasing across the UK

• Price increases are the result of several factors, such as:

  • strong consumer demand for goods; a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns

  • supply chain issues due to consumer demand and higher business costs

  • Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine has contributed to soaring energy and fuel prices

• The number of people in food insecure households rose from from 4.7 million to 7.2 million people between 2021/22 and 2022/23 (House of Commons Library, 2024)

• This means 11% of people lived in food-insecure households in 2022/23, including 17% of children

• Between April 2023 and March 2024, Trussell distributed more than 3.1 million emergency food parcels to people, which is an increase of 94% over the past five years (Trussell Trust, 2004)