What Is Social Poverty?

The effects of poverty can be plainly seen in how need affects a person’s quality of life. These effects can appear as minimal resources, limited options and an overall complacency towards the forces that prevail. Social poverty looks at the conditions that create an individual's or population’s circumstances and the state of mind that can develop as a result.

Poverty

• A state of poverty can reveal itself through minimal income and means, or it can manifest in the way a population views itself and its place in the world. And while both types of poverty can exist in the same context, social poverty refers to the underlying factors that give rise to overall lack, according to the Seattle Community Network. In effect, “lack” becomes a symptom of the condition that causes it. An example of this might be how certain regions or countries remain in need in spite of ongoing aid and assistance while others, devastated by crisis or war, can reestablish a certain level of self-sufficiency over time.

Function

• According to the Seattle Community Network, social poverty has its roots in the prevailing culture and norms of a population or society. Underlying conditions that perpetuate poverty relate to a lack of knowledge, poor health, an all-pervasive apathy, a loss of sincerity or honesty, and an accepted sense of dependency. These conditions, in turn, affect a person’s ability to choose outside of the circumstances he finds himself in. In effect, these conditions become norms that influence a person’s perspective and ability to change his circumstances.

Causes

• According to the Partnership to End Poverty resource site, social poverty can originate in different ways, depending on the areas affected most by lack. A family history of poverty involves a set of learned behaviors and perspectives that creates limitations on how a person views his ability to change. Chronic physical disorders or mental impairments can also affect an individual's or population's sense of autonomy. Poor education can leave individuals unaware of available opportunities and choices. Limited exposure and influence within community or civic activities can further perpetuate a population’s sense of powerlessness.

Effects

• The effects of social poverty can give rise to social problems that further reinforce a person’s perspective on his circumstances, according to the Seattle Community Network. Under-employment can develop as a result of ineffective educational resources. A lack of leadership within a community can arise from limited exposure to the organizational approach provided by community and civic organizations. With little to no voice in community projects, areas can begin to deteriorate with no infrastructure in place to maintain and restore them.

Potential

• As social poverty stems from a form of social isolation and detachment, efforts to regain a sense of autonomy and self-sufficiency rely on a population’s ability to identify the factors that contribute to conditions of lack, according to the Seattle Community Network. The limiting perspectives imposed by conditions of social poverty may require individuals within a population to look at the big picture in terms of how each factor reinforces the others. By acknowledging existing resources and skills, a population can use them to move beyond their present circumstances.