What is poverty?

15 Dead, 40 Injured
in Food Stampede in
Morocco
a local and reliable news website, reported that people were rushing for food aid
whose value was about $16 per person
November 19, 2017 
Malaysia stampede: Two
elderly women die in crush
at free food giveaway in
Kuala Lumpur
 29 January 2019
• A survey conducted in 2014 by the Department of Statistics Malaysia
(DOSM), on a sample size of 81,634 households, shares the preliminary
data that only one percent of these households were living below the
poverty line index.
• That’s right – Malaysia has a poverty population of one percent, meaning
that only 300,000 people of 33.3 million are living in poverty in Malaysia.
• Poverty in Malaysia is a controversial economic and political issue. The
definition of poverty and the poverty line in Malaysia has been disputed
for years and causes much political uproar, including political protests
and debates.
Poverty
• Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs
including food, clothing and shelter. 
• However, poverty is:

more, much more than just not

having enough money!
Poverty = Food insecurity
• Poverty and food security are intricately interlinked.
• Without an income or resources to grow food people are likely to
become ill and to be unable to work to produce food or earn an
income

• Food insecurity is defined as the disruption of food intake or eating

patterns because of lack of money and other resource
Merenung masa depan…!
The World Bank Organization describes
poverty in this way:
• “Poverty is hunger.
• Poverty is lack of shelter.
• Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor.
• Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read.
• Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a
time.
….more
• Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across
time, and has been described in many ways. 
• Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape.
• So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a
call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat,
adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from
violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.”
In addition to a lack of money,
• Poverty is about not being able to participate in recreational activities; not
being able to send children on a day trip with their schoolmates or to a
birthday party; not being able to pay for medications for an illness. 
• These are all costs of being poor. Those people who are barely able to pay
for food and shelter simply can’t consider these other expenses. 
• When people are excluded within a society, when they are not well
educated and when they have a higher incidence of illness, there are
negative consequences for society. 
• We all pay the price for poverty.  The increased cost on the health system,
the justice system and other systems that provide supports to those living in
poverty has an impact on our economy.
• There is no one cause of poverty, and the results of it are different in
every case.
• Poverty varies considerably depending on the situation. Feeling poor
in Canada is different from living in poverty in Russia or Zimbabwe. 
• The differences between rich and poor within the borders of a
country can also be great.
Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. 
• The causes of poverty include poor people’s lack of resources, unequal
income distribution in the world and within specific countries, conflict, and
hunger itself.
• As of 2016 (2012 statistics), the World Bank has estimated that there were
896 million poor people in developing countries who live on $1.90 a day or
less.
• This compares with compared with 1.95 billion in 1990, and 1.99 billion in
1981. This means that 12.7 percent of people in the developing world lived
at or below $1.90 a day in 2011, down from 37 percent in 1990 and 44
percent in 1981. (This compares with the FAO estimate above of 791 million
people living in chronic undernourishment in developing countries.)
Hunger concepts and definitions

• Hunger is a term which has three meanings (Oxford English Dictionary

1971)
• the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also
the exhausted condition caused by want of food
• the want or scarcity of food in a country
• a strong desire or craving
World hunger 
• Refers to the second definition, aggregated to the world level. The
related technical term (in this case operationalized in medicine) is
either malnutrition, or, if malnutrition is taken to refer to both under
nutrition and over nutrition (obesity, overweight) as it increasingly is,
under nutrition.
• Both malnutrition and under nutrition refer to the effects on people
of not having enough food.
There are two major types of malnutrition:

• Protein-energy malnutrition - resulting from deficiencies in any or all

nutrients
• Micronutrient deficiency diseases - resulting from a deficiency of specific
micronutrients
There are three types of protein-energy malnutrition in
children:

Type Appearance Cause

Acute malnutrition Wasting or thinness Acute inadequate nutrition leading to rapid weight loss or failure to
gain weight normally
Chronic malnutrition Stunting or Inadequate nutrition over long period of time leading to failure of
shortness linear growth
Acute and chronic Underweight A combination measure, therefore, it could occur as a result of
malnutrition wasting, stunting, or both
Wasting and stunting are very different forms
of malnutrition.
• Stunting is chronic and its causative factors are poorly understood.
Stunting usually does not pose an immediate threat to life and is
relatively common in many populations in less-developed countries.
This is not to say that it is unimportant, just less important than
wasting in humanitarian emergencies.
• Wasting results from an acute shortage of food, is reversible with
refeeding, and has a relatively high mortality rate. For these reasons,
wasting is the highest priority form of malnutrition in humanitarian
emergencies.
These forms of protein-energy malnutrition in
children can be pictured like this:
There are two basic types of
malnutrition/under nutrition.
• The first and most important is protein-energy malnutrition (PEM). It is
basically a lack of calories and protein.
• Food is converted into energy by humans, and the energy contained in
food is measured by calories.
• Protein is necessary for key body functions including provision of
essential amino acids and development and maintenance of muscles.
• Protein-energy malnutrition is the more lethal form of
malnutrition/hunger and is the type of malnutrition that is referred to
when world hunger is discussed.
• This leads to growth failure.
Principal types of growth failure are:
marasmus
Marasmus occurs more often in young children and babies. It leads to
dehydration and weight loss. Starvation is a form of this disorder. The
symptoms of marasmus include:
• weight loss
• dehydration
• chronic diarrhoea
• stomach shrinkage
Principal types of growth failure are:
kwashiokor
Kwashiorkor occurs in people who have a severe protein deficiency. Children
who develop kwashiorkor are often older than children who develop
marasmus. Having a diet that’s mainly carbohydrates can lead to this condition
• The symptoms of kwashiorkor include:
• edema, or puffy or swollen appearance due to fluid retention
• bulging of the abdomen
• an inability to grow or gain weight
• You’re at an increased risk for kwashiorkor if you live in a rural area where
there’s limited access to protein-rich foods. Children who have been weaned
off of breast milk are also at an increased risk if they don’t have access to
protein-rich foods.
Number of hungry people in the world

• The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that

about 795 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world, or one
in nine, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2014-2016.
• Almost all the hungry people, 780 million, live in developing
countries, representing 12.9 percent, or one in eight, of the
population of developing counties.
• There are 11 million people undernourished in developed countries
(FAO 2015; for individual country estimates, see Annex 1. For other
valuable sources, especially if interested in particular countries or
regions, see IFPRI 2016 )
Bon appetits!
Stratification
Describes the way in which different groups of people are placed within
society.
• The status of people is often determined by how society is stratified - the basis
of which can include;
• Wealth and income - This is the most common basis of stratification
• Social class
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Political status
• Religion (e.g. the caste system in India)
• The stratification of society is also based upon either an open, or closed, system.
Theory Snapshot

Theoretical perspective Major assumptions

Stratification is necessary to induce people with special

intelligence, knowledge, and skills to enter the most
Functionalism
important occupations. For this reason, stratification is
necessary and inevitable.

Stratification results from lack of opportunity and from

Conflict theory discrimination and prejudice against the poor, women,
and people of color. It is neither necessary nor inevitable.

Stratification affects people’s beliefs, lifestyles, daily

Symbolic interactionism
interaction, and conceptions of themselves.
Functionalist View
• Functionalist theory assumes that society’s structures and processes
exist because they serve important functions for society’s stability and
continuity.
• In line with this view, functionalist theorists in sociology assume that
stratification exists because it also serves important functions for
society.
• This explanation was developed more than sixty years ago by Kingsley
Davis and Wilbert Moore (Davis & Moore, 1945) in the form of several
logical assumptions that imply stratification is both necessary and
inevitable. 
Functionalist on Poverty
• Poverty exists because it serves certain positive functions for our society. These
functions include the following:
• poor people do the work that other people do not want to do;
• the programs that help poor people provide a lot of jobs for the people employed by the
programs;
• the poor purchase goods, such as day-old bread and used clothing, that other people do
not wish to purchase, and thus extend the economic value of these goods; and
• the poor provide jobs for doctors, lawyers, teachers, and other professionals who may not
be competent enough to be employed in positions catering to wealthier patients, clients,
students, and so forth (Gans, 1972).
• Because poverty serves all these functions and more, according to this argument,
the middle and upper classes have a vested interested in neglecting poverty to
help ensure its continued existence.
Conflict View
• Conflict theory’s explanation of stratification draws on Karl Marx’s view of
class societies and incorporates the critique of the functionalist view just
discussed.
• Many different explanations grounded in conflict theory exist, but they all
assume that stratification stems from a fundamental conflict between the
needs and interests of the powerful, or “haves,” in society and those of the
weak, or “have-nots” (Kerbo, 2012).
• The former take advantage of their position at the top of society to stay at
the top, even if it means oppressing those at the bottom.
• At a minimum, they can heavily influence the law, the media, and other
institutions in a way that maintains society’s class structure.
Conflict View on Poverty
• Attributes stratification and thus poverty to lack of opportunity from
discrimination and prejudice against the poor, women, and people of
color.
• In this regard, it reflects one of the early critiques of the functionalist
view that the previous section outlined.
Symbolic interactionism
• Consistent with its micro orientation, it tries to understand
stratification and thus poverty by looking at people’s interaction and
understandings in their daily lives.
• Unlike the functionalist and conflict views, it does not try to explain
why we have stratification in the first place.
• Rather, it examines the differences that stratification makes for
people’s lifestyles and their interaction with other people.
The nature of Symbolic Interactionism
• Many detailed, insightful sociological books on the lives of the urban
and rural poor reflect the symbolic interactionist perspective
(Anderson, 1999; C. M. Duncan, 2000; Liebow, 1993; Rank, 1994).
• These books focus on different people in different places, but they all
make very clear that the poor often lead lives of quiet desperation
and must find ways of coping with the fact of being poor.
• In these books, the consequences of poverty discussed in great detail
what it is like to live in poverty on a daily basis.
• Some classic journalistic accounts by authors not trained in the social
sciences also present eloquent descriptions of poor people’s lives
(Bagdikian, 1964; Harrington, 1962).
• Writing in this tradition, a newspaper columnist who grew up in
poverty recently recalled,
• “I know the feel of thick calluses on the bottom of shoeless feet. I
know the bite of the cold breeze that slithers through a drafty house. I
know the weight of constant worry over not having enough to fill a
belly or fight an illness…Poverty is brutal, consuming and unforgiving.
It strikes at the soul” (Blow, 2011).
• On a more light-hearted note, examples of the symbolic interactionist
framework are also seen in the many literary works and films that
portray the difficulties that the rich and poor have in interacting on
the relatively few occasions when they do interact.
Specific Explanations of Poverty

• The functionalist and conflict views focus broadly on social stratification but only
indirectly on poverty. When poverty finally attracted national attention during
the 1960s, scholars began to try specifically to understand why poor people
become poor and remain poor.
• Two competing explanations developed, with the basic debate turning on
whether poverty arises from problems either within the poor themselves or in
the society in which they live (Rank, 2011).
• The first type of explanation follows logically from the functional theory of
stratification and may be considered an individualistic explanation.
• The second type of explanation follows from conflict theory and is a structural
explanation that focuses on problems in American society that produce poverty.
Explanations of Poverty

Explanation Major assumptions

Poverty results from the fact that poor people lack the motivation to
Individualistic work and have certain beliefs and values that contribute to their
poverty.

Poverty results from problems in society that lead to a lack of

Structural
opportunity and a lack of jobs.
Individualistic Explanation

• The poor have personal problems and deficiencies that are responsible for their
poverty. In the past, the poor were thought to be biologically inferior, a view that
has not entirely faded, but today the much more common belief is that they lack
the ambition and motivation to work hard and to achieve success.
• According to survey evidence, the majority of Americans share this belief
(Davidson, 2009). A more sophisticated version of this type of explanation is called
the culture of poverty theory (Banfield, 1974; Lewis, 1966; Murray, 2012).
• According to this theory, the poor generally have beliefs and values that differ
from those of the nonpoor and that doom them to continued poverty. For
example, they are said to be impulsive and to live for the present rather than the
future.
• Regardless of which version one might hold, the individualistic explanation is a
blaming-the-victim approach.
• Critics say this explanation ignores discrimination and other problems in
American society and exaggerates the degree to which the poor and nonpoor do
in fact hold different values (Ehrenreich, 2012; Holland, 2011; Schmidt, 2012).
• Regarding the latter point, they note that poor employed adults work more hours
per week than wealthier adults and that poor parents interviewed in surveys
value education for their children at least as much as wealthier parents.
• These and other similarities in values and beliefs lead critics of the individualistic
explanation to conclude that poor people’s poverty cannot reasonably be said to
result from a culture of poverty.
Structural Explanation

• which is a blaming-the-system approach, e.g. US poverty stems from problems in

American society that lead to a lack of equal opportunity and a lack of jobs.
• These problems include
• Racial, ethnic, gender, and age discrimination;
• Lack of good schooling and adequate health care; and
• Structural changes in the American economic system, such as the departure of
manufacturing companies from American cities in the 1980s and 1990s that led
to the loss of thousands of jobs.
• These problems help create a vicious cycle of poverty in which children of the
poor are often fated to end up in poverty or near poverty themselves as adults.
As Rank (Rank, 2011) summarizes this view,
• “American poverty is largely the result of failings at the economic and
political levels, rather than at the individual level…In contrast to [the
individualistic] perspective, the basic problem lies in a shortage of
viable opportunities for all Americans.”
• Rank points out that the US economy during the past few decades has
created more low-paying and part-time jobs and jobs without
benefits, meaning that Americans increasingly find themselves in jobs
that barely lift them out of poverty, if at all.
Fred Block and colleagues share this critique
of the individualistic perspective:
• “Most of our policies incorrectly assume that people can avoid or
overcome poverty through hard work alone. Yet this assumption
ignores the realities of our failing urban schools, increasing
employment insecurities, and the lack of affordable housing, health
care, and child care. It ignores the fact that the American Dream is
rapidly becoming unattainable for an increasing number of
Americans, whether employed or not” (Block, et. al., 2006).
• How far our society differ from Them
The Question!

•In explaining poverty in Malaysia, which

view, individualist or structural, makes
more sense to you? Why?