Understanding Poverty

Elizabeth Seale is Professor of Sociology at SUNY Oneonta.

• 1. On UnderstandingPoverty in the U.S.My Research ExperienceHow We Think and Talk about PovertyA Relational ApproachWhat a Relational Approach ContributesRelations of Vulnerability and the Desire for DignityAims and Overview of the Book 2. Who Are the Poor? Defining and Measuring PovertyMobilityDiversitySimilarity to and Difference from the NonpoorConclusion 3. Family and ParentingSingle Mother HouseholdsYoung MomsChild MaltreatmentConclusion 4. CultureHistorical Context Culture of Poverty and PolicyProblems with the Culture of Poverty ArgumentsContemporary Research on Culture and PovertyA Culture of Dependency or a Culture of Blame?Conclusion 5. Structure and Social RelationsHow Structure Creates PovertySocial Policy: Punishing the PoorThe Limits of StructuralismA Relational Approach 6. Opportunity and Personal AutonomyGoing to CollegeFinding (Better) EmploymentGeneral AutonomyConclusion 7. Vulnerability and DignityThe Relations of Poverty Changing Our Thinking about PovertyThe Significance of a Relational ApproachConclusion

“Too often those in poverty encounter blame and disrespect. In this compelling and original book, Seale shifts attention to where it belongs: the social relationships of unequal power that produce and sustain poverty’s ill effects. Beautifully written and long overdue!”Judith Levine, Temple University College of Liberal Arts“Elizabeth Seale has gifted us with a wide-ranging introduction to poverty research and policy. Most importantly, she has reinterpreted past research through a thoroughly relational lens. She convincingly demonstrates that it is a mistake to think of poverty as the result of individuals making bad choices or groups having bad cultures or even societies having harmful structures. The central sociological insight that ties this book together is that poverty is produced in relationships that channel action, generate vulnerabilities, and in the end deny dignity.”Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, University of Massachusetts, Amherst