1932
0
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Annual Review of Sociology
  4. Volume 44, 2018
  5. Article

Annual Review of Sociology

Volume 44, 2018

Poverty in America: New Directions and Debates

Abstract

Reviewing recent research on poverty in the United States, we derive a conceptual framework with three main characteristics. First, poverty is multidimensional, compounding material hardship with human frailty, generational trauma, family and neighborhood violence, and broken institutions. Second, poverty is relational, produced through connections between the truly advantaged and the truly disadvantaged. Third, a component of this conceptual framework is transparently normative, applying empirical research to analyze poverty as a matter of justice, not just economics. Throughout, we discuss conceptual, methodological, and policy-relevant implications of this perspective on the study of extreme disadvantage in America.

Keyword(s): correlated adversity, exploitation, health, history, lived experience, poverty, public policy, social suffering, violence
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053411
2018-07-30
2024-04-20
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/soc/44/1/annurev-soc-060116-053411.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053411&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Addams J 1899. Trade unions and public duty. Am. J. Soc. 4:448–62
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Addams J 1910. Twenty Years at Hull House New York: Macmillan
  3. Alkire S, Foster J 2011. Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. J. Public Econ. 95:476–87
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Anand S, Sen A 1997. Concepts of human development and poverty: a multidimensional perspective. Human Development Papers1–20 New York: UN Dev. Programme
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Anderson E 2000. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City New York: W.W. Norton
  6. Atkinson AB 2003. Multidimensional deprivation: contrasting social welfare and counting approaches. J. Econ. Inequal. 1:51–65
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Auyero J, Swistun DA 2009. Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  8. Avent-Holt D, Tomaskovic-Devey D 2010. The relational basis of inequality: generic and contingent wage distribution processes. Work Occup 37:162–93
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Barry B 2005. Why Social Justice Matters Cambridge, UK: Polity
  10. Bayley D, Shearing C 1996. The future of policing. Law Soc. Rev. 30:585–606
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Black T 2009. When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers on and Off the Streets New York: Pantheon
  12. Blau P, Duncan O 1967. The American Occupational Structure New York: Wiley
  13. Booth C 1903. Life and Labour of the People of London. Second Series. Industry 5 London: Macmillan
  14. Bourgois P, Schonberg J 2009. Righteous Dopefiend Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  15. Brauer C 1982. Kennedy, Johnson, and the War on Poverty. J. Am. Hist. 69:98–119
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Caplovitz D 1967. The Poor Pay More: Consumer Practices of Low-Income Families New York: Free Press
  17. Caskey J 1994. Fringe Banking: Check-Cashing Outlets, Pawnshops, and the Poor. New York: Russell: Sage Found.
  18. Chung C, Myers S 1999. Do the poor pay more for food? An analysis of grocery store availability and food price disparities. J. Consum. Aff. 33:276–96
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Citro C, Michael R 1995. Measuring Poverty: A New Approach Washington, DC: Natl. Acad. Press
  20. Comfort M, Lopez A, Powers C, Kral A, Lorvick J 2015. How institutions deprive: ethnography, social work, and interventionist ethics among the hypermarginalized. RSF 1:1100–19
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Contreras R 2013. The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence, and the American Dream Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  22. Correia MM 2014. Political connections and SEC enforcement. J. Account. Econ. 57:241–62
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Dahrendorf R 1959. Class and Class Conflict Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
  24. Desmond M 2015. Severe deprivation in America: an introduction. RSF 1:1–11
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Desmond M 2016. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City New York: Crown
  26. Desmond M, Papachristos A, Kirk D 2016. Police violence and citizen crime reporting in the black community. Am. Sociol. Rev. 81:857–76
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Du Bois WEB 1899. The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study Philadelphia: Univ. Penn. Press
  28. Duneier M 1999. Sidewalk New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  29. Edelman P 2018. Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America New York: The New Press
  30. Edin K, Shaefer HL 2015. $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  31. Evans G 2004. The environment of childhood poverty. Am. Psychol. 59:77–92
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Fleischacker S 2004. A Short History of Distributive Justice Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  33. Freudenberg N 2014. Lethal but Legal: Corporations, Consumption and Protecting Public Health New York: Oxford Univ. Press
  34. Gans H 1995. The War Against the Poor New York: Basic Books
  35. Garland D 1991. Sociological perspectives on punishment. Crime Justice 14:115–65
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Glaeser E, Shapiro J 2003. The benefits of the home mortgage interest deduction. Tax Policy Econ 17:37–82
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Goff L 2017. Pricing justice: the wasteful enterprise of America's bail system. Brooklyn Law Rev 82:825–80
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Goffman A 2014. On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  39. Harris A 2016. A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor New York: Russell Sage Found.
  40. Harris A, Evans H, Beckett K 2011. Courtesy stigma and monetary sanctions: toward a socio-cultural theory of punishment. Am. Sociol. Rev. 76:234–64
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Heclo HH 1997. Values underpinning poverty programs for children. Future Child 7:141–48
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Henry L 2010. The jurisprudence of dignity. Univ. Penn. Law Rev. 160:169–232
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Jencks C, Smith M, Acland H, Bane MJ, Cohen D et al. 1972. Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America New York: Basic Books
  44. Jones N 2009. Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press
  45. Kenworthy L 2011. Progress for the Poor New York: Oxford Univ. Press
  46. LeBlanc AN 2004. Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx New York: Scribner
  47. Lee J 2012. Wounded: life after the shooting. Ann. Am. Acad. Political Soc. Sci. 642:244–57
     [Google Scholar]
  48. Levitas R 2005. The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour Amsterdam: Springer
  49. Liu J, Sakamoto A, Su K 2010. Exploitation in contemporary capitalism: an empirical analysis of the case of Taiwan. Sociol. Focus 43:259–81
     [Google Scholar]
  50. Lupien S, King S, Meaney M, McEwen B 2001. Can poverty get under your skin? Basal cortisol levels and cognitive function in children from low and high socioeconomic status. Dev. Psychopathol. 13:3653–76
     [Google Scholar]
  51. Malthus TR 1890 (1798). An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1890 Edition London: Ward, Lock and Co.
  52. Marshall TH 1950. Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  53. Marx K 1877. Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production 1 New York: International Publishers
  54. Mullainathan S, Shafir E 2013. Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much New York: Macmillan
  55. Muller C, Sampson R, Winter AS 2018. Environmental inequality: the social causes and consequences of lead exposure. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 44:263–82
     [Google Scholar]
  56. Naidu S 2010. Recruitment restrictions and labor markets: evidence from the postbellum US South. J. Labor Econ. 28:413–45
     [Google Scholar]
  57. Newman K, O'Brien R 2011. Taxing the Poor: Doing Damage to the Truly Disadvantaged Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  58. Nussbaum MC 2003. Capabilities as fundamental entitlements: Sen and social justice. Fem. Econ. 9:33–59
     [Google Scholar]
  59. Nussbaum MC, Sen A 1993. The Quality of Life Oxford, UK: Clarendon:
  60. O'Connor A 2001. Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-Century US History Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  61. Orshansky M 1963. Children of the poor. Soc. Secur. Bull. 26:3–13
     [Google Scholar]
  62. Orshansky M 1965. Counting the poor. Soc. Secur. Bull. 28:3–29
     [Google Scholar]
  63. Pager D, Shepherd H 2008. The sociology of discrimination: racial discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and consumer markets. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 34:181–209
     [Google Scholar]
  64. Perkins K, Sampson R 2015. Compounded deprivation in the transition to adulthood: the intersection of racial and economic inequality among Chicagoans, 1995–2013. RSF 1:135–54
     [Google Scholar]
  65. Petersen T, Morgan L 1995. Separate and unequal: occupation-establishment sex segregation and the gender wage gap. Am. J. Sociol. 101:329–365
     [Google Scholar]
  66. Pettit B 2012. Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress New York: Russell Sage
  67. Polanyi K 1944. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time Boston: Beacon
  68. Quillian L, Pager D, Hexel O, Midtbøen AH 2017. Meta-analysis of field experiments shows no change in racial discrimination in hiring over time. PNAS 114:10870–75
     [Google Scholar]
  69. Ralph L 2014. Renegade Dreams: Living Through Injury in Gangland Chicago Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  70. Ralph L 2015. Becoming aggrieved: an alternative framework of care in black Chicago. RSF 1:231–41
     [Google Scholar]
  71. Ravallion M 2016. The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  72. Rawls J 1971. A Theory of Justice Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  73. Ricardo D 1817. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation London: John Murray
  74. Rios V 2011. Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys New York: NYU Press
  75. Rousseau JJ 1754. A Discourse on Inequality New York: Penguin Classics
  76. Rowntree BS 1902. Poverty: A Study of Town Life London: Macmillan
  77. Rugh J, Massey D 2010. Racial segregation and the American foreclosure crisis. Am. Sociol. Rev. 75:629–51
     [Google Scholar]
  78. Sakamoto A, Kim C 2010. Is rising earnings inequality associated with increased exploitation? Evidence for US manufacturing industries, 1971–1996. Sociol. Perspect. 53:19–43
     [Google Scholar]
  79. Sampson R 2012. Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  80. Sánchez-Jankowski M 2008. Cracks in the Pavement: Social Change and Resilience in Poor Neighborhoods Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  81. Sassen S 2014. Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  82. Schwartz A 2014. Housing Policy in the United States London: Routledge
  83. Schwartz S 1994. The fallacy of the ecological fallacy: the potential misuse of a concept and the consequences. Am. J. Public Health 84:819–82
     [Google Scholar]
  84. Sherman L, Strang H 2007. Restorative Justice: The Evidence London: Smith Inst.
  85. Sharkey P 2013. Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress Toward Racial Equality Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  86. Silver H 1994. Social Exclusion and Social Solidarity: Three Paradigms Geneva: Int. Inst. Labour Stud.
  87. Simon J 2017. The second coming of dignity. The New Criminal Justice Thinking S Dolovich, A Natapoff 275–307 New York: NYU Press
     [Google Scholar]
  88. Smith A 1976 (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  89. Somers M 1993. Citizenship and the place of the public sphere: law, community, and political culture in the transition to democracy. Am. Sociol. Rev. 58:587–620
     [Google Scholar]
  90. Sørensen A 2000. Toward a sounder basis for class analysis. Am. J. Sociol. 105:1523–58
     [Google Scholar]
  91. Spielman S, Folch D, Nagle N 2014. Patterns and causes of uncertainty in the American Community Survey. Appl. Geogr. 46:147–57
     [Google Scholar]
  92. Squires G, O'Connor S 1998. Fringe banking in Milwaukee: the rise of check-cashing businesses and the emergence of a two-tiered banking system. Urban Aff. Rev. 34:126–49
     [Google Scholar]
  93. Stack C 1974. All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community New York: Basic Books
  94. Stuart F 2016. Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  95. Tilly C 1998. Durable Inequality Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press
  96. Tolnay S, Beck EM 1992. Racial violence and black migration in the American South, 1910 to 1930. Am. Sociol. Rev. 57:103–16
     [Google Scholar]
  97. Tomaskovic-Devey D, Avent-Holt D 2016. Observing organizational inequality regimes. Res. Sociol. Work 28:187–212
     [Google Scholar]
  98. Waglé U 2007. Multidimensional poverty: an alternative measurement approach for the United States. Soc. Sci. Res. 37:559–80
     [Google Scholar]
  99. Wakefield S, Uggen C 2010. Incarceration and stratification. Annu. Rev. Sociol. 36:387–406
     [Google Scholar]
  100. Wakefield S, Wildeman C 2014. Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  101. Wazana A 2000. Physicians and the pharmaceutical industry: Is a gift ever just a gift. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 283:373–80
     [Google Scholar]
  102. Webb B 1948. Our Partnership London: Longmans
  103. Webb S, Webb BP 1909. The Break-Up of the Poor Law; Being Parts 1–2 of the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission London: Read Books
  104. Western B 2006. Punishment and Inequality in America New York: Russell Sage Found.
  105. Western B 2015. Lifetimes of violence in a sample of released prisoners. RSF 1:14–30
     [Google Scholar]
  106. Western B 2018. Homeward: Life in the Year after Prison New York: Russell Sage Found.
  107. Western B, Bloome D, Sosnaud B, Tach L 2016.a Trends in income insecurity among US children, 1984–2010. Demography 53:419–47
     [Google Scholar]
  108. Western B, Braga A, Hureau D, Sirois C 2016.b Study retention as bias reduction in a hard-to-reach population. PNAS 113:5477–85
     [Google Scholar]
  109. Wilson WJ 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  110. Wolf J, de-Shalit A 2007. Disadvantage Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  111. Wright EO 1997. Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  112. US Census Bur 2017. Historical Poverty Tables: People and Families—1959–2016 Washington, DC: Bur. Census
  113. Zarefsky D 2005. President Johnson's War on Poverty: Rhetoric and History Tuscaloosa: Univ. Ala. Press
  114. Zehr H 2002. The Little Book of Restorative Justice Intercourse, PA: Good Books
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053411
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error