Culture of poverty

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Culture of poverty is a term coined by the American ethnologist Oscar Lewis (1914–1970) ( English culture of poverty ). According to Lewis, the way of life of members of the culture of poverty is shaped by patterns of thought and action that are passed on from generation to generation within the cultural unit. Lewis stresses, however, that not all poor are members of the culture of poverty; There are also other cultural milieus among the impoverished population in poor countries .

The culture of poverty is characterized by the desire to meet needs immediately - long-term strategies are hardly pursued. Lewis himself describes the culture of poverty as follows:

“The poor are forced to live in overcrowded slums; to forego any possibility of being alone; to eke out a herd existence; to repeatedly seek refuge in alcohol and often to use brute force not only in settling their disputes, but also in bringing up their children. Another characteristic of the way of life of these social classes is that the women are often beaten by their husbands. Sex life begins early; one marries by oral agreement and lives in free relationships; many men abandon their wives and children, so there are innumerable families centered around the mother and her relatives. [… It is typical] a strong orientation towards the immediate present with little willingness to deny a momentary wish and to plan for the future; a feeling of resignation and fatalism that is justified in one's own difficult life situation; the belief in male superiority, which grows up to the cult of masculinity (machismo); a martyr complex among women according to this belief and a high degree of tolerance towards all kinds of psychological pathology. "

Other characteristics of the culture of poverty are:

  • Insufficient integration into social institutions (with the exception of the military and welfare state institutions)
  • constant shortage of money, borrowing money, pledging objects
  • insufficient education, illiteracy
  • Distrust of the police and the government

Lewis spoke out against stigmatizing the poor. The culture of poverty reflects economic inequality and injustice . A redistribution of wealth is not enough, however, to break the culture of poverty. It is firmly rooted in the socialization process of the poor sections of the population . Lewis hoped to be overcome through reform politics, the expansion of social work and therapies for the poor and people with behavioral problems.

See also

literature

  • Dieter Goetze : "Culture of Poverty" - A search for traces. In: Stephan Leibfried, Wolfgang Voges (Ed.): Poverty in the modern welfare state. In: Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology. Special issue 32, 1992, pp. 88-103.
  • Michael Grüttner : The culture of poverty. Mobile workers during industrialization. In: Social Movements. Yearbook 3: Poverty and Exclusion. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1987, pp. 12–32.
  • Rolf Lindner : What is the “culture of poverty”? Notes on Oscar Lewis. In: Sebastian Herkommer (Ed.): Social exclusions. Hamburg 1999, pp. 171–178.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oscar Lewis : Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty. 1959 (English).
  2. ↑ Oscar Lewis: La Vida. A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty. San Juan / New York 1966 (English).
  3. ↑ Oscar Lewis: The Children of Sanchez. Self-portrait of a Mexican family. Econ, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1963, pp. 28-29.
  4. ↑ Entry: Poverty. (No longer available online.) In: revision.notes.co.uk. UK-Learning, 2002, archived from the original on February 28, 2009 ; accessed on October 6, 2019 (English, study materials).
  5. ↑ Manfred Berg : Structural Racism or Pathological Social Behavior? In: Winfried Fluck , Helf Werner: How much inequality can democracy tolerate? Wealth and Poverty in the United States. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 2003, p. 58.