Comparative Assessment of Methods for Measuring Consensual Poverty: Sort Card Versus CAPI

Poverty means more than having a low income and includes exclusion from a minimally accepted way of life. It is now common practice in Europe to measure progress against poverty in terms of low income, material deprivation rates and some combination of both. This makes material deprivation indicators, and their selection, highly significant in its own right. The ‘consensual poverty’ approach is to identify deprivation items which a majority of the population agree constitute life’s basic necessities, accepting that these items will need revised over time to reflect social change. Traditionally, this has been carried out in the UK through specialised poverty surveys using a Sort Card (SC) technique.

Based on analysis of a 2012 omnibus survey, and discussions with three interviewers, this article examines how perception of necessities is affected by mode of administration – SC and Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). More CAPI respondents scored deprivation items necessary. Greatest disparities are in material items where 25 out of 32 items were significantly higher via CAPI. Closer agreement is found in social participation with 3 out of 14 activities significantly different. Consensus is higher on children’s material deprivation.
We consider influencing variables which could account for the disparities and believe that the SC method produces a more considered response. However, in light of technological advances, we question how long the SC method will remain socially acceptable. This paper concludes that the CAPI method can be easily modified without compromising the benefits of the SC method in capturing thoughtful responses.

The relationship between poverty, child abuse and neglect: an evidence review.

The review aimed to investigate two central issues.
1.To what extent is there evidence that poverty increases the amount of child abuse and neglect (CAN), and/or affects the nature of child abuse and neglect? How does this occur, how large are these effects and to whom do they apply?
2.To what extent is there evidence that CAN increases poverty later in life, how large are these effects and to whom do they apply?
Within these two issues evidence about equality and diversity, and cost were considered throughout.

Failure to produce an anti-poverty strategy: The Committee on the Administration’s Application [2015] NIQB 59, June 30, 2015

This is a note on the Northern Ireland High Court decision of 30 June 2015 that the Northern Ireland Executive had acted unlawfully in failing to fulfil its statutory duty to adopt a strategy setting out proposals for tackling poverty, social exclusion and patterns of deprivation based on objective need.

Do the psychological impacts of war cause poverty?: Evidence from Mozambique

This paper evaluates the extent to which war-related psychological distress causes poverty. The endogeneous nature of mental distress is addressed by using exposure to the civil war in Mozambique as an instrument. It is found that exposure to war has a significant and positive long-lasting impact on mental distress. Furthermore, the causal impact of war-related psychological distress on income and wealth is shown to be significant, negative, and nonnegligible. One standard deviation increase in mental distress decreases income by half a standard deviation. These findings are robust to alternative specifications, including the use of an alternative database on the incidence of PTSD in Mozambique.

The Clemente Course in the Humanities and critical pedagogy : a comparative analysis of Earl Shorris and bell hooks on poverty, racism, imperialism and patriarchy

The Clemente Course in the Humanities is an anti-poverty intervention for adults who self-identity as "poor" and humanities instructors. The course was created in 1995 by journalist Earl Shorris, who based the curriculum on a Socratic method of pedagogy and the "great books" canon of Robert Hutchins. It began as a community-based initiative in urban US settings, but since 1997 Mayan, Yup'ik and Cherokee iterations have been created, as well as on-campus bridge courses for non-traditional students to explore college-level education in Canada and the USA. The course potentially conflicts with critical pedagogy because the critical theories of Paulo Freire and contemporary cultural studies reject traditional notions of both the canon and teaching. However, a comparison between Shorris' and bell hooks' theories of oppression reveals significant similarities between his "surround of force" and her "capitalist imperialist white supremacist patriarchy," with implications for liberal studies and critical pedagogy.

Narratives of Experience in Education: Living and Working Through Poverty in a Rural Community

In this study, I use my own experiences in education as a former elementary student, research assistant, and as a current secondary school teacher, to examine how living in a marginalised rural community challenged by poverty affected my formal education. The purpose of this study was to use stories to: (a) explore my formative elementary education growing up in a community that was experiencing poverty, and; (b) to examine the impact and implications of these experiences for me as a teacher and researcher considering the topic of poverty and education. This study used narrative inquiry to explore stories of education, focusing on experiences living and working in a rural community. My role in the study was both as participant and researcher as I investigate, through story, how I was raised in a marginalised, rural community faced with challenges of poverty and how I relate to my current role as a teacher working in a similar, rural high school. My own experiences and reflections form the basis of the study, but I used the contributions of secondary participants to offer alternative perspective of my interpretation of events. Participants in this study were asked to write about and/or retell their lived stories of working in areas affected by challenging circumstances. From my stories and those of secondary participants, three themes were explored: student authorship, teaching practice, and community involvement. An examination of these themes through commonplaces of place, sociality and time (Connelly and Clandinin, 2006) provide a context for other educators and researchers to consider or reconsider teaching practices in school communities affected by poverty.

Poverty and Education: Preparing Teacher Candidates for Economically Diverse Classroom Environments

The poverty rate in Ontario affects approximately 1 in 6 children. Consequently, many classrooms in the province include students who come from poverty, and teachers are faced with the challenge of providing an equitable education to students who come from economically diverse backgrounds. Because student poverty in our education system is so prevalent, this challenge exists also for teacher candidates who enter the education system and complete their practicums in classrooms that often include students from impoverished backgrounds. This project examined issues of poverty and education and developed a workshop to assist teacher candidates to develop knowledge in this area. The project combined existing pedagogical approaches with participants’ recommendations and developed a workshop that could be delivered to Faculty of Education students. The workshop addresses poverty, the relationship between poverty and education, student academic achievement and well-being, and the relationship between school and home. The goal and hope of the workshop is that teacher candidates will be better prepared when working in economically diverse school environments.

Soil-Transmitted Helminths, Poverty, and Malnutrition in Honduran Children Living in Remote Rural Communities

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are endemic in Honduras, but their prevalence according to the levels of poverty in the population has not been examined. The present cross-sectional study is aimed to determine the role of different levels of poverty in STH prevalence and infection intensity as well as the potential associations of STH infections with malnutrition and anemia. Research participants were children attending a medical brigade serving remote communities in Northern Honduras in June 2014. Demographic data were obtained, and poverty levels were determined using the unsatisfied basic needs method. STH infections were investigated by the Kato-Katz method; hemoglobin concentrations were determined with the HemoCue system; and stunting, thinness, and underweight were determined by anthropometry. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariable logistic regression models. Among 130 children who participated in this study, a high prevalence (69.2%) of parasitism was found and the poorest children were significantly more infected than those living in less poor communities (79.6% vs. 61.8%; P = 0.030). Prevalence rates of Trichuris trichiura, Ascaris lumbricoides, and hookworms were 69.2%, 12.3%, and 3.85%, respectively. In total, 69% of children had anemia and 30% were stunted. Households’ earthen floor and lack of latrines were associated with infection. Greater efforts should be made to reduce STH prevalence and improve overall childhood health, in particular, among the poorest children lacking the basic necessities of life.

Poverty and Time

We examine the measurement of individual poverty in an intertemporal context. In contrast to earlier contributions, we assign importance to the persistence in a state of poverty and we characterize a class of individual intertemporal poverty measures reflecting this feature. In addition, we axiomatize an aggregation procedure to obtain intertemporal poverty measures for entire societies and we illustrate our new indices with an application to EU countries.

Pogge -vs- Sen on Global Poverty and Human Rights

This Paper is part of a broader project examining the ways in which Amartya Sen’s “capability approach” provides a framework for thinking about global poverty as a denial or a violation of basic human rights. The Paper compares the “capability approach” as a basis for thinking about global poverty and human rights with the alternative framework developed by Thomas Pogge. Both the “capability approach” and Pogge’s theory of “severe poverty as a violation of negative duties” support the idea of “freedom from severe poverty as a basic human right”. However, there are important differences. The Paper examines the limitations of Pogge’s “apparent minimalism” and establishes the ways in which Sen’s treatment of the “capability approach” and human rights moves beyond a “minimalist normative position” whilst avoiding Pogge’s charge of “implausibility”.

Multidimensional Poverty and Material Deprivation

We examine the measurement of multidimensional poverty and material deprivation following the counting approach. In contrast to earlier contributions, dimensions of well-being are not forced to be equally important but different weights can be assigned to different dimensions. We characterize a class of individual measures reflecting this feature. In addition, we axiomatize an aggregation procedure to obtain a class of indices for entire societies allowing for different degrees of inequality aversion in poverty. We apply the proposed measures to European Union member states where the concept of material deprivation was initiated.

Challenging Indifference to Extreme Poverty: Considering Southern Perspectives on Global Citizenship and Change

Canadian universities are expanding opportunities for students to travel, study, volunteer and work abroad for academic credit, especially in regions of the global south often called “developing countries.” It is widely assumed that exposure to extreme poverty through shortterm placements overseas will make young Canadians and other Northerners into “global citizens” who would by definition be incapable of indifference to the lack of freedom that accompanies extreme poverty. This paper asks whether it is warranted for Northerners to attain a claim to global citizenship via this mechanism, especially in light of the burdens falling upon Southern organizations that host young people from Canada and elsewhere.