Hostname: page-component-5f745c7db-nzk4m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-06T14:01:03.579Z Has data issue: true hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Popular Explanations of Poverty: A Critical Discussion of Empirical Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

DOROTA LEPIANKA ,
WIM VAN OORSCHOT  and
JOHN GELISSEN
DOROTA LEPIANKA*
Affiliation:
Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
WIM VAN OORSCHOT
Affiliation:
Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
JOHN GELISSEN
Affiliation:
Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
*
*email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Various authors point to the connection between public perceptions of poverty and institutionalised strategies of dealing with the poor. The way the general public perceives the poor, and especially the causes of poverty, is generally assumed to have a profound influence on the legitimacy of anti-poverty policies. Yet studies on popular perceptions of and attributions for poverty are relatively infrequent. Moreover, a considerable share of existing research appears conceptually and/or methodologically inadequate. This article provides a critical review of existing literature that is interwoven into the discussion of the two most common approaches to studying lay poverty attributions: the factor analytical approach and the forced-choice-question approach. With respect to the latter, we present an empirical analysis and interpretation of the four response categories that constitute the core of the forced-choice question included in Eurobarometer.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 421 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albrekt Larsen, C. (2005), The Three Worlds of Deservingness: A Comparative Study of Welfare Regimes, Deservingness Criteria, and Public Support for Welfare Policy, Aalborg: Center for Comparative Welfare Studies.Google Scholar
Albrekt Larsen, C. (2006), The Institutional Logic of Welfare Attitudes, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Alesina, A. and Angeletos, G. M. (2002), ‘Fairness and redistribution: US versus Europe’, NBER Working Paper No. W9502, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blekesaune, M. and Quadagno, J. (2003), ‘Public attitudes toward welfare state politics: a comparative analysis of 24 nations’, paper presented at ‘First Annual Conference of ESPAnet’, 11–13 November, Copenhagen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bullock, H. E. (1999), ‘Attributions for poverty: a comparison of middle-class and welfare recipient attitudes’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29: 2059–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bullock, H. E., Wyche, K. F. and Williams, W. R. (2001), ‘Poverty as we know it: media images of the poor’, Journal of Social Issues, 57: 2, 229–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burstein, P. (1998), ‘Bringing the public back in: should sociologists consider the impact of public opinion on public policy?’, Social Forces, 77: 1, 27–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castell, S. and Thompson, J. (2007), ‘Understanding attitudes to poverty in the UK: getting the public's attention’, http://jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=860.Google Scholar
Clawson, R. A. and Trice, R. (2000), ‘Poverty as we know it: Media portrayals of the poor’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 64: 53–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cozzarelli, C., Wilkinson, A. V. and Tagler, M. J. (2001), ‘Attitudes toward the poor and attributions for poverty’, Journal of Social Issues, 57: 207–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cramer, D. (2006), Advanced Quantitative Data Analysis, Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Dhar, R. and Simonson, I. (2003), ‘The effect of forced choice on choice’, Journal of Marketing Research, 40: 2, 146–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feagin, J. R. (1972), ‘Poverty: We still believe that God helps those who help themselves’, Psychology Today, 6: 101–29.Google Scholar
Feagin, J. R. (1975), Subordinating the Poor: Welfare and American Beliefs, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Feather, N. T. (1974), ‘Explanations of poverty in Australian and American samples: the person, society, or fate?’, Australian Journal of Psychology, 26: 199–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forma, P. (1997), ‘The rational legitimacy of the welfare state: Popular support for ten income transfer schemes in Finland’, Policy and Politics, 25: 235–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furnham, A. (1982a), ‘The perception of poverty among adolescents’, Journal of Adolescence, 5: 135–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Furnham, A. (1982b), ‘Why are the poor always with us? Explanations for poverty in Britain’, British Journal of Social Psychology, 21: 311–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furnham, A. (1982c), ‘Explanations for unemployment in Britain’, European Journal of Social Psychology, 12: 335–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallie, D. and Paugam, S. (2002), ‘Social precarity and social integration’, Report based on Eurobarometer 56.1, European Commission, Brussels.Google Scholar
Gans, H. (1995), The War Against the Poor, New York: BasicBooks.Google Scholar
Gilens, M. (1996), ‘Race and poverty in America: public misperceptions and the American news media’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 60: 515–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, M. (1999), Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media and the Politics of Anti-poverty Policy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golding, P. and Middleton, S. (1982), Images of Welfare: Press and Public Attitudes to Poverty, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hunt, M. O. (1996), ‘The individual, society or both? A comparison of Black, Latino, and White beliefs about the causes of poverty’, Social Forces, 75: 293–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, D. J. (2003), ‘Poverty and discourse’, in Carr, S. C. and Sloan, T. S. (eds), Poverty and Psychology: From Global Perspective to Local Practice, New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.Google Scholar
Jordan, B. (1996), A Theory of Poverty and Social Exclusion, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Kennamer, J. D. (1994), ‘Public opinion, the press and public policy: an introduction’, in Kennamer, J. D. (ed.), Public Opinion, the Press and Public Policy, Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar
Kluegel, J., Csepeli, G., Kolosi, T., Örkény, A. and Neményi, M. (1995), ‘Accounting for the rich and the poor: existential justice in comparative perspective’, in Kluegel, J., Mason, D. and Wegener, B. (eds), Social Justice and Political Change. Public Opinions in Capitalist and Post-Communist States, Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kluegel, J. and Smith, E. (1986), Beliefs About Inequality: American's Views of What Is and What Ought To Be, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kreidl, M. (2000), ‘Perceptions of poverty and wealth in western and post-communist countries’, Social Justice Research, 13: 151–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuran, T. (1995), Private Truths, Public Lies, London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, B. A., Jones, S. H. and Lewis, D. W. (1990), ‘Public beliefs about the causes of homelessness’, Social Forces, 69: 253–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, B. A., Lewis, D. W. and Jones, S. H. (1992), ‘Are the homeless to blame? A test of two theories’, The Sociological Quarterly, 33: 535–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemert, J. B. (1994), ‘Effective public opinion’, in Kennamer, J. D. (ed.), Public Opinion, the Press and Public Policy, Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar
Lockhart, C. (2001), Protecting the Elderly: How Culture Shapes Social Policy, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Mau, S. (2003), The Moral Economy of Welfare States: Britain and Germany Compared, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Morçöl, G. (1997), ‘Lay explanations for poverty in Turkey and their determinants’, Journal of Social Psychology, 137: 728–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nilson, L. (1981), ‘Reconsidering ideological lines: beliefs about poverty in America’, The Sociological Quarterly, 22: 531–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orton, M. and Rowlingson, K. (2007), ‘Public attitudes to economic inequality’, http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=906.Google Scholar
Park, A., Phillips, M. and Robinson, Ch. (2007), ‘Attitudes to poverty: findings from the British Social Attitudes survey’, http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=859.Google Scholar
Payne, M. and Furnham, A. (1985), ‘Explaining the causes of poverty in the West Indies: a cross-cultural comparison’, Journal of Economic Psychology, 6: 215–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riffault, H. and Rabier, J. (1977), The Perception of Poverty in Europe, Brussels: European Commission.Google Scholar
Room, G. (1997), ‘Social quality in Europe: perspectives on social exclusion’, in Beck, W., van der Maesen, L. and Walker, A. (eds.), The Social Quality of Europe, The Hague: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
Shapiro, R. Y., Patterson, K. D., Russell, J. and Young, J. T. (1987), ‘The polls: public assistance’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 51: 120–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, G. M. and Shapiro, R. Y. (2002), ‘The polls – trends: poverty and public assistance’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 66: 105–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmel, G. (1908), ‘Der Arme’, in Simmel, G. (ed.), Soziologie: Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung, Leipzig: Dunker & Humblot.Google Scholar
Smith, K. and Stone, L. (1989), ‘Rags, riches, and bootstraps: beliefs about the causes of wealth and poverty’, The Sociological Quarterly, 30: 93–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, T. W. (1987), ‘That which we call welfare by any other name would smell sweeter: an analysis of the impact of question wording on response patterns’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 51: 75–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (1983), ‘Legitimation deficit, public opinion and the welfare state’, Sociology, 17: 2, 165–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipton, L. (1994), ‘Reporting on the public mind’, in Kennamer, J. D. (ed.), Public Opinion, the Press and Public Policy, Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar
van Oorschot, W. and Halman, L. (2000), ‘Blame or fate, individual or social? An international comparison of popular explanations of poverty’, European Societies, 2: 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Oorschot, W. (2006), ‘Making the difference in social Europe: deservingness perceptions and conditionality of solidarity among citizens of European welfare states’, Journal of European Social Policy, 16: 23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, R. K., Shapiro, R.Y. and Jacobs, L. R. (1995), ‘Welfare’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 59: 606–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Will, J. A. (1993), ‘The dimensions of poverty: public perceptions of the deserving poor’, Social Science Research, 22: 312–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, G. (1996), ‘Toward a revised framework for examining beliefs about the causes of poverty’, The Sociological Quarterly, 37: 413–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, J. A. (1992), The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar