is there a gorilla in the room? rosalind p. harris and julie n. zimmerman, university of kentucky in...
TRANSCRIPT
Is There a Gorilla in the Room?
Rosalind P. Harris and Julie N. Zimmerman,
University of Kentucky
In the Shadows of Poverty: Strengthening the Rural Poverty Research Capacity of the South. July 21-23. Memphis, TN
Conceptualizing Poverty and Reconceptualizing Rural Poverty
The gorilla stopped in the middle, turned to face the camera, thumped
its chest, and then continued walking across the field of view…
Used in visual perception studies
From the field of Cognitive Psychology
It has to do with what we notice and what we fail to notice
Bottom line? Conscious perception Conscious perception
requires attentionrequires attention
Inattention BlindnessInattention Blindness
What do we miss when we What do we miss when we are busy paying attention are busy paying attention
to something else?to something else?
We applied this idea to how we conceptualize poverty…
Began to ask questions such as…
Are we busy looking at poverty and rural poverty in a particular manner?
When we do, what are we missing?
Is there a gorilla in the room?Is there a gorilla in the room?
Alice O’Connor. Alice O’Connor. 2001. 2001.
Poverty Poverty Knowledge: Knowledge:
Social Science, Social Science, Social Policy, and Social Policy, and
the Poor in the Poor in Twentieth–Twentieth–
Century U.S. Century U.S.
HistoryHistory..
Princeton Princeton University Press.University Press.
Progressive Era
Chicago School
Depression/New Deal
War on Poverty/New Society
Poverty Knowledge Eras
Culture of Poverty
Economic Growth
as the Solution
Deserving versus
Undeserving Poor
Measure
Poverty
AND
Programs
Income
“…“…such analyses provided the intellectual – and such analyses provided the intellectual – and statistical – justification for a more activist approach statistical – justification for a more activist approach to economic growth, while minimizing the necessity to economic growth, while minimizing the necessity of structural measures to combat long-term of structural measures to combat long-term unemployment and poverty. unemployment and poverty.
They were also important in linking poverty to the They were also important in linking poverty to the achievement of concrete, numerical policy goals – 4 achievement of concrete, numerical policy goals – 4 rather than 5 percent employment, and 4 rather than rather than 5 percent employment, and 4 rather than 2 or 3 percent economic growth” 2 or 3 percent economic growth”
(O’Connor 2001, p. 145)(O’Connor 2001, p. 145)
“For while income was, at least on the surface, an amoral,
measurable, and inclusive criterion, maintaining a narrow,
income-based definition of the poverty problem would also
allow officials to skirt the question of what structural
inequalities lay behind the poverty numbers, and in
particular to avoid explicit mention of racial subordination
and discrimination as dimensions of poverty.
Gender as such did not even enter the framework as a
category of analysis. Thus while the numbers pointed to
female-headed families as among those who proved quite
immune to economic growth the CEA offered no analysis of
female wages or employment opportunities as one possible
explanation…” (O’Connor 2001, p. 154)
Does Rural Poverty Have Implications for How We Conceptualize Poverty?
Individual decisions are interrelated with larger considerations
Changes in the national and global economy impact both individuals and communities
Limitations of approaches that rely on economies of scale where the comparative advantage is defined as bigger being better
Rural poverty forces us to de-homogenize poverty
The relationship between structure and individual is inescapable
How we address poverty impacts both individuals and communities
THE GREATEST CHALLENGETHE GREATEST CHALLENGETO ANY THINKERTO ANY THINKER
ISISSTATING THE PROBLEMSTATING THE PROBLEM
IN A WAYIN A WAYTHAT WILL ALLOWTHAT WILL ALLOW
A SOLUTIONA SOLUTIONBertrand Russell
The significant problems we face cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking we were at
when we created them.
~ Albert Einstein
Social reproduction and production are inseparable, necessary and co-equal processes?
Gender, race, and ethnicity must be integrated into theory rather than “tacked on?”
Individuals and social structures are mutually defined?
1990 RSS Taskforce on 1990 RSS Taskforce on Persistent Rural PovertyPersistent Rural Poverty
Social processes are embedded in time and space?
Local events and processes are linked to global ones?
The state is neither wholly subordinate to society nor independent of it?