Poverty and ShameA study in seven countries

Grace BantebyaElaine Chase

Sohail ChoudhryFrederick Golooba-Mutebi

Erika GubriumIvar Lødemel

JO Yong-Mie (Nicola)Leemamol Mathew

Amon MwiineSony Pellissery

Monimala SenguptaRobert Walker

YAN Ming

Shame &Amartya Sen

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CapabilitiesCapabilities: the potential that people have to lead fulfilled and engaging lives

Functionings: the facilities and resources required to enable people to achieve their capabilities

Functionings

Poverty, shame &Amartya Sen

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CapabilitiesCapabilities: the potential that people have to lead fulfilled and engaging lives

Functionings: the facilities and resources required to enable people to achieve their capabilities

Functionings

‘irreducible absolutist core in the idea of

poverty’ is

‘the ability to go about without shame’

Shame

Universality of shame?‘voices of the poor’

Is the shame attached to poverty universal and invariant?

• Children in Bangladesh, India and Moldova feel ‘marked’ by shabby clothing

• An unemployed father in Guinea-Bissau feels ashamed at being unable adequately to feed his children

• People in Armenia feel a lack of self-worth and loss of status at being unable to maintain basic hygiene

• Poverty in Madagascar is equated with the inability to adhere to local customs and norms

• In Britain, the word poverty itself is considered to be stigmatising and is shunned

• In Europe and North America poverty is experienced as personal failure in achievement-orientated societies

4The Voices of the Poor study (Narayan et al., 2000a, b)

Why is shame important?

• Because shame may be experienced in conditions over which we have no control, personal responsibility is not necessarily involved – there may be no escape

• ‘Shame is potentially more pervasive and incapacitating than guilt. It often persists like a psychic scar that stubbornly refuses to heal’ (Ho et al., 2004)

• Impacts on agency, health, welfare, disability and rehabilitation

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The poverty/shame nexus?

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Low social capital

Poverty Low self worth

Shame(ashamed)

Lack of agency

Social exclusion

Shaming

Society

Moldova Poor people ‘are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of.’Argentina and BulgariaPoor women are greater risk of sexual and physical abuse India Poor children are stigmatized by their teachersKyrgyz RepublicA young girl is called a ‘beggar’ for wearing clothing from humanitarian aid. Britain and USPeople view those who are poor as feckless or dishonest.

Voices of the Poor (Narayan et al., 2000a, b)

The poverty/shame nexus?

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Low social capital

Poverty Low self worth

Shame(ashamed)

Lack of agency

Social exclusion

Shaming

Society

Shaming

POLICY

Kenya

Women and youths are ‘treated worse than dogs’ at health clinics

Bangladesh

Dishonest officials discriminate against people in poverty who could not afford to offer bribes

Ukraine

Humiliation experienced at the unemployment office is ‘designed to chase the unemployed away’

Russia

‘Even the most needy are humiliated by having to take poor quality goods provided by the welfare office’.

Europe

Some social assistance and activation policies are stigmatising and reduce take-up

Voices of the Poor (Narayan et al., 2000a, b)

Research goal and objectives1. To explore the role of policy in influencing any possible

relationship between poverty and shame in diverse cultural settings 1. China, India, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, United Kingdom,

Uganda

In order to achieve this, it is necessary: 2. To explore cultural conceptions/construction of shame 3. To explore if shame is associated with poverty 4. To explore how the general population conceptualise poverty

and if they consciously or otherwise engage in the shaming of the poor

5. To examine if, and if so how, poor people experience shame 6. To examine how structure/delivery of policy might create or

ameliorate poverty-induced shame

Research design

Cultural conceptions of poverty

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Engaging with the poor

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Perspectives of general public

3

Policy analysis

4Today

Research design

Cultural conceptions of poverty

1

Engaging with the poor

2

Perspectives of general public

3

Policy analysis

4Today

Exploring cultural conceptions

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China

India

Norway

Pakistan

South Korea

United Kingdom

Uganda

Oral traditions

Film

Literature

Universality of shame

• The sense of low self worth made with reference to:1. one’s own aspirations and

2. the perceived expectations of others.

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Universality of shame

• Indian film and short stories – inferiority, helplessness and powerlessness, – the avoidance of eye contact, the head turned

down and away and self-conscious rhythmic hand movements and scratching of the face.

• In contemporary Chinese– shame coupled with embarrassment,

humiliation, pain, wronged and guilt– flushes, ‘head down’, ‘do not want face’ and

‘shorter than others’.

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Western social science (Smith et al., 2002)

• Shame: the perception of a negative evaluation of self by others

• Guilt: the negative assessment of one’s behaviour made by self

• Shame is bad– low self esteem and having negative psychological and

physical consequences, • Guilt is good

– high self-esteem– leads to reparative action which shame does not

(Wong and Tsai, 2007; Tangney and Dearing 2002)

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Shame as positiveCollectivist societies

• Confucianism teaches that individuals should constantly appraise and improve their selves (character)

• Imposing shame on person who transgresses social norms may change behaviour – which would simultaneously change self

(character) and– release them from shame.

Individualistic cultures • the self, character, is taken to be largely fixed• differentiated from behaviour and actions.

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Urdu: sharam: modesty, innocence

Shame as positiveCollectivist societies

• Confucianism teaches that individuals should constantly appraise and improve their selves (character)

• Imposing shame on person who transgresses social norms may change behaviour – which would simultaneously change self

(character )and– release them from shame.

Individualistic cultures • the self, character, is taken to be largely fixed• differentiated from behaviour and actions.

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Poverty

• Subsistence/absolute– Life is shaped by the need to eat in order to

survive, with people eking out a precarious living from the land, labouring in the towns and begging on the streets.

– People go about without shoes, are attired in tattered clothing, live in shacks and sleep on earthen floors.

– Poverty is likened,• in Uganda, to a painful illness• In Pakistan, to ‘death in daily episodes

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Poverty

• Subsistence/absolute– Life is shaped by the need to eat in order to

survive, with people eking out a precarious living from the land, labouring in the towns and begging on the streets.

– People go about without shoes, are attired in tattered clothing, live in shacks and sleep on earthen floors.

– Poverty is likened,• in Uganda, to a painful illness• In Pakistan, to ‘death in daily episodes

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Poverty

• Relative– To the past

• Personal• Societal

– To peers– To widening inequality

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Depiction of poverty shame

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Shaming

Yes No

No

Shamefelt

Yes

Shamed and shaming

Common place• Rejection with sadness and unhappiness

– Hansum, Hunger (1890) ‘the hardships had got the better of me’ and ‘I, who walked there right besides these people... had already forgotten the very look of happiness’.

– Indian film, Kolhathyachapor, (1994) Kishore lacks the new clothes expected for him to attend the Diwali festival

• Invisibility– Some choose it – Others become it, beggars in the street.

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shamed and shaming

Extreme: Personal disintegration• Secrets and Lies (1996): My Beautiful Laundrette

(1985) and Trainspotting (1996): alcohol and drug abuse to dull the emotions, avoid reality and to cope with exclusion and isolation.

• Unemployed, Baqir, protagonist s unable to support his family, gradually becomes psychotic and dies.

• Suicide – Subarna Rekha (1965) Unable feed their children – Kathooriman (2003) to evade the pressures of

indebtedness – The Rickshaw Boy (Lao She,1936) Xiaofuzi, hangs

herself after being driven to prostitute herself.

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shamed and shaming

In between• Concealment

– In the Urdu short story, Chothi ka jora, an entire family conspire to spend beyond their means to impress a future son-in law

• Pretence– In film, The Full Monty (1997) Gerald

maintains the pretence of going to work each day despite being unemployed.

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shamed and shaming:Women and Children

• Women skipping food to feed men; Chekuthan: ‘The hardship has made her old’, ‘Poverty has eaten up her body’.

• Prostitution, the ultimate disgrace Aakaler Sandhane (1980), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Kaal (2007), women carrying the shame of their inadequate men-folk while themselves being ostracised by their family and society. .

• Zhao, in Liu Qing’s 1961 book, Violent Storm, in frustration hits his five year old because he cannot afford to feed him,

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shamed and shaming:Arenas of shame

Ritual• Weddings

Caste/class• Lower caste Dalits confined to menial

occupations, poverty, reincarnation• Contempt, abhorrence and hatred of the lower

classes in Victorian British novels period dissipated, – Monica Ali’s 2003 Brick Lane: Chanu’s shame,

trapped in the menial– Grossmith 1890 The Diary of a Nobody Pooter in

working in his clerical job

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shamed and shaming:Arenas of shame

Labour market, benefits• ‘Dole’ queue:

– Jacobsen 1991 Seierherrene [The Conquerors] men have ‘to stand in line with notes and beg and lower themselves’

• Job/benefit Interview. – Ambjørnsen’ 1986 Hvite Niggere [White Niggers], ‘The

whole thing was a disgusting affair that had definitely reduced my self-esteem significantly, even if it hadn’t been so damn high before’

– the 2007 film Katha Parayumbol. In t Indian context , applying public assistance is complicated by the requirement to bribe officials

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shamed and shaming:Arenas of shame

Debt• All or Nothing, (2002), Phil

has to borrow from his teenage daughter and does so with head bowed.

• Kasthooriman, (2003) Debtor: ‘Please do not shame me’

• Money lender ‘So, do you have shame?’,

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shame without shaming

• Liu Zhenyun (1991)Yidi jimao [Scattered Feathers], – Young highly educated couple, the Lins, the husband is

forced to take a job selling ducks in the market, head down he dreads being seen by friends.

• 2000, Billy Elliot;– the comfort and security of a teacher’s house is contrasted

with the want and insecurity of life in a mining community – application of honest hard work.

• 1991, Riff Raff– Foremen, observing his workers having a break, remarks:

‘Look at those lazy bastards…the working class don’t want work you know. Ask ‘em to sit on their arses all day and they’re as happy as pigs in shit’.

• Positive outcomes

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shaming without shameAnger

• Domestic violence• Class anger/hatred

– Mary Barton (1848), Jane Eyre (1847), Middlemarch (1869) and The Diary of a Nobody (1892), cruel, exploitative, indifference

• Generalised anger – 1960, Saturday Night Sunday Morning; angry young

men.• Anger as resistance

– Hamsun Hunger (1890) ‘gave a long spit over the sidewalk, without bothering whether it might hit someone, angry with and full of contempt for these people’

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shaming without shame

Shamelessness• Degradation

– Nazeer Akbarabadi (1740–1830)•  ‘The poor know no politeness or formality

• They fall upon food with uninhibited alacrity

• Risking their lives for a piece of loaf

• And fighting like dogs over every bone’.

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shaming without shameShamelessness

• Transgression– Riff Raff, 1991) Stevie is seen stealing the power

drill from the building site and selling it on in the pub during his lunch break.

– Raining Stone (1993) sees Bob and Tommy comically rustling a sheep and then later trying to sell the cuts of rough mutton in the local pubs.

– Ambjørnsen (1986), Hvite Niggere [White Niggers],

• Financial support from the welfare office is grounds for throwing a party.

• Local exchange between the recipient and his local social support network.

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Shaming without shame• Rejection

– Keeping up appearances?– Fantasy story telling

• Resistance– Individual– Humour – Pride dignity – Spiritual victory

• Collective action– Protest– Re-establish visibility– Humiliation

• Restoration – Self control

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Poverty without shame

• Traditional societies– Liu Qing (1961) Chuangyeshi [The Violent

Storm], life as a gamble, some people receive a ‘bitter lot’, a lot that ‘attracts poverty’

– Do Bigma Zamin (1953) and Tamanna (1998).

• Karma

• Hinduism established social institutions that partially accommodate the needs of beggars

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Poverty without shame

• Communist China– “the poor of the whole world belongs to one

family, and we all have the same last name ‘poor’;” (390) “mud stick with mud makes the wall; the poor helps the poor become the king.” (103)

• Market era– India beggars ‘Get lost!’, in Telegu, short story

Hunger– China: ‘Getting rich is glorious’, ‘being poor is

being a bear (an idiot)’

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Shaming

Shamefelt

Yes

Yes

No

No

Conclusions• From exploring cultural evidence:

– Shame would appear to be a recognisable emotion across cultures

– Presumption that shame is always negative contested– Shame appears very often to be associated with poverty– Shamed and shaming most common

• Settings vary• Women and children particularly at risk

– Shamed and no shaming, shame on autopilot– No shame and shaming; important positives and negatives– Poverty without shame is likely to decline in importance

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