Answer to Question #308170 in Sociology for TLITLI

Question

compare and contrast two theoretical approaches to social problems to poverty as a social problem

Answer 1

The two major types of poverty theories are the cultural theory and the structural theory. Cultural theories find the explanation for poverty in the traits of the poor themselves. These theories assert it is the valuational, attitudinal, and behavioral patterns of the poor which prevent them from being socially mobile. In contrast, structural theories explain poverty in terms of the conditions under which the poor live: unemployment, underemployment, poor education, and poor health. The distinctive traits of the poor so central to the explanation of the cultural theorists are, for the structural theorists, responses or adaptations to the hostility of the structural conditions the poor face. Structural theorists fully accept the cultural theorists' characterization of the poor; they merely place another interpretation on it.

Perhaps because of the universality of poverty, almost all these theories are phrased with great generality. They are designed to explain poverty in terms of fundamental social mechanisms which are unaffected by national, Cultural, ethnic, racial, or other kinds of social differences. Whatever differences among men may exist in these terms, presumably, they do not affect their economic status. These theories assert it is the valuational, attitudinal, and behavioral patterns of the poor which prevent them from being socially mobile.