Blacksacademy
Sociology
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Aspects of Society
Subject: Aspects of Society
Title : The Structure of UK Employment
The Structure of UK EmploymentEmployment by sector The source of all this data is the Labour Market Trends for March 2003, published by the DfEE. The following table shows the numbers employed, in thousands, according to the various sectors of the economy.
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Subject: Aspects of Society
Title : Solutions to Poverty
I - The War on PovertyIt is noted by Gans that poverty research is conducted by middle-class people. In line with this observation, the approach to poverty that has been primarily adopted has been motivated by the theory of a “culture of poverty”. In the words of Valentine: “the poor must become ‘middle class’”. The programme to eradicate poverty in the US, declared by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 as a “war on poverty” was motivated by the theory that the poor are to blame for their poverty.
The American anthropologist Thomas Gladwin claims that “The whole conception of the War on Poverty rests upon a definition of poverty as a way of life. The intellectual climate in which it was nurtured was created by studies of the culture of poverty, notably those of Oscar Lewis … [which] provide the basis for programs at the national level designed very explicitly to correct the social, occupational and psychological deficits of people born and raised to a life of poverty.
Under this initiative an Office of Economic Opportunity was created. This office in turn created (1) a Jobs Corps which set up residential camps for the unemployed designed to build character; (2) work experience programmes designed to instill work habits; (3) training schemes aiming to create ‘work incentive’. Operation Head Start started in January 1965 and was designed to attack the culture of poverty at grass roots level – inculcate middle-class culture into the poor at school. The Office of Economic Opportunity sought to inculcate middle-class values with the idea of community action – initiatives to get the poor to help themselves.
The War on Poverty did not favour the use of direct transfer payments to the poor. It reflects the American dream, which is that America is a land of opportunity where every individual can succeed through his own efforts. One welfare recipient commented. “It’s great stuff this War on Poverty! Where do I surrender?”
Most sociologists have rejected the “culture of poverty” theory on which the War on Poverty rested. Gans comments that “the prime obstacles to the elimination of poverty lie in an economic system which is dedicated to the maintenance and increase of wealth among the already affluent.”
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