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In this paper the relationship of women to poverty in urban areas is explored and the need to understand the gender dimension of poverty in a specific cultural context is emphasised. In recent years there has been an increasing trend to incorporate the gender dimension in the analysis of poverty. The féminisation of poverty is a term used to describe the overwhelming representation of women among the poor. The present study examines the gender bias of poverty which underlies the social and economic subordination of women and the effects of gender on access to basic amenities such as education, health care and labour force participation. The 1996 World Bank publication, Poverty Reduction and the World Bank, identified three components to urban poverty: 1) provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, drainage and roads; 2) taking action on the top threats to health (lead, dust and microbial diseases); 3) making municipal finance more businesslike and inclusive. While these are commendable objectives, the problems of urban poverty for women can be examined in a qualitative way from the point view of how these goals are absorbed into the social and cultural surroundings of the urban poor. Why women are more vulnerable to poverty will be considered here and how the causes and experience of poverty differ by gender are determined, followed by some remarks on how to alleviate women's poverty.

The overlap between production of humanitarian images and interventions in contexts of natural and man-made catastrophes is growing on a global scale. An increasingly close relationship exists between image production, news production and humanitarian industry. In this article, we argue that this process is transforming the meaning of the social, political and ethical act of bearing witness. We analyse the epistemic and political implications of visual humanitarian testimony through the documentary film Enjoy Poverty (2008), shot in Congo by the Dutch artist Renzo Martens. Examining some of the key scenes of the film, we undertake an analysis of the visual culture of humanitarianism within which the contemporary production of sensational images of strong emotional impact is inscribed and justified. We maintain that rethinking testimonial debt in light of contemporary visual humanitarianism fundamentally means to acknowledge and explore the hierarchical relationship that visual humanitarianism creates between the witnesses, the victims and the spectators. We conclude by arguing that Enjoy Poverty constitutes an attempt to generate a new visual, discursive and political horizon within which one can prevent the transformation of the testimonial relationship into a relationship of power.

T. H. Marshall, a British sociologist, gave a series of lectures in 1949 under the title "Citizenship and Social Class." To many American intellectuals, his analysis still offers a persuasive account of the origins of the welfare state in the West. But Marshall spoke in the early postwar era, when the case for expanded social benefits seemed unassailable. Today's politics are more conservative. In every Western country the welfare state is under review. Yet Marshall's conception can still help define the issues in social policy and the way forward.

Intro -- Foreword -- References -- Preface -- References -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- About the Author -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Chapter 1: Introduction: The Magnitude of the Obesity Problem -- The Magnitude of the Obesity Problem -- References -- Chapter 2: Different Perspectives on Causes of Obesity -- References -- Chapter 3: Consequences of Obesity -- References -- Chapter 4: Economic Analysis: Behavioral Patterns, Diet Choice, and the Role of Government -- Rational Obesity Model -- An Alternative Model -- References -- Chapter 5: Socioeconomic Factors: Poverty and Obesity -- Income Inequality and Health -- References -- Chapter 6: Income and Wealth Inequality and Obesity -- Measure and Sources of Inequality -- References -- Chapter 7: Data and Methodology: Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Among Obesity, Income Inequality, and Poverty -- Model and Methodology -- Specification of the Model -- Methodology -- Results Discussion -- Causality Test -- Appendix -- References -- Chapter 8: Obesity and Socioeconomic Status: Case Study of Peruvian Women -- Poverty, Inequality, and Obesity in Peru -- Model to Test Income Inequality, Poverty, and Obesity in Peru -- Model and Methodology -- Result Discussion -- Causality Test -- Concluding Comments -- Appendix: Supplemental Tables and Figures -- References -- Chapter 9: Social Mobility and Health -- Defining Social Mobility -- Income Inequality and Social Mobility -- Intergenerational Mobility -- Income Inequality and Social Mobility Among Different Racial and Ethnic Groups -- Poverty, Education, and Economic Mobility -- Wealth and Economic Mobility -- Effect of Income on Health and Social Mobility -- References -- Chapter 10: Food Policies, Government Interventions, and Reducing Poverty -- Menu Labeling.

PurposeWelfare reforms introduced conditionality into cash transfers often by diverse welfare-to-work programs achieving its vast legitimization. Meanwhile in-kind poverty alleviation policies maintained their universal character in the forms of national budgeting of municipal services. Utilizing justification work, the authors aim at showing how conditionality of in-kind support is replacing universalism. The authors ask which justification work assist administrators in shaping the relationship between in-kind and cash transfer and the changing meanings of poverty alleviation practices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with senior administrators in Israeli local governments analysing them along principles of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010). Further, seeking to elicit the justification work, the authors added some guidelines from the discourse interaction approach.FindingsThe findings identified administrators' justification work as taking two major shapes. The first is an emphasis on conditionality in their in-kind support projects, which is limited in time, contingent upon co-operation and sometimes even enhancing choice for those in need. The second is the manifestation of pride anchored in the skilful budget management enabling the achievement of conditional in-kind support projects based on the effort involved.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors did not prompt the interviewees for the proportions of specific categories, such as whether they are attending and benefitting of the in-kind support programs. This is a limitation of this study that prevented the authors from contrasting perceived achievements against the actual coverage of their projects.Practical implicationsIt is important that government funding is increased for municipal anti-poverty policies engaging municipal administrator in the struggle for full and better coverage so that capability deprivation is combatted by a combination of cash transfer and quality social services that are universal and at the same time secure mentoring and supervision to all households in need.Social implicationsFuture research should present the analysis that associates different budgets of each city with its anti-poverty polices and its different socio-economic ranking. Critical social-policy scholars may apply this study's findings in future analyses of municipal administrators' power position as reinforced by national level policy makers, particularly when introducing controversial policies.Originality/valueAnti-poverty policy and the specific combination between conditional cash transfers and in-kind support have been explained at the level of political–economic decision making. The authors conceptualize the need to explain anti-poverty policy by focussing on municipal administrators' embedded agency, particularly around controversial issues. By building the professional self of municipal welfare administrators, inter alia by ignoring past meanings of in-kind support as depriving recipients of autonomy, conditionality is extended into in-kind services.

SummaryAlthough health is generally believed to improve with higher wealth, research on HIV in sub-Saharan Africa has shown otherwise. Whereas researchers and advocates have frequently advanced poverty as a social determinant that can help to explain sub-Saharan Africa's disproportionate burden of HIV infection, recent evidence from population surveys suggests that HIV infection is higher among wealthier individuals. Furthermore, wealthier countries in Africa have experienced the fastest growing epidemics. Some researchers have theorized that inequality in wealth may be more important than absolute wealth in explaining why some countries have higher rates of infection and rapidly increasing epidemics. Studies taking a longitudinal approach have further suggested a dynamic process whereby wealth initially increases risk for HIV acquisition and later becomes protective. Prior studies, conducted exclusively at either the individual or the country level, have neither attempted to disentangle the effects of absolute and relative wealth on HIV infection nor to look simultaneously at different levels of analysis within countries at different stages in their epidemics. The current study used micro-, meso- and macro-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) across 170 regions within sixteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa to test the hypothesis that socioeconomic inequality, adjusted for absolute wealth, is associated with greater risk of HIV infection. These analyses reveal that inequality trumps wealth: living in a region with greater inequality in wealth was significantly associated with increased individual risk of HIV infection, net of absolute wealth. The findings also reveal a paradox that supports a dynamic interpretation of epidemic trends: in wealthier regions/countries, individuals with less wealth were more likely to be infected with HIV, whereas in poorer regions/countries, individuals with more wealth were more likely to be infected with HIV. These findings add additional nuance to existing literature on the relationship between HIV and socioeconomic status.

Find out how welfare reform has affected women living at the poverty levelWomen, Work, and Poverty presents the latest information on women living at or below the poverty level and the changes that need to be made in public policy to allow them to rise above their economic hardships. Using a wide range of research methods, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, small-scale surveys, and analysis of personnel records, the book explores different aspects of women's poverty since the passage of the 1986 welfare reform bill. Anthropologists, economists, political scientists, sociologists, and

Drawing upon recent analytical work prepared inside and outside the World Bank, this report identifies key lessons concerning the linkages between poverty and the environment. With a focus on the contribution of environmental resources to household welfare, the analysis increases our understanding of how specific reforms and interventions can have an impact on the health and livelihoods of poor people. "Scholars and development practitioners increasingly recognize that in low-income countries there are inextricable links between poverty reduction and natural resources management. Demand h

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the factors having the most influence on the alleviation of poverty amongst the households adopting microfinance in Zambia. Ninety nine (n=99) respondents were randomly and purposively selected from amongst 340 microfinance adopters of the so-called Micro Bankers Trust programme operating a microfinance business in the Makululu Compound of Kabwe, Zambia. Socio-demographic primary data were collected through face-to-face interviews based on a semi-structured questionnaire instrument. The data were entered into an excel spreadsheet for analysis. The descriptive data were thereafter exported and fitted to an empirical model. The descriptive results revealed that the majority of the respondents were married, unemployed, fairly educated younger women from larger-sized poor households who drew their household income mainly from microfinance activities. The majority of the respondents thought microfinance had improved their well-being in some crucial areas. The results of the empirical model found that some respondents were indeed alleviated from poverty through microfinance. Conclusion drawn in this paper is that microfinance does alleviate poverty of the poor.

Objective. How do we explain variations across nations in the incidence of political corruption? Recent theoretical work locates the causes for corruption in a combination of institutional conditions: monopoly power, little accountability, and wide discretion. This focus on the form of political institutions clarifies the micro-scale causes of political corruption, but it leaves unanswered questions about the macro-scale causes of corruption. Methods. This article addresses these questions about the macro scale through an analysis of perceived levels of corruption across nations. Results. Our work identifies poverty, large populations, and small public sectors as contextual causes of corruption. Historically-based differences in political cultures across broad geographical regions also affect the perceived incidence of corruption in nations. Conclusion. Further research should attempt to link micro-and macro-scale causes together in a single, multi-scalar model of corruption. (Original abstract)

To achieve the poverty reduction goal, HIPC countries need to mainstream gender considerations into their PRSPs (poverty reduction strategy papers). Mounting worldwide evidence that greater gender equality correlates with high economic growth and less poverty means that to succeed, poverty reduction strategies must invest in reducing gender disparities. An analysis of completed PRSPs demonstrates that so far the PRSP engendering track record has been disappointing. This paper discusses why PRSPs must address gender concerns, PRSP engendering track records, strategies and deliberate steps necessary to mainstream gender into PRSPs and Rwanda's attempts to produce a gender-sensitive PRSP. – gender ; gender equality ; poverty ; PRSPs ; empowering women

Edward Weisband's pioneering text is destined to transform the current teaching of world political economy at both the introductory and the advanced level. Outlining the moral principles and ethical concepts fundamental to grasping the human significance of poverty, he clearly reveals what is often hinted at but rarely stated-that the political dimensions of poverty and distributive justice constitute the organizing framework of the study of world political economy. Against a backdrop of readings, Professor Weisband's insightful, interpretative essays generate an interdisciplinary discussion, a synthesis of theoretical perspectives and value orientations, providing students with a critical comprehension of the complex workings of the world economy. The essays link basic approaches to world politics and international relations, international law and organization, international sociology, development studies, and moral philosophy to give texture to such basic theories as modes of production, dependency, world systems, unequal exchange, the labor theory of value, free-trade liberalism, neomercantilism, Marxism, and neo-Marxism. Alternative value orientations are also explored, including realist and neo-realist, conservative and liberal, egalitarian and cosmopolitan, radical and materialist. Poverty Amidst Plenty combines theory and analysis with historical and normative perspectives to offer students a relevant, prescriptive, and most of all, human picture of the far-reaching system that governs much of our lives.

We investigated the risk‐information‐processing behaviors of people living at or near the poverty line. Because significant gaps in health and communication exist among high‐ and low‐income groups, increasing the information seeking and knowledge of poor individuals may help them better understand risks to their health and increase their engagement in health‐protective behaviors. Most earlier studies assessed only a single health risk selected by the researcher, whereas we listed 10 health risks and allowed the respondents to identify the one that they worried about most but took little action to prevent. Using this risk, we tested one pathway inspired by the risk information seeking and processing model to examine predictors of information insufficiency and of systematic processing and extended this pathway to include health‐protective action. A phone survey was conducted of African Americans and whites living in the southern United States with an annual income of ≤$35,000 (N= 431). The results supported the model pathway: worry partially mediated the relationship between perceived risk and information insufficiency, which, in turn, increased systematic processing. In addition, systematic processing increased health‐protective action. Compared with whites and better educated respondents, African Americans and respondents with little education had significantly higher levels of information insufficiency but higher levels of systematic processing and health‐protective action. That systematic processing and knowledge influenced health behavior suggests a potential strategy for reducing health disparities.

Energy issues and energy poverty became very important when dealing with global development challenges and sustainable development agenda, and as the years pass more precise indicators are formed to follow this phenomenon from various perspectives. One way to follow and analyze energy poverty is through the indicators proposed by the European Commission and the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Based on the main EU-SILC indicators for Serbia for 2020, this analysis explored a relationship between energy poverty and household income disaggregated by available data about regions, degree of urbanization, household types, and sex-age structure. It also tended to position Serbia within the European context regarding energy poverty. Based on the available data, it was found that people living in thinly populated areas expressed a higher share of vulnerabilities than those living in densely populated areas. Also, persons at risk of poverty are more vulnerable than the total population. When it comes to household types, people living in a single-person household are the most vulnerable, followed by the single-parent household with dependent children.