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Poverty in Global Perspective: Is Shame a Common Denominator?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2013

ROBERT WALKER ,
GRACE BANTEBYA KYOMUHENDO ,
ELAINE CHASE ,
SOHAIL CHOUDHRY ,
ERIKA K. GUBRIUM ,
JO YONGMIE NICOLA ,
IVAR LØDEMEL ,
LEEMAMOL MATHEW ,
AMON MWIINE  and
SONY PELLISSERY
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ROBERT WALKER*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Oxford Institute of Social Policy, Barnett House 32 Wellington Square, OX1 2ER
GRACE BANTEBYA KYOMUHENDO
Affiliation:
Department of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, PO Box 7062, KampalaUganda email: gbantebya@yahoo.com
ELAINE CHASE
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Oxford Institute of Social Policy, Barnett House 32 Wellington Square, OX1 2ER email: elaine.chase@spi.ox.ac.uk
SOHAIL CHOUDHRY
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Oxford Institute of Social Policy, Barnett House 32 Wellington Square, OX1 2ER email: sohail.choudhry@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
ERIKA K. GUBRIUM
Affiliation:
Oslo & Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Norway email: erika.gubrium@hioa.no
JO YONGMIE NICOLA
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Oxford Institute of Social Policy, Barnett House 32 Wellington Square, OX1 2ER email: yong.jo@stx.ox.ac.uk
IVAR LØDEMEL
Affiliation:
Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway email: ivar.lodemel@hioa.no
LEEMAMOL MATHEW
Affiliation:
Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat 388001India email: leemamol@gmail.com
AMON MWIINE
Affiliation:
Department of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, PO Box 7062, KampalaUganda, email: amonmwiine@gmail.com
SONY PELLISSERY
Affiliation:
Institute of Rural Management, Anand, India email: sony.pellissery@gmail.com
YAN MING
Affiliation:
Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Jianguomen nei dajie 5, Beijing, China100732 email: yanming2222@yahoo.com
*
email: robert.walker@spi.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

Focussing on the psychosocial dimensions of poverty, the contention that shame lies at the ‘irreducible absolutist core’ of the idea of poverty is examined through qualitative research with adults and children experiencing poverty in diverse settings in seven countries: rural Uganda and India; urban China; Pakistan; South Korea and United Kingdom; and small town and urban Norway. Accounts of the lived experience of poverty were found to be very similar, despite massive disparities in material circumstances associated with locally defined poverty lines, suggesting that relative notions of poverty are an appropriate basis for international comparisons. Though socially and culturally nuanced, shame was found to be associated with poverty in each location, variably leading to pretence, withdrawal, self-loathing, ‘othering’, despair, depression, thoughts of suicide and generally to reductions in personal efficacy. While internally felt, poverty-related shame was equally imposed by the attitudes and behaviour of those not in poverty, framed by public discourse and influenced by the objectives and implementation of anti-poverty policy. The evidence appears to confirm the negative consequences of shame, implicates it as a factor in increasing the persistence of poverty and suggests important implications for the framing, design and delivery of anti-poverty policies.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 215 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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