Poverty in Global Perspective: Is Shame a Common Denominator?

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.

A Qualitative Study Exploring Matters of Ill-being and Well-being in Norwegian Activation Policy

“…These findings are consistent with other studies that have linked shame to poverty and welfare provision Walker et al, 2013). However, participants found receiving the QP benefit less shameful than receiving social assistance, perhaps because a stigma is usually associated with the latter, which provides meanstested benefits within the structure of welfare services (Titmuss, 1968).…”

Income inequality and depression: a systematic review and meta‐analysis of the association and a scoping review of mechanisms

“…The first is the social comparison or status anxiety hypotheses 36 , which argue that comparing oneself to those who are better off in a highly unequal context creates feelings of social defeat or status anxiety 4,37 . In a similar vein, Walker et al 38 hypothesized feelings of withdrawal and shame experienced by those in lower social positions. The second neighbourhood mechanism is the social capital hypothesis, which argues that income inequality erodes social capital, including two key components: cognitive social capital (especially social trust) 26 and structural social capital (the organizational and structural arrangements which facilitate social interactions and build social trust and cooperation, for example through group membership) 39 .…”

Suicide and poverty in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review

“…First, poverty was defined in economic terms only, not including other dimensions of poverty such as poor education, health, housing and living conditions, and food insecurity. 4 Poverty is increasingly understood by researchers to be more than simply a lack of resource or income, and can include cultural, social, and environmental dimensions, such as shame 70 and religious beliefs. 65 Second, publication bias may have hindered the results, with studies reporting negative and null results being less likely to be published.…”