scholarly journals Comparative analysis of rural poverty and inequality in the UK and the US

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth McAreavey ◽  
David L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Rural Studies ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Scholars on both sides of the Atlantic have grappled with the difficulties of conducting comparative research on rural issues in general, and on rural poverty and inequality in particular. Shortall and Warner have observed that “The UK-US dialog is highly illustrative of how seemingly similar situations turn out to be full of complexity and difference.” That complexity and difference can serve to turn researchers away from comparative collaborations. We begin our paper with an overview of some of the general differences (and similarities) between how rural scholars in the UK and US have examined poverty and inequality in rural areas. Analysis of the two welfare regimes in these countries provides the backdrop for examining specific aspects of deprivation for rural people and communities. Our paper draws on our experience as members of a trans-Atlantic research group to illustrate the type of organisational infrastructure that can support international, interdisciplinary collaboration. We conclude by offering suggestions for future comparative research. Our paper progresses earlier debates in rural studies on the challenges of doing comparative US-UK analysis.

People and Places Left Behind

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel T. Lichter ◽  
Kai A. Schafft
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Poverty Measure ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Suburban Poverty ◽  
Big City ◽  
The Uk

This article examines the unique issues faced by rural people and places in the new century, with the goal of raising the profile of disadvantaged rural populations for both scholarly and policy audiences. It begins with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. official poverty measure—based on absolute money (rather than in-kind) income—for evaluating material disadvantage in rural areas. It then considers six key features of contemporary rural poverty that distinguish it from big-city or inner-city poverty (or suburban poverty). It also places current poverty patterns in rural America in the international context, providing a comparative assessment of theory, measurement, and policy on rural disadvantage in the United States and countries of the European Union including the UK. Finally, it looks at alternative approaches to the social welfare state, to conceptualizing poverty, and to better understanding the implications for rural people and places.

scholarly journals Level of Rural Development in Burdwan and Murshidabad Districts, West Bengal: A Comparative Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Syfujjaman Tarafder ◽  
Narayan Chandra Jana
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Basic Infrastructure

The key purpose of this research is to examine the level of attainment of rural development in the two districts—Burdwan and Murshidabad. The reasons for selecting these two districts stems from the fact that majority of the population of these two districts dwell in rural areas. The concept of rural development is comprehensive. It includes economic development of rural people through the development of productive sectors and employment associated with rural infrastructural development as well human development. Therefore, rural development includes in its domain all the aspects of human development of the rural people. The present Central as well as State Governments have undertaken different policies and plans to bring about positive changes amidst the rural people. In most cases, however, the policies and plans fail to achieve the desired level of changes in the rural areas (Desai, 1991). Although in fewer isolated cases, some success has been achieved, but overall development remains to be reached. This research, based mainly on secondary data aims to investigate the scale of progress in the two districts —Burdwan and Murshidabad of West Bengal, India, in the areas embracing social correlates of rural poverty, basic infrastructure facilities, standard of living and quality of life. The data are analysed with the help of statistical and cartographical analysis.

Winged Auxiliaries: Women Pilots in the UK and US during World War Two

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-199
Author(s):  
Helena P. Schrader
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
World War Two ◽  
Military Aircraft ◽  
World War ◽  
American Women ◽  
Women Pilots ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Experiences Of Women

During World War II women in the US and the UK were given the then unprecedented opportunity to fly military aircraft. Yet while the women flying in the UK soon gained the privileges and status enjoyed by their male colleagues, the American women pilots were expressly denied the same status, rank, pay, and benefits as USAAF pilots. In fact, after an ugly slander campaign against the women pilots' organisation, the US programme was discontinued and the women were sent home before their job was done. The American women pilots were not less dedicated or inherently less capable than the women flying in Britain. Rather, key environmental and organisational differences and above all a failure of leadership accounts for their fate. This paper summarises the differences and their impact. The complete findings of the comparative research on the experiences of women pilots in the US and the UK during WWII will be published by Pen & Sword Books Inc early in 2006 under the title Sisters in Arms.

Forest Income and Rural Livelihoods in West Bengal, India

2021 ◽  
pp. 232102222110243
Author(s):  
Biswajit Ray ◽  
Promita Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Rural Households ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Forest Income ◽  
Poverty And Inequality

To what extent forests contribute to rural livelihoods in developing countries? To find a plausible answer for this, this article explores whether inclusion of forest income to rural households’ total income accounts reduces poverty and income inequality, and also enables rural households to cope with shocks. To this end, we conducted household surveys in eight forest-dependent villages in the Indian state of West Bengal between August 2016 and August 2017. Using data from 407 sample households, we measured forest income of a household as the aggregate monetary value of resources extracted solely from forest ecosystem and compared this with other economic activities of the households. We calculated poverty indices and Gini coefficient with and without forest income, and we employed regression and Gini decomposition techniques to assess the safety net role and relative contribution of forest income to reducing rural poverty and inequality when compared to other sources of income. We found that the addition of forest income to household accounts significantly reduces measured poverty and inequality. Besides, the sample households, especially the poor, extract more from forests to cope with severe covariate shocks due to greater income certainty and thus adopt forest-dominated coping strategy in time of shocks and crises. The implication is that forest income needs to sustainably flow to the poor along with the development of better safety nets in forested rural areas in order to improve the forest-based rural livelihoods in developing countries like India. JEL Codes: Q23, Q56, Q57

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua T. McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Poverty Rate ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Extensive Discussion ◽  
The Us ◽  
Tax Benefits ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Practical Implications

Chapter 7 reviews the evidence presented in the previous chapters. It summarizes the support for my theories of fiscalization, presents an extensive discussion of alternative arguments, and explains why these other theories are wrong or cannot explain as well as my theories do the timing or the shape that fiscalization took in the US, the UK, and Canada. It concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of for the study of culture and political institutions and its practical implications for reform-oriented advocates interested in the politics of tax and antipoverty policies. This discussion includes a detailed blueprint for a politically viable consolidation of child-related tax benefits that would bring the US’s child poverty rate down in line with other liberal welfare regimes.

The Fiscalization of Social Policy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua T. McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Strategic Adaptation ◽  
Tax Relief ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Family Allowances

This book challenges the conventional wisdom on American exceptionalism, offering the first and only comparative analysis of the politics of child and in-work tax credits. This comparative approach, analyzing the US, Canada, and the UK, upends everything we thought we knew about the politics of tax credits, accounting for both the timing of their development and the distribution of their benefits among families across liberal welfare regimes. Rather than attributing these changes to antiwelfare attitudes, mobilization of conservative forces, shifts toward workfare, or racial antagonism, the book argues that the growing use of tax credits for social policy was a strategic adaptation to austerity in all three countries but that the historical absence of family allowances in the US left the country with a policy legacy that institutionalized a distinct “logic of tax relief,” ensuring that the poorest American families would be ineligible for tax credits. Focusing on the twin puzzles of the growth and distribution of new tax credits across the three countries, the book explains both their convergence on the use of these tax credits and the US’ divergence from the UK and Canada on the distribution of these tax credits’ benefits.

Suggestions for Consideration by the Welfare Reform Working Group

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-22
Author(s):  
Janet Fitchen
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Welfare Recipients ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Rural Welfare ◽  
Urban Issues

Deteriorating poverty and the need for an improved welfare system are not just urban issues, but have a significant rural dimension as well. 1. Rural poverty, while less noticed than inner-city poverty, is a persistent and growing problem that should not be overlooked in current efforts at welfare reform. 2. Since rural poverty is different from inner-city poverty, new welfare policy and programs must include specifically designed versions appropriate for implementation in rural areas. 3. Because rural poverty varies around the nation, rural-appropriate strategies must allow latitude for adaptation to particular regional and local conditions. 4. To be effective in helping rural welfare recipients move off and remain off public assistance, a reformed welfare system must accommodate their special problems and needs, and build on the strengths of rural people and places.

scholarly journals Welfare Regimes and Education Regimes: Equality of Opportunity and Expenditure in the EU (and US)

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE WEST ◽  
RITA NIKOLAI
Keyword(s):  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Education Expenditure ◽  
The Us ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Institutional Features

AbstractEducation is crucially important for later outcomes but has received limited attention in comparative research on welfare states. In light of this, we present an exploratory analysis of education systems across fourteen EU countries and the US. This builds on existing work on educational institutions, educational outcomes and welfare regimes. We focus on institutional features associated with inequality of educational opportunity, including academic selection, tracking and public/private provision; on educational outcomes; and on education expenditure. Our quantitative analysis identifies four clusters of countries: the Nordic, Continental, Mediterranean and English-speaking, which bear similarities to those identified in the welfare states literature. Each ‘education regime’ is associated with particular institutional features, educational outcomes and levels of public expenditure. Our analysis suggests that further comparative research on education, viewed as a key component of the welfare state, is warranted.

Ending Extreme Poverty in Rural Populations

2022 ◽  
pp. 79-110
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Rural People ◽  
Extreme Poverty ◽  
The Social ◽  
Productive Assets

In this chapter, attention shifts to the locality and context of extreme poverty in rural areas and sheds light on the challenges rural people face to overcome poverty. Due to limited information, inadequate access to markets and social services, and lack of opportunities to take ownership of productive assets, little is known about how populations overcome their struggles in extreme poverty in rural areas. The discussion exemplifies the need to examine culture, politics, and the social-historical context in which poor people live. The chapter concludes that rural poverty and the challenges to eliminate its causes and consequences are associated with lack of education, land and livestock, infrastructural technical support, the absence of good enough governance, as well as inability to secure non-farm alternatives to diminishing farm opportunities.

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