scholarly journals Not ‘my economy’: A political ethnographic study of interest in the economy

2021 ◽  
pp. 136914812110070
Author(s):  
Anna Killick
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Low Incomes ◽  
The Rich

Some political economists explain the apparent downplaying of the importance of economic issues in political events such as Brexit with reference to the growing anger or despair people on low incomes feel about the economy. This ‘everyday political economy’ article draws on an ethnographic study conducted between 2016 and 2018 with residents of an English city to explore what people think about the phenomenon of the economy. It reveals significant differences in how interested high- and low-income participants are in the economy and its role as a bedrock for welfare. Low-income participants are more negative about the economy, particularly contesting politicians’ claims that it is distinct from the human sphere, when they view it as controlled by the rich. However, reasoning is based on post-2008 crisis economic conditions, and any lack of interest in the economy may be more calculative and temporary than is often assumed.

How Low-Income Mothers Seek Quality Health Care for Their Children: An Ethnographic Study

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marquia Blackmon ◽  
Sherry C. Eaton ◽  
Linda M. Burton ◽  
Whitney Welsh ◽  
Dwayne Brandon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Quality Health Care ◽  
Quality Health ◽  
Low Income Mothers

scholarly journals Vertical position can affect categorization of the rich and the poor in Chinese culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 183449092110257
Author(s):  
Qiong Li ◽  
Chen Deng ◽  
Bin Zuo ◽  
Xiaobin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Social Categorization ◽  
High Income ◽  
Vertical Position ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich

This study explored whether vertical position affects social categorization of the rich and the poor. Experiment 1 used high- and low-income occupations as stimuli, and found participants categorized high-income occupations faster when they were presented in the top vertical position compared to the bottom vertical position. In Experiment 2, participants responded using either the “up” or “down” key to categorize high- and low-income occupations, and responded faster to high-income occupations with the “up” key and low-income occupations with the “down” key. In Experiment 3, names identified as belonging to either rich or poor individuals were presented at the top or bottom of a screen, and the results were the same as in Experiments 1 and 2. These findings suggest that social categorization based on wealth involved perceptual simulations of vertical position, and that vertical position affects the social categorization of the rich and the poor.

scholarly journals THE PROTECTION OF THE RICH AGAINST THE POOR: THE POLITICS OF ADAM SMITH’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
General Attitude ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Natural Forms ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractMy point of departure in this essay is Smith’s definition of government. “Civil government,” he writes, “so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.” First I unpack Smith’s definition of government as the protection of the rich against the poor. I argue that, on Smith’s view, this is always part of what government is for. I then turn to the question of what, according to Smith, our governors can do to protect the wealth of the rich from the resentment of the poor. I consider, and reject, the idea that Smith might conceive of education as a means of alleviating the resentment of the poor at their poverty. I then describe how, in his lectures on jurisprudence, Smith refines and develops Hume’s taxonomy of the opinions upon which all government rests. The sense of allegiance to government, according to Smith, is shaped by instinctive deference to natural forms of authority as well as by rational, Whiggish considerations of utility. I argue that it is the principle of authority that provides the feelings of loyalty upon which government chiefly rests. It follows, I suggest, that to the extent that Smith looked to government to protect the property of the rich against the poor, and thereby to maintain the peace and stability of society at large, he cannot have sought to lessen the hold on ordinary people of natural sentiments of deference. In addition, I consider the implications of Smith’s theory of government for the question of his general attitude toward poverty. I argue against the view that Smith has recognizably “liberal,” progressive views of how the poor should be treated. Instead, I locate Smith in the political culture of the Whiggism of his day.

scholarly journals Immigration and economic mobility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria F. Hoen ◽  
Simen Markussen ◽  
Knut Røed
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Labor Market Outcomes ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Class Background ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Relative Prime

AbstractWe examine how immigration affects natives’ relative prime-age labor market outcomes by economic class background, with class background established on the basis of parents’ earnings rank. Exploiting alternative sources of variation in immigration patterns across time and space, we find that immigration from low-income countries reduces intergenerational mobility and thus steepens the social gradient in natives’ labor market outcomes, whereas immigration from high-income countries levels it. These findings are robust with respect to a wide range of identifying assumptions. The analysis is based on high-quality population-wide administrative data from Norway, which is one of the rich-world countries with the most rapid rise in the immigrant population share over the past two decades. Our findings suggest that immigration can explain a considerable part of the observed relative decline in economic performance among natives with a lower-class background.

scholarly journals The Provision of Assistance Does Not Substantially Impact the Accuracy of 24-Hour Dietary Recalls Completed Using the Automated Self-Administered 24-H Dietary Assessment Tool among Women with Low Incomes

2019 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon I Kirkpatrick ◽  
Patricia M Guenther ◽  
Deirdre Douglass ◽  
Thea Zimmerman ◽  
Lisa L Kahle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Dietary Assessment ◽  
Food Group ◽  
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ◽  
Assistance Program ◽  
Plate Waste ◽  
Low Incomes ◽  
Portion Sizes ◽  
Nutrition Assistance

ABSTRACT Background Evidence is lacking informing the use of the Automated Self-Administered 24-h Dietary Assessment Tool (ASA24) with populations characterized by low income. Objective This study was conducted among women with low incomes to evaluate the accuracy of ASA24 recalls completed independently and with assistance. Methods Three hundred and two women, aged ≥18 y and with incomes below the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program thresholds, served themselves from a buffet; amounts taken as well as plate waste were unobtrusively weighed to enable calculation of true intake for 3 meals. The following day, women completed ASA24-2016 independently (n = 148) or with assistance from a trained paraprofessional in a small group (n = 154). Regression modeling examined differences by condition in agreement between true and reported foods; energy, nutrient, and food group intakes; and portion sizes. Results Participants who completed ASA24 independently and those who received assistance reported matches for 71.9% and 73.5% (P = 0.56) of items truly consumed, respectively. Exclusions (consumed but not reported) were highest for lunch (at which participants consumed approximately 2 times the number of distinct foods and beverages compared with breakfast and dinner). Commonly excluded foods were additions to main dishes (e.g., tomatoes in salad). On average, excluded foods contributed 43.6 g (46.2 kcal) and 40.1 g (43.2 kcal) among those in the independent and assisted conditions, respectively. Gaps between true and reported intake were different between conditions for folate and iron. Within conditions, significant gaps were observed for protein, vitamin D, and meat (both conditions); vitamin A, iron, and magnesium (independent); and folate, calcium, and vegetables (assisted). For foods and beverages for which matches were reported, no difference in the gap between true and reported portion sizes was observed by condition (P = 0.22). Conclusions ASA24 performed relatively well among women with low incomes; however, accuracy was somewhat lower than previously observed among adults with a range of incomes. The provision of assistance did not significantly impact accuracy.

Book Reviews

2010 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-153
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Partisan Change ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
The Rich ◽  
University Of Massachusetts

Robert Pollin of University of Massachusetts, Amherst reviews “Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age” by Larry M. Bartels,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Examines the validity of many myths about politics in contemporary America, using the widening gap between the rich and the poor to shed disturbing light on the workings of American democracy. Discusses the new Gilded Age; the partisan political economy; class politics and partisan change; partisan biases in economic accountability; whether Americans care about inequality; when Homer gets a tax cut; the strange appeal of estate tax repeal; the eroding minimum wage; economic inequality and political representation; and unequal democracy. Bartels is Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs and Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University. Index.”

Class Politics, American-Style

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Waddell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Rich ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Winner Take All ◽  
Take All

Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson's Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class is both a work of political science and a contribution to broad public discussion of distributive politics. Its topic could not be more relevant to a US polity wracked by bitter partisan disagreements about taxes, social spending, financial regulation, social insecurity, and inequality. The political power of “the rich” is a theme of widespread public attention. The headline on the cover of the January–February 2011 issue of The American Interest—“Inequality and Democracy: Are Plutocrats Drowning Our Republic?”—is indicative. Francis Fukuyama's lead essay, entitled “Left Out,” clarifies that by “plutocracy,” the journal means “not just rule by the rich, but rule by and for the rich. We mean, in other words, a state of affairs in which the rich influence government in such a way as to protect and expand their own wealth and influence, often at the expense of others.” Fukuyama makes clear that he believes that this state of affairs obtains in the United States today.Readers of Perspectives on Politics will know that the topic has garnered increasing attention from political scientists in general and in our journal in particular. In March 2009, we featured a symposium on Larry Bartels's Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. And in December 2009, our lead article, by Jeffrey A. Winters and Benjamin I. Page, starkly posed the question “Oligarchy in the United States?” and answered it with an equally stark “yes.” Winner-Take-All Politics thus engages a broader scholarly discussion within US political science, at the same time that it both draws upon and echoes many “classic themes” of US political science from the work of Charles Beard and E. E. Schattschneider to Ted Lowi and Charles Lindblom.In this symposium, we have brought together a group of important scholars and commentators who offer a range of perspectives on the book and on the broader themes it engages. While most of our discussants are specialists on “American politics,” we have also sought out scholars beyond this subfield. Our charge to the discussants is to evaluate the book's central claims and evidence, with a focus on three related questions: 1) How compelling is its analysis of the “how” and “why” of recent US public policy and its “turn” in favor of “the rich” and against “the middle class”? 2) How compelling is its critique of the subfield of “American politics” for its focus on the voter–politician linkage and on “politics as spectacle” at the expense of an analysis of “politics as organized combat”? 3) And do you agree with its argument that recent changes in US politics necessitate a different, more comparative, and more political economy–centered approach to the study of US politics?—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor

scholarly journals The Allocation of Money in Couples: The End of Inequality? / Allokation von Geld in Paarbeziehungen: Das Ende der Ungleichheit?

2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Ludwig-Mayerhofer ◽  
Hermann Gartner ◽  
Jutta Allmendinger
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Male Partner ◽  
Money Management ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Low Incomes ◽  
Financial Arrangements ◽  
Fourth Wave ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

SummaryResearch conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s showed considerable inequalities within male-female couples as concerns financial arrangements and access to personal spending money. This paper provides an analysis of the allocation of money in German couples that goes beyond previous research in two respects. First, data are used that permit direct, albeit only rough, assessments of the amount of personal spending money available to each of the partners. Second, it is therefore possible to investigate in some detail the factors that may influence the availability of personal spending money and thus also the possible differences between the woman and the man concerning the amount of money available to each of them.The empirical analysis is based on the German Low Income Panel (NIedrig-Einkommens-Panel, NIEP), a panel study representative of households with an income lower than about 1.5 times the German social assistance rate in 1999, the year of the first wave. We use the fourth wave of the NIEP, in which questions about couples’ money management were added to the questionnaire. The data refer to those 718 households that consisted of an adult couple, with or without children.While not all couples allocate the same amount of money to each partner, there is no difference in the proportion of men and women who have more money at their disposal than their partners. A number of hypotheses are tested concerning the amount of money allocated to individual partners, and the effects are basically the same for men and women. Investigation of the effects on the within-couple differences in personal spending money shows that the balance shifts in favor of the male partner if his education is superior to that of the female partner. This holds specifically for couples with very low incomes.

Infrastructure, political economy and Africa’s transformational agenda

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mthuli Ncube ◽  
Charles Leyeka Lufumpa ◽  
George Kararach
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Local Capacity

Africa's efforts to achieve sustainable development have been hindered by factors such as skills development and enhancing market access in support of sustainable transformation and infrastructure that promote sustainable development and connectivity in Africa. Continental connectivity and logistical problems are the result of peculiar socio-economic conditions in the region such as geology, poor economic governance and conflict. These issues have direct implications for the implementation of infrastructure projects and the type of public policies needed to foster strategic connectivity. Moreover, the major constraints on infrastructure are not technical but managerial, political, ‘cultural’ and due to a lack of specialised resources. Africa needs to find its own solutions to local capacity and development problems with greater involvement of local private sector partners wherever feasible. A political economy perspective is critical to understand the dynamics around infrastructure deficits as well as associated investments and development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document