Social Welfare
Year:2005 | Volume:5 | Issue:18|Papers Count:19

Although the poverty has always been regarded as the main cause of social problems and protest movements, the relationship between those key concepts has not been a clear one. The definition of poverty and social movement and the relationship between the two have been subject to much confusion which stems from the fact that neither poverty nor social movements are neutral concepts. They are culturally bond and to a great degree change based upon the affiliations and class biases of those studying them. For this reason the paper at first has attempted to present various meanings which are available for both concept and review main approaches which have tried to show the relationship between poverty and social movements. Secondly in brief, the historical changes which are Important in studying the role of poverty in social movements both in western societies and the Third World are mentioned. In this regard, the role of globalization from the above and the gradual weakening of the organized labor movements are singled out. At the end it is claimed that however due to class polarization, a radicalization of all movements especially those which are directly related to urban poor seems inevitable, for the rime being most of the social movements ate non violent, inter-systemic aimed at well defined and limited demands. Thus governments by acknowledging the rights of masses to protest can prevent more destructive types of collective actions.

Poverty is the most widespread and important socio-economic issue in today's world. Scholars have approached poverty and its relationship with other issues through a number of theoretical perspectives. This article attempts to review the various conceptual and theoretical formulations on the relationship among poverty, deprivation and citizenship from a sociological perspective, and examines them in the Iranian context. Findings indicate a complex relationship among poverty, deprivation and citizenship. In particular, poverty and deprivation have acted as obstacles to the realization of citizenship in some areas. Furthermore, transcending structural limitations, citizenship is found to be an appropriate theoretical tool within people whose frame work .i.e, the poor, are not ignored, their individual rights are upheld, and their participation is ensured. Put differently, one may use citizenship as a dynamic concept that can effectively analyze the process, interrelations and dialectics of the various dimensions of poverty and deprivation.

The purpose of this article presentation is an investigation of the relation between poverty dimension & illegality based on Theoretical Approach & survey data collection about Tabriz citizens. Sample size was 670 & that procedure was multistage sampling. The main result of this survey shows that 90 percent of citizens had at least one illegal behavior on the second half of last year (1383) & based on multiple regression For explain of illegality; There are significant relation between socio-economic poverty, cultural poverty, religious attitude poverty, citizenship Poverty, negative Attitude to laws with illegality. Therefore poverty at all respects has a main impact on illegality behavior.

Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of malnutrition. In other words, low income results in malnutrition which in turn culminates in more poverty. It deserves mentioning, however, that destitution is by no means the sole cause of malnutrition and cultural, social as well as public health factors are solved. Presently, portions of our population are malnourished. Lack of food has led to protein- energy malnutrition, iron deficiency anemia, zinc, calcium as well as vitamins A, B2 and D deficiency are still problematic. On the other hand, part of the population is suffering from over nutrition resulting in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.Current figures point to the presence of 6 million case of osteoporosis or osteopenia. Forty percent of the under- two children are anemic, 11 percent of the under- fives are afflicted with moderate to severe underweight and 15 percent are moderately to severely stunted.The situation is not limited to our country and many nations are faced with the plight of malnutrition. This is why the world leaders gathered, at the invitation of FAO, in November 1996 in Rome to call for "access to healthy and safe food and sufficient food intake" and reiterated that right to food and freedom from hunger must be given high priority in all countries. In policies and nutrition improvement programs emphasis must be placed on the poor, the deprived and low- income groups. Nutritional well- being must be considered as a prerequisite for social and economic development.

Housing Poverty in Iran may be interpreted differently for urban and rural areas. In urban areas, it reveals itself in informal settlement and is escalating. But in rural areas, it is usually due to poor construction material and structure, and also the number of rooms. In general, poverty is more widespread in rural areas and housing poverty is more so.In this article, I intend to show that the lack of a social policy for providing housing, that means the shortcomings of housing planning and social security systems and accord between the two, is the main cause of the governments inability to alleviate housing poverty and subsequently to establish social justice.

Technology and politics have thrust the world more closely together than ever before. The benefits of globalization are potentially enormous, as a result of the increased sharing of ideas, cultures, life-saving technologies, and efficient production processes. Yet globalization is under trial, partly because these benefits are not yet reaching hundreds of millions of the world's poor, and partly because globalization introduces new kinds of international challenges as turmoil in one part of the world can spread rapidly to others, through terrorism; armed conflict, environmental degradation, or disease, as demonstrated by the dramatic spread of AIDS around the globe in a single generation. The world's political leaders have recognized this global interdependence in solemn commitments to improve the lives of the world's poor by the year 2015. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in September 2000, call for a dramatic reduction in poverty and marked improvements in the health of the poor.The importance of the MDGs in health is, in one sense, self-evident. Improving the health and longevity of the poor is an end in itself, a fundamental goal of economic development. But it is also a means to achieving the other development goals relating to poverty reduction. The linkages of health to poverty reduction and to long-term economic growth are powerful, much stronger than is generally understood. In Iran for achieving to MDGs goals many activities started three years ago to targeting health care services for poor people.This paper reviews health services availability for poor people, poor people targeting and relation between development and health.

Recent Studies Show That Children from economically disadvantage families exhibit lower levels of cognitive functioning. The current research emphasises on this field by focusing on one mechanism that links material hardship to child out comes, namely the mediating effect of maternal depression. 1462 mothers in postpartum period in 1380 and 3 years later in 1383 respond to questionnaires including Denver Development Screening test and center for Epidemio Logical Studies, Depression scale in a longitude research program. Results show that maternal depression and poverty Jeopardized the development of child, especially for Cognitive development.

This article is a preliminary attempt to compile the available information on migration dynamics in Iran to shed light on its relationship with poverty. It argues that whereas the influx of Afghans and Iraqis to Iran as refugees and irregular workers has allowed them to escape the war and misery back home, it has also made a large number of them into the urban poor in Iran. It also discussed the migration trends among Iran highly skilled labor force and their effects on poverty levels in the country. It shows that whereas their absence from the Iranian economy has most likely resulted in increased poverty, their remittances are too small to offset the effect. The article concludes with a set of recommendations on public policy.

Globalization has two aspects. One of it's most important aspects, which has a severe impact on the "prevention of poverty and inequality", is the mobilization and release of capital, This movement not only prevents the workforce from obtaining the minimum standard of living, but also, through the high bargaining power in the area of tax reduction, decreases the power of government to create the infrastructure for the workforce and the population suffering from inequality.The decrease in social protection will change income poverty to ability poverty and consequently will increase the severity of overall poverty and inequality. At this point, globalization, with its liberal nature, has a negative impact on the quality living for the majority of the population. Many have come to the conclusion that the remedy lies in changing the trend of globalization from a market-oriented approach to a people-oriented approach. The only solution is to begin by returning the power of the government to establish extensive social protection, as well as social supervision of the capital of the world.

This paper discusses Social Development Approach (SDA) to poverty reduction programs and social welfare. Some objective and subjective (cultural) processes, at the late decades of 21th century, have challenged the prevalent patterns of poverty reduction and social welfare, which has led to the proposal of social development or community-based development approach. This new approach is different from traditional welfare approach, in terms of its indexes, aims, concentrations, methods, measures and agents. The first section of this paper deals with historical and conceptual background of SDA and the second section proposes the concept of "community-based poverty reduction and social welfare". This concept extends SDA to local levels specially at urban areas. The third section of this article traces the SDA approach in the fourth development plan; and The last section of the paper sums up proposed arguments and insights, and emphasizes the necessity of implementing SDA in to welfare and poverty reduction activities and plans in the country.

As we know, our understanding about poverty and it's dimensions and causes have been changed from past to now. So that it's definitions has transmitted from "income povertry" to capability poverty" and to "deprivation from basic capabilities and potentialities. Meanwhile, poverty campaigns policies & mechanisms have been evolved from "trickle down" approaches of classic theories of economic growth" to broad and centralized interventions of government. And also because of failures of these policies to overcome poverty new ways of poverty alleviations have been conceptualized in "good governance" and "empowerment" of the poor. In this way, participation of poor and direct intervention of poor communities in poverty reduction programmes have become key pillars of policies and approaches of this area.This paper reviews three initiatives: "Basic Development Needs", "Poverty Alleviation through Social Mobilization and Micro credit" and "Social Funds" in the international literature and experiences. Then these initiatives follow in the country experiences and compare with each other analytically. At the end, paper searches the future of these initiatives in such a way that how they response their applicability and sustainability Challenges.This paper has used secondary and comparative analyses and also SWOT analyses implicitly.

The relation between subsidies in one hand growth and poverty reduction in other hand is an important debate among the economists and policy makers. This article, at first, gives a picture to this debate and challenge, between Neo-Clasic and structure-Institutional approaches.Then tries to evaluate their explanatory sufficiency in economies such as Iranian economy by emphases on the historical experience of adjustment and structural policies which have been implemented during past years in many developing countries.

To maintain social justice, we need to realize economic, social, and political security; to increase hopefulness to future, to provide basic needs and procure the individual identity in the society. For this purpose, investigating poverty situation and developing poverty reduction programs is crucial for observing and controlling poverty.There are vanity of poverty alleviation and patterns in different economic systems. The wellborn Socialistic, Human Development, Classic and Neo-classic approaches give different answers to the concept and the way to control and reduce it.There are various poverty reduction programs proposal via these patterns and school of thoughts in economics, but few success have been achieved yet. The current essay will target these experiences in Iran and will try to evaluate the strengths and weakness of these programs and set up some criteria in this respect.

The objective of this paper is to examine the nature of helping behaviors and the factors affecting their emergence using survey research method in the six provinces of the country. It was assumed that these behaviors are affected mainly by three broad variables: (a) social, psychological preconditions; (b) cognitive, psychological and physical (economic) differences; and (c) social environments such as social institutions, believes and values.The paper concludes that such variables as "familiarity with people difficulties, the state of poverty in the society", "believing on being effective aids in alleviating others (needy)difficulties", "lack of any alternative with exception of the very respondents", "believing on inability of aid organization to alleviate neediness", "the objective (economic) ability of the respondents to help others" and "circumstances stimulating feeling" have the most impact on emerging helping behaviors, Moreover, the study revealed that helping behaviors, first of all, have voluntary and sacrificial character and they are affected mostly by altruistic stimulus. In more developed regions, these behaviors had more universalistic inclination than in underdeveloped regions, in the sense that in more developed regions they tended to be affected by mere humanistic stimulus (not on the base of relatives, coreligionist, fellow citizen, compatriotic, etc).

Poverty has been studied from different aspects in Iran. The methodological and applied review of the studies carried out on the issue of poverty reveals the fact that despite the scientific and theoretical outcomes of these researches, they have been unable to tackle this social, economical and cultural problem, and we are faced with many challenges in this regard. The lack of a national will evolved from the government, nation, private sector and other civil institutes has resulted in the adaptation of different and sometimes contradictory approaches in dealing with the poverty issue which in turn has made the problem more complex and its remedy has become longer. In this study, through the adaptation of a critical view, the inability of the poverty eradication programs in Iran is studied. The study includes the different approaches taken, the history of poverty in Iran, and the major poverty eradication policies of the country. The results indicate that due to the lack of congruence between the theoretical and practical issues, the continuation of the present policies will not result in any significant anti-poverty actions. At the end of the article, the debriefing and discussion sections argues for the necessity of the formation of a national poverty eradication committee which is formed by the representatives of the government, private sector, civil institutes the aims of which are to mobilize the poverty eradication programs.