Human geographyLesson 1 of 1 in the course Global Inequality

Global Poverty, Inequality, and Labor Exploitation

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Poverty is not a single experience or a condition that can be understood through one definition alone. This lesson introduces different ways of defining poverty and explains how informal work can help people survive while leaving them economically vulnerable.

Relative poverty describes a situation in which people can afford basic necessities but cannot meet the average standard of living in their society. What counts as deprivation therefore depends partly on social context. A person without reliable transportation or savings may struggle to participate fully in a society even if they have food and housing.

All flashcards

Relative poverty
Poverty defined by falling below the typical standard of living in one’s society, even if basic necessities are affordable.
Subjective poverty
Poverty understood through people’s perceptions of their financial situation and what they believe they need.
Underground economy
Work and businesses operating outside some or all formal regulations, taxes, permits, or labor protections.
Feminization of poverty
The disproportionate burden of poverty experienced by women.
Debt bondage
Coercive labor in which debt prevents a worker from repaying what is owed or leaving.

Quiz questions

  1. What extreme-poverty threshold does the supplied material attribute to the World Bank?Answer: Less than $1.90 per person per day.
  2. According to the supplied material, among people aged 25–34, how many women in poverty are there for every 100 men in poverty?Answer: 122 women.
  3. What share of the world’s people living in slums does the supplied material estimate live in Asia?Answer: About 60 percent.
  4. What relationship have cross-national studies found between income inequality and crime?Answer: Higher inequality is associated with higher crime rates, particularly violent crime.
  5. Which description best defines human trafficking in the supplied material?Answer: Moving people away from their communities and forcing them to work against their will.

Based on Introduction to Sociology 3e by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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