Poverty in the Inner City

POVERTY IN THE INNER CITY
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Abstract
Reason for writing
For years, the increase in poverty in the nation’s urban centers has been a pervasive problem. This has led to various scholars and government officials putting forward both economic and non-economic measures based on cultural or structural variables to not only explain but also to curb the problem (Jordan, 2004). The study’s purpose is to determine the role played by cultural and structural factors in the continuous growth of poverty in inner cities.
Problem
The scope of the study will focus on inner cities across the United States. It will utilize a macro theory point of view where the role played by cultural and structural variables in the persistent growth of poverty in the inner cities will be analyzed. Since the 70s the country experienced significant structural changes that led to a move from manufacturing industries to service delivery and the scarcity of low-skilled employment in inner cities leading to unemployment (Small and Newman, 2001). Likewise, various cultural or behavioral variables such as the flight of working and middle-class citizens from the inner cities, crime, drug abuse, and teen pregnancies have contributed to increased poverty in these regions (Graif, Gladfelter, and Mathews, 2014). The research can be viewed from a critical realist perspective as it is evident that various structural and cultural factors have contributed to increased and persistent growth of poverty in the nation’s inner cities.

Methodology
The research will begin by operationalizing the concept of poverty and determining how it can be measured so as to ascertain its prevalence in inner cities. This is vital since different definitions and measurements of the concept have varying effects on how the problem is understood and the policies employed to solve it (Wratten, 1995). In addition to this, the paper will analyze the various factors associated with cultural and structural variables including crime, unemployment, and government policies and how they contribute to increased poverty in the country’s inner cities. This will mainly be based on previous research on the subject.
Results
The results will indicate the role played by both cultural and structural variables in the persistent increase in poverty in inner cities. Additionally, it will provide insight into how such factors can be curbed in a bid to improve the status of living in the nation’s urban centers.
Implications
The study seeks to provide more insight into the role played by structural and cultural factors in the persistent increase of poverty in urban centers. Such insight is valuable in the manner in which the problem will be approached in future and how future policies should be modeled to alleviate the problem (Small, Harding, and Lamont, 2010). In this light, the study will contribute to the existing literature and encourage further research into the issue.

Bibliography
Graif, Corina, Andrew S. Gladfelter, and Stephen A. Matthews. “Urban poverty and neighborhood effects on crime: Incorporating spatial and network perspectives.” Sociology Compass 8, no. 9 (2014): 1140-1155.
Jordan, Gregory. “The Causes of Poverty: Cultural vs. Structural: Can There Be a Synthesis? Perspectives in Public Affairs.” Advances in Applied Sociology 4, no. 3(2004): 18-34.
Small, Mario Luis, David J. Harding, and Michèle Lamont. “Reconsidering culture and poverty.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 629, no. 1 (2010): 6-27.
Small, Mario Luis, and Katherine Newman. “Urban poverty after the truly disadvantaged: The rediscovery of the family, the neighborhood, and culture.” Annual Review of Sociology 27, no. 1 (2001): 23-45.
Wratten, Ellen. “Conceptualizing urban poverty.” Environment and urbanization 7, no. 1 (1995): 11-38.