Is There a Gorilla in the Room?

Rosalind P. Harris and Julie N. Zimmerman,

University of Kentucky

In the Shadows of Poverty: Strengthening the Rural Poverty Research Capacity of the South. July 21-23. Memphis, TN

Conceptualizing Poverty and Reconceptualizing Rural Poverty

The gorilla stopped in the middle, turned to face the camera, thumped

its chest, and then continued walking across the field of view…

Used in visual perception studies

From the field of Cognitive Psychology

It has to do with what we notice and what we fail to notice

Bottom line? Conscious perception Conscious perception

requires attentionrequires attention

Inattention BlindnessInattention Blindness

What do we miss when we What do we miss when we are busy paying attention are busy paying attention

to something else?to something else?

We applied this idea to how we conceptualize poverty…

Began to ask questions such as…

Are we busy looking at poverty and rural poverty in a particular manner?

When we do, what are we missing?

Is there a gorilla in the room?Is there a gorilla in the room?

Alice O’Connor. Alice O’Connor. 2001. 2001.

Poverty Poverty Knowledge: Knowledge:

Social Science, Social Science, Social Policy, and Social Policy, and

the Poor in the Poor in Twentieth–Twentieth–

Century U.S. Century U.S.

HistoryHistory..

Princeton Princeton University Press.University Press.

Progressive Era

Chicago School

Depression/New Deal

War on Poverty/New Society

Poverty Knowledge Eras

Culture of Poverty

Economic Growth

as the Solution

Deserving versus

Undeserving Poor

Measure

Poverty

AND

Programs

Income

PovertyPoverty

Income

Race

RuralAge

Mother only

Economy

Education

Gender

“…“…such analyses provided the intellectual – and such analyses provided the intellectual – and statistical – justification for a more activist approach statistical – justification for a more activist approach to economic growth, while minimizing the necessity to economic growth, while minimizing the necessity of structural measures to combat long-term of structural measures to combat long-term unemployment and poverty. unemployment and poverty.

They were also important in linking poverty to the They were also important in linking poverty to the achievement of concrete, numerical policy goals – 4 achievement of concrete, numerical policy goals – 4 rather than 5 percent employment, and 4 rather than rather than 5 percent employment, and 4 rather than 2 or 3 percent economic growth” 2 or 3 percent economic growth”

(O’Connor 2001, p. 145)(O’Connor 2001, p. 145)

“For while income was, at least on the surface, an amoral,

measurable, and inclusive criterion, maintaining a narrow,

income-based definition of the poverty problem would also

allow officials to skirt the question of what structural

inequalities lay behind the poverty numbers, and in

particular to avoid explicit mention of racial subordination

and discrimination as dimensions of poverty.

Gender as such did not even enter the framework as a

category of analysis. Thus while the numbers pointed to

female-headed families as among those who proved quite

immune to economic growth the CEA offered no analysis of

female wages or employment opportunities as one possible

explanation…” (O’Connor 2001, p. 154)

Does Rural Poverty Have Implications for How We Conceptualize Poverty?

Individual decisions are interrelated with larger considerations

Changes in the national and global economy impact both individuals and communities

Limitations of approaches that rely on economies of scale where the comparative advantage is defined as bigger being better

Rural poverty forces us to de-homogenize poverty

The relationship between structure and individual is inescapable

How we address poverty impacts both individuals and communities

“Studying poverty

is [not] the same thing

as studying the poor.”

Alice O’Connor, Poverty Knowledge

What Now??

THE GREATEST CHALLENGETHE GREATEST CHALLENGETO ANY THINKERTO ANY THINKER

ISISSTATING THE PROBLEMSTATING THE PROBLEM

IN A WAYIN A WAYTHAT WILL ALLOWTHAT WILL ALLOW

A SOLUTIONA SOLUTIONBertrand Russell

The significant problems we face cannot be solved

at the same level of thinking we were at

when we created them.

~ Albert Einstein

Social reproduction and production are inseparable, necessary and co-equal processes?

Gender, race, and ethnicity must be integrated into theory rather than “tacked on?”

Individuals and social structures are mutually defined?

1990 RSS Taskforce on 1990 RSS Taskforce on Persistent Rural PovertyPersistent Rural Poverty

Social processes are embedded in time and space?

Local events and processes are linked to global ones?

The state is neither wholly subordinate to society nor independent of it?