The article offers an attempt to analyse poverty in terms of a narrowly defined social problem - a phenomenon which is dysfunctional for the social system (e.g. because of its scope, the danger of permanence, and negative implications). This problem can become a subject of interest for sociologists, other professionals who are engaged in attempts to assuage poverty, and members of communities where it occurs. The article moves from theoretical considerations to an analysis of poverty in today’s Poland. Based on results of a research conducted among social care recipients in the Lubuskie Province, the article poses a question: whose problem is poverty? Is it the problem of the poor themselves or of the professionals that try to fight it? In an attempt to answer the question, it offers a typology of social care recipients, based on an analysis of their activities and on their own attempts to interpret their situation.
The article analyzes different meanings of poverty and wealth as seen in the Belarusian and Polish proverbs. Based on the thematic-rhematic analysis of the proverbs, the author presents many similarities in the everyday thinking of Polish and Belarusian societies. The key similarities are the beliefs in the dichotomic structure of a society (the poor and rich), positive characteristics of a poor man (e.g. honesty, hard work) and negative features of a rich man (e.g. greed, stinginess, laziness). Such similarities result from the fact that Poland and Belarus are neighbouring countries with similar historical and cultural traditions.
The aim of the article is an analysis of the theme of poverty as one of key concepts in the work of Ryszard Kapuściński. The article offers an overview of Kapuściński’s poverty discourse, which relied on a broad, multi-dimensional concept of poverty. In Kapuściński’s work there was room for both cultural and subjective dimensions, for an idea of a polarized world divided between the rich and the poor, for an exploration of cultures of poverty and consumerism, and also for taking into account the modern context of globalization, increasing consumerism, and influence of the media on the marginalization of the poverty issue in the public debate. The final theme is Kapuściński’s identification with the poor and their lives, which in his view was a necessary requirement for being a reporter/journalist.
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