ABSTRACT
This chapter will discuss both causes of poverty and difficulties to get out of poverty. The aim is to capture the essence of poverty circles, and the reasons why it is so difficult to get out of vicious circles of poverty. Reasons for poverty as given in surveys and interviews are presented and related to theoretical explanations, in which poverty is analysed as a consequence of the working of society rather than individual failings. Attitudes to poverty and changes of attitudes as presented in surveys are studied and related to those expressed in interviews. This chapter also deals with poor households’ ways of coping with poverty and what strategies they might have to improve their situation. Sen’s entitlement theory is used to analyse how households use whatever means they have at their disposal. The concept ‘transformation’ is used to depict that the change of the system is treated as an ongoing process. To study the effects of transformation the analysis focuses on new groups of poor: working or unemployed persons with children.
As to the causes to poverty, in broad terms two different kinds of explanations can be identified: those that are connected to state policies and the working of society on the one hand, and those that are related to attitudes and behavioural patterns of individuals on the other. There are also important links here. In particular, attitudes to poverty are crucial, as they feed into strategies to meet problems of poverty in politics as well as in society in general.
