Cho is working on poverty reduction in a Philadelphia public housing development. In the analysis he writes after the project, h

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Cho is working on poverty reduction in a Philadelphia public housing development. In the analysis he writes after the project, h

e uses Mario Luis Small’s idea of "culture as frames" instead of Oscar Lewis’s "culture of poverty" because the "culture of poverty" thesis:

Business

2 answers:

harina [3.5K] · Answer 1 · 2026-04-01T19:15:46+03:00

Lewis lists 70 traits related to the culture of poverty, which is seen as not universally experienced among all lower classes.

Further Explanation

Individuals within a culture of poverty experience intense feelings of marginalization, helplessness, dependence, and possessiveness. They often feel like outsiders in their nation, believing it overlooks their needs and interests. Accompanying this sense of powerlessness are pervasive feelings of inferiority and unworthiness. In the United States, being poor and Black incurs additional losses, including racial discrimination.

Their experience is one-dimensional. They are people on the margins who are primarily aware of their own challenges, circumstances, environment, and lifestyle. Typically, they lack the insight, perspective, or ideology to connect their issues to similar cases worldwide.

Lewis, born in 1914 in New York City to a rabbi family and raised on a small farm in northern New York, earned his bachelor's degree in history from the City College of New York in 1936. There he met his future wife and collaborator, Ruth Maslow. Lewis has taught at Brooklyn College, Washington University, and has assisted in locating anthropology scholars at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Lewis's published works:

La Vida; Puerto Rican Families in a Culture of Poverty - San Juan and New York, 1966
A Death in the Sánchez Family, 1969
Village Life in North India

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Culture of Poverty

Oscar Lewis

Details

Grade: High School

Subject: Business

Keyword: culture, poverty, Lewis

Nady [3.2K] · Answer 2 · 2026-04-01T19:17:21+03:00

Answer:

Oscar Lewis’s "culture of poverty" is often seen as placing the blame for poverty on the individuals experiencing it. The implication is that they are poor because they choose to be, which both Cho and I disagree with.

Conversely, Mario Luis Small argued that membership in a culture is not solely determined by race, ethnicity, or gender. His research focuses on how environmental and socio-cultural factors affect impoverished communities and their inhabitants.