POVERTY
Sociology provides a powerful tool for thinking about poverty.
‘Thinking sociologically’ can help us to better comprehend social
issues and problems. It allows us to understand personal troubles as
part of the economic and political institutions of society, and permits
us to cast a critical eye over issues that may otherwise be interpreted
simplistically or misinterpreted. In looking at poverty, myths and
misconceptions dominate both popular and political discussions.
Sociological thinking can be helpful in trying to disentangle poverty
from a range of related concepts and largely pejorative discussions
about a variety of social problems.
The social science discipline of political science focuses on the study of political
systems and political behavior. While political science has not developed a
comprehensive theory of poverty, this article reviews political science
perspectives related to the causes of poverty (culture of poverty and neo-Marxist
theories of class), the role of government in addressing poverty (theories of
distributive justice and public support for antipoverty policies), and political
participation.
Economic geographers study how economic activities, processes, and
outcomes vary by location. My area of expertise is the underlying economic
causes of such variation in economic opportunity—for example, how a region
rich in natural resources
DRUG ADDICTION
Increasingly, drug use prevention programs and research are being considered in the environmental
contexts in which they occur. One context that is rarely considered is the political context. This article
examines the reciprocal effects of policy and prevention programs from four perspectives representing
different contexts, beginning with political science, and followed by social work and public health
administration, psychology, and education. Four specific issues are considered. First is how current
national policies on drug use shape our nation's prevention efforts, from a political science perspective.
Second is how effective prevention programs can affect and shape policy change. This issue is
considered from a social and public health administration perspective. Third is how policy change can act
as an intervention to prevent drug use, from the perspective of psychology. The fourth issue is how
dissemination of prevention programs and policies can impact drug use prevention. This question
considers an educational perspective. The perspectives are integrated into a general conceptual model to
improve our understanding of how drug use prevention occurs in a national political context. Finally,
examples are given of how this model might inform the other perspectives represented in this special
issue on transdisciplinary drug abuse prevention research.
The research in this book on the geographical context of drug addiction contributes to better
understanding the etiology of addiction, its diffusion, its interaction with geographically variable
environmental, social, and economic factors, and the strategies for its treatment and prevention. This
book explores links between geography and drug abuse and identifies research ideas, connections,
and research pathways which point to some promising avenues for future work in this area. The
topics explored in Geography and Drug Addiction include: Spatial patterns of drug use and addiction
Linking spatial models with drug abuse research Interaction of social and environmental factors with
biochemical processes of addiction Locational analyses of drug addiction treatment and service
delivery facilities Neighborhood scale studies of geographic factors (including the built environment)
and their interaction with drug addiction, treatment, or prevention Use of Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) to better understanding and respond to drug addiction Spatial diffusion modeling of
addictive drug usage and its changing characteristics, including also predictive modeling Social
epidemiology and GIS This book will serve as an excellent resource to geographers and drug abuse
researchers, including sociologists, epidemiologists, social scientists in general and public health
researchers, both in policy and academia.
Sometimes people have difficulty understanding how a devastating historical event can still affect
people today. The answer lies in the way we transmit culture from one generation to the next: families.
Now imagine a family history that includes the systematic oppression of the group to which that family
belongs. Oppression can lead to feelings of hopelessness, loss, fear, distrust, and despair. Parents who
directly experienced oppression communicate this sense of loss and despair to their children. Someday
those children will become parents and communicate these same things to their children and so on.
Each generation of children learns the world is an unsafe place. This occurs even though in present
times, this may no longer be true. They may have learned that opportunities for a good life belong to
other people with the "right" skin, eyes, or hair. If someone learned these beliefs as a child, that child
eventually grows up to be an adult believing these same things. Next, these adult-parents communicate
these same these beliefs to the next generation of children and so on. Many generations later, we can
observe the transmission of hopelessness and despair. Therefore, it will continue to affect family
members today.
An understanding of social and cultural forces does help to answer, "How do people get addicted?" It is
true that individuals affected by cultural influences cannot readily change these influences.
Nevertheless, we can interpret these cultural forces in helpful or unhelpful ways. Sometimes re-
interpretation is our only recourse.
MOBILE LEGEND Addction