Urban Poverty

Eradicating poverty in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. For this reason, it was the primary sustainable development goal set for the United Nations Development Programme. While the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped by more than half between 1990 and 2015, too many are still struggling to meet the most basic human needs, and in particular 10 percent of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty; one person in every ten is extremely poor. As of 2015, about 736 million people still lived on less than US $1.90 a day; many lack food, clean drinking water, and proper sanitation. Rapid growth in countries such as China and India have lifted millions out of poverty, but progress has been uneven. Women are more likely to be poor than men as they have less paid work and education and own less property. Consequently, child poverty also is significant high; half of all people living in poverty are under eighteen. In fact, child poverty is one of the most important concerns and priorities for national and international organizations. Progress has also been limited in other regions, such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, which account for 80 percent of those living in extreme poverty. New threats brought on by climate change, conflict, and food insecurity mean that even more work is needed to lift people out of poverty. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a bold commitment to finish what we have started and end poverty in all its forms and dimensions by 2030. This involves targeting the most vulnerable, increasing basic resources and services, and supporting communities affected by conflict and climate-related disasters. In fact, urban poverty in megalopolises in the Global South is a relevant issue in international research on poverty. However, this entry is focused on urban poverty, understood as a set of economic and social difficulties that are found in advanced industrial cities. Sociology has always shown an interest in poverty, for example in the early Chicago school’s studies on urbanization, industrialization, immigration, and neighborhoods. While classic figures of sociology such as Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, Georg Simmel, and Auguste Comte did not write a great deal about poverty, a strong concern with it exists in the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In recent decades, there has been growing interest in unifying the sociologies of poverty and paying more attention to poverty in the developing world, where the overwhelming majority of poor people live. Hence, this bibliography attempts to address the twofold goals of reviewing the main literature in the field as it exists today and seeking to identify frontier directions for emerging research.