The Urban Family and Poverty in Latin America

Rocha, Mercedes González de la; Gantt, Barbara B.

doi:10.1177/0094582x9502200202

Cited by 33 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In Indonesia, school participation in the age groups 7 to 12 and 13 to 19 years decreased as a result of the response to declining family income (Horton and Mazumdar 1999). A similar condition was documented in Latin America in the early 1990s when there was an increase in the number of young males between the ages of 15 and 25 years who were neither studying nor working (de la Rocha 1995). Maintaining a family with as many income earners as possible is a common strategy adopted by both the urban and rural poor.…”

Section: Ii5c Costs Of Risk Aversionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…In Latin America, the vulnerability of women to labor market related DFs is compounded with social tensions due to the loss of the male identity as the "bread winner." Accounts of domestic violence, with adverse affects on women's productivity at the workplace, are extensively documented (Barrig 1993;Escobar and Roberts 1991;Moser 1989;de la Rocha 1995).…”

Section: Ii5b Vulnerability To Labor Market Damaging Fluctuations mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Poverty and "Damaging Fluctuations": How do they Relate?

Sinha¹,

Lipton

Yaqub³

2002

Journal of Asian and African Studies

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Recent panel data sets suggest that in some places perhaps half of the poor are not poor all the time, and also as much as 80 percent of "poverty severity" may be due to large fluctuations through time. Some of these dynamics are due to life-cycle events, but much of it represents "damaging fluctuations." These cause immediate damage, and may trigger responses leading to chronic poverty or intergenerational poverty. Moreover, just the possibility of damaging fluctuations, even if they do not occur, may generate more risk-averse behavior, which hampers growth and (because it is more likely to be common among poorer people) increases inequality. The paper discusses the concept of damaging fluctuations, contrasting it with the more common, and related, terms of "risk" and "shocks." Six categories of damaging fluctuations are identified: disease or injury, violence, natural disaster, harvest failure, terms-of-trade deterioration, and reduced access to income-earning work. The paper presents evidence of how the poor differ from others in their exposure, vulnerability, and aversion to damaging fluctuations, and how these lead to more poverty.

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Section: Ii5c Costs Of Risk Aversionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Ii5b Vulnerability To Labor Market Damaging Fluctuations mentioning

confidence: 99%

Poverty and "Damaging Fluctuations": How do they Relate?

Sinha¹,

Lipton

Yaqub³

2002

Journal of Asian and African Studies

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“…Further, each additional sibling in the family increases an individual’s likelihood of migration by 7 %. These variables both serve as proxies for household need, as female-headed households in Brazil and Latin America as a whole have been found to have a lower earning potential and a greater risk of living in poverty (Barros et al 1997; de la Rocha and Gantt 1995). In addition, having more children often correlates with poverty due to larger expenditures for food, school supplies, clothing, etc.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Networks Versus Need: Drivers of Urban Out-Migration in the Brazilian Amazon

Randell

VanWey

2014

Popul Res Policy Rev

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As urbanization rates rise globally, it becomes increasingly important to understand the factors associated with urban out-migration. In this paper, we examine the drivers of urban out-migration among young adults in two medium-sized cities in the Brazilian Amazon—Altamira and Santarém—focusing on the roles of social capital, human capital, and socioeconomic deprivation. Using household survey data from 1,293 individuals in the two cities, we employ an event history model to assess factors associated with migration and a binary logit model to understand factors associated with remitting behavior. We find that in Altamira, migration tends to be an individual-level opportunistic strategy fostered by extra-local family networks, while in Santarém, migration tends to be a household-level strategy driven by socioeconomic deprivation and accompanied by remittances. These results indicate that urban out-migration in Brazil is a diverse social process, and that the relative roles of extra-local networks versus economic need can function quite differently between geographically proximate but historically and socioeconomically distinct cities.

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“…Extended households, although less numerous than nuclear households, gave shelter to a greater number of people during those years (CEPAL, 1992a). Staying in the household of origin after marriage became a more common practice (González de la Rocha, 1988, 1991, 1995). The extended household appeared to be an efficient structure for protecting members from falling real wages and increasing insecurity.…”

Section: The Transition: Restructuring the Householdmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Construction of the Myth of Survival

Rocha

2007

Development and Change

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A myth has come into being that the poor household/family is able to survive in spite of a lack of resources and the presence of macroeconomic policies that foster unemployment and poverty. It has an accompanying fable that tells of how the poor manage to implement survival strategies that are based on their endless capacity to work, to consume less and to be part of mutual help networks. This myth has become a useful tool for policy makers as they design more aggressive neoliberal economic adjustment policies. This contribution examines anthropological and sociological insights regarding the life of the poor and the organization of their households, in which women's paid and unpaid work is an integral part. Through the lens of a researcher in the field of urban poverty and household organization, the article re-examines the fable of the good survivor. Evidence debunks the myth, showing that the optimistic message of this fable does not match with the realities of the impact of economic change on women's lives. But the myth is sustained, as this more negative story is not one that supra-national policy actors want to hear.

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The Urban Family and Poverty in Latin America

Cited by 33 publications

References 8 publications

Poverty and "Damaging Fluctuations": How do they Relate?

Poverty and "Damaging Fluctuations": How do they Relate?

Networks Versus Need: Drivers of Urban Out-Migration in the Brazilian Amazon

The Construction of the Myth of Survival

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