Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

2.4Destitution as the result of personal irresponsibility

In this explanation, it is the individual’s actions that cause or do not cause poverty, not the whole society’s worldview and values (Landon, 2006:29). Its basic argument is that people are poor because they are irresponsible: make mistakes of judgment, get themselves in jams, are injured through carelessness, etc. The critical point is that these people “knew better”, yet took irresponsible chances, or even chose to do wrong. This explanation implies that there is something pathological about the individual, his/her thinking and behaviour, which could be repaired if he/she would simply imitate good folks (Landon, 2006:30).
This concept links closely to that of “individual factors” as part of Morse’s theory explained above. Even if it is true (which is debatable: because people are often pushed into irresponsible behaviour simply because they are trying to survive), it is still too narrow a viewpoint to explain the whole problem of poverty and destitution.

2.5Christian: Destitution as the result of a complex framework of disempowerment

Christian (1994:334) states that poor people are embedded in a complex framework of interacting systems. For Christian these systems include a (1) personal system (including psychology); (2) a social system; (3) a spiritual-religious system which is both personal and social; (4) a cultural system that includes a worldview; and (5) a biophysical system.
He defines the way in which every one of these systems contributes towards entrapping people in poverty.
The social system, including socio-economic-political realities, reinforces the powerlessness of the poor by means of exclusion and exploitation. This is driven by an undisclosed and often unrecognized attitude amongst non-poor people who see themselves as superior and therefore meant to rule. They consequently start to play god in the lives of the poor, using religious systems, the law, media, government policies, and people occupying positions of power (Christian 1994:178).
The spiritual-religious system refers to the impact of the fall and sin on individual human beings, as well as the additional impact of deception by principalities and powers. The powerlessness of the poor is reinforced by the fear and deceit created by “the god of this world that has blinded the minds of unbelievers” (2 Cor. 4:4) and the “trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Tim. 2:26). (Christian 1994:252) In this way Christian affirms that it is not simply human beings, and the systems in which they live, which create and sustain poverty. There is a cosmic adversary that works against life.
For Christian (1994:199) cultural system encompasses inadequacies in worldview. This signifies a culture that conditions people to accept certain convictions, such as those that the “blacks must serve and whites must rule” culture which dominated the apartheid years.
Biophysical system (body-mind-spirit) includes the body, mind and spirit that are weakened by hunger, illness and lack of education, thereby disabling people from lifting themselves out of the poverty trap. (Christian 1994:200)
The personal system, as Christian (1994:207) perceives it, refers to the “marred” identity of the poor. Impoverished people suffer from marred identities in two ways: (1) they see themselves as “damaged goods”, a perception affirmed by the powerful who treat the poor as people with nothing to offer, while (2) a lifetime of suffering, deception and exclusion is internalized by the poor in a way that results in their no longer knowing who they are or why they were created, without value and without gifts.

2.6Chambers: Destitution as the result of the “poverty trap”

Chambers (1983:103-139) describes the poor as “living in a cluster of disadvantages”, where people are poor, physically weak, isolated, vulnerable and powerless, and where these dimensions of poverty interact in a system called the poverty trap. He specifically names the following dimensions of poverty:

1. 
   Material poverty (lack of physical goods)
   
2. 
   Physical weakness (lack of health)
   
3. 
   Isolation (lack of access and information)
   
4. 
   Vulnerability (Few buffers against emergencies)
   
5. 
   Powerlessness (poor people possess very little influence to change their world)
   
6. 
   From the work of Meyers (1999:85), spiritual poverty can be added.
   

2.7Theories about destitution as the result of marginalization

One of the greatest challenges for destitute people is the extent to which they are disaffiliated or marginalized from society. There are different perspectives as to “why” disaffiliation and destitution with concurrent marginalization occur in today’s society. In the 1980s, two polarized perspectives were offered. One, expounded most strongly by Baum and Burnes (1993), is that people become disaffiliated of their own doing. Personal problems such as mental illness, substance abuse, and legal issues challenge a destitute person’s ability to attach, or remain attached, to the rest of society.
Others argue that structural changes in the economy and housing market have created more poor people and less low-income housing, making destitution inevitable for some proportion of the population. According to this second view, society abandoned the destitute (Koegel, Burnam, & Bauhmohl, 1996; Wright et al., 1998).
The above viewpoints illustrate the two sides of the coin in the engagement of destitution, namely, on the one hand, “inside/ internal” factors that contribute to destitution, and, on the other, “outside/ external” factors that do so: addressed under the following headings as “Inside-Out” and “Outside-In” missions.
A third view, and probably the one that is most broadly accepted, is that “times had grown unforgiving” (Koegel et al., 1996: 30). Given the complexities in the overall structural context, people with personal limitations experience a difficult time competing for the limited affordable housing and better-paying jobs available. This is especially true for people suffering from chronic disabilities, such as mental illness and HIV/AIDS, and those experiencing problems of substance abuse. Moreover, these risk factors are often bundled together, leading to a further marginalization of this segment of the poverty population (Koegel et al., 1996; Wright et al., 1998).
Kraybill (2003:8) refers to “structural barriers” that promote marginalization and destitution. These include (1) lack of adequate income support/a livable wage; (2) lack of appropriate, affordable housing; (3) lack of access to health/mental health/substance abuse care; and (4) inadequate social supports.
In this respect Friedman (1992:67) suggests that poverty (destitution) is the lack of access to eight bases of social power:

1. 
   Financial resources
   
2. 
   Social networks
   
3. 
   Appropriate information
   
4. 
   Surplus time over subsistence requirements
   
5. 
   Instruments of work and livelihood
   
6. 
   Social organization
   
7. 
   Knowledge and skills
   
8. 
   Defensible life space.
   

After discussion with Stefan de Beer (IUM, 2005) concerning this model, two more bases of social power can be added:

9. 
   Cultural values (meaning access to cultural rituals, symbols and even values that makes life worthwhile)
   
10. 
    Spirituality (access to the means of gaining a higher frame of reference and meaning, or even comfort). Meyers (1999:85) also suggests that Friedman ignores the spiritual causes of poverty.
    

Friedman (1992:33) states that, when people do not enjoy access to these “bases of power”, they will be in absolute poverty. Empowerment would facilitate the increased access of people to these bases, i.e. access to housing, to economic opportunity etc. Alternative development, for Friedman, “is a process that seeks the empowerment of the households and their individual members through their involvement in socially and politically relevant actions”. It is concerned with the creation of a socially just community, in which all people enjoy access to the resources of God. Friedman believes that self-reliance is not enough, since poor people do not control the resources needed to improve their situation.