Employment Structure and Poverty: Theoretical Perspectives and Conceptual Frameworks: Discussion

Abstract

The Thompson and Gray manuscript is a nonexhaustive and very selective literature review of theoretical explanations of the causes of poverty in the United States. It suggests that the explanations of poverty in the United States may be codified into nine conceptual paradigms: (1) culture of poverty; (2) exploitation; (3) the time lag in the process of adjustment of technical and other changes in a dynamic economy; (4) differential power among enterprises and groups; (5) subclass theory that takes into account racism, sexism, welfare capitalism, elite rule, and geographic location; (6) status attainment; (7) orthodox economic theory; (8) human capital; and (9) economic segmentation theories, including dual labor market. Thompson and Gray further suggest that the latter two conceptual paradigms are viewed as the dominant theoretical and policy explanations of poverty as it relates to employment structure, and that they guide empirical analysis of the relationship between employment structure and poverty. The nine conceptual paradigms are presented with little effort to reconcile them, to identify how or why all but two are inadequate. Better assessment is needed of the linkages among the nine conceptual paradigms to employment structure and poverty. The purpose of introducing the nine paradigms is unclear, especially in the absence of an assessment of their merits