Description

The second half of the 20th century has seen a gradual conflicting debate between those who ascribe to the causes of poverty due to economic and social structures and those who draw attention to individual behaviour or culture. The theoretical balance has changed from an emphasis on agency and structure to one which concerns itself with the relationship between the two. Noordhoff has used a relational level to look for additional explanatory evidence. In his dissertation, based on qualitative research, he shows how low income earners in The Netherlands are entrenched in various fields (State bureaucracy, the labor market, the neighborhood and the informal economy), how people affiliate with one another and how these various fields interrelate. In doing this, his study intends to surpass the dichotomy between structuralist / individualist explanations of poverty and how poverty perpetuates itself over time.