Alyce Pickering

In the essay Urban Social Poverty the author, Joseph D. Lewandowski, distinguishes Horizontal Social capital from Vertical social capital, and argues that the absence of what we vertical social capital is what he calls Urban social poverty. He also states that there are many reasons for poverty. It's partially the Government and supply and demand of that particular nation/country/state's goods, or economically based, but its also caused by the people themselves. He also says that to better understand an have a clearer view of both Horizontal and Vertical Social Capital we need to put social poverty into certain categories that show more clearly the difference in the different social capitals. That way it is easier to rethink the social capital theory in a more enlightened way with the different aspects of urban societies. Mr. Lewandowski states that people who are at certain levels of social capital generally tend to befriend and be around people of similar standing. And that this is very clearly seen as the poor and rich start living closer together. If you look at this fact and you take away all of the rules of society as we think of it and just look at the social poverty of a certain area, you will see groups of people and cultures that, though they operate in the same way in the same universe, act like they have nothing to do with each other. And that If you were to eliminate the everyday experiences of small economic cultures and look more at the big picture, you see that the idea of Vertical Social Capital, or Lower, Middle and Upper class, is keeping people from making the beneficial connections to people who can help boost their standing in society.

In conclusion Mr Lewandowski points out that though sometimes there isn't any way to change or eliminate the factors that contribute to vertical social capital there are a few ways that we can attempt to tear down the "'fortified enclaves'" of urban areas. One of which was that if we approach urban social poverty like the proverbial saying "give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish he'll eat for a lifetime" and help show people how to raise their socio-economic standing, instead of just giving them what they need, then the general welfare and socio-economic standing of the country will also go up.