Ms. Angileeta A.

Devi
(year 2011)

Essay
Explain how the use of sociological imagination could be applied to the MDG as a policy to
promote and improve the social conditions of the poor. Be clear about the location of the
subject.

INTRODUCTION

For the purpose of this essay I will choose one of the eight the millennium development goals
(MDGs) and how it can be used as a policy in promoting improving the conditions of the poor. I
will begin with a brief explanation of the MDG that I have chosen that is pillar number one;
which is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. I intend to accomplish this secondly, by using
C Wrights Mills (1959) sociological imagination in the case study of the Department of Social
Welfare’s system in Fiji. This department is currently responsible for processing and
dissemination of family assistance allowance and Food vouchers. By looking at this
department’s assistance scheme I will relate it to the bigger picture of the MDG which is to
eradicate poverty and hunger. Finally, the paper will investigate this question through the use of
the sociological imagination.

THE POLICY
I will begin this part of the paper by defining poverty. For Fiji to meet MDG one fully which is
to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 is unlikely. Poverty has increased from around
25 percent in 1990 to around 40 percent in 20081. According to the Household and Income and
Expenditure Survey (HIES 2008/2009), it has now increased to 45 per cent2.

Three household poverty lines are used to do a poverty analysis in Fiji which are: food poverty
(the inability to provide minimum dietary requirements), basic needs poverty (incomes less than
the cost Of basic food and shelter), and relative poverty (less than one half of the average
household income). Different minimum income requirements were established for urban and
rural areas, and, because of dietary differences, for Fijian and Indo-Fijian. The UNDP reports

____________________________________

1 poverty index http ://www.statsfiji.gov.fj/cens&surveys/HIES.htm

2 Millennium Development Goals 2nd Report, 1990-2009 Report for the Fiji Islands Ministry of
National Planning - September 2010
http://www.undp.org.fj/pdf/Millennium%20%20Development%20Goals.pdf

also define poverty as of two types such as the absolute poverty - where people lack the basis of
life such as food and shelter and relative poverty where one group in the population has a much
smaller share of income than others. Those people who are living below the poverty line are
defined as as defined poor. An individual or family is considered to be poor in Fiji poor if its
before-tax income falls below this threshold

There is also a growing realization that nongovernmental agents (NGOs) are effective
development partners of the Government; with Government providing the necessary funding and
the NGOs providing the requisite services to disadvantaged people. The Fiji Government has
given a renewed emphasis to poverty eradication and has new programmes/projects (with UNDP
assistance) in place to assist the poor and disadvantaged. One of these new programmes includes
the work of the Department of the Social welfare.

CASE STUDY

Department of Social Welfare (DSW) disburses family assistance vouchers to approved

recipients Fiji wide. These were disbursed twice a year in the months of January and July. The
system in its stage was confined to the following;

a) Applications/request for family assistance received over the counter

b) Assessments by the welfare officer commence and this entails home visits for
verification purposes.

2
 c) Analysis of the home visits are conducted within the office considering various
aspects like; age, health condition, single mothers, spouse of prison inmates,
chronically ill upon production of medical certificates, grand-parenting (recently
adopted) etc.
d) The assessment by the welfare officers focus on the extent of the need as per
home visit however, the computation of the monthly allowance deemed suitable is
done by the clerical officers.
e) Once the senior welfare officer approves these processes, the ministry’s accounts
section is informed accordingly to prepare payments.
f) Given the isolation of some recipients, recipient’s vouchers are sent to post
offices in the districts for dispatching.
g) During the months mentioned above, thousands of vouchers are dispatched. In
instances where the recipients are unable to collect their vouchers from the post
offices, they can send their immediate relatives with an authority note, authorizing
the bearer to collect it on his/her behalf.
h) Uncollected vouchers are returned to the originating welfare office for proper
recording in the inventory and stored under safe custody of the clerical officer.
i) In the event these are not collected at the end of the sixth month from date of
issue, the vouchers became ‘stale’, a similar rule applied to normal cheques.
j) Intermittently, welfare officers whilst on a field visit on certain ‘start your own
business projects’ in a program titled ‘moving away from poverty’, they dispatch
vouchers to very sickly elderly couple who just cannot afford to collect their
vouchers and left in the dark.
k) There are peculiar cases where welfare officers visit recipients who are located in
remote areas.

Some beneficiaries were not being getting their full share of allowances due to various problems
such as there were too old to get the allowance themselves and some one else had to pick it up
for them. The travelling cost of picking up the voucher or to cash it mostly took as much as half
of the allowance etc. The Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP) in 2009 did a survey of
this system it was found to be facing problems such as

3
 o There are considerable numbers of returned vouchers that were not properly recorded in
the inventory by the clerical officer and have been ‘cashed’ by welfare officers
themselves leading up to disciplinary procedures and termination of employment in most
cases.
o Recipients have passed away however, their vouchers were continued to be cashed.
o The process of printing and distributing benefit vouchers was time consuming (up to 2
months) and costly and was subjected to fraud, error and leakage.

Due to these problems in this system a new programme was put in place by the (DSW) in Fiji.
The three significant programmes by (DSW) which was aimed at poverty reduction are; Food
Voucher Programme; the Family Assistance (FA); and Care and Protection (C&P) Allowance.
The Food Voucher programme began on February 2010 with a monthly allowance of $30 food
voucher is given to recipients who qualify under one of the following categories: chronically ill,
elderly (age 70+), and permanently disabled and recipients of C&P Allowance. This is to ensure
that poor families have food on the table at the end of the day. On the FA programme, the
allowance provided range from $60 (minimum) to $110 (maximum) per month. The outcome of
applicants for this programme depends on the assessment carried out on individual cases. As
C&P allowance, Government increased the budget this year to cater for those cases that were
being transferred from FA to C&P Allowance. This programme categorizes those that have been,
deserted by spouse, single parent, the death of a breadwinner or ‘prisoner dependent’. The
targeted recipients are mostly children whose parents fall under these categories and there would
be random checking if the child is attending school or not in order for the allowance to be
continued the following year.

This was then discussed with the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and the Reserve Bank of
Fiji and the Westpac bank to bring in the electronic withdrawal. New ID cards were/are made
with the photo of the client in front and that of the third party at the back of the ID card. It will be
valid for three months and re-certification will only be done after home visit by social welfare
officers. The Ministry is making every effort to ensure that programmes are delivered effectively
and that they make the necessary impact desired of the programme. One of the beneficiary under
this programme is an elderly couple surviving on the outer island of Dreketi Village; Apete
Rakesa, 70, and his wife who says they are lucky to have social welfare assistance for the last

4
four years for it’s through the monthly $60 family assistance and $30 cash food voucher (total
$90 cash per month) he is now able to afford a better living for him and his wife. Another
recipient is 70 year old Merewalesi Bulimaibau of Qarani in Gau who is in the welfare assistance
programme for 12 years. She has four grandsons whose parents are deceased and she looks after
them. One of her grandsons had passed Form 7 and in Gau planting yaqona to support the other
two brothers who are finishing school in Suva. She receives $88 a month in welfare assistance.
The funds contribute to her grandsons’ education. Refer to the appendix for more information.

MY SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

The sociological imagination is the ability to look beyond one’s own everyday life as a cause for
daily successes and failures and see the entire society in which one lives as potential cause for
these things. It is described by C. Wright Mills in 1959 as a enabling “its possessor to understand
the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a
variety of individuals”. The way to address this dilemma is through what Mills' calls "the public
issues of social structure" (Mills, 1959, p.8). The power of the sociological perspective lies not
just in changing individual lives but in transforming society. The society is seen as failing
people, not people's personal failings as for example relating to the cause of poverty and other
social problems. Using the sociological imagination, then, brings people together by turning
personal problems into public issues.

By looking at the above definition of sociological imagination the story of Apete Rakesa and
Merewalesi Bulimaibau case can be seen as evolving of situations and conditions that they are
not able to control. Merewalei is a 70 year old looking after 4 grandsons with only $88 for a
month and Mr. and Mrs. Rakesa who are too old to look after them. This is only a personal
problem of these two family but they are not alone in this issue. Based on World Bank figures
the number of people living below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day fell from 1.82
billion to 1.37 billion between 1990 and 2005. China itself accounted for 475 million of the
reduction, implying that poverty has increased elsewhere over this period. In India and sub-
Saharan Africa, the increase was 21 million and 91 million people respectively. One third of
global poverty is located in India and just over a quarter in sub-Saharan Africa.

5
Expressing poverty as a percentage yields more favorable results due to rising population. For
example, extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa fell slightly from 58% to 51% between 1990
and 2005 Inherent in the sociological imagination is the aim for all these needy people who are
in need of assistance in the society. So the case of Fiji is not in isolation. When those people
who suffer from poverty are given Food vouchers they cash it and at the end of the day they will
have food on their table. Those children who receive the bus fare voucher will go to school every
day and get the quality education. If there is a higher was percentage of unemployment in certain
areas example the local community or certain time periods, it can be connected to recession and
a higher number of uneducated people. Therefore, when these children get a job they will be able
to move out of poverty and create a better life for themselves. They start feeling ‘secured and
safe that we have got this assistance, especially we have got the hope to live a life with dignity
and self-respect’. This causes them to move out of their house and join in community events, go
to church, learn about the rules and regulation of the society and become law abiding citizens.
This can in turn decrease crime rate.

Similarly, the (C&P) Allowance category caters for deserted spouse, single parent, the death of a
breadwinner or ‘prisoner dependent’. All these people face is a personal problem affecting the
individual on many levels. It evokes emotions of sadness, distress, hurt and anger, which can
have huge short-term affects on the individual. This sense of lose of hurt can linger for years as a
painful memory and can cause stagnation in the individuals personal life. There may also be
division of loyalties between friends, families and children which adds another dimension to the
distress felt by the individual. Single parents need monetary support for their dependant children
relating back to society as this comes out of the taxpayers money. Job opportunities are crated by
the increase in demand skilled workers to direct and mediate these changers. Affecting the
government, as new policies and law must be made to accommodate for these needy people.
Thus, when poverty rates increase, these individual problems affect social structure by becoming
public issues. The economics of such society is affected by new requirements placed on the
welfare system as is the case of Fiji islands. By looking at the connection between the individual
and history, the issue of welfare state which relates to poverty can be further examined.

Poverty is to do with human needs and the means of meeting them, but human needs are
historically determined. The miller in a mediaeval village enjoyed a life-style which was far from

6
poverty in his own times, but the same mode of life in the midst of a modern city of today would
constitute poverty. Marx believed that by means of unionism the working people could raise
their living standards and increase their wages indefinitely, only providing that such struggles
would be continuously subject to the repression of the capitalist state and the pressures imposed
by the periodic crises of capitalism. Further, Marx believed that the progress of bourgeois
society would continue to develop human needs. The market, as had been shown by all those
before him, would continue to generate rich and poor, but as the productive forces developed,
human needs would develop, and the poverty of succeeding generations would be quite different
from that of earlier generations. Thus, Marxism sees poverty not so much as in the shortfall of
means in meeting needs but in the low level of development of human needs. The person who
wants only for their next meal experiences real poverty; the artist in her garret whose heart’s
desire is a sublime insight or subtle nuance for their next artistic work is poor, but not as poor as
the person who has no idea of art at all. The poverty that communists seek to abolish with the
overthrow of capitalism is not so much the inequality of distribution, but the poverty of
development of human sensibilities.

Secondly, the capitalist market would eventually provide better lives for everyone; there was
only a minimum role for state intervention (O’Brien and Penna, 1998, p. 21) the poor simply
relied on the goodness of their families or, if they did not have a family, on the generosity of the
public at large. For example in the mediaeval times many hospitals were church run, as
communities and this was where the elderly and frail in particular were looked after. On the
other hand a Marxist state would develop a welfare state to promote progress, communism and
above all protect the workers and eliminate poverty. Marx believed that capitalism would be
replaced by communism thus replacing the inequalities and giving everybody enough to meet
their needs (O’Brien and Penna, 1998, p. 44). This reform called for welfare provisions such as
eight- hour working days, free healthcare, free education, minimum wages and equality for
women. The people in this state would be more economically equal; they were poor but had free
welfare provision and no political rights. The third main keynote theory for welfare state
development is Neo-Liberalism most closely associated with the governments of Margaret
Thatcher (former Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1979- 1990) and Ronald
Reagan (40th President of the United States 1981–1989). In this theory service would were

7
privatized, subsidies to ailing private companies were stopped by the national government and
council houses were sold off. These policies increased unemployment but eventually lowered
inflation. The planned reduction in expenditure on the welfare state never materialized as higher
unemployment pushed up benefit payments and more civil servants were needed to process those
claims. (O’Brien and Penna, 1998, p. 1110).

As said by Townsend.P (1979) in the book ‘The Poverty, Family Property and Living Standard
of Britain’ states that "Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in
poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities and
have the living conditions and amenities which are customary ... in the societies to which they
belong." This comment can be applied to the current situation in Fiji where the situation in
which the poor people are living may not be helped by them. As van Kreiken, et al states:

‘These are those situations not caused by individual factors but by social forces which are
beyond the power of any single individual to change’.

(Sourced from website on 1st August 2011http://members.ozemail.com.au/~johnthorpe64/Mills.html)

Over 50 years ago, C. Wright Mills (1959) described the post-modern period as one in which the
economy would shift employment from heavy industry to non-unionized clerical, service, and
new industrial sectors. He foresaw the rise of multinational corporations, trouble in the social
welfare system, and decline in human freedom and choice.

We have seen that it is crucial to distinguish between poverty as a material condition experienced
by the poor and its representation in the academic literature of social science. Firstly, according
to the postmodernisation theory poverty is conceived as a concrete material condition and
ascribed the status of a dependent variable in the analysis. Second, a list of causative factors (or
independent variables) that may vary from study to study is invoked to explain poverty. Third,
suggestions to solve the problem are based on actions that manipulate what are deemed to be the
more important causative agents. This three-step procedure follows the logical canons of
problem solving: state the problem clearly, identifies the causes, and seek a solution by designing
a plan to exercise control over the presumed causes. “Poverty as discourse” is a conceptual

8
abstraction that groups together several material states of deprivation, eg., hunger, homelessness,
and ill-health. Such an abstraction is useful if it helps us address the problem of poverty, but
when it fails, this conception should be replaced by more concrete considerations of food,
shelter, and health. The concrete question “What causes hunger, homelessness, and ill-health?”
yields substantially different answers from those we get from the question “What causes
poverty?” The latter focuses on levels of income that is insufficient to buy a market basket of
basic goods. The focus on income is based on the connection that more affluent people have
adequate food, shelter, and health care, hence the belief that problems of poverty will disappear
with economic growth and the consequent growth in household income.

Poverty is represented in the development literature as essentially an economic problem: People

are poor because they do not have enough money to command a market basket of basic goods, a
situation that can be corrected through investment, growth, job creation, improved education, and
so on. By defining poverty as an economic problem, as a lack of dollars we are prevented from
seeing how the scarcity of basic goods is socially constructed at a large number of sites at every
point on the nexus of production relations. For example, there are a number of ways of
improving the nutrition of low income families. These include reducing the purchase of
expensive processed foods, establishing cooperatives to encourage bulk buying of produce,
giving access to community kitchens, raising food in home gardens, and, in rural areas of the
Third World, disseminating knowledge of edible leaves and plants with food value. We can
make similar arguments for a range of topics such as food production, building of shelters,
provision of health care, education, and transportation. We foreclose a myriad of options and
possibilities by approaching poverty as an economic problem related to income, and thus prevent
the resolution of the very problem that we are trying to solve..

There are many reasons that can account for poverty today, such the devaluation of the Fiji
dollar which in turn increased the price of food items, the increase of VAT that has caused more
hardship for the poor than for better off citizens and the failure to increase wages for of those in
full-time employment. When we apply the history of the welfare stae it can be said that people
were living in poor conditions that they received help from the others whether it be the state of
the others. Even at the beginning of the 21st century many people were living in poverty. They
had just enough money for food, rent, fuel and clothes. They could not afford 'luxuries' such as

9
newspapers or public transport. And still many were living in below subsistence level and could
not afford an adequate diet. From http://www.localhistories.org/20thcent.htm.

CONCLUSION

To answer the question in brief, poverty is an aspect of contemporary society that can affect
anyone at any time, therefore it is of everyone’s concern and is a public issue. For the society it
is important to acknowledge how poverty is often a very personal experience for people, it is
something that is affected largely by social structures and policy and thus a real public concern.
Some of the programs to decrease poverty in Fiji is the work carried out by the DSW is the Food
Voucher Programme; the Family Assistance (FA); and Care and Protection (C&P) Allowance.
Poverty can be self-perpetuating as unemployment or low income leads to a poor diet and
frequently poor health resulting in an impaired ability to concentrate or work. This results in poor
educational attainment and lack of skills which then limit the ability to take advantage of
opportunities, and lead to unemployment thus low income leading to social exclusion, and thus
perpetuate the cycle. By using the notion of the sociological imagination, C Wright Mill's, I have
put an argument for more involvement in society by the wider population. This is achived
through tracing poverty from history.

Marxism sees poverty not so much as in the shortfall of means in meeting needs but in the low
level of development of human needs. The person who wants only for their next meal
experiences real poverty; the artist in her garret whose heart’s desire is a sublime insight or
subtle nuance for their next artistic work is poor, but not as poor as the person who has no idea of
art at all. It is only through such involvement that the society's problems can be addressed. The
capitalist market would eventually provide better lives for everyone; there was only a minimum
role for state intervention and according to the postmodernisation theory poverty is conceived as
a concrete material condition and ascribed the status of a dependent variable in the analysis.
Second, a list of causative factors (or independent variables) that may vary from study to study is
invoked to explain poverty. Third, suggestions to solve the problem are based on actions that
manipulate what are deemed to be the more important causative agents.

10
I have tried to apply this theory and my sociological imagination to the welfare system in Fiji
which performs a wide variety of functions to assist people who have fallen onto hard times.
Welfare programs are an evolution of the safety nets whose roots lie in basic charity and the
human ideology that one should help those less fortunate. Today’s welfare system, being
controlled by the state and governments are by no means perfect, but they do provide a more
stable form of assistance so that the people in dire times can rely on this safety net.

REFERENCE

ADB (Asian Development Bank). 1996. Strategy for the Pacific: Policies and Programs for
Sustain- able Growth. Manila.

Ahlburg, D. 1995. Income distribution and poverty in Fiji. Suva: ESHDP, United Nations Devel-
opment Program. Mimeo.

C Wright Mills, (1959), The Sociological Imagination, 'The Promise', Chapter 1.

Van Krieken, R. (2000) "Democracy and citizenship in Germany" in Democracy and Citizenship
in a Global Era, edited by Andrew Vandenberg, London/New York: Macmillan/St. Martin's
Press: 123-37.

Jenson Eric (2009) Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and
What Schools Can Do about It

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs (Feb 28, 2006)

Townsend.Peter (1979) ‘The Poverty, Family Property and Living Standard of Britain’ Bristol:
The Policy Press, 2000. University of the south Pacific library

11
 O'Brien, M. & Penna, S., 'European Policy and the Politics of Environmental
Governance',Policy and Politics, 1998 25 (2):185-200 (Lead author, Martin O'Brien)

Penna, S. & O'Brien, M., 'Postmodernism and Social Policy: a small step forwards?' Journal
Of Social Policy, 1999 25(1):39-61

Roseneau, P. M. 1992. Post-Modernisms and the Social Sciences. Princeton, New Jersey:
Princeton University Press.

Rouse, J. 1987. Knowledge and Power: Toward a Political Philosophy of Science. Ithaca, New
York: Cornell University Press.

Sachs, W., ed. 1992. The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power. London:
Zed Books.

O'Brien, M. & Penna, 1996 S., 'Postmodern Theory and Politics: perspectives on citizenship
and social justice', Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences

12