Harvard Prof’s Take on Poverty Roots Resonates

Poverty in the urban core stems from both the area’s prevalent culture and the existing system of services, and one impacts the other. But what might be surprising to many is how much a community’s service system determines a person’s well-being.

Harvard University professor William Julius Wilson offered these insights in a presentation Feb. 7 for the CoreChange speaker series.

It’s an argument he’s been making in various forms over the years.

Author of The Declining Significant of Race, The Truly Disadvantaged and When Work Disappears, Wilson reiterated in Cincinnati last week that access to education, healthcare and employment — or lack thereof — can all be considered structural factors contributing to urban core poverty.

Cultural issues refer to ways of being that are largely learned from one’s family and networks. An example is one’s willingness to solve problems with violence rather than through having a dialogue.

Both cultural and structural aspects have a direct impact on one’s quality of life, and both play on each other, Wilson said.

But the point he made most strongly is that his research has shown structure more than culture determines a person’s wellbeing — which is different than what many believe to be true.

For Liz Blume, director of Cincinnati's Community Building Institute, and a key driver in the CoreChange effort, Wilson’s latter point in particular drives home the need to ensure the “whole system” is in the room for this effort to co-create a new future for Cincinnati.

“For me, it just confirmed the comprehensive nature of what we have to do,” Blume tells Axiom News.

“It’s not OK to come out with just an education strategy or just a health strategy or just an economic strategy. It really has to be all of those things.”

She adds she was pleased to see Wilson’s interest in and support of the CoreChange effort.

The central tenet of the effort — that assets exist in core neighbourhoods and can be built on towards a better future, and the language being used around this — seemed especially intriguing to him, she notes.

“He was very positive about his hopes for where we were headed,” Blume adds.

More than 200 people attended the CoreChange speakers series, one of several activities gearing up for the three-day, capstone event Feb. 17-19.

To learn more about CoreChange, including the Feb. 17-19 city-wide summit, and how you can get involved, visit this link. You can also follow the @corechangecincy and @cincysummit Twitter accounts, as well as like CoreChange on Facebook.

Axiom News is storying the CoreChange effort in Cincinnati, including people’s commitment to this, possibilities they see and what can be expected. To share your story, please contact the newsroom at 705-741-4421 or e-mail michelle(at)axiomnews.ca.