The purpose of the study is to understand urban poverty and related problems such as homelessness. In cities such as New York, poverty is a big problem, and most people believe that residents are too lazy to work. The perception is that they love welfare and the good life instead of working hard like everyone else. The purpose of the Newman study is to explore those things in detail. The work is descriptive. The author explains that he got an idea of the book one day while traveling in a taxi, so it is evident, she had been thinking about the problem. In her mind, she was conducting exploratory research. Based on those initial observations, the work is descriptive as it explores to find additional information and fill in the gaps.
Newman approaches her study with a host of research questions. The first question is what the cause of urban poverty and decay is. The standard explanation is residents of poor neighborhoods are unwilling to work. She debunks that notion and finds that the people work hard. Her second question is whether they love welfare. The answer is no once again. Third, do they want to improve their circumstances? The answer is similar, yes. Finally, she wonders whether the people in impoverished areas love their condition, and she finds the answer is no. Most residents struggle to improve their circumstances but without success due to structural factors outside their control.
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She conceptualizes poverty as structural. The common understanding of poverty is an individual failure due to laziness, lack of moral strength, and being opportunistic. From that perspective, society views poor people as unwilling to take opportunities available to them but instead focus on drugs or other deviant behaviors. However, according to her, poverty is a structural problem, where people want jobs, but they cannot get them. She links globalization to the flight of American manufacturing and the cause of the problem. From the cases, she describes people like Jamal, the poor people work hard, but they do not earn enough to lead a decent life. Opportunities for making a respectable income are not available.
Other studies conceptualize poverty from a narrower perspective. For instance, they cite the role of getting a higher education to address poverty and earn more income. While that is true to a certain extent, such conceptualization misses the bigger picture of what is driving poverty. According to her, the biggest problem of poverty is the inability to earn enough. Therefore, the conceptualization of poverty that seeks to improve housing, urban renewal, and similar projects, fails to address the fundamental problem of providing a decent income for the people. As the case of Jamal shows, poor people are willing to work hard and improve their circumstances, but they find it hard to achieve that objective due to low pay and the lack of alternatives.
The type of data she collects includes the educational level of the various subjects. She looks into their living conditions such as housing, the kind of food they eat, and social relationships among the members of the community. Newman also explores drug usage levels and their impact on the lives of children and that of drug users. Next, she collects data on the type of work people do, the pay, how they use the money, and whether it is enough to sustain a decent life. On a macro scale, she is interested in finding out about the trends such as manufacturing and the kinds of jobs available to people with little or no education.
Newman used some open-ended interviews for the study to collecting data from her subjects. He also used participant or direct observation as well as reviewing documents, records, and reports. Based on that information, build his study, which she reports in her book. As a qualitative study, she used case studies to present her findings. Data analysis must have taken the form of the thematic analysis. Based on the raw data she collected from participants, she arranged them in terms of themes. The data analysis method appears appropriate, given the scope of the problem she investigates.
One of the ethical issues that emerge during the study is informed consent. It is clear that Newman sought the permission of the participants, but due to the detailed explanation of the lives of some of the participants, it is unclear they understood the extent of the consent they were giving. She also reports the lives of a dozen people, and it is not feasible to receive formal informed consent of all those involved. The study also explores the life of a community, but there is no indication she got permission or approval from its leaders. She got involved herself too much into the lives of the participants, and that might have blurred her perception of those she interacted with during the study period. The study also raises privacy issues. Although she changed the names of those studied, the details presented are significant, and a diligent person can identify the participants.
Her research calls for a paradigm shift in strategies meant to address poverty. She is careful to present poverty as something structural and not an individual failure. Most poor people work hard, but they never earn enough. Therefore, her study blames politicians and policymakers for failing to address the structural issues but continues to blame victims. The policymakers are to blame for the failed economic and social policies that continue to devastate poor communities. However, because the study suggests more investment in poor neighborhoods, the suggestion is not acceptable due to prevailing beliefs on poverty and the concerns about wealth transfer and redistribution.
