Home Institution
Cornell University
Publication Date
Spring 2019
Abstract
This paper explores if and how stakeholders in Moroccan poverty reduction invoke the culture of poverty argument. The thesis originally proposed by Oscar Lewis has been used and transformed to justify a variety of policies or lack thereof over the past several decades and varies according to history and cultural context. We understand the notion of what it means to be poor in Morocco through the lens of NGOs working with vulnerable populations. The organizations interviewed in this research were all connected to government or foreign aid funding, which inserts a particular development and Western oriented lens to solutions. Although these organizations may not hold negative views of poor people, shanty towns, and migrants, their solutions are geared towards needs in line with a bureaucratic imposition of knowledge rather than the amplification of existing voices and solutions that these communities already have.
Disciplines
African Languages and Societies | African Studies | Civic and Community Engagement | Development Studies | Inequality and Stratification | Politics and Social Change
Recommended Citation
Loheide, Raegan, "Examining the Culture of Poverty Argument in Morocco: How Development, Criminalization, Education, and the Makhzen Craft Perceptions" (2019). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 3064.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/3064
Included in
African Languages and Societies Commons, African Studies Commons, Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Development Studies Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons
Program Name
Morocco: Multiculturalism and Human Rights