Topic: My BC Assignment 4: Wealth and Poverty in BC?
Title; Exploring wealth and poverty in my community: British Columbia, Canada
Your Name
Department of Sociology, Capilano University
Sociology 201 Social Problems in B.C.
Assignment #4 Instructions
· Please continue to use the report format used for assignments 1-3
· I am not providing a sample assignment because I expect you to have a good grasp of the report format, how to use census data to tell a story, and how to provide proper references.
· In assignment #4 is turn your focus back to your neighborhood
· Your topic is to describe the income disparity in your neighborhood and to describe what steps your Municipal government is doing to assist those people living in poverty
1. Introduction and Backgrounder
a. Introduce the purpose of this report: to highlight income disparity in your community and to identify who is poor using the Low Income and Market Basket Measure (LIM, MBM)
b. Explain why income disparity is a social problem and how it affects your community negatively
2. Methodology
a. Describe the source of the information used for your report: You should be using secondary sources
b. Comment on the limitations of census data
3. Facts about Income disparity and poverty in your community
a. Go deeper into the Annual Household Income figure (which we used in assignment 2) What doesn’t it tell us? For instance, if you who live in Surrey, although the Average Annual Household Income in the last census was $93,586 does every household earn this much income. In North Vancouver City the Average Household Income is $88,248.
b. Find out the facts about the households who are earning well below the Average Annual Household Income. How many households fall well below that figure into the LIM? What is their family type? Is poverty in your neighborhood racialized? Are men and women equally poor? How much does age matter?
c. Which groups of poor people are most at risk of being poor and why?
4. Experiencing Poverty
a. What does it mean for people who are poor and depending on social services?
b. Are they discriminated against? Stigmatized? To discover what the prevailing attitudes in your community are toward the poor browse through recent Vancouver/ local newspapers to describe a recent negative event or conflict that reflects the general public’s attitude towards the poor
5. Conclusion
a. In conclusion what types are government and non-government social services are available for those people living in poverty?
b. Is this enough? What more can be done?
6. References
