Author: Laura Choi | July 1, 2019 | Read full article on Shelterforce
Poverty is typically defined and measured in purely economic terms, such as income at a specific point in time. As a field, community development aims to reduce poverty through various approaches that expand economic opportunity for low-income people. However, as the United Nations makes clear in its report “Rethinking Poverty,” an emphasis on the monetary and economic aspects of poverty often overlooks the human experience of what underlies it: social exclusion and social vulnerability, which are the result of the systematic denial of opportunities and choice.