Poverty and 'Shame'; Small-Scale Technology in India
Thinking Allowed
BBC
4.4 • 997 Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2014
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
Poverty and 'Shame' - shame was once described as the 'irreducible core' of poverty by Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen. Laurie Taylor looks at new cross cultural research which examines the psycho-social consequences of being poor in countries as diverse as Britain, Pakistan and South Korea. Elaine Chase, Research Officer at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, considers the way that shame and stigma have been experienced by British people receiving welfare aid throughout history. She found that feelings of unworthiness, guilt and shame were common. In the current day, her study found that poor people accepted that 'other peoples' poverty was the result of personal failures rather than structural factors. The only alibi for their present circumstances was to deflect blame on to the 'undeserving' poor. She's joined by Sohail Choudhry, Research Assistant, also at the University of Oxford, whose Pakistan based interviews offered a contrasting perspective. Pakistanis on the 'breadline' also felt shame, but were also more inclined to blame the government and the 'big guns' for their reduced state.
Also, Professor of History, David Arnold, describes the impact of small scale technology on modern India. How the sewing machine, bicycle and typewriter reinvented every day life and work leading to new ways of thinking about the politics of colonial rule and Indian nationhood.
Producer: Torquil Macleod.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, |
| 0:06.0 | the Science of Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | This is a Thinking Loud Podcast from the BBC and for more details in our terms of use and |
| 0:37.0 | much, much more about Thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK. |
| 0:44.0 | Hello, Laurie, look, give me the name of any piece of music you'd like to hear. |
| 0:49.0 | Now go on, go on, anything you fancy. |
| 0:50.0 | Well, in truth I wanted to tell Brian that we'd played this game last time I was around at his house, |
| 0:55.0 | but he clearly wanted even more approval for his streaming music service. |
| 0:59.0 | A shotgun boogie by Tennessee, only Ford, I said wearily. |
| 1:04.4 | Right, right, he said, filling in the search box. |
| 1:07.5 | Tarah, there it is! |
| 1:09.2 | And indeed, there it was, just like that. |
| 1:11.7 | But for all its immediacy, it somehow wasn't my Tennessee Ernie Ford. My original |
| 1:16.6 | shotgun boogie included taking a 78 record out of a cardboard envelope placing it on a rubberized |
| 1:21.8 | turntable, then winding up the gramophone player with a handle at the side |
| 1:25.3 | screwing a new needle into the playing arm and then carefully dropping that needle onto the first |
| 1:29.6 | groove of the Sherlock record just like this. There it stands in the corner with a barrel so straight. |
... |
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