what are problems with premodern poverty?
No hard data on premodern modern
poverty rates and inequality in cities
what do we know about premodern poverty?
- Large majority was poor
- Low life expectancy (urban graveyard)
- Malthusian effect: population tends to increase at a faster rate than its means of subsistence
Social patterns of European cities between 1500
and 1800 were characterized by:
- Structural inequality
- Complex systems of inclusion and exclusion
- Large majority of city dwellers were unskilled labourers
how many percent from the urban population made use of poor relief?
ca. 10-25%
Networks of poor relief and charity
- Church and urban government
- Citizens’ initiatives (craft guilds, neighborhoods, mutual help).
- Catholic belief: works of mercy
Changes in European poor relief between 1500 and 1800
- Professionalization
- Increasing power of urban government
- Distinction between deserving and
undeserving - Rise of workhouses and prisons
why were there changes in european poor relief between 1500-1800?
Urbanization and religious reform
Ottoman city: 1500-1800
Very similar social structure compared to European
cities
* The importance of the mahalles (city quarter in
social life
* Plurality of courts (kadi justice)
* Vakif or waqf: proving care, education, health and
other public services
* Guilds
Social control, poverty and crime
Urban courts, churches/mosques and civil institutions (guilds,
neighborhoods/quarters, civic militia, etc.) instruments of crime control
* Also instruments of social control of the poor and deviance
* Urban court represents urban power
Social provisioning in Qing China
Various associations formed social networks:
- Kinship group or lineage (often related to enterprises)
- Brotherhoods of surplus males
- Neighborhood temples
- Migrant communities (huiguang)
- Artisan Guilds (hang)
Urban public services and power central government
Everywhere in the premodern period (Europe, Ottoman Empire and China):
- Autonomy of urban social networks and associations depends on control and power central government
- Strong central governments > weaker urban institutions
- Providing social services represents power
- Continuous negotiations between central government, urban government and urban associations (family, guilds, neighborhoods, waqfs, etc.)
19th-20th centuries witnessed:
- Huge population and urban growth
- Growth of big cities in Europe
State formation important factor:
- Capital cities emerged
- Increasing bureaucratization (services, buildings, administration)
- Migration from countryside and small towns to cities
Premodern period: food shortage, bad sanitation and epidemics
resulted in high mortality rates
Urban Graveyard
After the industrialization:
- Rise in real wages > increasing living standard
- Decline of child mortality
- Sustained improvement in health
- Life expectancy before 1900: no longer than 25-40 years
- Global divide and inequality in health and life expectancy
Social problems caused by modern growth
Poor physical conditions:
- Lack of clean water
- Overcrowded houses
- Emergency of slums
- No adequate health and social care
Social problems caused by modern growth
Consequence:
- Spread of diseases (cholera,
tuberculosis) - High death rates of children and poor
city dwellers
After ca. 1850 awareness of urban sanitary
and social problems:
- Private (both religious and secular) initiatives to
improve lives of the poor - Particularly female philanthropic groups
- Improvement housing conditions
- Social reform (child labour laws, factory laws, etc.)
- Improvement of health (sanitary conditions and
medical conditions)
increase responsibilties governmnet
Health and sanitation
Improvements from the 19th c. onwards:
- Sanitation infrastructures
- Public health science
- Publicly funded healthcare
Health and sanitation
Public health planning initiated by cities
- Collection of garbage
- Water supply
- Sewerage
Poverty Latin America
Development of population growth after ca. 1930
- Mega-cities
- Major cities contain 25% of the total population
- Poverty increasingly an urban problem (tables 495-496)
- Inequality and segregation not diminished
- Growing slum population
- Urban governments often weak
Post-Mao China
- Rapid urbanization growth (ca. 50% of the
population) - Like elsewhere related to industrialization and state
formation - Migration flows from rural areas
- Changing nature of Chinese families (less focused on
family and kin)
Post-Mao China
Consequences:
- Increasing inequality
- Socio-economic segregation
- Urban housing, education and provisions reflect onechild families
Environmental problems: pollution
Industrialization led to problems:
- Intensified impact of energy use on theenvironment: transition from wood-based economy to fossil fuels
- Increasing automobile emissions
- Concentration of industries in urban area
