Poverty’s characteristics and its reduction strategies : a case study

Abstract

This research aims to explore the characteristics of poverty and its eradication strategies. The study employed a qualitative approach by interviewing 100 respondents who are categorized as poor in the city of Makassar. As the typology of poverty is categorized into two main groups, it was found that the most dominant typology of poverty in Makassar is the typology of cultural poverty reaching 42.3% greater than the natural rate of 27.4% and typology of structural poverty reaching 31.3%. In addition, it was discovered that cultural poverty is predominantly based on indicators that Makassar communities still have strong faith in destiny and have many family members. It is argued that the government policy in issuing the regulation is also considered to be one of the causes of structural poverty such as discrimination practices toward the poor, rampant evictions of street merchants, and lack of employment availability.