Chapter 2 Learning Objectives

In this chapter, students should learn to do the following:

1. Define economic inequality and the links to issues of class and stratification.
2. Understand how poverty can be conceptualized, and the various forms of measuring poverty.
3. Understand the multiple measures of well-being: income inequality, social inequality, health, illiteracy, and social exclusion.
4. Understand which groups in Canada are most likely to experience poverty.
5. Understand why poverty is prevalent in urban centers.
6. Understand factors leading to homelessness in Canada, as well as the demographics of the homeless population.
7. Understand how the government can reduce levels of poverty.
8. Know how structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism explain poverty and income inequality.
9. Know the social and health consequences of poverty and economic inequality.
10. Distinguish between individual solutions and collective solutions for resolving poverty and economic inequality.