Poverty Mapping
In 2008- 2009, WIPPS Fellow Ann Herda-Rapp, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County, assisted by her colleague Jim McCluskey, Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County, undertook a research project called “'Making Ends Meet'" in Wisconsin: A Study of Families, Work and 'Getting By' in a Changing Economy,” a preliminary examination of the landscape of poverty in Wisconsin based on the generation of lifestyle clusters using multivariate analysis.
Impelled by observable impacts of globalization on the Midwest, Herda-Rapp noted that social science research about the increase in poverty, the weakening of family structures, and the erosion of small towns and small town life tended to focus on the international context or, in the U.S., the urban context. Funding for studies that examine rural poverty in the U.S. focused on poverty in “persistently poor” counties mostly in the rural South and Southwest. Yet the Midwest indicated ominous signs: between 1994 and 2007, the poverty rate grew faster in Wisconsin than in any other state and poverty rates in the rural areas, particularly those not adjacent to metropolitan areas, rivaled those in central cities. The Carsey Institute identified northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan as two of the regions most likely to fall into persistent poverty in the near future.
Herda-Rapp and McCluskey’s research focused on poverty in counties long overlooked—rural counties in Wisconsin—and provided community leaders in those counties with the tools for addressing poverty. The Upper Midwest and especially northern Wisconsin had been hard-hit by changes brought by globalization and the shifting economy: sea changes in the farm economy, declines in the resource extraction sector, an eroding tax base, and loss of manufacturing work coupled with growth in service sector work that further exacerbates the earnings gap between those with degrees and those without. This research project examined a divide between the haves and the have-nots that is growing in prominence—the fissure that follows the rural-urban continuum—and created the opportunity for positive, proactive responses.
With in-depth interviews and original survey instruments that allowed them to examine all dimensions of poverty and near-poverty, strategies for “getting by,” and factors related to families’ economic well-being, this project went beyond U.S. Census data in its depth of analysis and provided communities with the tools to respond to these issues. Beginning with Lincoln and Marathon counties, mapping software allowed the researchers to show, visually, the distribution of poverty and near-poverty in each county and the relationship of poverty in each township to particular variables (education, transportation, childcare, job availability, housing status, household structure, health and healthcare, lifestyle variables, etc.). These visual representations of poverty/near-poverty and related variables provided communities with the tools to understand poverty, improve agency efficiency, plan proactively for development and better allocate scarce tax dollars. Because of its replicability and because it providec useful knowledge, this study gave power back to communities, allowing them to get a handle on the changes happening around and within their communities and to see avenues for response.
POVERTY CLUSTERS IN WISCONSIN
The Landscape of Poverty in Wisconsin (PPT-3.5mb) by Ann Herda-Rapp & Jim McCluskey