What are the examples of socio-political issues?

Question

Is poverty considered a socio-political issue?

Answer 1

Hi Jung,

 

Socio-political issues are defined by their social and political characteristics, so almost anything can be a socio-political issue! Think less of the material substance of a thing (e.g. the hard drive in a computer) and more about how materials, ideas, language, bodies, and other things are used in social and political ways. For example, computers themselves are not a socio-political issue, but who has access to them, how much they cost, the ways they were designed, and even the way they were created all present socio-political issues.

 

Poverty is definitely a socio-political issue. For example, poverty is social in many ways, but one is how a society assigns moral worth to people who experience poverty (i.e. that people in poverty are "lazy" or "don't know how to manage their money"). Poverty is also political because decision makers use their power to influence various industries (which in turn affects job creation or layoffs), welfare programs (which can help alleviate poverty or worsen it), and zoning laws (which create structural areas where poverty is perpetuated).

Using this lens, you can see that other examples of socio-political issues range from homelessness, to discrimination, to immigration and the refugee crisis, to health care, and beyond. I hope this helps!

Best,

Kai