Is a weekly trip to McDonald's a big treat or do you eat at your favourite French restaurant and sip champagne on a regular basis?
A Massey researcher wants to find out what New Zealanders' perceptions of poverty really are in an era when cheap consumer goods abound and yet social agencies and commentators report a growing gap between the rich and poor.
Auckland-based doctoral student Sheryl Bourke is seeking participants from a range of backgrounds and income brackets to share their views on poverty.
She was inspired to tackle the topic because of the hardship she witnessed through her husband's work with an emergency housing agency in south Auckland.
She intends to ask participants what circumstances they think a person would be in to be considered poor in New Zealand, how much poverty is in their community and what they think causes poverty.
She'll ask them to respond to visual images and general perceptions about poverty, as well as discuss general ideas about poverty regarding access to nutritious food, power, phone, clothing, transport, doctors, dentists, holidays and recreation.
"There's been a lot of public debate recently about poverty and I'm interested in the range of public views, opinions and ideas about poverty and how these relate to government policy," she says.
While most people agree that a family living in a garage is an example of extreme poverty, she's interested to explore common understandings about basic living standards and how well these expectations are met in reality.
She hopes her study will provide clues about how New Zealanders view poverty at a time when consumer goods are more accessible to low-income families through lenient hire purchase arrangements while the price of basic food items such as milk has increased.
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