The escalators image

A presentation to accompany a reflection or a workshopbased on the escalators metaphor

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About social inequalities

Before escalators, ladders

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Budgets and their impact on the ladder

Where are priorities headed?By examining public budgets, we were able to observe the impact of budgets on the ladder. Some measures which improved the situation of the wealthiest or of the middle class took priority over measures improving the situation of people whose essential human needs were not being met. Why?

3Source : Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté[Translation : NCCHPP]

Legislation for a poverty-free Quebec

Where are priorities headed? In December 2002, the unanimous adoption by the National Assembly of the Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion mandated that the incomes and living conditions of all persons living in poverty be improved. The citizens’ movement has been closely following this.

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Knowledge forum about essential needs (Carrefour de savoirs sur les besoins essentiels)

The escalators

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A few years later

The system’s inconsistencies The metaphor applies to many situations. Often programs and local projects are meant to help people and communities to move up the steps.Meanwhile, policies, decisions or public budgets send a contradictory message: they move people down the steps. Burdens are imposed on people and communities that neutralize and can even oppose their efforts to improve their situations.

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Example 1

Budgets and escalators

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Let’s report a positive announcement here.On November 4, 2008, the government announced the full indexation of all social assistance benefits.This decision is recurrent. Thus, it is systemic and has an effect on the escalators. It took three years and a lot of pressure from citizens before the government finally decided to deactivate the downward button it had activated in 2005. However, it is only one button among many. The rest must still be addressed.

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Example 2

The two $17M questions and the Minister

This was the situation in the spring of 2006.

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Example 3

Street kids and the mayorThis example was given by a participant in the fall of 2008.

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It’s up to us today

In pursuit of awareness

It’s our turn to continue to explore this image, produced by people reflecting together, as we are doing, and to enrich it with examples of situations that occur to us.

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It’s up to us today

In pursuit of awarenessA dual objective:

• explore the potential of the escalators metaphor to reveal the systemic aspects of situations and take action accordingly

• explore the potential of sharing and crisscrossing our knowledge

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Playing with the model

In pursuit of awarenessSeptember 2008. The image is tested during an international seminar on research-action against oppression in Vercheny, France. Those participating propose examples of escalator situations and attempt to schematically represent the situations and the dynamics they reveal. It works. Shall we continue today?

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Your turn!

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Thank you and have a good workshop!

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Another round of examples

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Example 1’

The poorest and the wealthiestDo you know who makes up the poorest fifth of the population in your social environment? What is the average income of this group? Is the situation for this group improving or getting worse? In Canada and in the United States, the wealthiest thousandth of the population has regained, since the 1980s, the same share of income it had in the 1920s.

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?

Exemple 1’

The poorest and the wealthiestDo you know who makes up the poorest fifth of the population in your social environment? What is the average income of this group? Is the situation for this group improving or getting worse? In Canada and in the United States, the wealthiest thousandth of the population has regained, since the 1980s, the same share of income it had in the 1920s

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?

Sharp rises in interest rates Accumulation of public debt Increased pressure on states to reduce their social spending

Example 2’

IndebtednessDebt is as old as the world, a fortune (un)maker which enslaves a lot of people. What “escalator” situations related to the cost of borrowing money do we encounter in our social environment?

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Example 3’

What about school?Given the different situations of families, what role does school play in our social environment?Does it affect the escalators? In what way?Can we find examples?

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Conception and graphic design: Vivian LabrieWith thanks to the Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté and to the Carrefour de savoirs sur les

besoins essentiels for allowing the use of iconography developed between 1998 and 2006 (including the escalators image, which was first drawn by Richard Fecteau, the pre-budgetary illustration shown in slide 3, and part of the vocabulary in the illustration in slide 4), to Emmanuel Bodinier for the Vercheny photos (slide 13), and to Alain Noël for the graph based on the data from Atkinson and Piketty (slides 23 and 24).

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Good luck with your workshops!And keep us informed, if you wish, about your experiences, by writing to us at the following address: ncchpp@inspq.qc.ca. 

Vivian Labrie, 2011

A tool from the presentation kit for A Workshop on Inequalities using the Escalators Metaphor

Labrie, V. (2011) A Workshop on Inequalities using the Escalators Metaphor. Presentation kit. Montréal: NCCHPP.  Available for consultation online at: www.ncchpp.ca/docs/escalators_EN.pdf