Most commentators on urban poverty reject the idea that the culture of poor people has anything to do with their poverty. By stressing material and physical factors only, they support the dominant approach in social science, which gives culture little role in social causation. But to pay attention to perceptions and values is not inconsistent with attention to the distribution of resources and power; and is important if questions about people's response to changes in the environment—government programmes, radical political movements—are to be given satisfactory answers.