Resource
Dollar Street
Created by
This is a fantastic online photo-resource from the people behind Gapminder. It features photos from over 240 families living in 50 countries around the world.
The site arranges them all on a street called Dollar Street, in order of their monthly income. As the site explains, "Everyone needs to eat, sleep and pee. We all have the same needs, but we can afford different solutions". You can select from 100 topics to compare photos showing aspects of everyday life, often surprisingly similar for people on the same income level across cultures and continents.
According to Gapminder, presenting development issues as statistics can be alienating and scary, and a barrier to learning. So these photos are another way to bring facts to the public. This is a great resource for exploring similarities and differences. As well as the fairly mundane themes such as homes, food, cooking and water, there are many more specific items to compare, such as: 'lock on front doors', 'toothbrushes' and 'things I dream of having'.
Under the site's Creative Commons licence, everyone is free to reuse, edit and share the images.
Check out the site's 'About' section for links to Q&As and a tutorial explaining how to use the site.
Topics
Child Rights, Equality, Globalisation and Interdependence, Industry and Economy, Production and Consumption, Social Justice
Age Ranges
KS2: ages 7-11, KS3: ages 11-14, KS4: ages 14-16, KS5: ages 16+
Subjects
Citizenship, Design and technology, Economics, Geography, Maths / numeracy, PSHE / PSE / PSED
