Questioning Poverty, Questions for Poverty Analysis Towards a Basic Theoretical Framework
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Published
Jul 5, 2024
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Abstract
Why is there generally an attempt on the part of governments and international agencies to under-estimate the actual magnitude of the problem of poverty, and what strategies do they use? If poverty has been reduced, one must ask: why does poverty exist in the first place and what might be the limits to what the governments can do to eliminate it? In discussing these questions, the paper presents two major criticisms of existing poverty analysis. It then briefly presents a multi-scalar political economy framework for poverty analysis, as informed by a philosophy of internal relations. It also poses a series of questions that must be addressed by scholars so that they may have a better explanation of global poverty, including its temporal and geographical variations, and be able to significantly mitigate, and finally eliminate, poverty.
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Keywords
Capitalism, commodity production, imperialism, value of labour, power, state
References
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Das, R. 2017. Marxist Class theory for a skeptical world. Leiden: Brill.
Das, R. 2013. “Agrarian crisis as the crisis of small property ownership in globalizing capitalism.” Monthly Review Online. https://mronline.org/2013/10/01/das011013-html.
Das, R. 2012. “Forms of Subsumption of labour under capital, class struggle and uneven development.” Review of Radical Political Economics 44 (2): 178-200.
Das, R. 2002. “The green revolution and poverty: a theoretical and empirical examination of the relation between technology and society.” Geoforum 33 (1): 55-72.
Das, R. 1995. “Poverty and agrarian social structure: A case study in rural India.” Dialectical Anthropology 20: 169–92.
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Lucci, P., T. Bhatkal, and A. Khan. 2018. “Are we underestimating urban poverty?” World Development. 103: 297-310.
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Pradella, L. 2015. “The working poor in Western Europe: Labour, poverty and global capitalism.”, Comparative European politics (13): 596-613.
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Reddy, S. and Minoiu. 2007. “Has world poverty really fallen?” The Review of Income and Wealth 53 (3): 484-502.
Roser, M. 2020. “The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it.” https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions-in-5-charts?linkId=62571595.
Sayer, A. (1992) 2003. Method in social science. London and New York: Hutchinson.
Selwyn, B. 2019. “Poverty chains and global capitalism.” Competition & Change 23 (1): 71-97.
Selwyn, B. 2015. “Twenty-first-century International political economy: A class-relational Perspective.” European Journal of International Relations 21 (3): 513-37.
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Smith, J. 2018. “Exploitation and super-exploitation.” Monthly Review Online. https://mronline.org/2018/04/14/exploitation-and-super-exploitation.
Thiede, B., D. Lichter, and S. Sanders. 2015. “America’s working poor: Conceptualization, measurement, and new estimates.” Work and Occupations 42 (3): 267–312.
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Wade, R. 2014. “Is globalization reducing poverty and inequality?” International Journal of Health Services 34 (3): 381-414.
Weber, B., L. Jensen, and K. Miller. 2005. “A critical review of rural poverty literature: Is there truly a rural effect?” International Regional Science Review 28 (4): 381-414.
Weber, H. 2004. “The ‘new economy’ and social risk: banking on the poor?” Review of International Political Economy 11 (2): 356-86.
Weidel, T. 2016. “Ideology and the harms of self-deception: Why we should act to end poverty.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (4): 945-60.
Winters, L., N. McCulloch, and A. McKay. 2004. “Trade liberalization and poverty: The evidence so far.” Journal of Economic Literature 42 (1): 72-115.
World Bank. 2021a. “Covid-19 to add as many as 150 million extreme poor by 2021.” https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021.
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Atkinson, A. 2019. Measuring poverty around the world. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Banerjee, A. and E. Duflo. 2012. Poor economies. A radical rethinking of the way to fight global poverty. New York: Public Affairs.
Berman, S. 2006. “Review: Capitalism and Poverty.” World Policy Journal 23 (1): 63-69.
Card, D. and Krueger, A. 1995. Myth and measurement: the new economics of the minimum wage. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Clarke, S. 1991. The state debate. London: Palgrave.
Das, R. and D. Mishra. 2022. Global poverty: Rethinking causality. Leiden: Brill.
Das, R. 2024. “Understanding Marx on health: Towards a class-based approach.” In Rodney Loeppky and David Primrose (eds). Reader on the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare. New York: Routledge.
Das, R. 2023. “Capital, Capitalism and Health.” Critical Sociology 49 (3): 395-414.
Das, R. 2022. Marx’s Capital, Capitalism and Limits to the State: Theoretical Considerations. London: Taylor and Francis.
Das, R. 2017. Marxist Class theory for a skeptical world. Leiden: Brill.
Das, R. 2013. “Agrarian crisis as the crisis of small property ownership in globalizing capitalism.” Monthly Review Online. https://mronline.org/2013/10/01/das011013-html.
Das, R. 2012. “Forms of Subsumption of labour under capital, class struggle and uneven development.” Review of Radical Political Economics 44 (2): 178-200.
Das, R. 2002. “The green revolution and poverty: a theoretical and empirical examination of the relation between technology and society.” Geoforum 33 (1): 55-72.
Das, R. 1995. “Poverty and agrarian social structure: A case study in rural India.” Dialectical Anthropology 20: 169–92.
Dollar, D. and Kraay, A. 2004. “Trade, growth, and poverty.” The Economic Journal 114 (493): F22–F49.
Deaton, A. 2005. “Measuring poverty in a growing world (or measuring growth in a poor world).” The Review of Economics and Statistics 87 (1): 1–19.
Federal reserve. 2021. Report on the economic well-being of US households in 2020. https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2021-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2020-dealing-with-unexpected-expenses.htm.
Ferragina, E., A Arrigoni, and T. Spreckelsen. 2020. “The rising invisible majority: Bringing society back into international political economy.” Review of International political economy 29 (1): 114–51.
Gabay, C. 2015. “Special forum on the millennium development goals: Introduction.” Globalizations 12 (4): 576-80.
Hall, G. and H. Patrinos. eds. 2012. Indigenous peoples, poverty and development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hartogs, J. 2016. Poverty increasing in developed countries: ILO. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/19/poverty-increasing-in-developed-countries-ilo.html.
Harvey, D. 2006. “Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 610: 22–44.
Hickel, J. 2019a. “Bill Gates says poverty is decreasing. He couldn’t be more wrong.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-gates-davos-global-poverty-infographic-neoliberal.
Hickel, J. 2019b. “A letter to Steven Pinker (and Bill Gates, for that matter) about global poverty.” https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/2/3/pinker-and-global-poverty.
Hulme, D. and A. Shephered. 2003. “Conceptualizing chronic poverty.” World Development 31 (3): 403-23.
Lucci, P., T. Bhatkal, and A. Khan. 2018. “Are we underestimating urban poverty?” World Development. 103: 297-310.
Luttrell, J. 2015. “Alienation and global poverty: Arendt on the loss of the world.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 41 (9): 869-84.
Marx, K. (1867) 1996. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume I. In Marx and Engels Collected Works, Vol. 35. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Mawdsley, E. 2007. “The millennium challenge account: Neo-liberalism, poverty and security.” Review of International Political Economy 14 (3): 487-509.
Mitlin, D. and Satterthwaite, D. 2013. Urban poverty in the global south: Scale and nature. London: Taylor and Francis.
Mosse, D. 2010. “A relational approach to durable poverty, inequality and power.” Journal of Development Studies 46 (7): 1156-78.
Omomowo, K. 2011. “The changing nature of work: The creation of a ‘working poor’ population in post-apartheid South Africa.”, Development Southern Africa 28 (5): 613-26.
O’Connor, A. 2009. Poverty knowledge: social science, social policy, and the poor in twentieth-century US history. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ollman, B. 2003. Dance of the dialectic. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Oyen, E. 2004. “Poverty production: a different approach to poverty understanding.” https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30899234.pdf.
Pradella, L. 2015. “The working poor in Western Europe: Labour, poverty and global capitalism.”, Comparative European politics (13): 596-613.
Ravallion, M. 2013. Poverty comparisons. London: Taylor and Francis.
Reddy, S. and Minoiu. 2007. “Has world poverty really fallen?” The Review of Income and Wealth 53 (3): 484-502.
Roser, M. 2020. “The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it.” https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions-in-5-charts?linkId=62571595.
Sayer, A. (1992) 2003. Method in social science. London and New York: Hutchinson.
Selwyn, B. 2019. “Poverty chains and global capitalism.” Competition & Change 23 (1): 71-97.
Selwyn, B. 2015. “Twenty-first-century International political economy: A class-relational Perspective.” European Journal of International Relations 21 (3): 513-37.
Sen, A. 2006. “Conceptualizing and measuring poverty”. In D. B. Grusky & R. Kanbur (eds.), Poverty and inequality: Studies in social inequality. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 30-46.
Sen, A. 2002. “How to fudge globalism.” The American Prospect. https://prospect.org/features/judge-globalism.
Smith A. [1776] 2000. The wealth of the nations. London: Modern Library.
Smith, J. 2018. “Exploitation and super-exploitation.” Monthly Review Online. https://mronline.org/2018/04/14/exploitation-and-super-exploitation.
Thiede, B., D. Lichter, and S. Sanders. 2015. “America’s working poor: Conceptualization, measurement, and new estimates.” Work and Occupations 42 (3): 267–312.
United Nations. 2015. Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2015/08/transforming-our-world-the-2030-agenda-for-sustainable-development.
United Nations (undated). Social Development for Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2030agenda-sdgs.html.
United Nations 2021. The Sustainable Development Goals Report. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2021.pdf
Unwin, T. 2007. “No end to poverty.” The Journal of Development Studies 43 (5): 929-53.
Wade, R. 2014. “Is globalization reducing poverty and inequality?” International Journal of Health Services 34 (3): 381-414.
Weber, B., L. Jensen, and K. Miller. 2005. “A critical review of rural poverty literature: Is there truly a rural effect?” International Regional Science Review 28 (4): 381-414.
Weber, H. 2004. “The ‘new economy’ and social risk: banking on the poor?” Review of International Political Economy 11 (2): 356-86.
Weidel, T. 2016. “Ideology and the harms of self-deception: Why we should act to end poverty.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19 (4): 945-60.
Winters, L., N. McCulloch, and A. McKay. 2004. “Trade liberalization and poverty: The evidence so far.” Journal of Economic Literature 42 (1): 72-115.
World Bank. 2021a. “Covid-19 to add as many as 150 million extreme poor by 2021.” https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021.
World Bank. 2021b. Climate Change. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/climatechange/overview#1.
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Capitalism Studies
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How to Cite
Questioning Poverty, Questions for Poverty Analysis: Towards a Basic Theoretical Framework. (2024). World Marxist Review , 2(2), 103-126. https://doi.org/10.62834/yewzr905