Future Pathways Out of Poverty in Rural Areas and Elsewhere

Previous chapters showed that there is no magic strategy to alleviate poverty or eliminate poverty completely in every community. This chapter presents the closing arguments of “why people are poor” and what poor people might do in the future to overcome their poverty trap. We ask, which way forward do Africans envisage as a future pathway out of chronic poverty in the 21st century? This question forms the central themes of this chapter and has provoked lively debates among villagers as to the successive stages of household progress from extreme poverty to economic self-reliance. Such moves in and out of poverty are apparent when looking at poverty in either absolute or relative terms. Hence, how can we ensure a more diverse, inclusive, and sustainable future for all?

Analisis Pengaruh Pendidikan, Pertumbuhan Ekonomi dan Pendapatan Perkapita Terhadap Chronic Poverty

This study objectives are to analyze: 1) the effect of education on chronic poverty in West Sumatra, 2) the effect of economic growth on chronic poverty in West Sumatra, 3) the effect of per capita income on chronic poverty in West Sumatra, 4) the effect of education, economic growth and per capita income on chronic poverty in West Sumatra. This is a quantitative research. This study used secondary data from 2010-2019, obtained from related institutions and agencies and then was analyzed by using multiple linear regression analysis. Prerequisite analysis tests performed include normality test, heteroscedasticity test, multicollinearity test and autocorrelation test. The results shows that 1) education has a negative and significant effect on chronic poverty in West Sumatera, 2) economic growth has a negative and significant effect on chronic poverty in West Sumatera, 3) per capita income has negative and insignificant effect on chronic poverty in West Sumatera, 4) education, economic growth and per capita income have significant effect on chronic poverty in West Sumatera simultaneously.

Poverty Dynamics in Turkey: A Multinomial Logit Model

The availability of longitudinal data allows researchers to analyse the dynamics of poverty. By using the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TurkStat) Income and Living Conditions Survey micro dataset, we analyse the households’ long-term monetary poverty conditions. We categorise poverty as transitory and chronic and employ the multinomial logit method to analyse determinants of each types of poverty. Results indicate that education and household size are the most effective factors for reducing transitory poverty, and for chronic poverty, the most effective factors are having a regular job and having a skilled occupation; insurance, home ownership, and number of children are important determinants for both types of poverty.

The Value of Dimensional Models of Early Experience: Thinking Clearly About Concepts and Categories

We review the three prevailing approaches—specificity, cumulative risk, and dimensional models—to conceptualizing the developmental consequences of early-life adversity and address fundamental problems with the characterization of these frameworks in a recent Perspectives on Psychological Science piece by Smith and Pollak. We respond to concerns raised by Smith and Pollak about dimensional models of early experience and highlight the value of these models for studying the developmental consequences of early-life adversity. Basic dimensions of adversity proposed in existing models include threat/harshness, deprivation, and unpredictability. These models identify core dimensions of early experience that cut across the categorical exposures that have been the focus of specificity and cumulative risk approaches (e.g., abuse, institutional rearing, chronic poverty); delineate aspects of early experience that are likely to influence brain and behavioral development; afford hypotheses about adaptive and maladaptive responses to different dimensions of adversity; and articulate specific mechanisms through which these dimensions exert their influences, conceptualizing experience-driven plasticity within an evolutionary-developmental framework. In doing so, dimensional models advance specific falsifiable hypotheses, grounded in neurodevelopmental and evolutionary principles, that are supported by accumulating evidence and provide fertile ground for empirical studies on early-life adversity.

SECURITY CULTURE AS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN NEED

Modern society exists in conditions of evident contradictions and complex problems. In addition to chronic poverty, ethnic violence, regional war conflicts, the expansion of terrorism and organized crime, we have long faced climate change and environmental degradation. The destruction of ecosystems has become a kind of crisis multiplier, which has deep implications for international peace and stability. In the age of scientific and technological prosperity in the search for answers to old and new security threats, we are also facing a latent moral stumbling on a global level, which is reflected in the phenomenon of “alienation of man from man”, which is the cause of many evils. Addiction diseases, where drug addiction, smoking and alcoholism predominate, dominate among the young population and develop serious diseases with fatal outcomes. It is known that many important aspects of human development also relate to the security of people, who naturally strive for “freedom from fear and freedom from poverty.” Therefore, building and maintaining a security culture, on the one hand, is not a simple process, and on the other hand, it is like any other process that people manage and which involves continuous activities, planning, control and audit. The sentence, “what kind of security culture you have, such is the character of your society”, has gained real meaning in the current time.

The Beggar as a Political Symbol: An Interactionist Reading of the Endurance of Anti-Begging Laws in India

In 2018, the Delhi High Court held that certain provisions of the state’s anti-begging law were unconstitutional. Nevertheless, such laws continue to operate in at least 20 other Indian states and union territories even today. Begging as a social phenomenon remains an under-researched subject within the social sciences, especially in India where the rare mention that the subject finds often gets subsumed within larger debates on chronic poverty or organised crime. This article begins by tracing the history of regulations around begging, followed by a discussion on the persistence of both begging and anti-begging laws prevalent today. By examining the justification underlying the criminalisation of begging, it contends that such an approach fails to provide insight into the lived experiences of individuals engaged in this activity. It therefore proposes that the analyses of begging in the Indian context adopt symbolic interactionism that lends its rich theoretical framework to enable an interpretation of the act as one that of agency; a survival strategy among those living on the margins of the neoliberal urban experience. In doing so, it posits a view of the beggar as a powerful political symbol with the potential to subvert and interrogate the rules of the game in a globalised world.

Inequality in the Developing World

Inequality has emerged as a key development challenge. It holds implications for economic growth and redistribution and translates into power asymmetries that can endanger human rights, create conflict, and embed social exclusion and chronic poverty. For these reasons, it underpins intense public and academic debates and has become a dominant policy concern within many countries and in all multilateral agencies. It is at the core of the seventeen goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This book contributes to this important discussion by presenting assessments of the measurement and analysis of global inequality by leading inequality scholars, aligning these to comprehensive reviews of inequality trends in five of the world’s largest developing countries—Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa. Each is a persistently high or newly high inequality context and, with the changing global inequality situation as context, country chapters investigate the main factors shaping their different inequality dynamics. Particular attention is on how broader societal inequalities arising outside of the labour market have intersected with the rapidly changing labour market milieus of the last few decades. Collectively these chapters provide a nuanced discussion of key distributive phenomena like the high concentration of income among the most affluent people, gender inequalities, and social mobility. Substantive tax and social benefit policies that each country implemented to mitigate these inequality dynamics are assessed in detail. The book takes lessons from these contexts back into the global analysis of inequality and social mobility and the policies needed to address inequality.

Setting the Scene

Inequality has emerged as a key development challenge. It holds implications for economic growth and redistribution, and translates into power asymmetries that can endanger human rights, create conflict, and embed social exclusion and chronic poverty. For these reasons, it underpins intense public and academic debates and has become a dominant policy concern within many countries and in all multilateral agencies. It is at the core of the seventeen goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This chapter introduces a volume that contributes to this important discussion by bringing together assessments of the measurement and analysis of global inequality by leading inequality scholars with a comprehensive view of inequality trends in five of the world’s largest developing countries—Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa. Understanding inequalities in these economies remains challenging, but is of great value in coming to grips with the contemporary global inequalities detailed in other chapters.

Poverty in Rural India: Variations in Factors Influencing Dynamics of Chronic Poverty

The article studies the dynamics of chronic poverty in rural India. The article attempts to analyse the factors influencing the incidence and mobility of poverty and the changes in the influence of these factors over time. This article uses the household panel survey data collected by NCAER. It examines whether there has been change in the influence of factors such as village level infrastructure, household size and composition, and economic growth on poverty dynamics in different periods of time. The impact of a number of factors changes over time implying that the strategies for poverty reduction would have to take into account the changing economic environment. The article further presents an analysis of growth rate of per capita expenditure for the same set households to analyse the extent of consumption growth, which is also an indicator of poverty reduction for rural India.