Much ink has been spilled on poverty measurements and trends, at the expense of attempts to understand root causes. Assembling multi-disciplinary and international contributions, Global Poverty shows that a causal understanding of poverty in rich and poor countries is essential for relieving its ravages. Contributors to this volume argue that our understanding must be based on a critical interrogation of the wider social relations which set up the mechanisms producing poverty as an outcome. Processes that widen/strengthen crisis-ridden market relations, that increase income/wealth inequality, and that 'enhance' the policy-biases of nation-states and international institutions toward the affluent-propertied strata cause global poverty and undermine poor people's political power. The processes concentrating wealth-creation are the same processes causing poverty. Through theoretical and empirical analyses this volume offers important insights and political prescriptions to address global poverty.
Contributors are: Raju J. Das, Deepak K. Mishra, Steven Pressman, Michael Roberts, Jamie Gough, Aram Eisenschitz, Anjan Chakravarty, Mizhar Mikati, Marcelo Milan, Tarique Niazi, John Marangos, Eirini Triarchi, Themis Anthrakidis, Macayla Kisten and Brij Maharaj, David Michael M. San Juan, and Thaddeus Hwong.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Analysing Poverty Causally: An Introduction
Raju J. Das and Deepak K. Mishra
Absolute, Relative and Multidimensional Measures of Poverty
Steven Pressman
Poverty: A Marxist View
Michael Roberts
Why Is There Poverty In the Rich Countries? A Marxist Analysis
Jamie Gough And Aram Eisenschitz
Class and Social Needs: A Marxian Theory of Poverty
Anjan Chakravarty
Needs, Capital Accumulation, and Poverty: The Case of Food
Mizhar Mikati
The Rise and Fall of Inequality and Poverty Reduction In Brazil
Marcelo Milan
Neoliberalism, Financial Imperialism, and Capitalist Growth: Why Pakistan Still Wallows In Poverty
Tarique Niazi
The Impoverishment of a Nation: The Greek Financial Crisis and Troika’s Free Market-Austerity Policies
John Marangos, Eirini Triarchi and Themis Anthrakidis
Betraying the Struggle – Corruption and Poverty In Post-Apartheid South Africa
Macayla Kisten And Brij Maharaj
Poverty, Living Wage and Income Inequality In the Developing World: Views and Visions From The Philippines
David Michael M. San Juan
Tackling Poverty or Inequality? You Don’t Have to Choose
Thaddeus Hwong
The Political Economy of Poverty and Uneven Development: The Case of Odisha, India
Deepak K Mishra
Index
