19 August 2011
Understanding of poverty to be explored at seminar
Academics from the UK, US and India will come together in Dundee next month to explore new ways of understanding poverty in the developing world.
A recent study into poverty in Kerala, India, has been carried out by Dr Deepak Gopinath, a Town and Regional Planning lecturer at the University of Dundee and Professor Murali Nair from Cleveland State University, USA. Rather than using conventional methods of measuring poverty, such as income levels, the researchers interviewed community members to gauge whether they felt impoverished or not.
What they discovered was that, amongst a group often generalised about, there was significant variation in who saw themselves as poor, with factors such as gender, caste, the status of their neighbours and how they saw their community relevant to others among the factors influencing their opinion.
The research intends to develop a broader picture of how people in Kerala understand poverty, whether they identify themselves as poor, and why they viewed certain households or villages as being poorer than others. In addition, the perceived pathways and barriers to escaping poverty from the perspective of the community members themselves were also examined.
The project investigators will share their findings at a seminar held at the University on 7th September. Presentations examining migration and development, homelessness, community representations, global perspectives, and natural disasters will also be made by academics researching the causes of poverty in the developing world.
Dr Gopinath said his research had potentially significant implications for planners and policy makers.
'Presently, poverty is usually meausured using money-metric measures such as income or consumption, and this generic interpretation is applied broadly,' he said. 'For example, it is commonly said that if someone has less than two dollars a day then they are poor, but the person may not consider themselves to be so.
'The implication of this is that planners and policy makers may be concentrating investment in the wrong areas and precious resources are not being used to help those who are the most in need. This study was about getting local people involved and trying to make policy makers and planners aware of the fact that people sometimes understand poverty differently to how they do.
'One of the things we looked at was in how the people define themselves and their neighbours rather than imposing external criteria on them. We asked them to define whether or not they were poor and what we found is that a lot of people might say they are poor, or their neighbour is poor because of certain reasons.
'We spoke to people from a particular area and asked them if they considered themselves impoverished. We then showed them a map of their community, and asked them to identify which households they saw as being poor.
'This was a personal interpretation not based merely on income but also looking at how caste, gender, and other circumstances altered their perceptions of their circumstances in relation to their neighbours. What we found is that there was a wide variation in views about who is and isn’t poor, even within one community.
They also based their views on perceptions of their area in relation to others. If they saw it as being worse off than other communities they would be more inclined to see themselves as poor. They would then comment on schools and other facilities and opportunities and whether they felt their neighbourhood was better or worse off than others by these measures.'
By drawing on the notion of a ‘place-based understanding of poverty’ the study set out to examine whether contemporary approaches to poverty alleviation in Kerala afford local people the opportunity to shape and respond to poverty.
Dr Gopinath and his colleagues also spent time with officials in government departments and asking them who they saw as living in poverty and how they envisaged improving their lives. Considerable differences with the opinions of members of the community were noted, and Dr Gopinath believes more emphasis needs to be given to the views of the people and how they might provide useful inputs to contemporary approaches to addressing vulnerability.
'This is not a replacement for traditional planning but it complements it as it helps to identify the areas where local people feel investment should be made. This research takes the approach of treating people as individuals, lets them plan their own route out of poverty and identifies the barriers that they see as existing.'
'This is important to judge not just how people identify themselves but also in helping them to plot a route out of poverty for themselves.'
The seminar forms part of the wider research project, which was funded by the British Academy, the UK's national body for the humanities and social sciences. Three planners and academics from Kerala, who took part in the original study, will also share their experiences with other delegates.
The seminar takes place at the University’s Dalhousie Building between 9.30am and 4.30pm on Wednesday, 7th September. More details can be accessed at the project website, www.dundee.ac.uk/planning/research/bastudy.htm.
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Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
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