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The politics of defining and alleviating poverty : State strategies and their impacts in rural Kerala

Williams, Glyn LU orcid ; Thampi, Binitha V. ; Narayana, D. ; Nandigama, Sailaja and Bhattacharyya, Dwaipayan (2012) In Geoforum 43(5). p.991-1001
Abstract

This paper presents a relational approach to the study of poverty (. Mosse, 2010), and uses this to critically evaluate state strategies for identifying and alleviating poverty in Kerala, India. It traces these from national planning documents through to their point of implementation, drawing on qualitative research in two of Kerala's poorest Districts. Ideas of participatory poverty classification, economic self-reliance and political empowerment are laudable national policy goals, and Kerala has shown innovation in its adaptation of these within the State's devolved structures of local governance. However, both the framing of policy and its implementation reproduce ideas of individual transitions out of poverty which indicate that the... (More)

This paper presents a relational approach to the study of poverty (. Mosse, 2010), and uses this to critically evaluate state strategies for identifying and alleviating poverty in Kerala, India. It traces these from national planning documents through to their point of implementation, drawing on qualitative research in two of Kerala's poorest Districts. Ideas of participatory poverty classification, economic self-reliance and political empowerment are laudable national policy goals, and Kerala has shown innovation in its adaptation of these within the State's devolved structures of local governance. However, both the framing of policy and its implementation reproduce ideas of individual transitions out of poverty which indicate that the state pays insufficient attention to the highly unequal social and economic relationships reproducing poverty in contemporary Kerala - in short, to poverty's inherently political nature.

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author
; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
India (Kerala), NREGA, Poverty (alleviation), Poverty (measurement), Poverty (relational approaches), Self-help groups, South Asia
in
Geoforum
volume
43
issue
5
pages
11 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:84864035542
ISSN
0016-7185
DOI
10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.06.001
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
2b887c8e-0648-483a-a77e-1f53ba870a2a
date added to LUP
2025-05-29 21:32:58
date last changed
2025-06-04 03:35:41
@article{2b887c8e-0648-483a-a77e-1f53ba870a2a,
  abstract     = {{<p>This paper presents a relational approach to the study of poverty (. Mosse, 2010), and uses this to critically evaluate state strategies for identifying and alleviating poverty in Kerala, India. It traces these from national planning documents through to their point of implementation, drawing on qualitative research in two of Kerala's poorest Districts. Ideas of participatory poverty classification, economic self-reliance and political empowerment are laudable national policy goals, and Kerala has shown innovation in its adaptation of these within the State's devolved structures of local governance. However, both the framing of policy and its implementation reproduce ideas of individual transitions out of poverty which indicate that the state pays insufficient attention to the highly unequal social and economic relationships reproducing poverty in contemporary Kerala - in short, to poverty's inherently political nature.</p>}},
  author       = {{Williams, Glyn and Thampi, Binitha V. and Narayana, D. and Nandigama, Sailaja and Bhattacharyya, Dwaipayan}},
  issn         = {{0016-7185}},
  keywords     = {{India (Kerala); NREGA; Poverty (alleviation); Poverty (measurement); Poverty (relational approaches); Self-help groups; South Asia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{991--1001}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Geoforum}},
  title        = {{The politics of defining and alleviating poverty : State strategies and their impacts in rural Kerala}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.06.001}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.06.001}},
  volume       = {{43}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}