Between Income and Multidimensionality: Agency, Resistance, and the Reconceptualization of Poverty in Sri Lanka's Welfare Transition.
(2025) UTVK03 20251Sociology
- Abstract
- This study examines how different forms of agency facilitate or hinder the reconceptualization of poverty during Sri Lanka's transition from the Samurdhi program to the Aswesuma Welfare Benefit Scheme and analyzes its impact on targeting efficiency. The research addresses a critical
gap in comprehending how transformations from income-based to multidimensional poverty measurement frameworks are negotiated and implemented at the local level, where policy formulated top-down is delivered by local administrators and received by beneficiaries of welfare programs. The research employs a qualitative case study methodology, incorporating semi-structured interviews with local administrators, program beneficiaries, and rejected applicants from Sri... (More) - This study examines how different forms of agency facilitate or hinder the reconceptualization of poverty during Sri Lanka's transition from the Samurdhi program to the Aswesuma Welfare Benefit Scheme and analyzes its impact on targeting efficiency. The research addresses a critical
gap in comprehending how transformations from income-based to multidimensional poverty measurement frameworks are negotiated and implemented at the local level, where policy formulated top-down is delivered by local administrators and received by beneficiaries of welfare programs. The research employs a qualitative case study methodology, incorporating semi-structured interviews with local administrators, program beneficiaries, and rejected applicants from Sri Lankan Divisional Secretariats using Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and Michael Lipsky's Street-Level Bureaucracy theory as analytical frameworks.
The findings indicate that poverty reconceptualization is a complex, negotiated process involving multiple actors exercising various forms of agency. The institutional agency successfully broadened poverty measurement from income-based to multidimensional indicators, but paradoxically narrowed program interventions to basic cash transfers. Despite technological attempts at standardization imposed from ‘the top’, local administrators at the level of policy delivery exercised ‘street-level discretion’ by creating adaptive strategies that frequently enhanced, rather than undermined, targeting accuracy. The beneficiary, too, leveraged their agency through strategic self-presentation and community information networks, which both facilitated access and potentially undermined targeting objectives. The study concludes that targeting efficiency relies not only on technical design sophistication but also on effectively managing the interplay between various forms of agency at the level of policy delivery. Information asymmetries appeared as critical barriers to both targeting precision and program legitimacy.
These findings challenge technocratic assumptions about poverty measurement and suggest that successful welfare reform should acknowledge and harness agency rather than attempting to eliminate it through standardization. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9199233
- author
- Dias Wijegunasinghe, Yaneesha Kavindi LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- UTVK03 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Poverty measurement, Multidimensional Poverty, Street-level Bureaucracy, Agency, Targeting Efficiency, Samurdhi, Aswesuma
- language
- English
- id
- 9199233
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-18 17:30:36
- date last changed
- 2025-06-18 17:30:36
@misc{9199233,
abstract = {{This study examines how different forms of agency facilitate or hinder the reconceptualization of poverty during Sri Lanka's transition from the Samurdhi program to the Aswesuma Welfare Benefit Scheme and analyzes its impact on targeting efficiency. The research addresses a critical
gap in comprehending how transformations from income-based to multidimensional poverty measurement frameworks are negotiated and implemented at the local level, where policy formulated top-down is delivered by local administrators and received by beneficiaries of welfare programs. The research employs a qualitative case study methodology, incorporating semi-structured interviews with local administrators, program beneficiaries, and rejected applicants from Sri Lankan Divisional Secretariats using Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and Michael Lipsky's Street-Level Bureaucracy theory as analytical frameworks.
The findings indicate that poverty reconceptualization is a complex, negotiated process involving multiple actors exercising various forms of agency. The institutional agency successfully broadened poverty measurement from income-based to multidimensional indicators, but paradoxically narrowed program interventions to basic cash transfers. Despite technological attempts at standardization imposed from ‘the top’, local administrators at the level of policy delivery exercised ‘street-level discretion’ by creating adaptive strategies that frequently enhanced, rather than undermined, targeting accuracy. The beneficiary, too, leveraged their agency through strategic self-presentation and community information networks, which both facilitated access and potentially undermined targeting objectives. The study concludes that targeting efficiency relies not only on technical design sophistication but also on effectively managing the interplay between various forms of agency at the level of policy delivery. Information asymmetries appeared as critical barriers to both targeting precision and program legitimacy.
These findings challenge technocratic assumptions about poverty measurement and suggest that successful welfare reform should acknowledge and harness agency rather than attempting to eliminate it through standardization.}},
author = {{Dias Wijegunasinghe, Yaneesha Kavindi}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Between Income and Multidimensionality: Agency, Resistance, and the Reconceptualization of Poverty in Sri Lanka's Welfare Transition.}},
year = {{2025}},
}