Table Of ContentGlobal Poverty
Studies in
Critical Social Sciences
Series Editor
David Fasenfest (Wayne State University)
Editorial Board
Eduardo Bonilla- Silva (Duke University)
Chris Chase- Dunn (University of California– Riverside)
William Carroll (University of Victoria)
Raewyn Connell (University of Sydney)
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw (University of California, Los Angeles/
Columbia University)
Raju Das (York University)
Heidi Gottfried (Wayne State University)
Karin Gottschall (University of Bremen)
Alfredo Saad- Filho (King’s College London)
Chizuko Ueno (University of Tokyo)
Sylvia Walby (Lancaster University)
volume 225
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/s css
Global Poverty
Rethinking Causality
Edited by
Raju J. Das and Deepak K. Mishra
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Photo by Bui Hoang Lien on Unsplash, available at: https:// unspl ash.com/ pho tos/ AJQC
yfzA xJw
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Names: Das, Raju J., editor. | Mishra, Deepak K., editor.
Title: Global poverty : rethinking causality / edited by Raju J. Das and
Deepak K. Mishra.
Description: Boston : Brill, [2023] | Series: Studies in critical social
sciences, 1573- 4234 ; Volume 225 | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022029783 (print) | LCCN 2022029784 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789004514591 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9789004514607 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Poverty. | Economic policy. | Equality.
Classification: LCC HC79. P6 G6626 2023 (print) | LCC HC79. P6 (ebook) |
DDC 320.01/ 1– dc23/ eng/ 20220624
LC record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 202 2029 783
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2022 029 784
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/b rill- typeface.
issn 1573- 4234
isbn 978- 90- 04- 51459- 1 (hardback)
isbn 978- 90- 04- 51460- 7 (e- book)
Copyright 2023 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink,
Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau, V&R unipress and Wageningen Academic.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re- use and/ or translations must be
addressed to Koninklijke Brill nv via brill.com or copyright.com.
This book is printed on acid- free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents
A cknowledgements vii
L ist of Figures and Tables ix
N otes on Contributors xii
1 A nalysing Poverty Causally
An Introduction 1
Raju J. Das and Deepak K. Mishra
2 A bsolute, Relative and Multidimensional Measures of Poverty 27
Steven Pressman
3 P overty
A Marxist View 46
Michael Roberts
4 W hy Is There Poverty in the Rich Countries? A Marxist Analysis 67
Jamie Gough and Aram Eisenschitz
5 C lass and Social Needs
A Marxian Theory of Poverty 98
Anjan Chakrabarti
6 N eeds, Capital Accumulation, and Poverty
The Case of Food 129
Mizhar Mikati
7 T he Rise and Fall of Inequality and Poverty Reduction in Brazil 151
Marcelo Milan
8 N eoliberalism, Financial Imperialism, and Capitalist Growth
Why Pakistan Still Wallows in Poverty 170
Tarique Niazi
9 T he Impoverishment of a Nation
The Greek Financial Crisis and Troika’s Free Market- Austerity
Policies 206
John Marangos, Eirini Triarchi and Themis Anthrakidis
vi Contents
10 B etraying the Struggle
Corruption and Poverty in Post- apartheid South Africa 230
Macayla Kisten and Brij Maharaj
11 P overty, Living Wage and Income Inequality in the Developing World
Views and Visions from the Philippines 250
David Michael M. San Juan
12 T ackling Poverty or Inequality? You Don’t Have to Choose 296
Thaddeus Hwong
13 T he Political Economy of Poverty and Uneven Development
The Case of Odisha, India 316
Deepak K. Mishra
I ndex 341
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to our contributors to this edited collection. Aram, Anjan, Brij,
David, Eirini, Jamie, John, Macayla, Marcelo, Michael, Mizhar, Steven, Tarique,
Thaddeus and Themis: they all have been absolutely wonderful in every sense
of the word. We posed a series of (rather difficult) questions for them to think
about in terms of the causality of global poverty. They focussed on what they
knew best and produced excellent analyses. It was also a great relief to us that
when they received feedback on their first drafts, they promptly worked on
the revised versions with a great sense of humility that is the hallmark of great
scholars.
In our theme paper that was a part of our invitation to our authors, we
argued that it was not enough to measure and identity poverty at a point in
time, over time and across countries/ regions, but that it is necessary to exam-
ine the causality of global poverty, the poverty that exists in every part of the
world. We also argued that this exploration must be at multiple ontological
levels, including: the structure of social relations, mechanisms, outcomes, and
time- and place- specific experiences. Our contributors believed in the overall
theoretical character of the project, and their belief enhanced our own confi-
dence in the project. This book is truly their book, therefore, both individually
and collectively.
There was much delay at our end in terms of completing the refereeing pro-
cess, a delay that was only partly caused by the pandemic, but all our contrib-
utors were extremely patient with us. They continued to have the confidence
that the book project would be completed.
We both have met countless numbers of poor men, women, and children
during our research and in our everyday lives. They have taught us much about
poverty. In many ways, they have inspired us to launch and complete this
edited collection. We are also sure that all our contributors’ thinking about
poverty is partly shaped by their everyday encounters with the poor. We wish
to acknowledge our debt to the poor people of the world.
We wish to register our gratitude to the York Centre for Asian Research
(ycar) at York University, Toronto. One of us (Deepak) received a ycar
Research Collaboration Fellowship which allowed him to visit York. During his
visit we were able to complete some of the work for the book. Special thanks
are due to Professor Abidin Kusno, ycar’s Director, and to Alicia Filipowich,
ycar’s coordinator. We have not seen many people in the world who are more
helpful than Alicia.
viii Acknowledgements
Desire and inspiration are necessary, but not enough to complete any task.
This book would simply not have begun without the encouragement and
support from Professor David Fasenfest, the editor of Brill’s Studies in Critical
Social Sciences. This book would not have been completed in the form that
it has been and at the time that it has, without David’s constant intellectual
assistance. We were slightly unhappy with the original title of the book. Just
before the final submission, we requested that David suggest a different title.
Promptly came his response with a title that we immediately liked. At no point
in time, since he began examining the proposal for the book project, did he
say, “Send me the manuscript by such and such date.” He did not give up on us
despite the inordinate delays on our part to meet the deadlines. The style of
David Fasenfest, the editor, is unique. He would send us a polite and friendly
enquiry from time to time, an enquiry that included in a heavy dose of encour-
agement: “How are you getting on with the book?” That was enough for us to
keep working at the project. We are very grateful to David.
Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 P overty rate according to world bank and national thresholds (%) 49
3.2 E lephant graph: Change in real income 1980– 2008 at various percentiles of
global income distribution (2005 dollars) 51
3.3 W ealth gini index 55
3.4 R elation between wealth and income inequality 55
3.5 N et resource transfers from developing to developed economies $bn 63
7.1 G ini coefficient for personal income distribution in Brazil (1976– 2014) 154
7.2 P ercentage of the poor population earning a total income equal to the income
of the richest 1% in Brazil (1976– 2014) 155
7.3 F unctional income distribution in Brazil (2000– 2016) 156
7.4 P ercentage of the population considered extremely poor in Brazil
(1976– 2014) 157
7.5 U nemployment rate (%) in Brazil (1992– 2014) 159
7.6 R eal monthly minimum wage in Brazil (1980- 1- 2018- 11) – in Brazilian reals 159
7.7 E volution of bolsa família cash transfers and beneficiaries (2004– 2014) 161
7.8 A nnual number of rural working families entitled to land (settled) in Brazil
(1995– 2016) 162
7.9 A nnual number of rural estates and area (in thousand of hectares)
redistributed in Brazil (1995– 2018) 163
7.10 D emographic evolution of Brazil and geographical distribution of the
population (in thousands) (1950– 2010) 163
9.1 P eople at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as a percentage of the population
in Greece, 2008– 17 214
9.2 T he difference between EU and Greece in the rate of people at risk of poverty
or social exclusion, by age group, for the years 2010 & 2017 216
9.3 P eople at risk of poverty or social exclusion sub- indicators as a percentage of
the population in Greece, 2008– 17 217
9.4 A t- risk- of- poverty rate anchored at 2008, as a percentage of the population in
Greece, 2008– 2017 218
11.1 E ast Asia & Pacific regional poverty trend (upper middle income poverty line at
$5.50 per day) 253
11.2 E ast Asia & Pacific regional poverty trend (lower middle income poverty line at
$3.20 per day) 253
11.3 E ast Asia & Pacific regional poverty trend (international poverty line at $1.90
per day) 254
x Figures and Tables
11.4 P hilippine poverty trend (international poverty line at $1.90 per day) 255
11.5 P hilippine poverty trend (national poverty line) 255
11.6 P hilippine National Economic and Development Authority estimates on family
living expenses versus Defend Jobs Philippines computations 260
11.7 D imensions and indicators of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index
(mpi) 263
11.8 G reater London Authority’s minimum space standards for new dwellings 268
11.9 I ncome shares of the poorest and richest quintiles in the Philippines (as % of
the total national income) from 1990– 2015 273
11.10 P hilippine current real minimum wage rates (in Philippine pesos) 275
11.11 F amily living wage in the Philippines (in Philippine pesos) 276
11.12 P ercentage of family expenditure by income class in the Philippines in 2018
(income class numbers in Philippine pesos) 279
11.13 G rowth in labor productivity and average real daily basic pay (amounts in
Philippine pesos) 280
12.1 E conomic growth is the panacea? 305
12.2 P ublic social expenditures help reduce poverty 308
12.3 I nequality reduction is poverty reduction 310
Tables
2.1 U S poverty rates, 2016 42
5.1 D ifferences between non- class approaches to poverty 108
6.1 M arx’s different level of generalities with food as an object of inquiry 138
8.1 C apitalist regimes in Pakistan: 1958– 2021 179
8.2 I nequality in Pakistan measured in gini coefficient: 1960s– 2000s 181
8.3 P overty in Pakistan 1987– 2010s (% of population) 185
8.4 c bn poverty line 2005- 06- 2015- 2016 (rupees/ adult/ month) 187
9.1 C hange in average disposable income in percentage by age group in Greece
2003– 2014 209
9.2 T ax burden of households poor versus rich in Greece, 2010, 2015– 16 211
9.3 U nemployment rate in percentage of active population in EU and Greece,
2008– 17 211
9.4 C hange in average disposable income by professional category in Greece,
2009– 14 212
9.5 P overty rates as a percentage of the population in Greece, 2008– 15 214
9.6 P eople at risk of poverty or social exclusion by age group in the EU and Greece
in percentage of the population, 2010– 17 215
