Chronic Poverty Research Centre

CPRC Research Theme 1: Conceptualisation of poverty dynamics and persistent poverty

• Introduction to Concepts theme
• Key CPRC publications
• Contacts

Introduction to Concepts theme

The CPRC was founded on the premise that there is an inadequate understanding of the challenges faced by the 900 million people who will still be living in poverty in 2015 even if the MDG targets are fully achieved – those likely to have benefited least, or suffered most, from contemporary development efforts, for whom emergence from poverty is therefore most difficult.

A number of terms are used to identify those who experience poverty most intensely, e.g ultrapoor, hard-core poor, poorest of the poor, destitute, etc. Such distinctions have deep historical roots – in 18th century France commentators distinguished the ‘pauvre’ from the ‘indigent’ (Hufton 1974), and Iliffe’s (1987) ‘history’ of the African poor distinguishes structural poverty from conjunctural poverty. The CPRC focuses on the ‘chronically poor’ in order to draw attention to those for whom emergence from poverty is most difficult. A rough interpretation of this term might be ‘people who have been poor over a long period and/or since birth’; but such broad concepts need clarification if they are to be useful in guiding research and action, and not simply throw up a host of further questions (e.g. how long is ‘a long period’?).

This initial research theme therefore seeks to deepen and sharpen our understanding of what we mean by ‘chronic poverty’, and develop frameworks for analysing and understanding it. The CPRC believes that the duration of poverty, and its influence on behaviour, capabilities and development outcomes has been neglected in past work. Much academic and policy analysis was concerned with two aspects of poverty:

• ‘depth’ - the severity of poverty; and
• ‘breadth’ – poverty as a multi-dimensional experience, involving not just low income, but also poor or no housing, ill health, lack of political power, etc.

The Centre’s work has helped to extend this conceptual framework to include the ‘dynamics’ of poverty: the duration and patterns of spells of time in poverty, and how people become poor, escape poverty, or get caught in various sorts of ‘poverty traps’.

In order to undertake comparative work, a common understanding of the concept of ‘chronic poverty’ must be pursued. CPRC partners may choose to give different meanings to ‘chronic poverty’ in different settings, when appropriate and necessary. Indeed, while quantitative work requires tight definitions, qualitative work is likely to use broader and more varied meanings – as well as meanings determined by the chronically poor themselves – that permit assessment and interpretation but not necessarily measurement. However, it is both possible and necessary to agree upon a common point of departure.

The Concepts research programme attempts to do this, while welcoming considerable dialogue and overlap with the Centre’s other research themes. For example, by highlighting ‘time’ as a central element of poverty analysis, its work also focuses on poverty dynamics (see theme two), the transfer of poverty across generations (see theme three), and the influence of risk and vulnerability on present behaviour and future prospects (see theme four). Work with ‘concepts’ elements attempts to say:

• how chronic poverty can best be understood – through measurement (and measurement of what), through ‘participatory’ research, or other approaches?
• what are the characteristics of chronic poverty – in relation to other concepts such as ‘ultrapoor’, intergenerational poverty, relative poverty; and, importantly,
• what are the causes of chronic poverty?

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Key CPRC publications

Books

Addison, T., Hulme, D. and Kanbur, R. (2008 forthcoming) Poverty Dynamics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Oxford University Press.

Working Papers

Addison, T., Hulme, D. and Kanbur, R. (2008 forthcoming) Poverty Dynamics: measurement and understanding from an interdisciplinary perspective. Currently available as a Brooks World Poverty Institute working paper, forthcoming as a CPRC working paper and introduction to the book Poverty Dynamics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.

Shepherd, A. (2007) Understanding and explaining chronic poverty - An evolving framework for Phase III of CPRC’s research, CPRC Working Paper 80.

Hulme, D., Moore, K. and Shepherd, A., (2002) Chronic Poverty: Meanings and Analytical Frameworks, CPRC Working Paper 2.

Calvo, C. and Dercon, S. (2007) Chronic poverty and all that: the measurement of poverty over time, CPRC Working Paper 89.

Harriss, J. (2007) Bringing politics back into poverty analysis: Why understanding social relations matters more for policy on chronic poverty than measurement, CPRC Working Paper 77.

Du Toit, A. (2005) Poverty measurement blues: some reflections on the space for understanding ‘chronic’ and ‘structural’ poverty in South Africa, CPRC Working Paper 55.

Yaqub, S. (2003) Chronic Poverty: scrutinizing estimates, patterns, correlates and explanations, CPRC Working Paper 21.

Briefings

An introduction to chronic poverty, CPRC Policy Brief 1.

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Other reading

Hufton, O H. (1974) The Poor of Eighteenth Century France, 1750-1789, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Iliffe, J. (1987) The African Poor: a History, New York: Cambridge University Press.

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Contacts

David Hulme CPRC Associate Director
Theme Coordinator, Conceptualisation of Poverty Dynamics and Persistent Poverty
44 (0)161 275 2803 (Tel)

www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm

Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM)
School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester M13 9PL
UNITED KINGDOM

44(0)161 275 2800 (Tel-switchboard)
44 (0)161 273 8828 (Fax)

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