Chronic Poverty Research Centre

 CPRC Research Theme 6: Adverse Incorporation and Social Exclusion (AI/SE)

• Introduction to Adverse Incorporation and Social Exclusion (AI/SE) theme
• Key CPRC publications
• Contacts

Introduction to Adverse Incorporation and Social Exclusion (AI/SE) theme

Exclusion from social, political and economic institutions is part of a vicious cycle: exclusion leads to lower capabilities, which in turn reduces the prospects for escaping poverty and people’s ability to assert their rights. Exclusion may be the product of active discrimination directed against certain identifiable groups (as a result of ethnicity, race, religion, caste, culture, migration), often reinforced by discrimination on the basis of personal characteristics (age, gender, impairment). At other times, exclusion is relatively passive, based on the ignorance or preferences of more powerful and better off groups, simply not knowing about or leaving out certain individuals or groups of the chronically poor.

If exclusion is the problem, then it could be assumed that inclusion is the answer. This is not necessarily so. Many of the poorest people are included in economic activity, but on extremely unfavourable terms. They are 'adversely incorporated', forced to take work at low rates, in unhealthy or hazadous conditions, and with no job security. Simply 'working their way out of poverty' may be unlikely or practically impossible. Their high vulnerability to risk may force them to depend on more powerful 'patrons' for some degree of 'protection', often at the cost of the freedom to challenge the structures which keep them poor.

Research on adverse incorporation and social exclusion (AISE) thus draws attention to the causal processes that lead poverty to persist, and to the politics and political economy of these processes and associated relationships over time. The concept of social exclusion can usefully highlight the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, and the role of discrimination or 'social distance' in facilitating the persistence of poverty and inequality. An adverse incorporation 'lens' helps ensure that the importance of economic structures, and the processes of the creation and re-ordering of markets are not overlooked, and focuses analysis firmly on the political economy of 'development'.

Much of the promise of AISE research lies in its capacity to cross analytical boundaries, and capture the multi-dimensional and interlocking character of long-term deprivation.This analysis suggests a number of fruitful areas for research - such as the relationship between risk and vulnerability, patronage politics, and chronic poverty; or the way in which inequalities within global economic value chains maintain poverty - most of which are currently under-explored in poverty research

Looking at research methodology, there are benefits to adopting integrated qualitative-quantitativeapproaches when investigating AISE. However, we would argue that the relational nature of AISE, and the limitations of quantitative data, may dictate that qualitative work should take priority here; and that more historical and theoretically-oriented forms of research are particularly appropriate in studying AISE.

To think about challenging AISE involves shifting the frame from policy to politics, and from specific anti-poverty interventions to longer-term development strategies. We are particularly interested in

• processes of industrialisation and labour market restructuring;
• moves towards developmental states; and
• pporting shifts from clientelism to citizenship.

However, a range of more immediate development policy interventions may also be able to make headway in challenging the forms of AISE that perpetuate poverty. 

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Key publications

Hickey, S. and du Toit, A. (2007) Adverse incorporation, social exclusion and chronic poverty, CPRC Working Paper 81.

du Toit, A. (2004) Chronic and structural poverty in South Africa: challenges for action and research, CPRC Working Paper 56.

Kabeer, N. (2004) Snakes, ladders and traps: changing lives and livelihoods in rural Bangladesh 1994-2001, CPRC Working Paper 50.

du Toit, A. (2004) Forgotten by the Highway: Globalisation, adverse incorporation and chronic poverty in a commercial farming district of South Africa, CPRC Working Paper 49.

Bird, K. and Pratt, N. (2004) Fracture Points in Social Policies for Chronic Poverty Reduction, CPRC Working Paper 47.

Hickey, S. (2003) The politics of staying poor in Uganda, CPRC Working Paper 37.

Bebbington, A. and Mitlin, D. (2006) Social movements and chronic poverty across the urban-rural divide: concepts and experiences, CPRC Working Paper 65.

Yeo, R. (2002) Chronic Poverty and Disability, CPRC Working Paper 4.

Pellisery, S. (2004) Process deficits or political constraints? Bottom-up evaluation of non-contributory social protection policy for rural labourers in India, CPRC Working Paper 54.

Kumar, A. (2004) Political Sociology of Poverty in India: Between Politics of Poverty and Poverty of Politics, CPRC-IIPA Working Paper 3.

Woolcock, M. (2006) Poverty as social relations: meanings, rules and relationality, paper presented to the “Concepts and Methods for Analysing Poverty Dynamics and Chronic Poverty” conference, Manchester, October 2006

Kabra, A. (2004) Chronic Poverty and Vulnerable Social Groups: The Case of the Sahariya Adivasi Community Displaced from Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh, chapter in Kapur Mehta and Shepherd (eds) “Chronic Poverty in India”, Sage publications.

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Contacts

Sam Hickey 
Theme Coordinator, Adverse Incorporation and Social Exclusion
44 (0)161 275 2806 (Tel)

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)

www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm

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