Poverty: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #571

by Philip N. Jefferson

No one wants to live in poverty. Few people would want others to do so. Yet, we find ourselves in a situation where millions of people worldwide live in poverty. According to the World Bank in 2010, 1.2 billion people lived below the extreme poverty line with an income of US $1.25 or less a day and 2.4 billion lived on less than US $2 a day. Why is that? What has been done about it in the past? And what is being done about it now?

In this Very Short Introduction Philip N. Jefferson explores how the answers to these questions lie in the social, political, economic, educational, and technological processes that impact all of us throughout our lives. The degree of vulnerability is all that differentiates us. He shows how a person's level of vulnerability to adverse changes in their life is very much dependent on the circumstances of their birth, including where their family lived, the schools they attended, whether it was peacetime or wartime, whether they had access to clean water, and whether they are male or female. Arguing that while poverty is ancient and enduring, the conversation about it is always new and evolving, Jefferson looks at the history of poverty, and the practical and analytical efforts we have made to eradicate it, and the prospects for further poverty alleviation in the future.

ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook

176 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2018

Reviews

[Ibrahim Niftiyev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is a good introduction to the concept of poverty in economics, one might have difficulty understanding it without a solid background in the social sciences. It is full of systematic approaches and descriptions, but more real-life examples related to poverty could be useful. I like the other short introductory series better than this book.

[Aleksandar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand why this introduction has such a low rating; it was very informative to me. Perhaps the subject matter is so connected to personal suffering, that a detached, academic-sounding literature review feels insufficient to do the issue justice. At the very least, if there's political bias in the book, I can not detect any signs of it. As an interesting aside, this introduction is very useful in getting across some issues in economics, and the same is true of sociology. It introduces a lot of new terms and a a lot of interdisciplinary topics, needless to say not in any depth. Some of these topics are, in no particular order, equivalence scale, efficiencies of consumption, the feminization of poverty, graduating from poverty, and negative spillovers from group association. A lot of new things to learn about.

[Bookish Dervish · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب جيد كعادة الكتب في هذه السلسلة و قد قرأت منها عددا معتبرا باللغتين العربية و الإنجليزية. يحيط بموضوع مؤرق للإنسانية، مخجل و يرقى لأن يكون عارا كما في كتاب عار الجوع: الغذاء، والعدالة، والمال في القرن الحادي والعشرينو لكن الإحصائيات فيه قديمة نوعا ما

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deep book - probably too deep. Reads like an introductory economics course, some of the topics more fit for a graduate course. My hunch is a lot of people who would read this would come away with their heads spinning - I think the only thing that saved me was a degree in economics.

[Wing · Rating 3 out of 5]

How societies set the poor up for failures are explained outright to set the unsettling scene for this painfully perspicuous book. The history of poverty is a litany of displacements due to the restructuring of economies, in which slavery is only the very limit of the inevitable logic of commodification. The pervasiveness of the fundamental attribution error means the poor are frequently victimised and labelled as undeserving. After the nuances of various poverty metrics, and so-called lines, have been clearly outlined, the demographics of poverty is then dissected. When major facets of life are affected, statistics do not do justice to the horror poverty inflicts. Naturally, salient topics such as wages, employment, productivity, and mobility are covered. It transpires that the snares that conduce social sclerosis are ubiquitous, and the half-truth of meritocracy can be more poisonous than poverty itself. Whilst there is no magic panacea, familiarity with the available data is the bulwark against undue defeatism. The obvious ameliorative implements such as social protection systems, investment in public infrastructure, and accountable governance are pointed out. The pertinent topic of inequality is covered but as expected not really in depth (this is not Piketty after all). Ample evaluative methods are available to combat ideological sophistry, and these are briefly described. History has demonstrated that optimism in poverty mitigation is realistic and not utopian. It is and will be a work in progress. All in all, this is a rather informative but at times dry read – three stars.

[Irina Ioana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really loved the other "Very short introduction" books that I have read. This one, I feel, did not hit its mark quite as well. Like the other ones, it is as free of bias as possible. It uses no inflammatory language. But it uses a lot of terms that are quite specific and they flew over head at some point. So, for me, this introduction was way to short to actually understand the topic.

[DJ Meunier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not expecting to like this book that much.

[Jb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complex and crucial topic. Gave me a better way to analyze solutions on that front.

[Ezekiel Wong · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty difficult to read as the book progressed but overall it was a decent introduction to poverty. Philip N Jefferson could learn to write with more clarity.