Placing Poverty in Context: A Case Study

Gopinath, Deepak; Nair, Murali

Abstract

The “poverty-in-context” approach to understanding poverty is shaped by the needs and priorities of a particular context, and it can be used as the basis for identifying pro-poor projects in local strategies such as City Development Plans. A key argument for the introduction of the City Development Plans initiative (2007–2012) in India was to move away from national conceptions of and responses to poverty and to instead focus on engaging with local understandings of poverty. Through a case study of the City Development Plan initiative in Trivandrum, the capital city of the Kerala state in southern India, we argue that an understanding of poverty at the local level did not accommodate contextual needs and priorities; consequently, we develop a poverty-in-context approach based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with various stakeholders in the case study area. The article concludes by suggesting how in the future a poverty-in-context approach might be used to shape pro-poor policy in general and preparation of City Development Plans in particular.

Citation

Gopinath, D., & Nair, M. (2014). Placing Poverty in Context: A Case Study. Poverty and Public Policy, 6(2), 135-156

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 1, 2014
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2014
• Journal: Poverty & Public Policy
• Print ISSN: 1944-2858
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 135-156
• Keywords: poverty-in-context, local self-help, pro-poor policy, India, Kerala, city development plans, Jawaharlal Nehru national urban renewal mission
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fpop4.70