Studying Poverty and Inequality in Poor Countries: Getting to Grips with Structure

This paper describes an alternative to the currently dominant empirical research approaches to poverty in poor countries (econometric analyses of household surveys and 'participatory poverty assessments') based on cutting edge developments in mainstream sociology. Using ideas generated in the ‘critical realist’ tradition I propose that the study of the production, reproduction and reduction of poverty and inequality would be considerably advanced by the use of an ontology that sees all aspects of the world as structured in space and time. The structures which constitute ‘objects’, defined here as people, all other material animate and inanimate ‘things’, and structured social relations of all kinds, give them ‘causal powers’ or capacities to behave in particular ways, and ‘passive powers’ or specific susceptibilities to certain kinds of change. All structures can be usefully analysed from four perspectives: anatomy, physiology, dynamics and history. The paper provides examples of ways in which the structures and dynamics of material things are relevant for poverty and inequality. A fourperspective analysis of the 'structure of being' generates a conceptualisation of human poverty in terms of poverty-driven action, resource failures, personal suffering, unmet needs, and seriously harmful beliefs, all embedded in particular local livelihood and cultural contexts. A four-perspective analysis of social structures is linked to ongoing developments in mainstream sociology. The systematic use of this research approach would considerably increase understanding of poverty and inequality in poor countries. The next step is to use the framework inter-actively with grounded empirical research to develop and use an integrated suite of research instruments and modes of comparative analysis with both qualitative and quantitative aspects.