Representing poverty and attacking representations: some anthropological perspectives on poverty in development GPRG-WPS-009

This article explores some aspects of the representation poverty in development studies from an anthropological perspective. Starting from the history of the category of poverty as the central target for development policy, the article shows how the ways in which poverty is assessed not only have implications for the kinds of strategies adopted to address it but for theories about its causes. Such accounts underplay the significance of social relations in contributing to poverty outcomes and the political structures which keep people poor. Anthropological approaches to the study of deprivation and inequality can provide a useful corrective to the homogenising effects of development perspectives on poverty. Acknowledgements: This paper was originally presented as part of a session on methodologies for addressing poverty organised by the Global Poverty Research Group (GPRG) at the International Conference on Chronic Poverty hosted by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre in Manchester in April 2003. The support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is gratefully acknowledged. The work was part of the programme of the ESRC Global Poverty Research Group. GPRG is a collaborative venture between the Institute for Development Policy and Management of the University of Manchester and the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. I am grateful for the helpful comments of colleagues in GPRG including David Hulme, Abigail Barr, John Toye, Sam Hickey, Uma Kothari and Sarah Bracking and especially for those of the anonymous reviewer which have informed the revision of this paper.