 What is poverty? A diachronic exploration of the discourse on poverty from the 1970s to the 2000sFederica Misturelli () and Claire Heffernan The European Journal of Development Research, 2008, vol. 20, issue 4, 666-684 Abstract: Poverty is central to the concept of development. However, the relevance given to particular aspects of poverty has changed over the years and with it the manner in which poverty has been represented. The following paper explores how concepts of poverty within the 'poverty discourse' have altered over a 30-year period. A diachronic analysis is performed to explore changes in the topical and thematic composition of the definitions, in addition to the manner in which poverty has been 'framed'. The results illustrated that poverty was variably framed across the decades ranging from a 'neutral' fact to a highly contested state with little agreement over causes and consequences. Nevertheless, the relational analysis revealed the de-problematization of poverty over time. The finding has clear implications for development praxis: poverty needs to be 'attacked', but the root causes, at least from a discursive perspective, may be ignored. Keywords: poverty; discourse; development; diachronic analysis; the poor (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eurjdr:v:20:y:2008:i:4:p:666-684 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/09578810802464888 Access Statistics for this article The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Rajneesh Narula More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Taylor and Francis Journals |
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