Conseptualizing Poverty: a Look Inside the Indonesian Household

V.A. Beard

Working Papers from RAND - Labor and Population Program

Abstract: As a result of the recent crisis in Indonesia, the question of how to conceptualize poverty is on the forefront of the nation's social and political agenda. Through an in-depth look inside the Indonesian household, this paper explores the continual tension in the poverty literature between the "reductionists" who confine poverty to a limited set of variables, and the "generalists" who believe that poverty is a broader, more complex phenomena. Through the analysis of an ethnographic case study based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this paper examines how local residents conceptualize poverty. Residents identified multiple facets of poverty, including: food insecurity, inadequate income and employment, single income households, inequality, inability to keep pace with modernization, and social exclusion. In addition, residents described poverty as "a lack of everything"--serba kekurangan. This conceptualization provides insight into the interaction among the various facets of poverty that in turn make poverty a dynamic and intractable process. The finding is congruent with the "generalist" view of poverty and is significant for policymakers as they formulate alleviation strategies.

Keywords: POVERTY; INDONESIA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:randlp:99-10

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