Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
29
The geography of poverty and deprivation
Michael Pacione
Despite the economic and social advances of the
post-war era, seen in increased life expectancy, a
reduction in the proportion of the world's
population facing hunger and life-threatening
deprivation, and increased access to health-care
and education, poverty remains a major problem
for a significant proportion of the population in
most countries in the contemporary world. At the
heart of this dilemma is the uneven distribution
of the world's resources. Uneven development is
an inherent characteristic of capitalism that stems
from the propensity of capital to flow to locations
that offer the greatest potential return. The
differential use of space by capital in pursuit of
profit creates a mosaic of inequality at all
geographic scales from global to local.
Consequently, at any one time certain countries,
regions, cities and localities will be in the throes of
decline as a result of the retreat of capital
investment, while others will be experiencing the
impact of capital inflows.
Applied human geographers have focused
particular attention on the conditions of poverty
and deprivation experienced by those people and
places at the disadvantaged end of the quality of
life spectrum. This chapter reviews the major
dimensions of applied research into the geography
of poverty and deprivation. The discussion first
identifies the nature of poverty and deprivation
before considering the question of its
measurement. The extent and incidence of poverty
is then examined with reference to research
undertaken at a variety of scales from the global
to local level in a variety of settings throughout
the world. In the final section, we examine the
value of an applied geographical perspective for
the identification and amelioration of the multiple
problems of poverty and deprivation.
THE ANATOMY OF POVERTY
Poverty implies deprivation or human needs that
are not met. It is generally understood to arise
from a lack of income or assets, which means that
people are unable to meet basic physical needs
such as an adequate diet and decent housing. The
poor are, in many instances, also unable to attain
health-care when sick or injured and, outside the
welfare states of the North, have no means of
subsistence when unemployed, ill, disabled or too
old to work. Other 'higher-order' needs that
many would incorporate in any definition of
poverty include self-esteem and access to civil and
political rights (Townsend 1993).
The causes of poverty are complex. In the
countries of the developing world, many problems
are associated with economic stagnation and/or
debt crisis, and with the difficulties of structural
adjustment. In most of the 'transition countries'
of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union,
problems of poverty are linked to the collapse of
communism, although in many countries social
progress had already slowed in the years prior to
these changes. In several of the wealthiest
countries, the increase in poverty during the 1980s
was associated less with economic stagnation and
more with changes in the labour market, including
