Khan Global Poverty

7/30/2019 Khan Global Poverty

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BUILDING GLOBALCITIZENRY THROUGH

TEACHING ABOUT POVERTYFarida C Khan

Professor of EconomicsCo-Director, Center for International Studies


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Poverty Measures

$1 a day

$2 a day

Percentage below poverty line


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QuickTime and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

The higher

the bar,

the greater

the

proportion

of people

in poverty


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QuickTime and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Where is poverty to be found?


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What percent is poor in each nation?


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If poverty is hunger,

how well do nations provide food for their people?


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What do we understand by

these numbers?

Cultural definitions

Historical experiencesEconomic processes

Visual understanding?


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Images

Heres what we might see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nf1j-

CtnxM

Or this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgb1BdPBZo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nf1j-CtnxMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nf1j-CtnxMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgb1BdPBZohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgb1BdPBZohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgb1BdPBZohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgb1BdPBZohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nf1j-CtnxMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nf1j-CtnxMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nf1j-CtnxM


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How should images be used?

To clarify the magnitude of theproblems?

Might they createmisunderstandings aboutsocieties?

To enable students to appreciatetheir circumstances?

Might they instill static ideas about

certain regions that are poor?


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How should information be

provided?Not too abstract?

Not too dehumanizing?

To generate interest?

To maintain respect forhumanity?

To overcomeobjectification?


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POSSIBLE MODELS to

IMPART INFORMATION

Technical ModelsHistorical Models

Cultural Models

Mix of the above?


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Technical Models

Source: World Bank, UNDP, IMF, NGOs

Human Development Index (UN):development indicators include income

poverty, life expectancy, literacy &schooling

Millennium Development Goals (UN)

http://www.endpoverty2015.org/

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml
http://www.endpoverty2015.org/http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtmlhttp://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtmlhttp://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtmlhttp://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtmlhttp://www.endpoverty2015.org/http://www.endpoverty2015.org/


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Millennium Development Goal 1

ERADICATE EXTREMEPOVERTY & HUNGERTarget 1:

Halve, between 1990 and2015, the proportion ofpeople whose income is lessthan $1 a day

* Conflict leaves manydisplaced and impoverished


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Millennium Development Goal 1ERADICATE EXTREME

POVERTY & HUNGERTarget 2:

Achieve full and productive employmentand decent work for all, includingwomen and young people

* Low-paying jobs leave one in five

developing country workers mired inpoverty

* Half the worlds workforce toil inunstable, insecure jobs


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Millennium Development Goal 1

ERADICATE EXTREMEPOVERTY & HUNGER

Target 3:

Halve, between 1990 and2015, the proportion of peoplewho suffer from hunger

* Rising food prices threatenlimited gains in alleviating childmalnutrition

B ki th Li k B t


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Breaking the Link BetweenPoverty and Per Capita Income

Kerala and Sri LankaHans Rosling Video:

http://www.ted.com/index.h

p/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

NGOs and delivery of basicservices (Grameen Bankand micro-credit)
http://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/index.hp/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html


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Historical Model

What has been our thinkingabout other countries?

Mercantilism: State interest andcolonization

Liberalism: Stationary

economies

Advent of developmenteconomics in 1940s/50s


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W.W Rostow: Stages of Growth,R. Nurkse: Balanced Growth,etc.

Suggests that there areunderdeveloped/traditional anddeveloped societies in aspectrum

Traditional societies included slavesystems of early Greece andRome; peasant societies inIndia, Egypt, China

Confluence of development andtime

Historical Model


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Dependency and WorldSystems theorists(60s/70s):

Development andcolonization causesunderdevelopment

Modern models of growthcreate system ofdependence and debt thatworsen poverty

Historical Model


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1980s/90s:

Neo-liberal policies - increasegrowth through market policies totrickle down

Kuznets curve? (growth inequality)

State provision of goods andservices

Juxtaposition of images of rich andpoor

Sense of entitlement but actual

conditions worsened in some places

Historical Model


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Economic crises such as

rising prices, reducedcredit, global recession

Climate change and

environmentaldegradation

CONTEMPORARY

ISSUES


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NGOS

Micro-credit

Advocacy

Projects


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Cultural Model

Pre-modern Culturalcontingency

Cultural differences;civilizational differences;

Policies based onunderstanding of a unifiednature - how much doanthropologists informunderstanding of poverty?


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Other regions in the world -multiplicities of indigenous

peoplesHow have cultures

contended with colonization

and modernity

Cultural Model


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Marshall Sahlins

"Hunters and gatherers have by force ofcircumstances an objectively low standard ofliving. but taken as their objective, and giventheir adequate means of production, all the

people's material wants usually can easily besatisfied (a common understanding of'affluence'). ... The world's most primitive

people have few possessions, but they are notpoor. Poverty is not a certain small amountof goods, nor is it just a relation betweenmeans and ends; above all it is a relationbetween people. Poverty is a social status. Assuch it is an invention of (modern)

civilization."


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NATURE HITS BACK?

We see the environment as what weuse but our daily habits,

interactions, architecture changesthe environment.

Environmental degradation goes

hand in hand with thehomogenization and unification ofcultures and the desire toconsume in a single manner.

Cultural Model


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TEACHING TIPS

1. Keep the connection between micro

and macro: case studies should be

used for generalizations

2. Focus on a single region or country orhave the student do so

3. Have the student tie this in with his/her

language class, literature, science

4. Learning more about a place will

generate love and ownership

5. Have the student do a creative project;

a video, narrative, poem, song

encourage action


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TEACHING TIPS

1. Suggest that the student should make

a pen friend in the country

2. Encourage Study Abroad to

destinations other than WesternEurope

3. Teach about heroes that fought poverty

4. Explain global resource scarcity and

the impossibility of a global American

lifestyle

5. Encourage involvement with a NGO or

charity organization; encourage the act

of giving to make a difference

Documents

Khan Global Poverty