Marginality: Addressing the Nexus of Poverty, Exclusion and Ecology - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 940077060X ISBN 13: 9789400770607

Publisher: Springer, 2013

Synopsis

This book takes a new approach on understanding causes of extreme poverty and promising actions to address it. Its focus is on marginality being a root cause of poverty and deprivation. “Marginality” is the position of people on the edge, preventing their access to resources, freedom of choices, and the development of capabilities. The book is research based with original empirical analyses at local, national, and local scales; book contributors are leaders in their fields and have backgrounds in different disciplines. An important message of the book is that economic and ecological approaches and institutional innovations need to be integrated to overcome marginality. The book will be a valuable source for development scholars and students, actors that design public policies, and for social innovators in the private sector and non-governmental organizations.​

About this title

About the Author

Joachim von Braun is an economist, with a Doctoral degree in agricultural economics from University of Göttingen, Germany. He joined ZEF as Professor and Director of the Department for Economic and Technological Change in December 2009. He was also Director at ZEF during its foundation phase 1997-2002. Before returning to ZEF, von Braun was Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) based in Washington, DC, U.S.A. 2002 to 2009. von Braun also has been Professor for Food Economics and Policy at Kiel University, Germany. His research addresses international development economics topics, incl. markets and trade; poverty; health and nutrition; science and technology.

From the Back Cover

This volume presents new insights on marginality, i.e. the situation of people living on the edge of socio-economic and ecological systems. The marginality concept leads to different development policies. While the prevalence of poverty declined by about 50 percent in the past two decades, any further reduction of poverty will be more difficult, because of high diversity of extremely poor people, and complex interrelations between poverty, exclusion and ecology. The marginality concept provides guidance to address this issue. Marginality entails addressing the structural forces of poverty, such as exclusion, discrimination and ecological degradations which lead to vulnerability of the poor. In this volume economists, ecology experts, geographers, agronomists, sociologist, and business experts come together to address marginality. The inter-disciplinary research offers conceptual innovations and presents the dimensions of marginality in developing countries. Economic, political, and environmental drivers are assessed and mapped globally and in detail for countries in Africa and Asia, especially Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia. Economic growth especially in rural areas remains and farming communities is central to poverty reduction but needs to be complemented with specific actions to reach those at the margins. The social policy actions and measures to end exclusions are highlighted, and the roles of the state, local government, business and community in them are pointed out for overcoming marginality.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 940077060X
• ISBN 13: 9789400770607
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 406
• Editor: Von Braun Joachim, Gatzweiler Franz W.