Defining and Measuring Poverty, Episode 16

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere Source: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/poverty/

In this episode, Maria Bach explores how poverty has been defined and measured over time inspired by her work with Mary Morgan recently published in the History of Political Economy Journal (https://read.dukeupress.edu/hope/issue/50/S1)

The episode features notably Amartya Sen, Frances Stewart, Stephen Marglin and Mary Morgan.

Here is a list of the books, websites and articles mentioned in the episode:

1. GSDRC‘s definition of poverty
2. UNESCO‘s definition of poverty
3. The Economist’s article on defining poverty
4. Poverty and Social Exclusion Project based in the UK
5. Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen’s An Uncertain Glory, 2013
6. Howard Glennerster, John Hills, David Pichaud and Jo Webb’s One Hundred Years of Poverty and Policy, 2004
7. Seebohm Rowntree’s Poverty: A Study of Town Life, 1908
8. The New York Times article on How to define poverty? by Louis Uchitelle, 2001
9. The UN Intellectual History Project
10. The IMF and World Bank’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs)
11. Frances Stewart and Michael Wang’s working paper on Do PRSPs empower poor countries and disempower the World Bank, or is it the other way round?

The book that never gets old, Episode 15 with Tiago Mata

In this episode, Christina and Tiago discuss Eric Roll’s book on the History of Economic Thought. A popular history that circulates in many editions and languages, Christina and Tiago explore the book’s making and the reasons for its success. The episode focuses on biographical aspects of Eric Roll, on the book’s critical reception and evolving structure.

Tiago Mata is a Lecturer in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. Tiago has dedicated himself to the study of “Economics in the Public Sphere”, leading a team of scholars in researching the communication of economic knowledge since 1945. He has worked on political movements in economics, in particular the resurgence of the Left in 1960s and 1970s North America and how it enacted new ways to think the economy, expertise and social justice. He has also worked on the communication of economic knowledge and statistics and the development of business magazines and how they straddle the worlds of print and management, accommodating transformations in American corporate capitalism. Besides these topics, he also works on social science methodology and the funding regimes of the social sciences.

Christina Laskaridis co-hosts the Ceteris Never Paribus podcast, is a PhD candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies and a former research fellow at the Center for the History of Political Economy.

We would like to thank to Laura Comicini for the clip in Italian, Roger Backhouse and Keith Tribe for sharing his interview with Eric Roll with us.

This episode makes use of the British Library’s Sounds Collection, and the Oral History recording with Eric Roll.