GEOG10001 FAMINE: THE GEOGRAPHY OF SCARCITY LECTURE 8: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HUNGER, POVERTY AND ENTITLEMENTS DR SERGIO JARILLO LECTURE OUTLINE 1. The Political Economy of Hunger - Political economy - Distribution theory - Political Ecology 2. Poverty and Livelihoods - Livelihoods and poverty - The Market - Politics, war and conflict 3. Poverty and Entitlements - Origins of poverty - Poor households - Entitlement’s theory (Amartya Sen) Amartya Sen Nobel Prize in Economics, 1998 Part 1. The Political Economy of Hunger • Contrasting theories (abundance theory vs distribution) • Distribution and political ecology - Scale - Livelihoods and poverty - The market - Politics and policy - War and conflict What is political economy? A discipline/theoretical lens concerned with the relationship of 3 elements: Markets Society Political Power Political Economy in the context of Distribution Theory and Political Ecology thinking Political economy focusses on: • The roles of the state, political interests and economics in the production, exchange and distribution of resources, rights and opportunities • Power and power dynamics: the social, political and economic interests to direct or influence behaviours and course of events to obtain an outcome • Power creates inequality, marginalization and hunger – Power fights inequality, marginalization and hunger What is political economy? Markets Society Political Power - The state - International organizations (UN) - Political parties - NGOs - Religious institutions - Stock markets - Financial institutions (banks, credit rating agencies) - Corporations - Cooperatives - Trade unions - Foundations The Political Economy of Distribution Theory • Focuses on the distribution of food: - Who produces it - Who gets it (and who holds it) - Why distribution is uneven • Considers the economic, political and cultural factors that affect food availability • Political power over food access and use drives hunger across scale (global, regional, national and local) and level (household and individual) Distribution theory Why do famines take place in situations of moderate to good food availability? (Sen 1981) Highlights how uneven distribution is a socially created problem, orchestrated through political economic dynamics - Uneven access/hoarding/misallocation e.g. the ‘paradox of plenty’: resource/food rich countries can have deep poverty/hunger (Boucher 1999) - Resource curse (e.g. petro states) What is political ecology? A discipline/theoretical lens that looks at how economic structures (markets) and power relations drive environmental change. Markets Environment Political Power Political ecology theory • What drives environmental change and degradation? - Resource extraction (e.g. mining, logging) - Agricultural conversion • Why political ecology? - Provides a counter to Malthusian and Neomalthusian arguments that blame environmental degradation and famine on growing human populations - Demographic growth is too simplistic to explain an unsustainable use of resources • Political ecology looks at the role of capitalist markets state forces in: - Local dispossession - Environmental disruption Political ecology and famine - Economic and political changes influence the environment - Changes in the environment are not ‘natural’ but human-made and motivated by market forces and political interests - Those changes affect use of and access to land, food production and food exchange - Everything is connected (global, national and local politics and economic influence) - Control is never absolute and unchecked: resistance, pushback, class struggles, Indigenous movements etc. (Scott’s Weapons of the Weak, 1985, where he explains that oppressed peasants resist domination not through organized rebellion but through everyday, hidden acts of defiance that collectively undermine power structures while minimizing personal risk) Political ecology and famine • Highly uneven forms of access and control over resources and their implications for the environment can deepen hunger and starvation over time and space (Peet and Watts, 1996, p. 6). • Key temporal, spatial concepts: -Commodification -Alienation, Ecological Change -Adaptation, Resistance CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY AND FAMINE ARE ROOTED IN UNEVEN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS AND OUTCOMES IN THE CONTEXT OF • LIVELIHOODS/ FOOD/ POVERTY (EMPHASIS TODAY) • MARKET FAILURES (ECONOMIC ISSUES) • POLICY FAILURE AND POLITICS • WAR AND VIOLENT CONFLICT Decreased access/ use increased marginalisation Ecological change/ decline Using distribution theory and political ecology to examine: The issue of scale in the political economy of famine (for distribution theory and political ecology) Scales of analysis Global Regional (e.g. the Sahel) National Provincial Local (e.g. village) Household Individual In political ecology scales are nested too: ‘Glocal’ Part 2. Poverty and Livelihoods Livelihoods and poverty • The cyclical nature of poverty (or poverty traps) • Economic growth does not necessarily reduce poverty (or increase food security) • Other variables (internal/external political economic processes, environmental… Quality/ type of environment Access/ use constraints Gender relations Debt, savings Markets Power / control Culture adaptation resistance Familial support Labour and land Sharing etc The poverty trap and political economic variables - Food is cultivated, collected, traded, bought through livelihood specialisations - Landscapes are multifunctional (and often a function of livelihoods and viceversa) - Food can be grown/exchanged and this is influenced by: land tenure regimes, knowledge systems, assets, labour, culture… - Food insecurity is not always due to poverty! The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLS) - Tool/analytical device - Holistic and integrated - Use for analysis (but also policy- making = can change peoples lives) - Especially for people, households and communities that are vulnerable - Looks at the elements that allow people to make a living (livelihoods) sustainably over time Livelihood and poverty Poverty: when social and material needs are least satisfied • Chronic: chronically poor are more or less permanently food insecure • Transitory: people can move above and below poverty thresholds at certain times • Relative and absolute poverty PNG data: Gibson 2001 Calories/ capita/day % of children stunted % of household expenditure on sweet potato Rural PNG 2,665 47% 12% Urban PNG 2,645 20% 1.8% All PNG 2,662 43% N/A Relative poverty Not having as much as others in the same society Measured by relative shares of income of richest and poorest (ascertains in/equality) Gini coefficient: - 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality) - Countries with > 0.6: means the poor have a very small share of income Gini coefficient - 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality) - > 0.6: the poor have a very small share of income Country Share of income of poorest 10% Share of income of richest 10% Gini Australia 3% 27% 0.35 Brazil 1% 42% 0.51 Colombia 1% 42% 0.51 Honduras 1% 46% 0.50 Norway 1% 21% 0.27 Slovak Rep 4% 21% 0.25 Absolute poverty When basic needs cannot be met Measured against a standard baseline World bank uses US$2.15 pp/day Country % pop below USD$2.15 / day Australia 0.30% Benin 50% Burkina Faso 44% Niger 46% Norway 0% Zambia 58% Given what we learned in part I what does $2.15 omit? Is money the only way to examine poverty? The market In essence, markets are institutions that enable structured exchanges for the interests of buyers and sellers – mediate livelihoods and poverty Markets are political as much as economic • Capitalist, free markets Less government, individual property rights, money price, profit drives supply and demand • Socialist (market economy), ‘less free’ market More government (state ownership), collective rights, govt sets prices, redistribution meets supply/ demand The market National, Domestic • State politics, ideology • Markets strongly influence the supply, distribution and consumption of food: – among countries – within countries • And trading of food and non-food goods and services for income: – among countries – within countries Globally • Global monetary institutions • Countries export and import • The terms of trade (price for exports relative to price of imports) is an important determinant of food supply • how much of one commodity (say rice) a country can purchase by selling a unit volume (say a ton of coffee) of another commodity? Politics, war and conflict Political factors (scaled): • Strategic disruptions in supply – South Sudan today, Ethiopian famine 1983-5 – Western media • Persistent development biases, e.g: – Some countries favoured over others cities over towns and rural areas – ethnicity, class and religious influences focus of development activities – bias in household consumption against females Politics, war and conflict The Guardian 23 Oct 2014 Politics, war and conflict Political factors: • Democracy (vs authoritarian/ command, control) - Multi-party elections - Failure to act means government may not be re-elected - Democracy is an ‘anti-famine political contract’ (Waal 1997). Really? Not always • Free press (holds governments accountable and exposes misdeeds) • Campaigning civil society - to publicize emergencies, drive votes Politics, war and conflict Policy issues: • Agricultural policy - Cash crops vs subsistence crops (food for domestic consumption) - Research and development - Investments - Land tenure • Environmental policy • Transport infrastructure policy • Water allocation policy • Population policy • “Famine is largely a function of institutional, organisational, and policy failure” (von Braun et al. 1998:2) • Political famines do not operate according to the economic rules of supply and demand • In famines created by repressive governments or civil conflict, the link between individual wealth and access to food is broken Politics, war and conflict War and armed conflict: • Disrupts economic activity • Disrupts food production • Disrupts food transport and storage • Armed forces appropriate food and medical assistance • Labour shortages through conscription and death Distribution theory vs political ecology: which one provides a better answer? In different ways, they both interrogate: • Interactions within the world economy • Complex state policies • Distribution of wealth within countries • Allocation of wealth within households • Sudden failures in access to food • Local perspectives Bottom line is that examining relationships and associations critically might be more important than ascertaining causality (especially if causality is simplified or wrong!) Remember these 2 things: 1. Food insecurity and famine is more complex than the simple balance between population and food supply. 2. Food problems cannot be understood independent of broader political economic systems that operate across a range of scales (global – individual). Food problems are always a combination of political, economic, ecological, and distributional problems. Art by Juliana Naufel Part 3. Poverty and Entitlements Origins of poverty Modernisation Theory, Economic Growth and Poverty • Modernisation theory (1960-80s): stated that top-down economic development will inevitably ‘progress’ traditional societies [and reduce poverty] as they adopt modern ways and means as part of societies’ march to capitalist industrialisation (Harrison, 1990) • Walt Rostow (1960): 5 Stages of Economic Growth: Traditional Society → Preconditions of Take-off → Take-off → Drive to Technological Maturity → High Mass consumption • Origins of poverty Modernisation Theory, Economic Growth and Poverty • Modernization and Trickle Down Economics • Increasing levels of wealth without redistributing, where wealth and income goes does not change relative poverty (inequality), and may not influence absolute poverty Origins of poverty Instead of the simplistic modernization theory, real world causes of poverty include a combination of: • Unemployment • Poor transport • Job insecurity • Lack of savings schemes • Lack of inputs to agriculture • Corruption • No access to technology • No political power • Lack of access to markets • No access to education • Lack of credit facilities • No social welfare • Insecure land tenure • Debt Poor households 1. Have minimal capital assets (a significant piece of property that I useful/yields benefit) • Land ownership customary and contested: formal to them, informal to state (not recognized in law, so no deeds) – If no property rights, no ownership, less legitimacy (renters, occupants) • Have few productive assets (tools, livestock) 3. Labour is their main resource • Familial, labour exchange • Age, gender and health constraints/biases • Wages is a critical determinant • Costs of travel; red tape etc Poor households 3. Rely heavily on social capital (relations in the community, including family and neighbours) • Personal (social) relationships: kinship and community provide support→ afford ACCESS • Strong bonds and networks an advantage (weak bonds break in times of crisis) • Enable flexibility: - Donations/loans in times of need - Access to new markets • Widen economic space through migration and remittances Poor households 4. Knowledge, skills and education (human capital) • Usually low formal education (but in rural areas high local knowledge, adaptive skills superior) • Restricted range of formal employment (but diverse range of local livelihood opportunities → diversification – spreads risk) • Limited to low wage employment (but diverse forms of procuring income) • Education is usually a priority, but often unaffordable, and has risks. Poor households 4. Socially marginal (sometimes deliberately) • Geographically remote from power May be by design (Art of Not Being Governed, Scott 2009) • Socially remote from power (class, ethnicity and gender discrimination) • Inadequate governance structures • Victims of repression / violence ”The hills are places of refuge from state power” (Scott’s thesis is that people have historically fled to highland regions to escape state control, taxation, and forced labor. Poor households In a famine: • Income decreases when labour opportunities decline, land is taken, when there’s no fixed minimum wage, & when agri-commodity production collapses • Food inflationary prices increase (scarcity); and price of export commodities drop…. Debts recalled (creditors need capital) • Social capital forms of support dwindle • Chronically food insecure now become severely food insecure => morbidity => mortality Entitlements (and why poverty is not just about income) Amartya Sen, 1981, Poverty and Famines 1998 Nobel Prize (economics) Many famines occurred without a food availability deficit Is there enough food? Does everybody have enough food? (beyond income, to access, use and for their well being) Entitlements: “the set of alternative commodity bundles that a person can command in a society using the totality of rights and opportunities that he or she faces.” - Sen, 1984: 497. Entitlements are the resources and goods that a person can actually access based on their rights and opportunities in society. Entitlements For Sen, entitlements are legally-based social and material rights Food Availability Decline (FAD Approach) vs Food Entitlement Decline (FED Approach) “Starvation deaths can reflect legality with a vengeance” (Sen, 1981: 49) Entitlements Four entitlements categories (or the right to…) 1. Production-based (growing food) 2. Trade-based (buying food) 3. Own-labour (working for food) 4. Inheritance and transfer (aid) Entitlements are mobilized with: 1. Capabilities (what allows people to do things) 2. Endowments (bundles of resources) Entitlements Capabilities are the conditions and rights that enable people to do things (Sen 1999) • Bodily health and integrity and an ability to imagine, reason, feel, play, affiliate with others, and to hold property (Nussbaum 2000). • Enabled by bureaucratic, legal, cultural and customary institutions that set the norms and rules of social conduct Entitlements Endowments are bundles of resources (social and material assets) and capabilities (conditions and rights) that can be transferred into (producing) food, or to goods and services that can be exchanged for food • Productive capital • Non-productive capital • Human capital • Income • Claims Remember the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the Five Capitals? Entitlements Individual actions to expand endowments (assets) and capabilities (rights and conditions): 1. Increasing wages - Education/training - Migration 2. Borrowing - E.g. microfinance 3. Relying on social capital (providing others are willing and capable) Entitlements But individual actions also enabled by social freedoms and opportunities, e.g. 1. Education 2. Health care 3. Regulation of labour markets 4. Law and order 5. Property rights 6. Infrastructure 7. Freedoms (e.g collective action, suffrage, assembly) Conclusions 1. Two kinds of poverty: relative and absolute poverty 2. Absolute poverty causes food problems 3. The poorest households have the most severe food problems and are the most vulnerable to famine 4. Hunger and famines can be seen as a problem of Food Entitlement Decline 5. Poverty is contextual – social and material Key takeaways 1. Famines are political, not just natural 2. Critical theories help deconstruct mainstream narratives 3. Famine prevention requires addressing power, inequality, and governance
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