Vulnerability to Poverty

This paper presents detailed methods for constructing a flexible philosophical–analytical model through which to apply the analytic principles of CDA for the interpretation of metaphors across policy texts. Drawing on a theoretical framing from Foucault and the augmentation of Nietzsche’s views on valuation, we sketch a framework for examining ways in which evaluative semantic categories can be linked to sociological theories in order to bring out their relevance for the purpose of critical discourse analysis. This multi-level research framework draws upon a relationship between language analysis, the philosophical study of valuation, and political economy as a composite formulation of values through which neo-liberalism is discursively entwined and progressed through a system of principles of e/valuation.

Flooding and poverty are the two social problems that have coexisted within the rural communities of Tsholotsho district. As a result, both problems have negatively affected and disrupted the everyday pattern of lives of people living in the district. This study sought to highlight how the two problems combine to impact human societies. The objectives that the study sought to fulfil were to establish the impact of flooding on the development of rural communities, to analyse how poverty manifests itself in rural communities, to analyse the relationship that exists between flooding and poverty and to suggest ways for dealing with the two problems. A qualitative research approach, using interviews and observations, was used to gather data from the research participants. The study findings were that flooding impeded development through shifting of human populations, destruction of crops, shelter and livestock. Floods also affected human capital through causing injuries to members of the community. Poverty manifested itself in three ways – as a development barrier, a vulnerability
amplifier and a non-discriminatory agent. The study further found that a strong relationship exists between flooding and poverty because of the fact that flooding causes or worsens poverty, whereas poverty increases flood vulnerability. The study concluded that the poor
need government assistance to reconstruct shelter destroyed by floods. Furthermore, programs aimed at improving livelihoods of the poor are an indispensable imperative. This study informs policymakers and offers a methodological significance to development and disaster
practitioners. It also adds to the body of literature on flooding and poverty.

This paper examines the way the metaphor of diversity provides a moral basis for inequality in Singapore’s meritocratic education system. Based upon a collection of policy texts from 2002 to 2012, our analysis illustrates that the metaphor of diversity in policy texts provides ways for systemic discrimination within the education system and that this inequality is given legitimacy as necessary through various moral discourses. The paper employs a critical discourse analysis that draws upon the relationship between language analysis, the philosophical study of valuation, and political economy as a composite formulation of values to highlight the ways in which an argument for inequality permeates policy from within a frame of meritocracy, and to analyse how changes associated with new modes of value determination serve to legitimize inequality.

1. The article questions and challenges the official meritocratic principle of ‘equal opportunities’ (Wong, 2000) in Singapore's education system. Drawing on Foucault's and Nietzsche's philosophical perspectives, there is an explicit illustration through an in-depth analysis of how inequality is inbuilt in policy report/speech.

2. Discourse builds in/tangible structures in society and greatly determines the possibilities of the now. As such, I am also arguing that it would be more difficult to 'help' any 'community' if the structural discrimination which has been deeply embedded, is not made explicit through national policies, and by this I mean an explicit illustration through an in-depth policy analysis of how inequality is inbuilt in Singapore's education policies. It may be through this that discriminatory structures could be substantially challenged.

An initial analysis of the original 1979 policy on primary school streaming which I conducted illustrates how dichotomous (arbitrary) categorization of pupils, i.e. 'slow' and 'fast' learners legitimates and sustains increasing institutional/structural access (over the years terms like 'talents' have been employed in policy discourse), of who gets privileged knowledge access. Through this, I also ask then to what ends do forms of 'categorization' or conventional designation entail? By this, given that categorization legitimizes structural access, my question is, what is 'Malay/Muslim community' and how is this categorization necessary?

3. Even though the analysis in the article was based on Singapore's education system, it provides possible ways of understanding how inequality is continuously being inbuilt through policies on the basis of the ideology that economic growth is the (only) way forward. A way to critique this ideology is to expose its underlying assumptions. I believe the findings have much resonance with the widening inequality across many developed nations, as Singapore's policies have parallels with that of the U.K., U.S., and international organizations such as the World Bank.

4. Economically considered, the transliteration of meritocratic discourse into the metaphor of diversity pinpoints how the appeal of development for all necessarily also demands the advance of inequity for the sake of the whole, i.e. advancing the 'growth with inequity' principle.

5. The analysis highlights that value judgments are continually at work in the policy discourse and that despite the strong discourse of meritocracy that the Singapore education system promotes, it is argued that it is in the interests of the Singapore people that 'talents' should get privileged access to knowledge as it is through this that more 'opportunities' for the rest of the population are created. The findings demonstrate that although the underlying assumptions of this 'logic' that has been constructed in policies are unsubstantiated, the logic is continuously legitimated through forms of e/valuations.



This article has been featured in websites such as: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150428105815.htm
http://www.eurasiareview.com/28042015-what-is-value-of-inequality-within-singapores-education-system/

The study employs qualitative methodology to investigate what challenges for social policy might appear in the future, given different economic and cultural developments. We seek to understand what factors might be crucial for the wellbeing of families and what policy measures might improve it. Drawing on the previous findings of Work Package 10 of the FamiliesAndSocieties project, we concentrate on vulnerable families. First, we explore what types of families are considered as vulnerable. Next, we discuss various factors and drivers that are likely to affect the situation of such families in the future. Finally, we investigate what policy measures might be crucial to prevent the “reproduction of vulnerability” within families. We use data from focus group interviews (FGIs) that were conducted in five European countries with policymakers and stakeholders. Discussions with these informants gave us rich and unique insights, outlining the most important areas of interest for future policy measures to be designed in order to improve the situation of European families.

This book contributes to the debates on the production and eradication of poverty in the global South. It collects a set of innovative articles concentrating on the way in which poverty, as a social process, has been addressed by popular movements and the governments of various states across the globe. Providing new insights into the limitations of traditional strategies to confront poverty, it highlights how social organizations are working to transform the livelihoods of people through bottom-up struggle and more participatory approaches rather than passively waiting for top-down solutions.

El Libro explora la complejidad de la violencia feminicida desde diversos casos de estudio en la sociedad mexicana. Los capítulos son compuestos por una variedad de autores del ámbito académico y de la Organización Civil; se comprender un concepto amplio de violencia y de violencia feminicidad como todo daño físico, moral o psicológico que pueda conducir a la muerte por razón de género, por último, el libro puede ser comprendido como un diagnostico nacional ya que posee casos en distintas geografías de México.

The following report was commissioned by UNICEF Moldova and prepared by a research team from the University of Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) as part of the “Assessment and Recommendations to Improve the Resilience of the Social Protection System for a Timely and Flexible Response to the Needs of All Vulnerable Children and Families Facing Shocks, Disasters, and Crises in Moldova” project. This project was designed to assess how the current social protection system in Moldova, namely social assistance programmes such as 'ajutorul social' and the Republican Fund and Local Funds for Social Aid of the Population, can be improved to increase the resilience of households facing idiosyncratic shocks. Specifically, four aspects of the social assistance system and how it functions following an idiosyncratic shock were explored: 1) sources of household vulnerability, and the types and impacts of shocks on the well-being of a household; 2) coping mechanisms used by households to enhance resilience in the face of shocks; 3) the specific role of social assistance mechanisms in helping households prevent and mitigate shocks, and; 4) measures or components that could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the social protection system in bolstering household resilience faced with shocks. These four areas were explored using a mixed methodological approach. Literature was reviewed related to past assessments of vulnerability in Moldova, assessments of social assistance schemes, reports on poverty and shocks, and legislation. Data from the Moldovan Social Assistance System (MSAS) were reviewed for insight into the administration of the 'ajutorul social' scheme, and data from the Household Budget Survey (HBS) were analysed to construct poverty profiles in Moldova and to assess how efficiently poor families were targeted and how important the ajutorul social benefits were. Data from a household screening questionnaire implemented among 393 households and discussions from eight focus groups conducted in different regions were used to provide more in-depth insights into household experiences of shock and resilience.

There is no certainty that adaptation to climate change is sustainable, and new approaches to assess current climate change adaptation trajectories are sorely needed. In this paper, we review the farmer-focused approaches (typical of vulnerability approaches) and agro-ecosystem-focused approaches (typical of resilience approaches). We propose that a combination of the two may be a better way to conceptualize sustainable adaptation to future climate change within an agro-ecological system. To test our hypothesis, we use the case study of Iran, a land that has shown both tremendous resilience and vulnerability in its agro-ecological system. We explore the changes that have occurred in the Iranian farming system and their implications for farmers’ resilience to climate change through an integrated lens combining vulnerability approaches and resilience approaches. During the previous five decades, we describe how Iranian peasants have become small farmers, the land tenure system has changed from a traditional landlord-sharecropping system to family farms, and the quantity and quality of the agro-ecological resources have changed considerably. Our integrative approach provides important insights for both research and policy. We show that combining the two approaches can have far-reaching implications for farmers’ adaptation to future climate change knowledge, policy, and practice since one approach aims to decrease farmers vulnerability and the other approach aims to build resilient agro-ecosystems.

Adaptation is a means of reducing vulnerability. So, understanding causes of vulnerability should help to achieve adaptation. Why, then, are people vulnerable? Why do expected dry spells turn into hunger? Why do mere droughts become disasters? This article shows some of the multi-scale processes that make the lives of people in the forests of Eastern Senegal precarious; it outlines processes that reduce forest villagers' access to resources, lucrative markets and political representation. These are the processes that place villagers at risk when exposed to stressors—climate or otherwise. In this case, the Forest Service applies double standards—favoring urban merchants while subordinating forest villagers—through the making, interpretation, implementation and circumvention of laws and regulations. The wealth of the poor is continuously expropriated by a well-adapted extractive apparatus, enriching urban merchants while leaving villagers incapacitated. These people may lack adaptive capacity or capability or assets or social protections, but those lacks have causes. " Adaptation " without identifying and addressing these root causes is palliative at best. Security requires emancipatory transformations.

It is important to identify groups of people vulnerable to a disease condition. Aim: To determine the association between social vulnerability to caries and caries status of children in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Methods: A composite vulnerability index for caries was developed using data generated for 992 children. Wilks' Lambda test to verify relationship between vulnerability and its variables. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine if the social vulnerability for caries index was a good predictor for caries status. Results: The social vulnerability to caries index could not predict caries status. The study found that sex, age and number of siblings were the significant predictors of caries status in the study population. Females (AOR: 1.63; 95%CI: 1.08 – 2.46; p=0.02) and children with more than two siblings had higher odds of having caries (AOR: 2.61; 95%CI: 1.61 – 4.24; p<0.001) while children below 5 years had lower odds of having caries (AOR: 0.62; 95%CI: 0.39 – 1.00; p=0.05) Conclusions: The social vulnerability index for caries could not predict the caries status of children in the study population. Sensitive tools to identify children with caries in the study population should be developed.