Poverty as ideology

Andrew M. Fischer (Erasmus University Rotterdam) in conversation with Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (UiB).

In his provocative book 'Poverty as Ideology: Rescuing Social Justice from Global Development Agendas', Andrew Fischer offers a radical new approach to understanding poverty based on a comprehensive and accessible critique of key concepts and research methods. It upends much of the received wisdom on poverty alleviation to provide an invaluable resource for students, teachers and researchers in the social sciences.

Has global poverty actually been falling? How much do we really know? The book is the winner of the International Studies in Poverty Prize awarded by CROP and Zed Books.

Andrew M. Fischer is Associate Professor of Social Policy and Development Studies at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), and laureate of the European Research Council Starting Grant, which he won in the 2014 round. He is also the founding editor of the book series of the UK and Ireland Development Studies Association, published by Oxford University Press, entitled Critical Frontiers of International Development Studies, and editor at the journal Development and Change.

Bjørn Enge Bertelsen is professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen. He is currently project leader and PI for a large-scale research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council entitled 'Enclaving: Patterns of global futures in three African cities'. The project will probe urban developments in Accra, Johannesburg and Maputo in relation to the formation, trajectories and dynamics of enclaving and it has researchers from Ghana, Mozambique, Norway, South Africa and United Kingdom as participants.

All are welcome! Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

The event is organised in cooperation with CROP (Comparative Research Programme on Poverty)