The face of poverty continues to present a formidable challenge; one which compels the search for viable and long-term approaches to its eventual eradication. As an initial starting point, the following readings present different understandings of poverty from the viewpoints of community-based partners in Borneo, Sabah, India and Vietnam.
Readings:
- Mancebo, F., & Sachs, I. (Eds.). (2015). Transitions to Sustainability. Springer.
- Roser, M. (2016). ‘World Poverty’. Our World In Data.
- Whitehead, N. (2015). ‘What Does Poverty Look Like? A Photo Contest Has Surprising Answers‘. National Public Radio. Published 01 November.
- The Guardian. (2016) ‘I live in real poverty, and it’s not what you think’. Facebook. Published 26 February.
The World Happiness Report, Update 2016:
It is also useful to investigate the social determinants of poverty and redress the ways we see and think about poverty. Now in its 4th year, the World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness. Leading experts across fields – economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy and more – describe how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations. The reports review the state of happiness in the world today and show how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness. They reflect a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness as a criteria for government policy.
- Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2016). World Happiness Report 2016, Update (Vol. I). New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.