Understanding and Researching Urban Extreme Poverty: A Conceptual-Methodological Approach

Yap, C.; McFarlane, C.

Abstract

Urban extreme poverty has long been regarded as a vital challenge for policy and practice, but how might we research it? In this paper, we set out a two-step approach to identifying and understanding the nature of urban extreme poverty (UEP). We experiment with an approach that does not define UEP in advance but seeks to examine it through a series of dimensions and approaches. Drawing on the long history of research on UEP, we argue that research would benefit from early scoping in context. This scoping begins by examining how UEP surfaces in relation to five dimensions: material, economic, political, spatial, and emotional-subjective. From that base, we argue for a focus on the causes and form of UEP through dialogue between four epistemic approaches: political economy, political ecology, feminist urbanism, and postcolonial urbanism. We illustrate this approach in relation to two quite distinct cities: Mumbai and Lima.

Citation

Yap, C., & McFarlane, C. (2020). Understanding and Researching Urban Extreme Poverty: A Conceptual-Methodological Approach. Environment and Urbanization, 32(1), 254-274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247819890829

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 22, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 6, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Oct 25, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 8, 2019
• Journal: Environment and Urbanization
• Print ISSN: 0956-2478
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-0301
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 254-274
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247819890829
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1316785