This is a hypertext glossary containing a few of the concepts used in research on poverty as reported in the draft compiled by David Gordon at the University of Bristol, England, for the Committee for Research on Poverty (CROP) project of the International Social Science Council. As a sampler, it is not intended for use as a reference tool, but only to demonstrate how such a tool might be constructed on the basis of the INTERCOCTA "onomantic" model. To avoid misunderstanding, no link to this file is contained on the Riggs WebPage -- rather, it is made available, confidentially, to participants in the CROP program who are planning a glossary for their field of work and who are responsible for its contents. The author claims no competence in the field of "poverty" studies. Instead, his expertise is on how specialists in any subject field can construct and maintain a hypertext conceptual glossary for their own purposes. Since the INTERCOCTA model requires the presentation of conceptual information in hypertext, the only feasible means to illustrate this methodology requires use of the Web rather than a printed output.
The concept records offered below reverse the normal paradigm of dictionary entries by starting with a description of each recorded concept -- by contrast, lexically oriented entries start with a term to be defined. This onomantic paradigm simply reverses the normal paradigm found in semantic (lexicographic) work. Each such record contains a succinct description of a concept, followed by the formal term given in the draft for this concept, the page number where it can be found, suggested additional terms that might be used, notes, and bibliographic sources. The complete text provides a great deal of additional information about who uses each concept for what purposes -- this will be very useful for researchers but it need not be included in an INTERCOCTA glossary whose main function is to help researchers find the relevant terms in their systematic relationships to each other. It can, therefore, supplement a published version, in conventional format, that should be made available in book form. The published and Web versions of any INTERCOCTA glossary supplement but do not duplicate each other. Users with access to the Web will need both, and those without such access can secure an up-dated printout that will serve as a guide to the published text.
To locate relevant concepts, users of an INTERCOCTA nomenclatorlike this can rely on a set of
cue cards that provide the following information: Index of Terms, Classification, Bibliography, and Serial
numbers.
Links attached to each entry permit jumps to one of the cue cards which, in turn, enable readers to jump again to any of the sample concept records given in this sampler. Remember, it is not a reference work and cannot be used for that purpose -- a great deal more information is needed to make it useful for reference purposes. Four categories of information are supplied in these cue cards:
When and if the CROP glossary is computerized in hypertext, users will be able to search for concepts according to their location in a classification scheme. In print one normally can only search terms in an alphabetical array -- although they can also be indexed systematically, something that is rarely done. The hypertext format, by contrast, permits one to find concepts that are related to each other in a systematic way, not only by means of the cue cards but also by links provided within each concept record. Moreover, from a bibliographic source, one can find relevant concepts used in their theoretical contexts. The alphabetical index speeds the search by key words. The serial numbers have no conceptual significance but they support the easy formation of anchors and links so they are included here for demonstration purposes only.
The internal links found in each card enable users to jump to related concepts, as follows:
Shelter concepts. Equivocal terms often represent shelter concepts. These are fuzzy notions typically identifiable by an ordinary dictionary definition: they enable users to cluster a set of precise (or operational) concepts. For example, poverty is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as a "condition of being poor" or lacking "the means of providing material needs". To use such a concept in any scientific or statistical analysis, it needs to be operationalized, as illustrated by many formal descriptionsof this concept offered here. For easy reference, we can use definition to refer only to a dictionary definition of a word. By contrast, a concept not included in the dictionary is described-- so long as it lacks an accepted term, such a text is not yet a definition -- we can only define words that are already in use in a language.
For examples, see the definition of poverty and compare it with the descriptions of different operational notions of "poverty" found in the literature: Australia, Brazil , the Philippines , etc. The phrase "Brazilian definition of poverty" lets us know where a specific concept is used and we refer to it here as a formal term: it is inconvenient to use it as a term, however. A different, more descriptive term is needed, or one can just indicate, in context, that by "poverty" one means what this word means in Brazilian technical usage. Note that the same word can be used both as a shelter to link a set of precise descriptions of a concept; and also as an unambiguous term for any one of these precise notions, provided the context lets us know which of them is intended, as in Brazil, etc. For a fuller analysis of this notion, see shelter .
In short, the methodology used here offers a single generic though fuzzy dictionary definition of poverty accompanied by a set of technical descriptions designed, in various contexts, to operationalize the idea. To see all of these concept descriptions, go to the classification card. These are not different concepts of poverty, I submit, but they are members of a "concept family," all sheltered by a single fuzzy concept as defined in a dictionary. Because these concepts are not included in the CROP glossary, a few records for them have been added, such as income in addition to poverty.
Entailed Terms Because each entry in an alphabetized glossary must virtually stand alone, the concepts it uses as definitional building blocks must be represented by ordinary language words, including repetitions of definitions entered elsewhere in the glossary. In a hypertext context, however, such terms can be used without explanation provided they are linked to the record where they are described. This device permits the uniform definition of entailed terms (i.e. those used in a definition) which, as in the Draft, often acquire a congeries of unintentionally inconsistent definitions. Moreover, by linking these terms, concept descriptions can be condensed since explanatory phrases designed to explain what a defining word means are no longer needed.
For example, the entry for a scientific definition of poverty is said to be measured by a low "standard of living" by low "INCOME". Readers will know that a definition for income . is available because this word is capitalized in the defintion for "scientific..." However, there is no entry for "standard of living" in the CROP glossary. Because the term is used several times in the glossary, it seems important to add an entry for it. Since the entry for scientific definition specifies that the "standard of living" may be measured by a deprivation index or by consumption expenditures, we can transfer this information to a new entry for standard of living. This example shows how, in hypertext, we can avoid the redundant (and often misleading) repetition of a concept description. We don't need to re-write the definition of standard of living every time we might want to use it when defining some other concept.
We can just mention it as a defining criterion without defining it because there is a separate entry where its definition can easily be found. A link to this entry is substituted. Anyone who already knows what the term means would not need to look it up nor waste time reading it over and over again. However, anyone not sure about the precise meaning of a "standard of living" could promptly find its definition by a click of the mouse. In short, by linking interdependent concepts, they can be described consistently, intelligibly and more succinctly.
Omissions. Analyzing definitions found in the CROP draft glossary enables us to identify important but undefined terms, like "standard of living," and to add records for them. Another example may be useful: see the record for basic needs which contains both consumption and essential services . A look at these entries will not only help the reader see how "basic needs" is defined, but also to discover its relation to the "scientific definition of poverty." Almost all of the terms found in this hypertext version of the CROP glossary are copied from the original text and they are written in capital letters -- by contrast, term entries added by the editor for illustrative purposes are italicized, as shown in scientific definition .
Additional information given in each entry is optional: it may include a note commenting on the concept, one or more contexts drawn from the draft, the entry date and the editor's name. All entries in the preliminary version were prepared by Riggs who selected them, rather arbitrarily, from the CROP draft. Remaining concepts described in this draft can easily be added by someone working in the project, indeed additional entries can be added by anyone working with the CROP project -- this is just a sample designed to show how the hypertext format, on a Web Page, provides an elastic framework open to anyone interested in or doing research on "poverty." not only to utilize the available information but to add and link other concepts.
This is an alphabetical index of terms, with hypertext links to their records, followed by page references to the Draft where a fuller discussion of each concept can be found. Entries without links are still under construction -- this is only part of the full set of entries in the Draft.
Australian definition of poverty 5 1.02
basic needs, 7 2.1
Brazilian definition of poverty 12 1.3
Chinese definition of poverty 18 1.04
chronic poverty 20 1.10
consensual definition of poverty 21 1.11
consumption 223 6.6
culture of poverty 24 2.3
dependency 26 3.2
deprivation 27 4.4
dichotomous and non-dichotomous concepts of poverty 28 2.4
direct and indirect measures of poverty 29 2.5
economic poverty line 18 1.04
economic definition of poverty 35 1.12
endemic poverty 90 4.6
explanations for poverty 43 5.1
extreme poverty 44 3.1
female poverty 46 4.7
FGT index (economic definitions) 52 5.3
food-ratio poverty line 49 5.2
geography of poverty 56 4.8
health and poverty 60 4.10
human needs level 77 1.05
human poverty index 110 1.08
income [shelter: no entry] 6.0
income (broad) 61 6.1
income standard of poverty 40 1.13
income 6.0 [no entry -- shelter]
indicators 63 6.2
indigence line 12 1.3
integrated (concealed) 64 6.2
interstitial 89 3.6
malnutrition 70 4.11
needs 74 6.4
objective measures 76 5.4
overall poverty 76 3.3
overcrowding 89 4.1
peripheral poverty 89 3.5
Philippines definition of poverty 77 1.05
poverty gap 80 6.5
poverty line 5 1.02
poverty trap 82 6.7
poverty threshold 112
poverty, (shelter term -- not in draft).
poverty gap 80 6.5
power 82 6.8
primary and secondary poverty 83 3.4
relative deprivation 86 4.5
rural (peripheral) poverty 89 3.5
scientific definition of poverty 92 1.14
scientific measures 90 5.5
security 94 2.6.
social disqualification 34 4.9
squatting 100 6.9
stigmatization 102 6.10
sub-proletariat 106 6.11
subjective poverty lines 104 2.2
subsistence 107 6.13
TFR poverty measures 108 5.7
TIP-curves 107 5.6
traumatic or sporadic poverty 89 3.8
ultimate poverty 3 1.01
underclass 109 6.12
UNDP definition of poverty 110 1.08
USA poverty line p.112 1.09
vagrancy 114 4.3
vulnerability 114 4.2
welfare 116 6.14
World Bank's definition of poverty 120 1.22
[under construction -- to be continued]
These are the general classes used here to sort concepts -- they can be revised, of course. Subcategories can be added as well as new general categories. More than one classification scheme can also be given on a cue card -- for example, concepts can be classed formally, whether they relate to entities, activities, properties, or dimensions of poverty. Specialists on "poverty" may well wish to use a different scheme -- it could be added to this one. In hypertext, the same concept can be found in more than one classification schemes, whereas in a printed text, only one scheme is practical for the text -- although several different schemes can be included in an index. For our preliminary purposes, only one classification scheme is used here, and only linked records are included.
1. What is poverty: general descriptions
4. Causes and consequences of poverty
[under construction -- to be continued]
[Only linked records are included]
Henderson, R, A. Harcourt and R.J.A. Harcourt, 1970. Poverty in Australia. l.2
ILO 1995. Social Exclusion in the Philippines. 1.05
Perkins, D.H. 1996. China's Future. 1.04
Singer, P. 1997. Social Exclusion in Brazil. 1.3
Tabbara, Bayan and George Kossaifi, ESCW, 1.01
UNDP 1997. Human Devt. Report 1997: Human Development to Eradicate Poverty.
[under construction -- more references to be added ]
DESCRIPTION: a level of income that is not sufficient to provide the material needs and comforts viewed as minimal in a given society.
TERMS:
NOTE: This fuzzy generic concept is not included in the CROP glossary, but it is suggested as a generic term that can cover all the more specific concepts and operationalizations offered in the rest of this section. The word, "poverty," by itself, can be used in context for any of the more specific and precise concepts -- but out of such a context, it is always a fuzzy generic notion that includes a large family of overlapping and shifting concepts. The "tracings" provide links to all the terms which include the word, "poverty".
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: inability of an individual to satisfy his own basic NEEDS and the needs of his dependents.
TERMS:
NOTE
CONTEXT
SOURCE: Tabbara & Kossaifi
Date of entry: November 16, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: situation of a man with a wife (not working) and two children where total weekly income ... less than the basic wage plus child endowment ...
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: Henderson, Harcourt and Harper
Date of entry: November 16, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: minimum monthly income to fulfill only the food NEEDS of an individual
TERMS:
NOTE: The Brazilian definitions also include "minimum basket of goods" needed to fulfill all the basic needs of an individual; a distinction is made between the "indigence line," which includes only food needs, and the "poverty line" which includes all basic needs.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: Singer 1997. Exclusion in Brazil
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: any person with an income of less than $0.60 is considered to be poor.
TERMS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: UNDP (97)
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: minimum amount of income below which a person cannot attain a predetermined consumption bundle of goods and services...
TERMS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: ILO 1995, Social exclusion in the Philippines.
Date of entry: November 16, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
6.eds def 42
DESCRIPTION: the percent of people expected to die before age 40; without access to health services or safe water; of adults who are illiterate; and of children under 5 who are malnourished.
TERMS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: UNDP 1997. Human Development Report 1997: Human Development to Eradicate Poverty.
Date of entry: November 16, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: a level of income that enables members of a family to pay for the relevant economy food budget
TERMS:
NOTE: The poverty line is adjusted annually according to a complex formula that takes into account family size, rural/urban location, and other factors.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: Fisher, R.M. 1992. The Development and History of the Poverty Thresholds.
Date of entry: November 16, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: whenever the lack of BASIC SECURITY simultaneously affects several aspects of people's lives, when it is prolonged, and when it seriously compromises people's chances of regaining their rights and of resuming their responsibilities in the foreseeable future.
TERMS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry: November 24, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: people/households with an INCOME below a certain threshold level irrespective of their standard of living.
TERMS:
NOTE: persons with a low income may enjoy a good standard of living -- this concept is more a measure of income INEQUALITY than of poverty
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: Atkinson, A.B. 1987. On the Measurement of Poverty. Econometrica
Date of entry: , 55: 749-764.
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: persons or households with both a low standard of living and a low INCOME in an industrialised country
TERMS:
NOTE: A low standard of living is measured by a DEPRIVATIONindex, or by CONSUMPTION expenditures.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE: Townsend, P. 1993. The International Analysis of Poverty.
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
16 SEN index of p. 95
17 social exclusion 96
18 state's standard of poverty 101
19 subjective poverty lines 104
20 value judgements ... 114
21 poverty gap index (PGI) 81
DESCRIPTION: the inability to attain a minimal standard of living
TERMS:
NOTE: the minimal standard includes both basic nutritional requirements, i.e., CONSUMPTION needs, and some degree of PARTICIPATION .
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
TERMS:
Formal::
Equivocal:
Suggested:
TRACINGS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: minimum requirements of a family for private CONSUMPTION plus essential services provided by and for the community at large
TERMS:
NOTE: No entry for "essential services" is provided, but a mock-up entry is added here for illustrative purposes --see essential services .
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
culture of poverty 24
dichotomous and non-d concepts of poverty 28
direct and indirect measures of p. 29
#3. Types of poverty:
extreme poverty 44
DESCRIPTION: the condition of having minimum subsistence requirements or less
TERMS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
overall poverty 76
primary and secondary p. 83
rural poverty, peripheral p. 89
interstitial p. 89
peripheral p. 89
#4. Causes and Consequences of Poverty
DESCRIPTION:
TERMS:
Formal: p.
Equivocal:
Suggested:
TRACINGS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
vagrancy 114
endemic p. 90
female poverty 46
DESCRIPTION:
TERMS:
Formal: p.
Equivocal:
Suggested:
TRACINGS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
social disqualification 34
DESCRIPTION: a state of observable and demonstrable disadvantage relative to the local community or the wider society or nation to which an individual, family or group belongs
TERMS:
NOTE: deprivation covers conditions, independent of income, experienced by poor people, independent of INCOME
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry: November 24, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: inability to obtain the conditions of life which allow one to play the roles, participate in relationships and follow the customary behavior expected of members of a society.
TERMS:
NOTE: this concept builds on the idea that in all societies there is a threshold of low INCOME marking the capacity of individuals to meet the NEEDS enjoined by that society.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
malnutrition 70
DESCRIPTION: theories that account for the existence of poverty
TERMS:
NOTE: four types of explanation are identified: pathological, sub-cultural, agency, and structural. Others include misfortunes such as war, floods, drought, disease.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry: November 24, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION:
TERMS:
Formal: p.
Equivocal:
Suggested:
TRACINGS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
objective measures 76
scientific measures 90
TIP-curves 107
TFR poverty measures 108
DESCRIPTION: all the recurring receipts, in cash and kind, of a person or household, usually excluding receipts from savings or capital.
TERMS:
NOTE: This is a generic and fuzzy concept, usually specified more precisely in operational definitions that may be viewed as members of a large family -- see poverty
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: receipts in cash and in kind of a recurring nature received by a household or its members, from employment, business, or lending, plus transfer from government, private institutions and other households .... Excluding capital receipts and from running down assets or incurrence of a liability...
TERMS:
NOTE: there are as many different definitions of income as of poverty -- the description given here is from the Australian Bureau of Statistics which sought international agreement
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry: November 24, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
integrated poverty 64 or concealed poverty
DESCRIPTION: problems which people experience and/or requirements they have for particular sorts of responses
TERMS:
NOTE: needs may be normative, comparative, felt or expressed; they are culturally, politically and historically specific, not universal; and they vary psychologically for individuals.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry: November 24, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: a measure of the intensity of POVERTY among the poor: the difference between the mean INCOME among the poor and the POVERTY LINE.
TERMS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry: November 24, 1997
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
DESCRIPTION: the process of using up goods and services
TERMS:
NOTE: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has proposed (1995) an international agreement that would include , in addition to household purchases of non-durable goods and services, others received in-kind from government, other households and private organizations, and those provided within the household. A narrower definition includes only current expenditures.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii
TERMS:
NOTE: Friere calls for enough participation to empower the poor. By contrast, The World Bank definition of a "minimal standard" minimal standard includes "participation" -- presumably something less than the level called for here -- perhaps another concept for "minimal participation" is needed.
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
DESCRIPTION: any services provided by society or the state which its members (citizens) view as necessary
TERMS:
NOTE: Although the term, "essential services" is used several times
in definitions of "poverty," there is no entry for it. It remains a fuzzy
concept including whatever services members of a society (or citizens of
a state) view as necessary: see basic needs. Although
not an operational definition, this shelter concept can be useful in thinking
about problems of poverty.
poverty trap 82
power 82
squatting 100
DESCRIPTION: the level of CONSUMPTION expenditures or the inverse of the DEPRIVATION index (the greater this index, the lower the standard)
TERMS:
NOTE: There is no entry for this concept in the CROP index but it is added here to supply a missing link between the scientific definition of poverty and the descriptions of deprivation and consumption .
CONTEXT:
SOURCE
sub-proletariat (lumpenproletariat.) 106
underclass 109
subsistence 107
welfare 116
TEMPLATE FOR USE WITH ANY OF THESE CONCEPT RECORDS
DESCRIPTION:
TERMS:
NOTE:
CONTEXT:
SOURCE:
Date of entry:
By: Fred W. Riggs, University of Hawaii