Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T00:12:32.250Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Why the Poor Remain Poor: The Experience of Bogotá Market Traders in the 1970s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Caroline O.N. Moser*
Affiliation:
Development Planning Unit, University College, London, England

Extract

The persistence of long-term poverty among sectors of the urban and rural population in less-developed countries (LDCs), as well as in the so-called developed world, has resulted in the formulation of a diversity of interpretations by theoreticians and policy-makers seeking to comprehend the life of the poor, and for political, economic, and moral reasons to develop solutions to alleviate poverty. Recognition of the failure of the Accelerated Growth Model to produce adequate redistribution of resources and income throughout society through the “filter down” effect has led to changes in emphasis in poverty-related research during the past two decades. There has been a shift in focus away from measurements of absolute poverty, the insufficiency of basic needs to ensure survival, toward the clarification of the determinants of relative poverty, the social inequality experienced by those in the bottom segment of the income distribution within a given society.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bienefeld, M. (1975) “The informal sector and peripheral capitalism: the case of Tanzania.” IDS Bulletin 6 (February): 5373.Google Scholar
Corobastos (1977) Informe de Actividades de 1977. Bogotá: Corporación de Abastos de Bogotá S.A.Google Scholar
Gerry, C. (1974) “Petty producers and the urban economy: a case study of Dakar.” ILO World Employment Programme Working Paper 8. International Labor Office, Geneva.Google Scholar
Gilbert, A. (1978a) “Bogotá: politics, planning and the crisis of lost opportunities,” pp. 87126 in Cornelius, W. A. and Kemper, R. V., Metropolitan South America: The Challenge and the Response. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Gilbert, A. (1978b) mmm mmm 09.32Google Scholar
Gilbert, A. (1978b) “Carrar la brecha or business as usual? The Colombian economy under Alfonso López Michelson.” (unpublished)Google Scholar
ILO [International Labor Organization] (1976) World Employment Programme: Research in Retrospect and Prospect. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
ILO [International Labor Organization] (1972a) Scope, Approach and Content of Research Oriented Activities of the World Employment Programme. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
ILO [International Labor Organization] (1972b) Employment, Income and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
ILO [International Labor Organization] (1970) Towards Full Employment: A Programme for Colombia. Geneva: Author.Google Scholar
King, K. (1974) “Kenya's informal machine makers: a study of small-scale industry in Kenya's emergent artisan class.” World Development 2 (March): 928.Google Scholar
Leacock, E. B. [ed.] (1971) The Culture of Poverty: A Critique. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Lewis, O. (1961) The Children of Sánchez. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Lipton, M. (1977) Why Poor People Stay Poor. London: Temple Smith.Google Scholar
Mintz, S. (1964) “Market systems and wholesale societies.” Econ. Development and Social Change 12: 444448.Google Scholar
Moser, C. (1978) “Informal sector or petty commodity production: dualism or dependence in urban development?World Development 6 (September/October): 10411064.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moser, C. (1977) “The dual economy and marginality debate and the contribution of microanalysis: market sellers in Bogotá.” Development and Change 8 (October): 465489.Google Scholar
Moser, C. (1975) “Differentiation and mobility in a Bogotá retail market.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Sussex.Google Scholar
Scott, A. M. (1979) “Who are the self-employed?” pp. 105132 in Bromley, R. and Gerry, C. (eds.) Casual Work and Poverty in Third World Cities. London: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Silva, A. (1976) “Evaluation of food market reform: Corobastos, Bogotá.Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Valentine, C. (1968) Culture of Poverty: Critique and Counter Proposals. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Williams, G. and Tumusiime-Mutebile, E. (1978) “Capitalist and petty commodity production in Nigeria: a note.” World Development 6 (September/October): 11031104.Google Scholar