The Dictionary of Human Geography

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thought was curiously coincident with

women’s successes in demanding a voice

based onsexandgender(see Nicholson,

1989). In any case, a number of concepts

and debates withinfeminist geographiesare

intimately tied to the rise of post-structuralism

(seealterity;body;difference;essential-

ism;identity;positionality;subjectivity).

The above thinkers have an aversion to

metaphysical or ontological speculation, and

so it has been said that, in their tradition of

theorizing, epistemology trumps ontology

(Dixon and Jones, 1998). But Deleuze

(1994) never refrained from attempting to

develop a thoroughgoing post-structuralist

philosophy that incorporated ontology.

Central to this – and what makes it possible

to consider Deleuze a post-structuralist – was

his rejection of all conceptions of the world

that relied upon transcendental or ideal

objects, such as essences (see alsominor the-

ory: see Katz, 1996). Instead, he describes an

immanent universe of force andaffect, one

that organizes itself according to the matter

(literally) at hand. Thus, things in the world

do not correspond to a set of ideal forms, but

are instead singular products of continuous

material differentiation. Thought – by its very

nature, but particularly so undermodernity–

retrofits objects and relations into categories

and orders of similitude, and thus keeps the

thinker at a conceptual distance from the ‘pure

difference’ expressed by the material world. As

his is an approach that often has more in com-

mon withcomplexity theorythandialect-

ics, Deleuze too has been controversial among

some post-structuralists and many Marxists.

Together with his colleague Fe ́lix Guattari

(see Deleuze and Guattari, 1987), he devel-

oped a rich spatial vocabulary populated with

concepts such asassemblage,nomadology,

rhizome, (de)territorialization, smooth and

striated spaces, and the like (Bonta and

Protevi, 2004; see also Doel, 1999). kwo/jpj

Suggested readings

Bonta and Protevi (2004); Butler (1990);

Crampton and Elden (2007); Doel (1999); Fou-

cault (1980); Harrison (2006); Murdoch (2006).

poverty A much-contested term that sug-

gests a state of welfare/illfare in which a person

cannot function in one or more respects as a

capable human being. Poverty is not a term

that is easily defined. In so-called ‘poor’ or

‘developing’ countries, attempts are often

made to define poverty in ‘absolute’ or nutri-

tional terms. The official definitions and

measurements of poverty used in India high-

light some of the complexities and challenges

associated with this category. The

Government of India tracks the number of

people in the country who cannot purchase

enoughcommoditiesto ensure that they get

on average 2,400 calories per day in rural areas

or 2,100 calories per day in urban areas. These

are aggregate figures that are collected at the

householdlevel by thecensusauthorities or

by officers of the National Sample Survey.

Attempts are also made to count the number

of women orchildrenin absolute poverty, or

people in female-headed households or those

over 60. The Indian government maintains

that the head-count ratio of people living

below the poverty line has halved since

1973–4, coming down from about 55 per cent

of the population to about 26 per cent of the

population in 1999–2000. This still amounted

to more than 260 million people. Independent

scholars have challenged the India’s govern-

ment data and generally put the 2000 figure

at 300–350 million people.

About one in five people who suffer from

absolute poverty live in India, despite recent

progress there. Rates of poverty are higher for

females than for males. It has also been esti-

mated (Sen, 1990) that more than 100 million

women are ‘missing’ in Southasiaand China

as a result of gendered social practices before

and after birth (female abortion and infanti-

cide, male preference in feeding and health

care). Yet it is Sub-Saharanafricathat gener-

ally comes to mind when discussion in

Northern countries turns to absolute poverty.

It is here that Jeffrey Sachs, the American

economist and adviser to Ban Ki-Moon at

the United Nations, has demanded action to

secure ‘the end of poverty in our lifetime’.

Sachs (2005) has called for the elimination of

what he calls ‘extreme poverty’ by 2025. He

wants the US government to impose a 5 per

cent income tax surcharge on Americans earn-

ing more than $200,000 per annum. This will

generate over half of the $70–80 billion per

year that he reckons is necessary to kick-start

economic growth in the poorest countries.

The remaining funds must come from other

richer countries. Such concerted spending,

Sachs argues, can ensure that the first

Millennium Development Goal is met – the

UN-agreed target of halving between 1990

and 2015 the proportion of people whose

income is less than one US dollar a day. It

might also eliminate extreme poverty and

hungerby 2025, particularly if increasedaid

spending is directed not only towards

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 573 1.4.2009 3:20pm

POVERTY