Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies

Employing a view of culture as a communicative phenomenon involving discursive engagement, the authors argue that the struggle to break free of poverty is as much a cultural process as it is political and economic. The authors analyze public meetings in Indian village democracies, gram sabhas, where...

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Main Authors: Rao, Vijayendra, Sanyal, Paromita
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4861
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spelling okr-10986-48612021-04-23T14:02:20Z Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies Rao, Vijayendra Sanyal, Paromita Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320 Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Formal and Informal Sectors Shadow Economy Institutional Arrangements O170 Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses Transportation O180 Economic Sociology Economic Anthropology Social and Economic Stratification Z130 Employing a view of culture as a communicative phenomenon involving discursive engagement, the authors argue that the struggle to break free of poverty is as much a cultural process as it is political and economic. The authors analyze public meetings in Indian village democracies, gram sabhas, where villagers are constitutionally empowered to make decisions regarding budgetary allocations for village development and beneficiary selection for antipoverty programs. They examine 290 transcripts of gram sabhas from South India, looking at how they create a culture of civic/political engagement and how the definition of poverty is understood within them. They highlight how gram sabhas impart discursive skills and civic agency and illustrate how the poor deploy these skills in a resource-scarce and socially stratified environment. The intersection of poverty, culture, and deliberative democracy sheds light on cultural processes that can be influenced by public action in a manner that helps improve the voice and agency of the poor. 2012-03-30T07:30:06Z 2012-03-30T07:30:06Z 2010 Journal Article Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 00027162 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4861 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article India
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
topic Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320
Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs
Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
Formal and Informal Sectors
Shadow Economy
Institutional Arrangements O170
Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses
Transportation O180
Economic Sociology
Economic Anthropology
Social and Economic Stratification Z130
spellingShingle Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320
Welfare and Poverty: Government Programs
Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs I380
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
Formal and Informal Sectors
Shadow Economy
Institutional Arrangements O170
Economic Development: Regional, Urban, and Rural Analyses
Transportation O180
Economic Sociology
Economic Anthropology
Social and Economic Stratification Z130
Rao, Vijayendra
Sanyal, Paromita
Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies
geographic_facet India
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description Employing a view of culture as a communicative phenomenon involving discursive engagement, the authors argue that the struggle to break free of poverty is as much a cultural process as it is political and economic. The authors analyze public meetings in Indian village democracies, gram sabhas, where villagers are constitutionally empowered to make decisions regarding budgetary allocations for village development and beneficiary selection for antipoverty programs. They examine 290 transcripts of gram sabhas from South India, looking at how they create a culture of civic/political engagement and how the definition of poverty is understood within them. They highlight how gram sabhas impart discursive skills and civic agency and illustrate how the poor deploy these skills in a resource-scarce and socially stratified environment. The intersection of poverty, culture, and deliberative democracy sheds light on cultural processes that can be influenced by public action in a manner that helps improve the voice and agency of the poor.
format Journal Article
author Rao, Vijayendra
Sanyal, Paromita
author_facet Rao, Vijayendra
Sanyal, Paromita
author_sort Rao, Vijayendra
title Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies
title_short Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies
title_full Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies
title_fullStr Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies
title_full_unstemmed Dignity through Discourse : Poverty and the Culture of Deliberation in Indian Village Democracies
title_sort dignity through discourse : poverty and the culture of deliberation in indian village democracies
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4861
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