TY - JOUR
T1 - The paradox of progressing sideways: food poverty and livelihood change in the rice lands of outer island Indonesia
AU - McCarthy, John
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Despite economic growth in middle-income countries across the global south, pockets of food poverty persist in the countryside. An accepted account suggests that many of the poor are stuck in a 'truncated agrarian transition' where neither agriculture nor labour markets provide sufficient opportunities. Yet, statistics indicate that many have moved out of poverty, even as undernourishment continues. Exploring an Indonesian periphery, this paper interrogates this conundrum. It describes a 'sideways scenario' where change fails to map onto both expectations of forward development and stagnation described by established theory. While many progress in quotidian terms, persistent food poverty and stunting remain. Here, 'advancing sideways' amounts to a paradoxical form of progress.
AB - Despite economic growth in middle-income countries across the global south, pockets of food poverty persist in the countryside. An accepted account suggests that many of the poor are stuck in a 'truncated agrarian transition' where neither agriculture nor labour markets provide sufficient opportunities. Yet, statistics indicate that many have moved out of poverty, even as undernourishment continues. Exploring an Indonesian periphery, this paper interrogates this conundrum. It describes a 'sideways scenario' where change fails to map onto both expectations of forward development and stagnation described by established theory. While many progress in quotidian terms, persistent food poverty and stunting remain. Here, 'advancing sideways' amounts to a paradoxical form of progress.
U2 - 10.1080/03066150.2019.1628021
DO - 10.1080/03066150.2019.1628021
M3 - Article
VL - 47
SP - 1077
EP - 1097
JO - The Journal of Peasant Studies
JF - The Journal of Peasant Studies
IS - 5
ER -