Anti-Poverty Psychology

This book surveys progress in the scope of psychological research on global development including advances in understanding of what motivates teachers, on designing community health initiative and on managing human "capacity" in aid and development projects.

Psychology has focused more on personalities in poverty -- pathologizing -- than on contexts for poverty reduction (Pick & Sirkin, 2010). As a result, the discipline has inadvertently sequestered and isolated itself, and its potential contribution, from poverty reduction initiatives - globally and locally. In recent years, there have been major developments in both the scope and depth of psychological research on global development issues. Some of the key developments include significant advances in understanding of what motivates teachers in schools, on designing community interventions to promote health, and on managing the development of human capacity in aid and development projects. The Psychology of Poverty Reduction is poised to capture such advances in the understanding of 'what works' - and what does not.

Highlights and builds the role of businesses, aid agencies, government civil services, community groups and educational institutions on reducing poverty Shows how a multi-level, inter-disciplinary approach that includes human factors is vital Aligns global poverty reduction with the psychology of local communities Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Auteur
Stuart Carr is known for applying organisational psychology, with inter-related disciplines, to poverty reduction. His research 'breaks through' into world-class applied journals, the OECD's Policy Insights and UNESCO's Higher Education Policy. His books include Psychology of aid, Psychology and the developing world, Globalization and culture at work, Poverty and psychology, The Aid triangle, and The Psychology of Global Mobility. He contributed the chapter on Psychology applied to poverty in the International Association of Applied Psychology's Handbook of Applied Psychology. His recent international grant awards include leading Project ADDUP, which researched dual salary systems in aid and was funded by the UK's Department for International Development (now UK Aid) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Stuart convenes a Global Task Force on Humanitarian Work Psychology, a White Papers Policy series for his profession globally, and the first Global Special Issue on Psychology and Poverty Reduction, involving twelve major international journals. He also co-edits the Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, which focuses on development issues, and is Associate Editor for the Journal of Managerial Psychology, which has a focus on social innovation and change.

Texte du rabat

Reducing poverty, whether globally or locally, has always comprised a set of complex critical tasks. But just as essential as the tasks is their underlying worldview: where formerly the emphasis was on changing institutions and thus changing people, the movement now is away from paternalistic remedies and toward culturally aware organizations and efforts to develop the untapped resources of people and their communities.

Anti-Poverty Psychology traces the evolution of conceptualizations of poverty and its solutions, forcefully arguing for a higher level of current and future efforts. This visionary volume provides readers with a clear roadmap from goals (e.g., the Millennium Development Goals) to implementation that neither shames nor objectifies those being served. The author demonstrates how, in both research and the real world, progress is best achieved through systematic, cross-disciplinary, multi-perspective collaboration, alignment with local values, and greater accountability on the part of all involved. Coverage balances macro, meso and micro levels of analysis in such areas as:

• Constructs of personality: beyond mythmaking and pathologizing.
• Building the socially responsible organization.
• The role of community in self-empowerment.
• Harnessing the potential of markets in poverty reduction.
• Minting media social capital
• The hidden psychology of international aid.
• Mobilizing human talent locally
• Developing research advocacy and its component skills. The perspective-widening stance and depth of insight found in Anti-Poverty Psychology gives it significance to audiences across disciplines, as in psychologists researching global development issues, academics interested in learning what motivates educators, community psychologists, and health professionals.

Contenu

Part I: Levels.- Personality.- Organizations.- Part II: Community.- Markets.- Media.- Part III: Nexus.- Aid.- Mobility.- Systems.