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Dimensions of Poverty pp 97–114Cite as

Is the Debate on Poverty Research a Global One? A Consideration of the Exclusion of Odera Oruka’s ‘Human Minimum’ as a Case of Epistemic Injustice

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Part of the book series: Philosophy and Poverty ((PPOV,volume 2))

Abstract

In this work, I argue that the poverty debate, particularly the one based on qualitative research, has yet to go global due to the exclusion of ideas from scholars in the Global South. For example, despite the great insight of the Kenyan philosopher Odera Oruka on poverty leading to his theory of “the human minimum”, and despite the fact that his works are available in libraries around the world, there is a noticeable exclusion of his views in the contemporary debate on global poverty. In this chapter, I will discuss the state of global poverty research. I will present Oruka’s views on poverty and show not only their implications for sub-Saharan Africa, but also for the world as a whole. I will argue that the exclusion of voices from the Global South amounts to what Miranda Fricker calls epistemic injustice. In the last section, I will conclude by proposing conversational thinking—a form of inclusive, fair, intercultural epistemic engagement for globalizable poverty research.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See the contributions to Journal of International Political Theory 2016, 12:2.

  2. 2.

    A good number of African philosophers have also accused their Western counterparts of intentionally legislating for all of humanity by universalizing their cultural particulars and suppressing epistemologies from the South (see Hebga 1958, Serequeberhan 1991, Janz 2009, Hallen 2010, and recently, Masaka 2017).

  3. 3.

    See https://www.sunnewsonline.com/south-african-judge-dies-of-black-mamba-snake-bite-in-zambia/. Accessed 30 June 2019.

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  1. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Jonathan O. Chimakonam

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  1. Institute of Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Valentin Beck  & Henning Hahn  & 

  2. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany

    Robert Lepenies

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Chimakonam, J.O. (2020). Is the Debate on Poverty Research a Global One? A Consideration of the Exclusion of Odera Oruka’s ‘Human Minimum’ as a Case of Epistemic Injustice. In: Beck, V., Hahn, H., Lepenies, R. (eds) Dimensions of Poverty. Philosophy and Poverty, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31711-9_6

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