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Deprivation and Social Citizenship: The Objective Significance of Lived Experience

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Mixed Methods Research in Poverty and Vulnerability

Abstract

All poverty research is underlain by a set of epistemic and ontological assumptions. Not only do these determine how poverty is operationalised and measured but also how institutions interpret and respond to poverty. As a result, poverty measurement is greatly contested. From the local to the international level, there are competing priorities determining the appropriate measure employed. Equally significant are the particularising factors that change the significance and utility of poverty measures from one context to the next. At its most general, poverty is not a fixed or isolated condition — it is a signifier of socio-economic and political relations within any given context. A methodological approach that can identify and analyse these relations goes some way towards an ‘objective’ measure that transcends contextual difference. This chapter explores the potential of a new analytical approach grounded in mixed methods to overcome some of the challenges faced in researching poverty and vulnerability in divergent contexts.

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  1. Daniel Edmiston
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK

    Keetie Roelen (Research Fellow) (Research Fellow)

  2. University of East Anglia, UK

    Laura Camfield (Senior Lecturer) (Senior Lecturer)

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© 2015 Daniel Edmiston

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Edmiston, D. (2015). Deprivation and Social Citizenship: The Objective Significance of Lived Experience. In: Roelen, K., Camfield, L. (eds) Mixed Methods Research in Poverty and Vulnerability. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137452511_3

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