Governments and donor agencies are increasingly advocating tourism as a viable poverty reduction option in developing countries. However, the debate surrounding tourism development mechanisms and benefits to local people is based upon limited empirical evidence. Much of the literature has focused on the socio-economic impacts of tourism in developing countries, but there is comparatively limited investment of the relationship between tourism and poverty reduction from the perspectives of the stakeholders, particularly local people. To build knowledge about this relationship, this research study examines the role of tourism in poverty reduction in Elmina, Ghana. The core aim of the research is to analyse the inter-relationship between poverty reduction and tourism from the perspective of local people and stakeholders. The research focuses upon the importance of tourism as a developmental strategy to tackle poverty. The research methodology was formulated within an interpretive paradigm utilising qualitative techniques to investigate tourism and poverty in Elmina. Stakeholders who participated in the study included: Government; Donor Agencies; Local People; Tourists; and the Private Sector. The data was analysed using thematic data analysis methods. Researcher reflexivity is also integrated into the study in view of the researcher’s experience of employment in a public sector tourism organisation in Ghana. The thematic findings contribute to knowledge about the relationship between tourism and poverty reduction in Elmina and are categorised into three main themes. Firstly, local people in Elmina define and understand poverty and tourism opportunities in multiple ways, which differ from other stakeholders; however, differences in meanings and understandings exist between and within individuals and groups in Elmina. The attributes accounting for the differences in views include: level of education; access to the tourism market; participation in decision-making; and type of businesses. Secondly, local people participate in tourism mainly as owners of informal tourism businesses and employees. ii However, a group of marginalised people, the ‘Castle Boys’, also benefit from the support received from philanthropic tourists through the activities of begging and informal tour guiding as ways of earning income to escape from poverty. Finally, several barriers to participation for local people in tourism exist in the Elmina community, which marginalises and excludes a cross-section of the locals from the advantages of socio-economic opportunities. These barriers include: a low level of education attainment; a lack of availability of and access to credit facilities; and a lack of ‘voice’ in the decision-making process, indicating a general need for capacity building. Government and donor agencies’ neoliberal policy objectives of utilising cultural tourism for development has failed to achieve poverty reduction in Elmina. This issue has given rise to evolving questions of the use of tourism as a developmental tool to reduce poverty and how to empower local people to actively participate in emerging socio-economic opportunities. This research subsequently contributes to furthering the understanding of the role of tourism in poverty reduction, and theoretically comprehending the role of tourism as a development strategy to combat poverty in local communities.

Since the mid-1970s, subsidized housing policy in the U.S. has shifted from providing aid through public housing projects to providing aid through vouchers to be used in the private market and through smaller-scale, often mixed-income developments. These policy shifts are guided by a deconcentration ideology drawn from social science research on the deleterious effects of the concentration of poverty on individuals and neighborhoods. These changes in subsidized housing policy have led to a major geographic redistribution of the urban poor, which has implications for neighborhoods and cities that are not yet fully understood. This dissertation investigates the extent to which the changing location of subsidized housing units accounts for changes in neighborhood poverty and metropolitan poverty concentration. My findings show that while the subsidized housing policies adopted since the 1970s successfully deconcentrated subsidized housing units, they did not deconcentrate poverty in neighborhoods or metropolitan areas. I find that neighborhood poverty rates increase when neighborhoods either gain or lose subsidized housing units. Neighborhoods that gain more subsidized units see larger increases in poverty rates, and because these neighborhoods already have many poor residents, there is a risk of creating new neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. Surprisingly, neighborhoods that lose subsidized units also become poorer, suggesting an enduring legacy of subsidized housing for neighborhood poverty. At the metropolitan level, reducing the concentration of subsidized housing in high subsidy neighborhoods leads to only very small declines in the concentration of poor residents in high poverty neighborhoods. My results suggest that subsidized housing policy may maintain, rather than break, the cycle of neighborhood inequality. Subsidized housing policy is implemented in a context of neighborhood inequality, and as the policies increasingly rely on the private rental market, higher-SES neighborhoods’ interests in keeping low-income subsidized renters out may shape how the policy is implemented, leaving lower-SES neighborhoods to receive more subsidized low-income tenants and thus experience larger increases in poverty rates.

This thesis is articles-based submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It consists of articles that were submitted and published, and others that were submitted and awaiting comments. This thesis makes a contribution to the ongoing debate on the most appropriate method of measuring poverty for interventionist purposes in rural areas. It is infonned by the Zimbabwe experience that income-based measures may not always adequately target those most in need of social support. A new approach is posited that focuses on the nonincome component of poverty. The aim is to assist 'technocrats' to better target the poor in need of a social safety net in crisis situations. The search is for a 'credible' measure that will be acceptable to various interest groups including the poor. Thus the proposed measure derived by means of a consensual approach meets this objective. The literature review describes and discusses the weaknesses of conventional poverty measures, divided into two broad categories of those pre- and post-dating Sen's introduction of the capability concept. The thesis then uses these to explore the conventional approaches (the dominant income measures) and flag their operational deficiencies, and then postulates an asset threshold model, the minimally adequate asset level (MAAL), based on the consensual approach. It also postulates the Poverty Diagnostic Model (PDM) which helps to describe and analyse factors that impact poverty at the individual level and helps in unpacking the linkages between the detenninants of poverty given its multi-dimensionality and how these are conditioned by both internal and external factors. Additionally to the contributions, this thesis posits drawing asset-poverty lines as well as combined asset and income poverty lines as a new contribution to yield asset-based Foster-Greer- Thorbecke (FGT) index, asset-income FGT index, networth FGT index and asset-gini coefficient. It also provides new tools with differentiating capacity to identify those who are either asset poor or income poor or both; as well as those who are 'networth poor', understood as asset-income threshold less debt. It advocates scaling of assets to enable capturing of the asset-holding of the poorest of the poor to fonn intensity scales on which an asset threshold is based. A further contribution of this thesis is the introduction of the notion of enclavity within a family around husband/wife relationships as a new fonn of resilience/collectivity due to deepening poverty. There is evidence to suggest that ethics and networks breakdown as a result of poverty. The final contribution of this thesis is the definition of a poverty line on the basis of an asset threshold using the consensual approach as postulated by Mack and Lansley (1985): thus this thesis posits an asset-by-asset point index. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Only twenty years ago it was widely assumed that religion had lost its previous place in western culture and that this pattern would spread throughout the world. Since then religion has become a renewed force, recognized as an important factor in the modern world in all aspects of life, cultural, economic and political. This is true not only of the Third World, but in Europe - East and West - and in North America. It is no longer a surprise to find a religious factor at work in areas of political tension. In South Africa, the researcher has determined that Christianity is not totally involved in the fundamental human needs of community. This is an urgent matter to address. As churches committed to social and economic justice we cannot stand by and observe. We need to fund answers to a number of important questions: What does poverty really means? What are its causes and its consequences to South African community. As churches we also have deeper roots in the struggle for justice and democracy in South Africa. What is the impact of poverty, if any, on democracy and human rights in our society? This research about such matters comes for the most part from three types of sources. The first is the newspaper which understandably tend to concentrate on newsworthy events, without taking the time to deal with the underlying issues of which they are but symptoms. The second source comprises studies by theologians and social scientists who often adopt a functionalist and reductionist view of the faith and beliefs which motivate those directly involved in such situations. Finally, there are the statements and writings of those committed to the religious or ideological movements themselves. The poor are the ones who suffer injustice through exploitation, oppression and bondage. The reality is that Christianity do not exist unaffected by social change which is taking place in our time. The winds of change are blowing at gale force in South Africa and we live in the midst of this change, we are affected by it and we are mutually responsible for it. Also, due to the fact that Christianity is placed in the larger human society, it is inevitable that it will be engaged in the problems affecting human society such as poverty, HIV/AIDS. As religious stewards we share responsibility for the co-existence of all humankind because God does not want to abandon the earth and its inhabitants to evil. It is Faith that commits churches and their members to be loyal to God, who through Jesus, has entered our human spirit as a human being. Through Jesus' death and resurrection we have overcome our captivity; and through the Spirit God is involved in the situation of people. Being committed to this faith churches cannot live in isolation from society. Churches need to be aware that they and their members encounter the living Christ with and among the discarbed people. These people are excluded from the material and spiritual resources they require for sustaining their lives. People's material living conditions impact on their spiritual life. Churches cannot exist in isolation from the society in which we live. Neither can churches ignore the plight under which people live. For religious tradition, it is our intention that an accurate and sensitive account of Christianity should be informed by an objective and sophisticated application of perspectives from the social sciences. Theologies of liberation, struggle and protest have made a major contribution to today's theological debate. They have had considerable impact in Latin America and many other parts of the Third World, and are by no means examples of armchair theology. But there comes a time when Christian theology must address a rather different agenda, not neglecting the concern of the poor in the biblical way as Jesus did. / Thesis (M.A)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

The thesis has considered an asset-based alternative to the conventional use of consumption or expenditure in defining well-being and poverty. The motivation for the study was to derive a measure of economic status by households in the absence of income or consumption data. This is particularly important for a country like Tanzania where consumption, expenditure and price data are either limited or unavailable. The thesis uses data from The Tanzania 2002 Population and Housing Census information on housing conditions and ownership of certain durable goods to construct an asset index. This index is a proxy for long-run household wealth. When tested for reliability the asset index was found to be robust, coherent and a good predictor for economic status among the "poor" and "non-poor". The study has revealed that with further research, poverty analysts in Tanzania may also use the household asset index as an explanatory or as a means of mapping welfare in the country. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Assignment (MComm)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 311-327). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR29539

The thesis seeks to understand the differences between the indigenous and the non-indigenous populations in Mexico in terms of poverty and to analyse what explains these differences. The thesis departs from the official multidimensional poverty measure that has been adopted in Mexico. The thesis distinguishes from the official results in at least four areas: 1) the main poverty indicator and how it is estimated; 2) a deeper understanding of the indigenous and non-indigenous; 3) the analysis of robustness and redundancy across dimensions and; 4) the use of standard errors to compare groups and across time. This dissertation then focuses on remoteness, since a high percentage of the indigenous population live in small isolated rural communities, and there is a relationship between the locality size and the standard of living. In order to quantify the remoteness, and to be able to compare indigenous and non-indigenous populations, a measure of remoteness is proposed. Then also explores how different the social mobility for the indigenous is, compared to non-indigenous. While there are studies that allow comparisons of indigenous and non-indigenous in relation to social mobility, this thesis suggests a measure of absolute social mobility that uses the framework of the Alkire-Foster methodology for multidimensional poverty. Finally, this thesis explores the role of ethnic discrimination using the Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions. Also, an innovative method to study discrimination is also presented, based on the propensity score match techniques. At the end, this dissertation argues there is a vicious cycle of indigenous poverty in Mexico. In a nutshell, the fact that the indigenous are poorer means they rely more on state intervention while being discriminated against in the labour markets. Discrimination is an incentive to remain geographically isolated and lowers their intergenerational social mobility. As a result, the indigenous live in remote rural localities, where harder and more expensive for the state to reach. Thus, the indigenous have less access to state support. The thesis follows a mixed-methods approach, that combines quantitative analysis based on information at national level with analysis of data collected during fieldwork in 2011.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / When the new democratic government in South Africa came to power in 1994, it inherited a legacy of inequality, unemployment and poverty. Mindful of this triple challenge the government’s first socioeconomic policy framework, the White Paper on Reconstruction and Development (RDP) of 1994, stated the commitment to prioritise poverty eradication in South Africa. The Bill of Rights guarantees specific rights, referring to housing, healthcare and social security, to empower the poor. The greatest challenge facing the South African government was to provide the institutional support and to implement appropriate policies to reduce the extent of poverty and unemployment in South Africa. The government therefore established the necessary legislature and institutions and embarked on numerous policy strategies. A fact that complicates policy intervention is that the extent of poverty is very different across provinces. Households in rural areas are in a relatively worse position than households in urban areas and rural woman are in an even worse position. According to official statistics from Statistics South Africa, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape are the poorest provinces. This study investigated the nature of government intervention towards poverty relief. Through the use of various instruments, such as social grants, the delivery of basic services and housing, the government focuses on the relief of income, non-income and asset poverty. The main aim of this study was to answer the question of whether government intervention has made any difference to the quality of life of the poor. The situation of the Eastern Cape was investigated as a case study of the larger poverty problem and focused primarily on income, non-income and asset poverty. As is the position nationally, the majority of the poor in the Eastern Cape live in the rural areas and women and the youth are the worst affected groups. The empirical analysis shows that both income and non-income poverty has declined in Eastern Cape, particularly since 2000. The study also pointed out various instances of government failure and other specific challenges. However, despite the fact that poverty relief has been a policy priority since 1994 and despite numerous policies and programmes, the extent of poverty remains unacceptable.