Journal Article: De-centering Poverty Studies: middle class alliances and the social construction of poverty

Victoria Lawson with Middle Class Poverty Politics Research Group
In this lecture I explore relational poverty analysis to take seriously the spatially varied intersections of political-economic, social ordering and cultural-political processes in shaping understandings of poverty. The Middle Class Poverty Politics Research Group employs a relational comparative methodology to theorize where, when and under what circumstances those framed as ‘middle class’ act in opposition to, or in solidarity with those named as ‘poor’. Our approach focuses on the exploitive effects of capital accumulation, processes of unequal socio-spatial categorization and political and discursive systems that limit or exclude the ‘poor’. Our research focuses on places experiencing capitalist crisis because intense periods of restructuring highlight material and discursive struggles over poverty. We conclude by identifying a research agenda focused on the ways in which poverty politics are constituted by the non-poor through place and in the articulation of places with processes of political-economy, governance and cultural politics.