How Strong is the Evidence for the Existence of Poverty Traps? A Multicountry Assessment

Introducing this special collection on asset dynamics and poverty traps, this article assesses evidence on these issues across eight panel data sets in six countries generally not previously considered in this perspective. It examines the importance of assets in relation to chronic poverty and uses parametric and non-parametric methods to test for dynamic asset-based poverty traps. The article finds that chronically poor households have lower levels of assets than others, though does not find evidence of the non-convexities which would imply a multiple dynamic poverty trap. From this base the article introduces the remainder of the articles in this collection which set out many promising approaches to further develop and improve methods and approaches for looking at poverty traps in future.     

‘On the Perimeter of the Lawful’: Enduring Illegality in the Irish Family Planning Movement, 1972–1985

Between 1935 and 1985, Irish law criminalized the sale and importation of condoms. Activists established illegal markets to challenge the law and alleviate its social consequences. They distributed condoms through postal services, shops, stalls, clinics, and machines. Though they largely operated in the open, their activities attracted little direct punishment from the state, and they were able to build a stable network of medical and commercial family planning services. We use 30 interviews conducted with former activists to explore this history. In doing so, we also examine the limits of ‘illegality’ in describing acts of everyday resistance to law, arguing that the boundaries between legal and illegal, in the discourses and practices of those who sought to challenge the state, were shifting and uncertain. In turn, we revisit ‘illegality’, characterizing it as an assemblage of varying selectively‐performed political practices, shaped by complex choreographies of negotiation between state and non‐state actors.     

Gender Mainstreaming and Global Governance

This article seeks to explain the variable implementation of gender mainstreaming as a `policy frame' over time and across various international organisations (I.O.s). In the years since the U.N. Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing (1995),mainstreaming has been endorsed and adopted by a wide range of international organisations, and we compare the adoption and implementation of mainstreaming in four specific I.O.s: the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Union. The rhetorical acceptance of mainstreaming by various international organisations, however, obscures considerable variation in both the timing and the nature of the mainstreaming process within and among organisations. This variation, in turn, can be explained in terms of the categories of political opportunity, mobilising structures and strategic framing, which have been put forward by social movement theorists.     

A case of Vyākaraṇic oxymoroṇ: the notion of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Anvarthasaṃjñā</Emphasis>

The anvartha-sa?jñā compound associates two contradictory terms: anvartha, which means “[used] in conformity with his [etymological/first] meaning”, and sa?jñā which implies the idea of a convention; it therefore appears to be quite intriguing. The question is: is it relevant to focus on this contradiction or is it only a false problem? The aim of this paper is to answer the above question and this implies to grasp somewhat better the use of this notion by the Pā?inian grammarians. To do so, the author has studied the main texts of the Pā?inian tradition, having in mind the following questions: did the Pā?inian grammarians deal with this notion and, if so, in what terms? Did they perceive the contradiction raised by the association of the terms anvartha and samjñā? The study will show that this contradiction is only a false problem: according to the Pā?inian grammarians quoted above, even when a sa?jñā is provided with an etymological/first meaning and its bearer (or one of its properties) is partly described by this meaning, this sa?jñā belongs, above all, to the domain of convention.     

Catch me if you care: International development organizations and national corruption

The Review of International Organizations - Many international development organizations (IDOs) have officially mandated anti-corruption criteria for aid selectivity. Substantial debate remains...