Poverty across the Life Cycle: Evidence from the PSID

The likelihood of experiencing poverty at some point during the adult life cycle is estimated. These probabilities are derived through a set of life tables built upon 25 waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and represent an alternative approach to studying poverty than prior empirical studies. Life table analyses are divided into early adulthood (ages 20–40), middle adulthood (ages 40–60),and later adulthood (ages 60–80). The findings indicate that individuals within the sample face a significant risk of poverty at some point during their adult lives, particularly during the early and later stages of adulthood. Duration tends to be relatively short (1 or 2 years), but once poverty occurs, it is likely to occur again. Results also reveal the profound life‐course effect that race, education, and gender have upon the likelihood of encountering poverty during the adult years. Several policy and research implications are discussed. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Whose Justice? Rethinking Transitional Justice from the Bottom Up

This paper argues that transitional justice needs to adopt a participatory approach to achieve longer-term sustainability, shifting away from the top-down 'one-size-fits-all' approach to allow 'voices from below' to be heard and heeded. It critiques dominant interpretations of key transitional justice concepts, and links them to the difficulties of post-conflict transitional justice in a range of violently divided societies. Popular participation and local agency, it is argued, is necessary to achieve ends identified in much transitional justice discourse, and to embed mechanisms for the creation of sustainable peace. A Northern Ireland initiative (the Ardoyne Commemoration Project) will be explored in-depth, illustrating how a bottom-up 'truth-telling' process can make a significant contribution to transitional justice and casting doubt on the validity of the deference to legal dominance in current policy and practice. The paper recommends that knowledge available in development studies and participatory theory be applied more clearly in debates and approaches in transitional justice.