Materializing Poverty
Author | : Erin B. Taylor |
Publisher | : Rowman & Littlefield |
Total Pages | : 193 |
Release | : 2013-10-10 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780759124226 |
ISBN-13 | : 0759124221 |
Rating | : 4/5 (26 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Poverty is generally defined as a lack of material resources. However, the relationships that poor people have with their possessions are not just about deprivation. Material things play a positive role in the lives of poor people: they help people to build social relationships, address inequalities, and fulfill emotional needs. In this book, anthropologist Erin Taylor explores how residents of a squatter settlement in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, use their material resources creatively to solve everyday problems and, over a few decades, radically transform the community. Their struggles show how these everyday engagements with materiality, rather than more dramatic efforts, generate social change and build futures.