Work

‘Not too high, not too low’: transparency, opacity and the politics of poverty measurement in Jordan

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: This paper explores the politics of creating and calibrating monetary poverty indicators in Jordan using interviews with policy-shapers and documentary analysis.It highlights the significance of these dynamics for conceptualizing governance and statehood in the Middle East.I argue that poverty indicators have served a dual purpose: they have functioned as a tool of state legibility, seeking to enable governments to act on poverty and increase accountability.At the same time, opacity in their production has made it possible to shirk responsibility for worsening socio-economic situations.The combination has helped to reproduce the state as a distinct entity that should, at least in principle, be able to tackle socio-economic inequalities.By empirically and conceptually highlighting the intertwinement between transparency and opacity, the article not only contributes a new perspective to debates around governance through indicators, but also to deexceptionalizing the Middle East in discussions on the globalized politics of development.

Source: Globalizations

DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2023.2192120

Author: Katharina Lenner

Institution: University of Bath

Language: English

Topic: Income, Poverty, and Inequality

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, No poverty

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Sixth Framework Programme