Week 3 Reflections: An anchor for the boat

One of the things that has been on my mind is what I can anchor my project on- an organisation, a geographical area, a manifestation of inequality etc. Keeping my research specific will be important for feasibility purposes but also to ensure its effectiveness as a starting point for further comparative studies.

In this week’s Power Data and Inequality in Value Chains intensives, we spoke about environmental and social upgrading/downgrading in Value Chains. Put simply, the social arm addresses the role of power in helping or hindering sustainable forms of upward social mobility for smallholder farmers producing intermediate goods, for example. The environmental arm looks at the impact that externalities of production (and the underlying political decisions driving these) have on the planet, and by extension the people living on it. This idea of looking at inequalities from the perspective of “people” and “planet” is what I’d like to carry through to thoughts about an anchor for my futures project.

Whereas a focus on “planet” is particularly apt in the current climate (pun intended) and has the potential to give a view on a topic that is easier for some to distance themselves from, I think a focus on “people” might make more sense as a starting point considering my research questions and methods. In particular, I’d like to hone in on the topic of chronic poverty. The benefit of this is that wealth inequalities lie at the intersection of many other types of inequalities and poverty is a problem that directly or indirectly impacts everyone. Addressing poverty is generally a conversation that occurs at multiple levels of society and this has the potential to give me flexibility regarding the perspectives I explore.