Date post: | 18-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | janis-ford |
View: | 216 times |
Download: | 0 times |
© T. M. Whitmore
Today• The “Entitlement” concept
• Geographical model of hunger
• The Irish “hunger” example of the model
© T. M. Whitmore
Amartya Sen’s Entitlement Concept
• Sen’s seminal book: Poverty and Famines:
An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation
(Oxford University Press, 1983) let to Nobel
prize in economics
• Famines/malnutrition/food scarcity/food
insecurity are NOT caused by simple food
shortages alone (production shortfalls)
• The ability of people to command or
acquire food is what is key (entitlement
shortfalls)
© T. M. Whitmore
Sen’s Entitlement Concept II• Ways to command/acquire food
Via capital (money or goods [e.g., cattle] exchanged for food)
Via income from labor/work (exchanged for food)
Via assistance (State or NGO) (could be money or food directly)
Via own production (requires access or ownership of enough quality land)
• Most households do not rely on a single source or type
A week’s food for family in NC – virtually all purchased© Peter Menzel (in Hungry Planet, 2005 Ten Speed Press)
A week’s food for refugee family from Darfur, Sudan – virtually all from aid© Peter Menzel (in Hungry Planet, 2005 Ten Speed Press)
A week’s food for family in Chad – virtually all from own production© Peter Menzel (in Hungry Planet, 2005 Ten Speed Press)
© T. M. Whitmore
The “Geographical Hunger Model”
• Need to see the problem at multiple scalesRegionalHouseholdIndividual
• “Drivers” (causes) Work at multiple scales There many different ones
• ConsequencesAlso occur at multiple scalesAlso are myrid
© T. M. Whitmore
The Geographical Hunger Model II
• Underlying ProcessesSet the possibility for entitlement
failures• Immediate Causes
Triggers of entitlement failures• Hunger Situations
Hunger consequences of entitlement failures
• Direct ConsequencesOther consequences of hunger situations
© T. M. Whitmore
Irish “hunger” of 1846-51: Underlying Processes &
background • Surplus production and appropriation &
resource competition
• The potato
• Population growth
• Crop failures and subsistence crisis throughout the nineteenth century
• Racist views toward the Irish (probably delayed help)
© T. M. Whitmore
Irish “hunger” Immediate/Proximate Causes &
Processes • Environmental Fluctuation – infection of
potato crop with Phytophthora infestons a fungal infection (late potato blight) spread by the wind
• Socio-Economic policies that deprived millions of entitlements to food
• Process – not a single event
© T. M. Whitmore
Irish “hunger” Process• Blight 1845 => 40% loss and famine in 1846
• 1846 => near 100% loss + severe winter => severe famine & disease in 1847
• 1847 - 1850 potato crop not blighted but output low due to small planting (people expected blight)
• Approximately 500,000 people were evicted, many of whom died of starvation or disease or relocated to mismanaged and inadequate poor houses (could not pay rent)
• Prices soared => even urban poor suffered (dilution of income entitlement)
© T. M. Whitmore
Irish “hunger” Process II
• Eventually the English government also initiated relief schemesWorkhouses (but served as centers of
contagion)Repeal of corn laws in 1846 (but peasants
too poor to buy food at any price)
• It was at this juncture that the Duke of Norfolk suggested that the Irish should substitute curry powder for the potato and nourish themselves on curry powder mixed with water.
© T. M. Whitmore
Irish “hunger” Process III• PM (Peel )was replaced in office in 1846 by
Lord John Russell and a Whig administration dedicated to a laissez-faire policyCharles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to
the Treasury under Russell, oversaw famine relief efforts. a “blame the victim” mentality: Irish
were at fault for over-dependence on potatoes and high fertility (too many kids)
The British also saw it as a “natural disaster”: blamed it on the weather and the potato fungus
• Wheat, oats, barley, butter, eggs, beef and pork were exported from the large estates Ireland in large quantities - as many as eight ships left Ireland daily carrying foodstuffs
© T. M. Whitmore
Irish “hunger” Consequences
• Starvation and disease became epidemicMore died of disease than of starvation. Most were weakened from long starvation
when they finally succumbed to typhus, cholera, dysentery, and scurvy.
At least 1 million perished• 1 – 2 + million emigrated (mostly to US and
England)• Population of Ireland
1850 = 6.5 m (from 8.5m 5 yrs earlier)1900 4.5 m => longer-term emigration,
much to US