Academics Stand Against Poverty is proud to announce the publication of the organization\’s first book, titled The Social Exclusion Reader. The book, edited by ASAP Austria, features 24 short essays written by experts that offer new and unusual perspectives on poverty and social exclusion.

In the realm of global poverty the common discourse often centers on the same few concepts. These reoccurring narrowly-focused conversations and arguments enhance the risk of public numbness to poverty. Therefore, the primary aim of the The Social Exclusion Reader is to circulate deep poverty knowledge beyond the academic world to raise global awareness of the harsh, complex living conditions of the world’s poor. The book confronts and expands upon common knowledge of poverty by providing in-depth information and new, under-discussed viewpoints on poverty-related topics including poverty and noise, social exclusion and leisure, and poverty and disgust.

The Social Exclusion Reader is written in the German language and is currently available to read online.

ASAP Austria was founded in 2012 in Vienna. The primary focus of the chapter is on poverty alleviation at the regional and local level. For information related to the Social Exclusion Reader, write to Gottfried Schweiger at gottfried.schweiger@sbg.ac.at.

Photo credit: Dragan Brankovic/Flickr

Members of the new ASAP Students chapter at Delhi-area universities staged a successful launch workshop bringing together experts on food security and exclusion. Students from the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ambedkar University Delhi came together on the Delhi University campus to engage on crucial issues of poverty, to strategize and elect officers for the new chapter.

They were joined by a five-member delegation from the ASAP Students chapter at the University of Birmingham in the UK, as well as by ASAP Board Chair Thomas Pogge, who was visiting Delhi to speak to various audiences about his Health Impact Fund initiative. Pogge led the students in dialogue about current and potential ASAP projects, and ways in which the two chapters could work together to have concrete impact on poverty-related issues in India, the UK and elsewhere.

Suparna  Priyadarshini, a PhD student at Delhi University, was selected as the first Chair of the Delhi ASAP Students chapter, and several other members were chosen for officer posts. The group will be advised by Dr. Ashok Acharya, ASAP Board member and Associate Professor of Political Science at DU. An initial emphasis at the chapter will be the inauguration of the All Rights India project, aimed at helping the very poor learn about and actually claim their social entitlements.

At the July 19 workshop, discussion focused initially on problems with the way India’s government counts the poor. Utsa Patnaik, professor emeritus of economics at JNU, provided detailed evidence showing that the number of those unable to buy sufficient food has dramatically increased in recent years, even as government poverty-line figures have decreased. Dr. Arindam Banerjee, assistant professor of economics at Ambedkar University, provided further detail on ways in which the government\’s counting methods ignore recent worsening of conditions in how the poor actually live. In terms of access  to food, shelter, decent housing and other indicators, he said, India\’s new economic dynamism has not filtered down to the poor.

Narayan Sukumar Associate Professor at Delhi University, gave an impassioned talk about the persistence of discrimination against lower-caste persons in universities across India, as well as outside the academic sector. Despite laws formally banning caste discrimination, he noted, it remains pervasive in virtually all aspects of university life and the broader Indian social context.

For information on the ASAP Students Delhi chapter, including on how to join, contact Suparna Priyadarshini at suparna_11@rediffmail.com