The Oxford Handbook of Power, Politics, and Poverty

Abstract The Oxford Handbook of Power, Politics, and Poverty undertakes a critical examination of the complex interplay between political systems, social structures, and administrative practices that shape patterns of poverty and inequality in deferent societies across the globe. It seeks to interrogate how entrenched norms, values, and institutional arrangements—often taken for granted within different political and societal contexts—contribute to the persistence and deepening of deprivation, while remaining largely invisible to dominant publics and policy discourses. Power and politics fundamentally determine the lived realities of the poor and marginalised. In the contemporary era, welfare provision is increasingly defined by the imperatives of neoliberalism, globalisation, and the privatisation of essential goods and services. The retrenchment of the state and the concomitant expansion of market mechanisms have intensified social vulnerability, leading to widespread poverty, hunger, and exclusion. Within neoliberal, market-oriented economies, international trade agreements and economic policies frequently privilege corporate and elite interests over those of ordinary people, communities, and ecological sustainability. This handbook brings together leading scholars to examine, critique, and theorise the values, practices, and institutional logics that produce and reproduce poverty and inequality within global and local contexts. It further emphasises the importance of recognising and addressing the less visible, often normalised forms of discrimination and exclusion that remain marginalised in contemporary academic and policy debates, yet are central to understanding the politics of poverty and power in the modern world.