THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE STATE OF POVERTY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Social movements emerge as part of and in response to the prevailing relations of power. They emerge to make visible identities rendered invisible, abnormal or excluded by these relationships, to challenge currently dominant ideas as to how society should be organized, to draw attention to needs not currently attended to under existing social arrangements, or to argue that existing arrangements need protecting and deepening. The scholars agree that relatively few social movements emerge specifically around the issue of poverty, in particularly poverty as defined by lack. However, if poverty is a product of prevailing relations of power, to the extent that different movements emerge to challenge or deepen these relations, then social movements are necessarily relevant to the existing status of poverty and the likelihood that it may change.