Thinking 'Small' and the Understanding of Poverty: Maymana and Mofizul's Story

Much recent thinking on poverty and poverty reduction is ‘big’ in terms of its ideas, units of analysis, datasets, plans and ambitions. While recognising some of the benefits of such approaches this paper argues that researchers should counterbalance this through ‘thinking small’. It illustrates this through the life history of a poor two person household in Bangladesh. Maymana and Mofizul’s story confirms much current thinking about persistent poverty in that country. [WP No. 22].