Permanent (Collective) Poverty

The term permanent (collective) poverty refers to the poverty of collective social units, such as households, families, groups, communities or (sub)cultures experiencing relatively stable patterns of insufficient resources and means available for satisfying and securing basic needs and wants over a specific period of time.

This long-term poverty can be understood in absolute and relative terms, that is, in a narrow and a wider sense, depending on the concept of poverty that is applied. First, permanent (collective) poverty in a narrow sense describes the lack of basic requirements for collective social units to sustain a physically healthy existence. It is ongoing and leads to the hardship of large groups in developing countries or third world countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Central ...