We are grateful to our contributors to this edited collection. Aram, Anjan, Brij, David, Eirini, Jamie, John, Macayla, Marcelo, Michael, Mizhar, Steven, Tarique, Thaddeus and Themis: they all have been absolutely wonderful in every sense of the word. We posed a series of (rather difficult) questions for them to think about in terms of the causality of global poverty. They focussed on what they knew best and produced excellent analyses. It was also a great relief to us that when they received feedback on their first drafts, they promptly worked on the revised versions with a great sense of humility that is the hallmark of great scholars.
In our theme paper that was a part of our invitation to our authors, we argued that it was not enough to measure and identity poverty at a point in time, over time and across countries/regions, but that it is necessary to examine the causality of global poverty, the poverty that exists in every part of the world. We also argued that this exploration must be at multiple ontological levels, including: the structure of social relations, mechanisms, outcomes, and time- and place-specific experiences. Our contributors believed in the overall theoretical character of the project, and their belief enhanced our own confidence in the project. This book is truly their book, therefore, both individually and collectively.
There was much delay at our end in terms of completing the refereeing process, a delay that was only partly caused by the pandemic, but all our contributors were extremely patient with us. They continued to have the confidence that the book project would be completed.
We both have met countless numbers of poor men, women, and children during our research and in our everyday lives. They have taught us much about poverty. In many ways, they have inspired us to launch and complete this edited collection. We are also sure that all our contributors’ thinking about poverty is partly shaped by their everyday encounters with the poor. We wish to acknowledge our debt to the poor people of the world.
We wish to register our gratitude to the York Centre for Asian Research (ycar) at York University, Toronto. One of us (Deepak) received a ycar Research Collaboration Fellowship which allowed him to visit York. During his visit we were able to complete some of the work for the book. Special thanks are due to Professor Abidin Kusno, ycar’s Director, and to Alicia Filipowich, ycar’s coordinator. We have not seen many people in the world who are more helpful than Alicia.