Resumo

KAY, Cristóbal. Rural Poverty in Latin America: Development Theories and Strategies. Rev. Mex. Sociol [online]. 2007, vol.69, n.1, pp.69-108. ISSN 2594-0651.

In this essay the main approaches to poverty studies with their diverse focus and policy proposals or implications are analyzed. It is argued that poverty is being produced and reproduced through certain economic, social, political and cultural relations at local, national and global levels. Thus to overcome poverty and inequality it is necessary to change such systemic relations through major reforms at all these levels. Integrating further developing countries and their peasantries and rural labourers into the world economy through neoliberal policy measures is not the panacea for overcoming poverty. Quite the contrary, it would entrench poverty even further in the Latin American countryside.

Palavras-chave : poverty studies; poverty reduction; rural poverty; peasantry; public policies; development strategies.