Publications by: Adam Parsons

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No tax, no justice

Article / 23rd September 2011

Finding ways to increase tax revenue is critical if developing countries are to fund essential public services and reduce poverty. Global reforms to tackle tax evasion and policies to strengthen the capacity of national revenue authorities should be a top priority for development cooperation, argues Adam Parsons.

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Is a ‘global social floor’ the right path for ending poverty?

Article / 31st March 2011

An internationally coordinated effort to secure universal social protection may not address the structural factors which make people vulnerable to poverty, but it could represent a major step forward in the fight against needless suffering and deprivation, argues Adam Parsons.

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The rise of ‘British’ people power

Article / 20th December 2010

In the space of a few weeks, a nationwide protest movement has emerged in Britain characterised by intelligent, humorous and peaceful direct actions. The question that remains is whether it can connect with the popular protests in other countries through its fundamental call for equality and justice, writes Adam Parsons.

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The seven myths of ‘slums’ – myth 1: there are too many people

Report / 8th December 2010

Since Thomas Malthus first warned of an impending population explosion in 1798, the idea that there are too many people in the world for everyone to share in the earth’s bounty is one of the most persistent and widespread myths in popular thinking on development...

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The seven myths of ‘slums’ – myth 2: the poor are to blame

Report / 8th December 2010

The deep-seated myth that the poor are to blame for their conditions of poverty echoes back to the earliest days of industrialisation in Western Europe. With a perverse inversion of cause and effect, the prevalence of extreme urban poverty and slum settlements is blamed...

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The seven myths of ‘slums’ – myth 3: slums are places of crime, violence and social degradation

Report / 8th December 2010

A corollary of the myth that the poor are to blame for their poverty is the widespread prejudice against slums as places of social degradation and despair, and against slum residents as perpetrators of violence and crime...

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The seven myths of ‘slums’ – myth 4: slums are an inevitable stage of development

Report / 8th December 2010

There is an underlying assumption to much of the debate surrounding slums and urban poverty: that the urban poor will get to our standard of living eventually, and countries of the South will rise to the same level of material affluence as the industrialised North, just so long as...

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The seven myths of ‘slums’ – Myth 5: the free market can end slums

Report / 8th December 2010

According to the international institutions and powerful states that drive globalisation (along with most of the business community, conservative political parties, libertarian ideologues and the corporate-controlled media that gives voice to their concerns), we are told that social injustice can only be addressed by the proper application of some version of free market capitalism...

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The seven myths of ‘slums’ – myth 6: international aid is the answer

Report / 8th December 2010

Never in the history of cities have there been so many projects for improving slums and the living conditions of the urban poor by international aid agencies, development banks and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). But just as state policies have failed to meet the needs of the urban poor in most low- and middle-income countries...

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The seven myths of ‘slums’ – myth 7: there will always be slums

Report / 8th December 2010

Is it realistic to talk about an end to slums at any point in the future? Or does the same view hold for ‘slums’ as for those who proclaim against global poverty: “the poor have always been with us, and always will be!” For some modern writers, the evidence suggests that the future of cities is a foregone and forbidding conclusion, a “planet of slums”...

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