Is the Debate on Poverty Research a Global One? A Consideration of the Exclusion of Odera Oruka’s ‘Human Minimum’ as a Case of Epistemic Injustice

Abstract

In this work, I argue that the poverty debate, particularly the one based on qualitative research, has yet to go global due to the exclusion of ideas from scholars in the Global South. For example, despite the great insight of the Kenyan philosopher Odera Oruka on poverty leading to his theory of “the human minimum”, and despite the fact that his works are available in libraries around the world, there is a noticeable exclusion of his views in the contemporary debate on global poverty. In this chapter, I will discuss the state of global poverty research. I will present Oruka’s views on poverty and show not only their implications for sub-Saharan Africa, but also for the world as a whole. I will argue that the exclusion of voices from the Global South amounts to what Miranda Fricker calls epistemic injustice. In the last section, I will conclude by proposing conversational thinking—a form of inclusive, fair, intercultural epistemic engagement for globalizable poverty research.