Publication: Living through Crises : How the Food, Fuel, and Financial Shocks Affect the Poor
Date
2012-04-03
ISSN
Published
2012-04-03
Author(s)
Abstract
The food, fuel, and financial crises
that started in 2008 reverberated throughout the global
economy, causing job losses; poverty; and economic,
financial, and political upheaval in countries all over the
world. This book is not about the causes of these crises or
the macroeconomic and financial sector issues surrounding
their origin, spread, and impact; nor is it about how such
crises may be prevented in the future. These are important
questions, but they have been dealt with in a large number
of books, articles, and even movies. Instead, this book is
about the more neglected, mundane, and yet centrally
important matter of how people lived through the globalized
crises of 2008-11, how these people were affected, and what
they did to cope. At the time of writing, in late 2011,
global food prices had again spiked, and further waves of
fiscal and financial shocks were under way, as world
economic growth faltered and the euro area sovereign debt
crisis mounted. The timing means this book offers vital
insights into how people coped, and how they sometimes did
not, at a time when such knowledge is most urgently needed.
The theme of the book is likely to have an enduring
significance, as it offers a unique glimpse into the
experience of living through a new type of systemic shock
wave that is globalized, highly contagious, and
multifaceted. Systemic shocks of the complexity and scale
witnessed from 2008 through 2011 are quite unprecedented in
world history, but are predicted to be more frequent in the
future (Held, Kaldor, and Quah 2010; Goldin and Vogel 2010).
The purpose in writing this book is to make the bottom-up
perspectives on globalized crises available to a larger
audience. The research presents a unique and largely untold
account of how people lived through the severe economic
turmoil of recent years, how they were affected, and what
they did to cope, lending a voice to affected communities themselves.
Citation
“Heltberg, Rasmus; Hossain, Naomi; Reva, Anna. 2012. Living through Crises : How the
Food, Fuel, and Financial Shocks Affect the Poor. New Frontiers of Social Policy. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6013 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”