Absolute poverty
Absolute poverty is poverty as defined according to standards that are fixed and valid for all societies. People
who do not reach these standards are considered to be poor.
(in "Describing Poverty")
Access
Access refers to the rights (in a broad sense) that different people have to different resources or to the ability
to obtain or make use of resources. Access includes de jure as well as de facto mechanisms governing resource use.
(in "Access and Institutional Context")
Access control
Access control refers to the ability to mediate others’ access by means of power over others.
(in "Access and Institutional Context")
Access maintenance
Access maintenance refers to the processes of keeping access open for one’s self or others by expanding resources of
powers.
(in "Access and Institutional Context")
Activity
In a livelihood approach, activities refer to what a household or the individuals actually do with their available resources
to achieve well-being. Well-being may have different definitions (see well-being) and range from having enough to eat, shelter
for the family and basic level of security to much higher standards of living.
(in "Livelihood Research Perspective - Assets, Practices, and Wellbeing")
Agency
Agency refers to the capacity of individuals to act within a society. This capacity to act is made possible by the knowledge
individuals have about their society. Agency can thus be used either to change or transform society.
(in "Theorising Inequality and Change")
Agenda 21
The Agenda 21 is the United Nations’ programme to implement the principle of sustainable development at global, national
and local level. It was formulated at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.
(in "Sustainable Development")
Alter-globalisation
Alter-globalisation refers to the views of actors who oppose current trends in globalisation processes, but who do not
oppose the idea of globalisation per se. They criticise aspects such as cultural homogenisation or the social exclusion induced
by fragmentation. They usually claim that other forms of globalisation are possible.
(in "Globalisation Processes B")
Americanisation
Americanisation is the term used to qualify the influence the United States of America has on the culture of other countries.
As the main actors in globalisation processes are the so-called “Western” countries and especially the USA, the dynamics of
homogenisation within globalisation are referred to as ‘Westernisation’ or ‘Americanisation’.
(in "Globalisation Processes B")
Anti-globalisation
Anti-globalisation groups - or the anti-globalisation movement - refers to the actors and group of actors who oppose
the process of globalisation, either because they disagree with the erosion of nation-states’ power and the greater connections
and interdependence it implies, or because they dislike the direction that globalisation is taking, especially regarding how
its benefits are distributed. The latter often prefer to be referred to as “alter-globalisation” groups.
(in "Globalisation Processes B")
Assets
Assets are a set of resources that local people may or may not be able to access. Resources are also referred to as capitals.
Resources and capitals within livelihoods must not be understood in the strict economic sense but rather as strength including
social and cultural resources. There are many typologies of assets. One of the most common is the DFID categorisation into
five capitals, namely social, financial, human, natural and physical capital.
(in "Livelihood Research Perspective - Assets, Practices, and Wellbeing")
Axiom
An axiom is a taken-for-granted assumption or postulate of a model or theory from which other propositions can be derived.
(in "Development Theories")
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