The Winning Combination of Surviving Together: Poor and Their Resilience Built Through Relationships

By Arun Keshav (Amity University, Rajasthan)

Social capital happens to be one of the most important assets that poor possess. It is this safety net on which they fall upon at time of crisis and also draw security to reduce their vulnerabilities to several risks but what strength lies behind this social capital? Why poor invest so much in their social relations? In this article the author tries to understand what lies behind these and the winning combination of surviving together. The understanding is developed through drawing an analogy from an Oscar winning film ‘Gladiator and further building argument based on this analogy’. Starting from social capital this article also highlights the importance of Intra-household relations and its possible role in increasing the resilience of poor household, which is depending on the same underlying principle of surviving together through the strength drawn from relationships.

Source: SSRN