To Örebro University

Millions of older people are living in extreme around the world. Experience suggests that such groups of people often respond with silence in research to express their social position and lived experience of impoverishment, vulnerability, oppression, and marginalization. However, understanding the eloquence that exists within the expression of silence is an empirically neglected phenomenon in scientific research, especially in studies that engage vulnerable older adults. This article, with support from practical experience and example interviews, leans towards a decolonial position that older people living in extreme poverty form a subaltern subclass who may express their lived experience using episodes of silence. The silence of vulnerable older people in research hints at a possible explanation for their silence in politics and policy discourse. Thus, it is crucial to consider silence as an empirical and primary text to illuminate perspectives of ageing within the lived context of poverty. This article intends to inspire methodological discussion as a step towards formulating strategies to empirically address silence in qualitative research involving vulnerable older adults living in poverty.

Bangladesh has experienced significant economic development in recent years, but the prevalence of extreme poverty among minority groups remains high. This study examines how exclusion, discrimination, and structural barriers contribute to multidimensional poverty among ethnic and religious minorities. It provides insights for policymakers and development partners in promoting inclusive development.

The authors contribute to a better understanding of the multiple dimensions of poverty by exploring the intersection of ethnicity, religion, discrimination, and poverty in Bangladesh, a critical but under-researched dimension of marginalization. The findings emphasize the need to move beyond reliance on economic growth and generic poverty reduction measures, advocating for tailored approaches that address structural exclusion and advance the rights of the most disadvantaged.

From a development perspective, the study holds particular significance. Bangladesh’s aspiration to eradicate poverty and achieve sustained economic growth hinges on addressing the needs of those furthest behind. Similarly, its democratic commitments are tested by the extent to which it upholds the basic rights and entitlements of marginalized populations. These goals align with Sweden’s priorities in international development, including promoting equity, safeguarding human rights, and fostering inclusive governance.

Employing qualitative methods that capture the voices and lived experiences of members of marginalized groups, this report provides insights for international development partners, including Sida, as well as decisionmakers in Bangladesh. By deepening understanding of extreme poverty and advocating for calibrated and coordinated responses, it supports efforts to advance accountability, amplify marginalized voices, and ensure that development truly benefits all.

The study outlines a set of policy implications of relevance for decision- and policymakers in Bangladesh as well as for multilateral and bilateral development partners, including the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The policy reflections largely focus on how to make marginalised minority groups in Bangladesh more ‘visible’, which is a prerequisite for addressing their extreme poverty and marginalisation.

Offering fresh perspectives on the lived experience of ageing in extreme poverty, this article delves into unpacking the relationally driven processes of social, institutional, and self-othering that contribute to agency erosion in older adults. Positing that the context of extreme poverty in which a person ages is micropolitically shaped, where society, institutions, and ageing self interact in a complex way, it is argued that ageing in extreme poverty, inter alia, means ageing in subaltern conditions. A critical consequence of this process is the subjugation of older adults, leading to a life marked by the state of 'social death'. Additional research is needed to unpack such nuances to better understand ageing processes in extreme poor societies. This necessitates an approach informed by postcolonial perspectives that take into account the dynamics of othering and agency erosion. It concludes by asserting that to reverse extreme poverty among older adults as well as to reverse their subaltern conditions requires a political project that empowers the older adults in society, restores agency and strengthens their 'relational security'.

Motivation: Many mainstream welfare theories developed by social scientists and applied by economists and policymakers underestimate families’ roles in providing welfare to citizens. This is surprising given that the family constitutes one of the main welfare pillars across typologies of the welfare state.

Purpose: This article seeks to explore the role of the family as a welfare pillar with an ageing perspective. We aimed to test whether the family serves as a space for negotiations to improve wellbeing and achieve security in the absence of effective formal mechanisms.

Methods and approach: Applying the framework of “informal security regimes” (Wood, 2004), this article draws on 37 life history interviews collected from older persons living in extreme poverty in Bangladesh. Recurring themes are identified and analysed to explore the relationship between family and wellbeing/security.

Findings: We find that family relationships are often central in the pursuit of security. This shows how welfare delivery in low- and middle-income countries (L&MICs), in this case Bangladesh, is deeply rooted in reciprocal family systems where all members actively fulfil moral and material expectations. Pursuing this collective goal can take different forms relative to each member's physical and mental capacity, position, gender, and age. Building on the empirical evidence, we propose the concept of “relational security” as a crucial marker and shaper of wellbeing.

Policy implications: To be effective, welfare policies need to better consider how the conception and experiences of wellbeing and security, especially for the older persons living in extreme poverty, are deeply embedded within the complex functioning of the relationships that can shape welfare outcomes in different directions.

The overall aim of this dissertation is to understand the lived experience of age-ing in extreme poverty in developing countries, in this case Bangladesh, a country that hosts a large number of extreme poor and ageing population. By focusing on the role of the family, the most neglected pillar of welfare, this dissertation sheds new light on the microprocesses of welfare politics. By doing so, it unravels the complexity and precariousness that characterises the lived experiences of the older persons, and the relational embeddedness of ageing in extreme poverty, which often makes bargaining, under conditions of scarce resources, an essential process.

This dissertation seeks to make contribution at the empirical, theoretical, and methodological levels. Empirically, it explores processes of generational transfer of disadvantages that create the conditions leading to the experience of extreme poor late life. Theoretically it helps us reconceptualise extreme poverty as ‘agency poverty’ associated with ageing. By adopting a life course approach, the dissertation advances our understanding of ageing and extreme poverty being inspired by postmodern and postcolonial in-sights, thus highlighting the importance of othering and agency erosion mechanisms. The dissertation also formulates the concept of ‘relational security’, arguing that the older persons’ search for wellbeing and security primarily revolves around their relations. The level of ‘relational security’ is therefore a crucial marker of wellbeing and security during the late life. Lastly, methodologically, and relying on an activist approach, the dissertation challenges some of the conventional ways of doing research. It emphasises the need both to duly recognise the power and agency of the vulnerable research participants and to facilitate a space to exercise their power and agency. It also advocates for researchers to be more mindful about their accountability to the research participants.

The dissertation discusses the policy implications of the findings and highlights that poverty policies and interventions should be concerned about ‘agency poverty’ and add provisions that contribute towards restoring older persons’ agency by, for example, empowering them politically. Policymakers also need to be aware that individuals’ different levels of relational embeddedness play a critical role in deter-mining the outcome of policy interventions tackling extreme poverty in old age.

Interviewing different groups involves different challenges and opportunities. Older persons living in extreme poverty are among those who warrant special methodological considerations. Building on the experiences of life-history interviews with extreme poor older persons in Bangladesh, this article contributes with a methodological reflection on the interview process from the start to the end. The article highlights the key practical, emotional, and ethical concerns that impact the interview process. Adopting an activist approach, it asserts that offering additional power and (or) agency to poor and vulnerable participants yields more benefit to research. The article challenges the traditional consent-seeking process as it remains short of protecting the participants fully. Period of silence appears to be crucial in interviews for which a researcher should devise schemes on how to manage and analyze silence as a non-textual interview content. The paper stresses on the need to frame plans and protocols for the researchers themselves as they can be exposed to mental, physical, or social harm. It recommends reformulation of the idea of accountability toward the research participants in relation to incentivisation, dissemination and reporting back to the community. Understanding all such nuances and careful dealing of micro-ethical aspects are crucial to succeed in an interview. The article can be particularly beneficial for early-stage researchers who conduct interviews with people living in extreme poverty, as it makes them more aware and prepared to deal with the possible challenges inherent in different stages of the interview process.

Why do the poor stay poor? And, crucially, why are their children likely to be poor and end up poor later in life? This is a familiar question in the fields of development, social policy and economics alike. Bangladesh has seen notable successes in reducing poverty, and yet, addressing the transfer of deprivations and disadvantages within and between generations still poses a major challenge for policy-makers. To date, literature on inter-generational poverty remains dominated by large quantitative panel data. By contrast, this study draws on a unique qualitative dataset of 72 extreme poor households across Bangladesh, examining how inter- and intra-generational bargains generate extreme poverty. It is argued that, while poverty is transferred inter-generationally, it is not transferred equally. Rather, transferred disadvantages are shaped by persistent forms of deprivation, discrimination and a household-level political economy that is highly gendered. The inter-generational transfer of poverty should be seen as a dynamic and negotiated process that is crucially shaped by intra-generational bargains.

The situation of extreme poor women living on their own is an area which remains under-studied in Bangladesh. This qualitative research was carried out in two coastal districts of Bangladesh with the aim to know about the livelihood and coping strategies as well as the challenges faced by FHHs in terms of managing food insecurity. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with 32 extreme poor female heads and 5 focus group discussions with female heads. The study finds that women survived through different livelihood options but faced extreme challenges in all cases. Household composition is found to be one of the most influential factors regarding a FHH’s coping decisions. Age and marital status are also key variables. Extreme poor FFH’s access to social safety nets and legal support depended on their political loyalty to other influential residents. High levels of food insecurity among FHHs is a very serious problem and leads to what we want to term as ‘food orphans’, i.e. infants and small children who are put into public or private orphanages or are sent to work as residential housemaids in richer families in exchange for food. Thus, children become the first livelihood shock absorbers for FHHs by supplementing family work and complementing family income running a high risk of intergenerational transmission of extreme poverty. The findings of this study suggest that FHHs tend to travel a passage of time led by inequality and draw attention to dimensions of vulnerability of FHHs which revolve around food insecurity. This paper demonstrates that the use of children to improve FHH food security is subjected to gender dimensions.