The #GlobalPOV Project combines critical social theory, improvised art, and digital media to explore innovative ways of thinking about poverty, inequality and undertaking poverty action.

The #GlobalPOV Project is an innovation in the field of higher education. A mixed-media approach to curriculum and pedagogy, it combines traditional teaching components, such as in-class instruction and independent reading, with online video “micro-lectures” and social media discussions to capture and maintain the interest of young people who crave intelligent content — content that challenges them to think flexibly, grapple with issues of practice and theory, and question the assumptions of past development efforts.

With intent to shape global poverty and practice into a field of inquiry, The #GlobalPOV Project converts academic knowledge into formats that are accessible and interesting to the wider public. In particular, the mixed-media strategy is designed to reach a generation of socially conscious “millennials” growing up in a world of online connectivity, engagement, and innovation.

There are three components to The #GlobalPOV Project:

#GlobalPOV Video Series

A free web series consisting of video micro-lectures, each organized around a compelling and provocative question, introduce a new genre for communicating important debates regarding issues of global poverty, development, and foreign aid. The videos combine social science theory with improvised art and live-action sketch to communicate complex dilemmas and frameworks of thought to the wider public, especially to young Americans eager to take up the cause of poverty action.

Encountering Poverty Point-of-View Book

The Encountering Poverty Point-of-View (POV) book, published by the University of California Press, consolidates a new field of inquiry: global poverty studies. The book outlines and shares the core concepts and case studies of the path-breaking undergraduate curriculum of the Global Poverty and Practice (GPP) Minor at UC Berkeley. It also links to the The #GlobalPOV Project video series via Quick Response (QR) codes. Students will have the opportunity to discuss the content of the book in the #GlobalPOV Twitter feed.

#GlobalPOV on Twitter

An intervention in the relationship between youth, social media, and the public sphere, the #GlobalPOV (short for “global poverty” and “global point of view”) feed marks the dramatic democratization of the classroom. The feed is an open forum in which students, teachers, practitioners, and interested members of the public can ask questions, share resources, and engage in public debates about society, economy, and politics.

Rejecting both the “hubris of benevolence” (we can solve poverty in a Spring Break) and the “paralysis of cynicism” (we cannot change a world of inequality), The #GlobalPOV Project strikes a tone that combines critique with optimism, honesty with passion. This has been the tone of the Blum Center’s Global Poverty and Practice (GPP) Minor since its inception, and through this project, we hope to share such an approach with the wider public.

[Project summary written/edited in collaboration with Prof. Ananya Roy.]