Causes Of Poverty In Wuling Mountain Ethnic Minority Areas

This paper starts from the special status of poverty of Wuling mountains ethnic minority areas in the perspective of core periphery theory, to explore the poverty problem and the development gap between the center and the edge. The author analyses the poverty causes from three dimensions:geographical factors, administrative factors and ethnic factors, which result in the imbalance and the asymmetry development.The paper is based on literatures of the core periphery theory and its application, poverty-stricken ethnic minority, involved in the author’s practical experience of the Wuling Mountains Poverty Reduction Project, which can make full use of the literature and data collected in the research. By combining theory and practice together, comprehensive analysis on the influence factors of regional poverty in Wuling Mountain minority areas can be realized.The poverty of Wuling ethnic minority areas is unique, which is caused by many factors. The author analyses the special poverty causes from the core periphery perspective, with three aspects of marginalized status, the geographical edge, the administrative edge and the ethnic edge. Qualitative analyses, which are based on interviews of poverty alleviation research in Wuling mountain area, are used to illustrate the affects of those three factors Geographical edge is the fundamental causes of poverty, the administrative edge factor is institutional factors, and the marginalized national culture is a non-institutional factor that affects the levels of poverty. According to the data of statistical yearbooks and government reports, the author makes a comparative poverty analysis to illustrate the development gaps between the mountainous place and central region, ethnic minorities and non-minority, administrative region edge and the center cities. Finally, the author presents conclusions and recommendations of the paper. The reconstruction of the center and periphery relations is the core point to coordinate regional development in balance. And it is also an important way of poverty reduction in Wuling ethnic minority areas.