Abstract:

Eradication of poverty or fight against poverty is one of the main slogans of many national and international institutes who claim defending humanitarian ideas, however their strategies seem to be quite disperse and disharmonic. It seems that one of the essential reasons which brings this dispersion and disharmony in their planning, as well as in their action plans, is different ways of conceptualizing poverty. This article begins with an ontological and genealogical review of the concept of poverty in its historical process. Next, the role of higher education in reducing different types of poverty will be analyzed. Iranian studies concerning original factors of poverty in Iranian society and suggestions to reduce this phenomenon compose another section of this article. This finally prepares the context for a comparative study of the process of higher education extension in Iran and its impacts on poverty, which does not exhibit any sign of reduction.