She became a professor of social policy in 1975 at the University of Bergen, Norway, and shifted her later research focus to comparative poverty studies within an interdisciplinary framework.
In a few years, it became one of the major programmes under the International Social Science Council (ISSC).
The foremost aim of CROP was to provide a scientific framework for the understanding of the many facets of poverty and to create an international arena where poverty researchers from different regions and disciplines could meet and exchange experiences.
[2] Øyen notes the role of vocabulary as the term 'poverty production' implies that there are actors involved in producing poverty.
Despite this, however, Øyen is careful to mention that such an exercise must not be a witch hunt as the purpose of identification is not punishment.