Routledge International Handbook of Poverty

Bent Greve

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367178666
• eBook ISBN: 9780429603464
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The first of the UN Millennium Goals was to reduce extreme poverty and in 2014 it was halved compared to 1990, and now the goal is to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2030. The reduction in poverty is, to a high degree, the consequence of the rapid economic development in a few countries, especially China, but in many countries around the globe poverty is still at a high level and is influencing societies' overall development. It is against this background that this Handbook provides an up-to-date analysis and overview of the topic from a large variety of theoretical and methodological angles.

Organised into four parts, the Handbook provides knowledge on what poverty is, how it has developed, and what type of policies might be able to succeed in reducing poverty. Part I investigates conceptual issues and relates concepts to people's relative position in society and the understanding of justice. Part II shows how poverty has developed. It combines existing empirical knowledge with regional/national understandings of the issue of poverty. Part III analyses policies and interventions with the aim of reducing or alleviating poverty within a national as well as global context. It includes a variety of countries and examples. Finally, Part IV tells us what can be done about poverty; what instruments are available to end poverty as we know it today.

This volume will be an invaluable reference book for students and scholars throughout the social sciences, particularly in sociology, social policy, public policy, development studies, international relations and politics.

1

Poverty

Still an important issue

Bent Greve

Introduction

Throughout the history of humanity there have been people living under harsh conditions – and many in dire poverty. Poverty has thus been a central part of society’s development. Economic development has caused life conditions to improve in many ways. However, we do still see poverty around the globe, naturally with variations, but it is still an important issue in many countries and for many persons.

The first of the UN Millennium Goals was to reduce extreme poverty. In fact, in 2014, poverty was halved compared to 1990, and now the goal is to eradicate poverty and hunger by 2030.¹ The new UN 2030 plan has as its first goal, to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere”.² In the preamble, it argues: “We are determined to end poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment.”

Poverty is thus still high on the international agenda, although one could argue that it has been on the agenda around the world for many decades without being able to be fully eradicated. This in the context of the first social policy laws in many countries being poor laws focusing on the most destitute, albeit often with harsh conditions and punishment of the poor in need of support.

The reduction in poverty is, to a high degree, the consequence of the rapid economic development in a few countries, especially China, but in many countries around the globe poverty is still at a high level and influencing societies’ overall development. Still, close to one billion people live in extreme poverty.

It is against this background that this book provides an analysis and overview of the topic from a wide variety of theoretical and methodological angles. The range of topics covered by the authors enable them to show what poverty is, how it has developed, and what type of policies might be able to cope with the issue. This is because the possible policies and understanding of the importance thereof might depend on individual countries’ ability to handle poverty, and the different national and historical understanding of, and size of, the problem. At the same time, the interaction between poverty and global development is an important part of the discussion as, for example, poverty has been and can be part of the reason for migration around the globe.

Poverty has many different understandings and faces which partly reflect national and regional contexts of living standards, but also ideological and political issues. The implication of this is that poverty, on the one hand, is context dependent, while on the other there are general issues one needs to consider, including how it can be measured, and how a variety of measurements might influence our understanding of the size and type of problems poverty causes for different kinds of societies. Furthermore, there can be a need to understand those causes, and what the short- and long-term consequences of living in poverty are. The many and often interrelated issues imply the need for different concepts in order to understand the subject. There is thus poverty in relation to the day-to-day ability to pay for food and shelter – and there is also poverty in relation to being at risk of social exclusion. There are discussions on the impact of poverty, including the link between inequality and societal development (see, for example, Wilkinson and Pickett 2009, 2018; Case and Deaton 2003).

This chapter sets the scene for the book by first presenting some important aspects related to the issue of poverty. It then gives an overview of the book, why the book is structured as it is, and ends with some reflections on why poverty is still a strong and important policy issue.

Important aspect

First of all, a core question to ask is: What is poverty? There is no international agreement on the definition of what poverty is, although some common understanding of what to include can be found. This is because the understanding of the size and implication of poverty might influence decision makers’ willingness to do something. For example, if the data used point towards the fact that there is no poverty, then the implication of this is that there is no need for policy intervention.

Rowntree’s poverty study in the UK at the beginning of the last century (Rowntree 1901), looking at what, today, we call absolute poverty, was one of the first studies to point out that there was a need for a basket of goods (including food and shelter) in order not to live in poverty. Thus, for example, not including what we today, at least in part of the world, consider as necessary in order to be socially included in society. There has always been discussion about how much and what kind of food is necessary in order to be in a position to ensure a decent life with a necessary set of capabilities, as understood by Sen (2005). This points to the fact that it is not sufficient to analyse poverty in isolation, but that one also needs to include and touch upon issues such as equality, justice and social rights. This is because poverty can also be a feeling of not being able to do what one sees others are able to do.

There are many and varied explanations and arguments for the size and development of poverty. One is related to structural factors, for example, that some people are born poor and/or born to be poor. This reflects elements such as difficulties in social mobility, lack of education and lack of options in the labour market. Industrial explanations relate to how change, especially in the labour market, influences the risk of poverty, and explains why some people end up living in poverty. This might especially be the case for children growing up in jobless households who will have a long-term risk of ending up living in poverty (Macmillan et al. 2018). Overall, there are many and varied possible causes of poverty, which are also shown throughout the book. These include elements and consequences of issues such as: social inclusion, discrimination, lack of redistributive policies, labour market changes (technology, business cycle), globalization and migration.

The debate on poverty further has a strong normative dimension related to issues of deserving/non-deserving as a classical social policy issue (Greve 2015; van Oorschot 2006; Will 1993). There is no simple way to deduce who is deserving and who is not deserving, although those reaching the age of retirement who have been working in the labour market are often, in general, seen as deserving in most countries. People with disabilities – i.e. the reason that they are living in poverty is not due to their own fault – are often also seen as deserving, whereas migrants are less often seen as deserving, as well as those who – at least in some people’s eyes – could have participated in the labour market. The perception and understanding of the reasons for poverty also influence policies towards poverty both within countries and in discussion on transfers from richer countries to less economically well-developed countries. Naturally, there is variation that is also framed by national historical traditions and influenced by different ideas over time, such as whether it is an individual problem or a collective issue. Still, the book will, hopefully, enable the reader to get some ideas about the most important aspects in relation to how to understand and to deal with poverty, including what we know about policies that might reduce the overall size and impact of poverty.

Ensuring that people have the necessary capabilities as a way to cope with poverty, after the important work of Sen (Nussbaum 2005; Sen 2005, 2006), has for some time been seen as important, although not always pointing towards specific interventions.

In recent years, there has also been a debate about how to ensure that what is spent on poverty issues is efficient and has an effective impact in relation to the money spent. This also includes whether and how focus could be on prevention (Fisher and Buckner 2018; Berghman, Debels and Van Hoyweghen 2019). (For a short introduction to poverty, see Saunders 2019.)

Content of the book

The book is divided into four different Parts:

I Conceptual issues

II Poverty around the world and development in poverty

III Policies towards poverty

IV The way forward – what will influence poverty in the years to come?

Part I investigates conceptual issues in order to be clearer about what and how one can actually understand the concept, including relating it to people’s relative position in society and the understanding of justice. Understanding what a just society is might influence decisions and attitudes towards poverty, and thereby also indicate that the ideas and national development can influence how it is perceived. The first Part further includes debates on how to measure poverty in different ways, as counting the number of people in poverty might have an impact on whether or not there is a societal need for interventions in order to be able to reduce poverty.

The chapters in Part II paint a picture of how poverty has developed and what it looks like around the globe. They thus combine existing empirical knowledge with regional/national understandings of the issue of poverty. By doing so it should be possible to grasp the variety and difference in, and the consequences of, poverty in different parts of the world. This also includes specific topics related, for example, to whether we can find working poor, poverty in old age and the consequence of poverty, for example in relation to migration and crime. This given that, again, referring to the issues of deserving/non-deserving and which groups live in poverty or at risk of poverty can have an impact on what types of intervention, if any, are decided.

Part III moves towards what we know about policies and interventions with the aim of reducing or alleviating poverty within a national as well as a global context. It includes a variety of countries and examples, ranging from aspects of social benefits towards labour market policies, to how to redistribute from the rich to the poor. For more detail, see below in the overview of the individual chapters.

Part IV includes only one chapter, with the aim of synthesizing the knowledge arising from the presentations and analysis in the book, and as a consequence pointing to what can be important policies, or aspects thereof, in order to deal with poverty around the globe and how to reach the goal set for 2030 as presented at the beginning of this chapter.

Given the intention that it should be possible to read each chapter as an individual, there might be a few overlaps between some of the chapters in the book.

After this first chapter, the book starts with a number of chapters having a more conceptual focus in Part I.

Chapter 2 has an emphasis on the concept of absolute poverty, how it has evolved over time, including the recent estimate of the size of the problem. This includes information on the variation of regional poverty rates. The chapter also presents an example from Mozambique on the calculation of what should be in a basket of goods and services in order to avoid living in poverty in a developing country. This will have an impact on the size of the absolute poverty line in different countries.

Chapter 3 looks into how the absolute or relative understanding of poverty is defined, but more importantly the implication of using the different types of definitions when related to the understanding of the development in poverty. This also means that one type of measurement might be more useful for some societies than in other countries, and also depending on their economic development.

Recent years have seen a stronger emphasis on how to understand poverty as a multidimensional issue. Chapter 4 presents aspects and elements related to this. These also include a reference to the UN’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The chapter also points to Sen’s capability theory as a reason why it is importan...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Poverty: Still an Important Issue
• Part I Conceptual Issues
• Part II Poverty Around the World and Development in Poverty
• Part III Policies Toward Poverty
• Part IV the Way Forward: What Will Influence Poverty in the Years to Come?
• Index