This anthology constitutes an important contribution to the interdisciplinary debate on poverty measurement and alleviation. Absolute and relative poverty-both within and across state boundaries-are standardly measured and evaluated in monetary terms. However, poverty researchers have highlighted the shortfalls of one-dimensional monetary metrics. A new consensus is emerging that effectively addressing poverty requires a nuanced understanding of poverty as a relational phenomenon involving deprivations in multiple dimensions, including health, standard of living, education and political participation.

This volume advances the debate on poverty by providing a forum for philosophers and empirical researchers. It combines philosophically sound analysis and genuinely global research on poverty's social embeddedness. Next to an introduction to this interdisciplinary field-which links Practical Philosophy, Development Economics, Political Science, and Sociology-it contains articles by leading international experts and early career scholars. The contributors analyse the concept of poverty, detail its multiple dimensions, reveal epistemic injustices in poverty research, and reflect on the challenges of poverty-related social activism. The unifying theme connecting this volume's contributions is that poverty must be understood as a multidimensional and socially relational phenomenon, and that this insight can enhance our efforts to measure and alleviate poverty.

Autorentext

Valentin Beck is a Lecturer and Research Associate at the Institute of Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin (2012-) and currently a Alexander von Humboldt Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (2018-20). His research is in Political and Moral Philosophy and Economic Ethics. In his monograph Eine Theorie der globalen Verantwortung (Berlin: Suhrkamp 2016), he developed an approach to global responsibilities, especially regarding poverty and structural injustice.  

 Henning Hahn is a Visiting Professor for Political Philosophy and Ethics at Freie Universität Berlin and former global justice research fellow at Yale University. Henning was one of the initiators of the German chapter of ASAP (academics stand against poverty). His major research interests include global justice, world poverty, political reconciliation and human rights.

 Robert Lepenies is a research scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Leipzig, and member of the Global Young Academy. He works on the politics of nudging and on themes in the philosophy of the social sciences, international political economy and public policy (particularly environmental policy).

Inhalt

Foreword.- Introduction: Interdisciplinary perspectives on poverty measurement, epistemic injustices and social activism.- Part I: The Philosophy and Idea of Poverty.- Chapter 1. Beyond Poverty (Jonathan Wolff).- Chapter 2. Poverty as a Social Relation (Daniel Putnam).- Chapter 3. Metrics, Politics and Definitions. How Poverty Lost its Social Context and What This Means for Current Debates (Philipp Lepenies).- Chapter 4. Scientific Ghettos and Beyond. Epistemic Injustice in Academia and its Effects on Researching Poverty (Franziska Dübgen).- Chapter 5. Hairiness and Hairlessness: An African Feminist View of Poverty (Sharon Adetutu Omotoso).- Chapter 6. Is the Debate on Poverty Research a Global One? A Consideration of Odera Oruka's 'Human Minimum' as a case of Epistemic Injustice (Jonathan Chimakonam).- Chapter 7. Poverty, Richness, and Aid: A conceptual Proposal (Bettina Mahlert).- Chapter 8. Absolute Poverty in European Welfare States (Gottfried Schweiger and Helmut Gaisbauer).- Chapter 9. Giving Well: Philanthropy for Human Rights (Patricia Illingworth).- Part II: On The Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty.- Chapter 10. Multidimensional Poverty Measures as Policy Tools (Sabina Alkire).- Chapter 11. Poverty: Beyond Obscurantism (Sanjay Reddy).- Chapter 12. An absolute multidimensional poverty measure in the functioning space (and relative measure in the resource space): An Illustration using Indian data (Caroline Dotter and Stephan Klasen).- Chapter 13. Poverty in All its Forms: Determining the dimensions of poverty through merging knowledge (Xavier Godinot and Robert Walker).- Chapter 14. The measurement of multidimensional poverty across countries: A proposal for selecting dimensions (Francesco Burchi, Nicole Rippin, Claudio E. Montenegro).- Chapter 15. Mapping Out Multiple Dimensions of Well-Being by Ethnicity in Rural Cameroon (Hans Tino Ayamena Mpenya).- Chapter 16. Eda Keskin Rising Tide of Precariat and Denizens in Neoliberal Capitalism: The Case of Germany.- Chapter 17. Measuring Capabilities: Using Financial Diaries in Bangladesh (Julio Linares and Yu-hsuan Su).- Chapter 18. Approaches to poverty in the light of their usefulness for research into institutionalized childcare (Sylvia Meichsner).- Epilogue.- Mitu Sengupta: Poverty Research and Western Activism.- Literature.- Index.