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 PART 1: CONCEPTUAL ISSUES 2. Absolute Poverty 3. Absolute or Relative? Definitions and the Different Understandings of Poverty 4. Multidimensional Poverty: Whose Poverty Is It? 5. Multidimensional Poverty Across the Life Cycle: The United States as an Empirical Example 6. Preventing Poverty 7. Relative Deprivation and Subjective Social Position 8. The Consequences of Growing Up Poor 9. Social Justice as Parity of Participation 10. Global Poverty: Trends, Measures, and Antidotes 11. The Discourse of Poverty: Structural and Behavioural Approaches in the UK Since 1900 PART 2: POVERTY AROUND THE WORLD AND DEVELOPMENT IN POVERTY 12. Poverty Development in Affluent Welfare States 13. Poverty in Developing Countries, 1990-2016: Some Regional, Temporal, and Income Level Variations 14. What Contributes to a Higher Degree of Voluntarism in China’s Rural Displacement Programs? Poverty Alleviation Resettlement as a Case Study 15. Dynamics of Rural Transformation and Poverty and Inequality in Asia and the Pacific 16. Poverty in Africa 17. Poverty and Social Policy in Latin America: Key Trends since C. 2000 18. Poverty around the World: North America PART 3: POLICIES TOWARDS POVERTY 19. The Working Poor 20. Poverty in Old Age 21. Poverty and Access to Welfare Benefits 22. Coping with Poverty – Life for People 23. Poverty and Crime 24. Taxes and Duties and Impact on Poverty 25. Social Cash Transfers in the Global South: Individualizing Poverty Policies 26. International Migration and Poverty 27. Neoliberalism and Poverty: An Unbreakable Relationship 28. Poverty and Health Inequality 29. Poverty Reduction among Older People through Pensions: A Comparative Analysis 30. Behavioural Public Policy and Poverty 31. Poverty and Family PART 4: THE WAY FORWARD – WHAT WILL INFLUENCE POVERTY IN THE YEARS TO COME? 32. Poverty – It Is Still Here
Biography
Bent Greve is Professor of Welfare State Analysis in the Department of Society and Business at Roskilde University, Denmark. He has published widely on different topics surrounding the welfare state, including technology and the labour market, happiness and social policy, labour market policy, and most recently on populism and the welfare state. He is editor of Social Policy and Administration.
