ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|8 pages

Poverty

Still an important issue
ByBent Greve

part I|108 pages

Conceptual issues

chapter 2|13 pages

Absolute poverty

ByM. Azhar Hussain

chapter 3|9 pages

Absolute or relative?

Definitions and the different understandings of poverty
ByTherese Saltkjel, Ira Malmberg-Heimonen

chapter 4|16 pages

Multidimensional poverty

Whose poverty is it?
ByRobert Walker

chapter 5|18 pages

Multidimensional poverty across the life cycle

The United States as an empirical example
ByRoger White, Thomas Bailleul

chapter 6|11 pages

Preventing poverty

ByAdrian Sinfield

chapter 7|18 pages

Relative deprivation and subjective social position

ByAnders Ejrnæs

chapter 8|11 pages

The consequences of growing up poor

ByWim Van Lancker, Julie Vinck

chapter 9|10 pages

Social justice as parity of participation

ByKatrien Boone, Rudi Roose, Christian Christrup Kjeldsen, Caroline Vandekinderen, Griet Roets

part II|125 pages

Poverty around the world and development in poverty

chapter 10|11 pages

Global poverty

Trends, measures, and antidotes
ByPhilip N. Jefferson

chapter 11|9 pages

The discourse of poverty

Structural and behavioural approaches in the UK since 1900
ByJohn Welshman

chapter 12|14 pages

Poverty development in affluent welfare states

ByKate Summers

chapter 13|14 pages

Poverty in developing countries, 1990–2016

Some regional, temporal, and income level variations
ByUdaya R. Wagle

chapter 14|20 pages

What contributes to a higher degree of voluntarism in China’s rural displacement programmes?

Poverty Alleviation Resettlement as a case study
ByTao Xue, Mark Wang

chapter 15|16 pages

Dynamics of rural transformation and poverty and inequality in Asia and the Pacific 1

ByKatsushi Imai, Raghav Gaiha, Fabrizio Bresciani

chapter 16|14 pages

Poverty in Africa

ByFelicitas Becker, Ewout Frankema

chapter 17|14 pages

Poverty and social policy in Latin America

Key trends since c. 2000
ByCamila Arza, Roxana Maurizio

chapter 18|11 pages

Poverty around the world

North America
ByEmily W. Kane

part III|154 pages

Policies toward poverty

chapter 19|11 pages

The working poor

ByIve Marx

chapter 20|12 pages

Poverty in old age

ByBernhard Ebbinghaus, Kenneth Nelson, Rense Nieuwenhuis

chapter 21|17 pages

Poverty and access to welfare benefits

ByCaroline Dewilde

chapter 22|13 pages

Coping with poverty in everyday life

ByJane Gray, Jennifer Dagg, Clíona Rooney

chapter 23|9 pages

Poverty and crime

ByDavid Denney

chapter 24|10 pages

Taxes and duties and their impact on poverty

ByBent Greve

chapter 25|11 pages

Social cash transfers in the global South

Individualizing poverty policies
ByLutz Leisering

chapter 26|12 pages

International migration and poverty

ByMeltem Yilmaz Sener

chapter 27|11 pages

Neoliberalism and poverty

An unbreakable relationship
ByGuy Feldman

chapter 28|12 pages

Poverty and health inequality

ByMel Bartley

chapter 29|13 pages

Poverty reduction among older people through pensions

A comparative analysis 1
ByOlaf van Vliet, Koen Caminada, Kees Goudswaard, Jinxian Wang

chapter 30|10 pages

Behavioural public policy and poverty

ByKatherine Curchin

chapter 31|11 pages

Poverty and family

ByMary Daly

part IV|7 pages

The way forward

chapter 32|5 pages

Poverty

It is still here
ByBent Greve