In an age of abundance, what is poverty?
 |
Description
Book Introduction
In an age where 'sudden beggars' abound and the poor are marginalized
What is poverty in Korea, a developed country?
Everyone has a different idea of what poverty is.
For some people, it might mean not having enough food to eat, a place to sleep, not having enough money to live on, or even not being able to buy things from the brands they want.
The media sometimes uses the term 'poor' to describe people who own assets such as houses or cars but have low purchasing power, such as 'house poor' or 'car poor'.
Are all these "poverty" the same? If not, what is "fake" poverty and what is "real" poverty? Can my current situation be considered poverty? The author, a long-time poverty researcher and anti-poverty activist, currently a senator and contributing to academia, social movements, policy, and politics, offers a diverse discussion and practical alternatives on how to define, measure, and address poverty.
What is poverty in Korea, a developed country?
Everyone has a different idea of what poverty is.
For some people, it might mean not having enough food to eat, a place to sleep, not having enough money to live on, or even not being able to buy things from the brands they want.
The media sometimes uses the term 'poor' to describe people who own assets such as houses or cars but have low purchasing power, such as 'house poor' or 'car poor'.
Are all these "poverty" the same? If not, what is "fake" poverty and what is "real" poverty? Can my current situation be considered poverty? The author, a long-time poverty researcher and anti-poverty activist, currently a senator and contributing to academia, social movements, policy, and politics, offers a diverse discussion and practical alternatives on how to define, measure, and address poverty.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Entering
Chapter 1: Defining Poverty
Chapter 2: Measuring Poverty
Chapter 3: Inequality, Social Categories, and Different Experiences of Poverty
Chapter 4: Poverty Discourse: From Othering to Respect
Chapter 5: Poverty and Agency: From Enduring to Organizing
Chapter 6: Poverty, Human Rights, and Civil Rights
Going Out: From Concept to Politics
Translator's Note
main
Search
Preface to the Second Edition
Entering
Chapter 1: Defining Poverty
Chapter 2: Measuring Poverty
Chapter 3: Inequality, Social Categories, and Different Experiences of Poverty
Chapter 4: Poverty Discourse: From Othering to Respect
Chapter 5: Poverty and Agency: From Enduring to Organizing
Chapter 6: Poverty, Human Rights, and Civil Rights
Going Out: From Concept to Politics
Translator's Note
main
Search
Into the book
Poverty is, "Having the same dreams that everyone else has, but having no way to realize them." "Telling your children no on a day they can't." "Dreading Christmas and birthdays every year because of the disappointed looks in your children's eyes." "Being asked to be grateful while sleeping in someone else's bed and wearing old clothes." "Living every day in a state of near collapse." "Being treated as useless, or worse, and accepting it." "Having no hope left inside."
---From "Entering"
We are so caught up in counting the number of 'poor' that we fail to see the way they exist and their suffering as a 'category of the uncounted'.
At the end of his book on "America's Back Row," Chris Arneid warns that such efforts, however well-intentioned, "denigrate them by seeing them as nothing more than numbers."
(…) The key here is the manifestation of poverty in both material and immaterial aspects.
It is a shift in perspective to understand poverty not only as a disadvantageous and unstable economic condition, but also as a shameful and harmful social relationship.
---From "Entering"
The core of the comparative element in relative poverty is that whether someone is relatively poor or not can only be determined by comparing them to others living in the same era and society.
(…) For example, people who lived through the terrible hardships of 1930s Britain often say that ‘real’ poverty has now disappeared.
This comparison is misleading from a relative perspective on poverty.
Because it offers absolutely no insight into what it takes to live a decent life in the 21st century.
Even over shorter periods, as general living standards continue to rise and technological change occurs rapidly, “new forms of poverty continue to emerge as we raise the standards of living for the majority without considering what we are doing to those who cannot keep up.” These range from expensive heating systems and unaffordable high-end supermarkets to the proliferation of new technologies such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones, and internet access, which have recently emerged as particularly important for school-age children in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
A study of families and poverty in Northern Ireland shows how blurry the line between 'absolute' and 'relative' need really is.
“Spending on children’s social activities is a good example.
Low-income parents face the greatest moral conflict between arguing that such expenditures are nonessential and therefore not a priority, and feeling that social activities are essential for children's growth and development today.” Similar concerns arise with Internet and television subscriptions, with those who prioritize children's homework deeming such expenditures essential, but those who prioritize family play and interaction not.
This conflict becomes acute when others question the consumption choices of the poor in terms of moral judgment and legitimacy.
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
Elizabeth Dowler and Susie Leder say, “Food reveals who we are, what we value, and whether we have the capacity to meet our basic needs.”
Food is 'a tool for expressing identity and a center of belonging.'
The hustle and bustle of finding affordable food (in local grocery stores where prices are high and stocks are often low), the struggle to maintain a normal diet, especially if you have children, the risk of trying a new diet when you have no alternative if your family can't eat or throws away food, and the inability to afford to enjoy meals as a social activity—all these are examples of how food is not just a physiological need for the poor, but a social one.
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
The phenomenon of needs being socially and culturally conditioned is more evident in the context of modern consumer society [than in Smith's time].
From a cultural perspective, consumption is both a venue for relative deprivation and a signifier of identity.
As the tendency to define identity by possessions increases, “the poor are recast as ‘defective consumers.’” The pressures of television advertising, primarily aimed at children and adolescents, create a “culture of acquisition,” making it difficult for poor parents to meet their children’s needs.
When brands and trademarks mean more than the product itself, even the most basic clothing and footwear needs become unattainable for a small price.
It's not about whether you can buy something, but rather the quality (whether it's second-hand, a well-known brand, or your own product) and the source (whether it's a popular retailer or an informal channel like a thrift store).
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
One of Rountree's studies, which addressed the question, "Why do the poor spend their meager income on entertainment rather than food?", reveals his understanding that basic needs are not just physical but also social.
“Workers are just human beings, just like people with more money.
[Humans] cannot live 'barely filling their bellies'.
They, like us, long for rest and entertainment.
But… they accept the deprivation because it can only be achieved by reducing something essential to physical health.”
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
“Many of the people whose language I collected had one thing in common… they asserted that they too were human.” (…) “The typification that lumps all poor people together makes them inhuman in the eyes of others.
Otherization is used as a 'symbolic exclusion strategy' that makes it easy to blame others for one's own and society's problems, and makes the 'poor' perceive themselves as the problem.
Furthermore, the stigmatization of the 'poor' also serves as a warning to others.
Poverty thus becomes 'a specter, a socially constructed object of beneficial fear.'
In the relationship between 'us' and 'them', othering justifies the socioeconomic inequalities that form the basis of poverty.
It also justifies the privileges of 'us' based on superiority and the oppression of 'them' based on inferiority, thereby concealing the structural causes.
Here, the way power relations are imprinted in the process of typing is clearly revealed.
Therefore, it can be assumed that inequality will be extreme in places where typification is prominent.
---From "Chapter 4: Poverty Discourse: From Othering to Respect"
The principle of equal value and recognition of human dignity is mostly just lip service.
(…) As Anne Phillips put it, “A sufficiently wealthy society that ignores extreme poverty, or arbitrarily pays one skill 100 times more than another, does not recognize its citizens as human beings of equal value.” The wealthy are too socially, and sometimes geographically, to perceive the poor as beings of equal “dignity.”
It is not easy for respect to cross the 'boundary of inequality'.
…in so-called meritocratic societies like the US and UK, “there is no place for failure on the scale of respect.” Poverty means failure.
---From "Chapter 4: Poverty Discourse: From Othering to Respect"
The two-way movement into and out of poverty is, on the one hand, a product of individual actions (whether poor or non-poor), and on the other hand, a product of economic and social processes and government policies.
(…) In many developed countries, the proportion of people who move in and out of poverty each year is very high, and it is revealed that more people experience poverty over a period of time than can be captured by one-off measurements.
Trajectories of poverty, and particularly the process of sliding into poverty, can be triggered by life-cycle events such as the birth of a child or the dissolution of a partnership, which particularly affect women.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that external shocks can push many people into poverty, especially those in precarious employment and those without access to adequate and inclusive social security.
---From "Entering"
We are so caught up in counting the number of 'poor' that we fail to see the way they exist and their suffering as a 'category of the uncounted'.
At the end of his book on "America's Back Row," Chris Arneid warns that such efforts, however well-intentioned, "denigrate them by seeing them as nothing more than numbers."
(…) The key here is the manifestation of poverty in both material and immaterial aspects.
It is a shift in perspective to understand poverty not only as a disadvantageous and unstable economic condition, but also as a shameful and harmful social relationship.
---From "Entering"
The core of the comparative element in relative poverty is that whether someone is relatively poor or not can only be determined by comparing them to others living in the same era and society.
(…) For example, people who lived through the terrible hardships of 1930s Britain often say that ‘real’ poverty has now disappeared.
This comparison is misleading from a relative perspective on poverty.
Because it offers absolutely no insight into what it takes to live a decent life in the 21st century.
Even over shorter periods, as general living standards continue to rise and technological change occurs rapidly, “new forms of poverty continue to emerge as we raise the standards of living for the majority without considering what we are doing to those who cannot keep up.” These range from expensive heating systems and unaffordable high-end supermarkets to the proliferation of new technologies such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones, and internet access, which have recently emerged as particularly important for school-age children in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
A study of families and poverty in Northern Ireland shows how blurry the line between 'absolute' and 'relative' need really is.
“Spending on children’s social activities is a good example.
Low-income parents face the greatest moral conflict between arguing that such expenditures are nonessential and therefore not a priority, and feeling that social activities are essential for children's growth and development today.” Similar concerns arise with Internet and television subscriptions, with those who prioritize children's homework deeming such expenditures essential, but those who prioritize family play and interaction not.
This conflict becomes acute when others question the consumption choices of the poor in terms of moral judgment and legitimacy.
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
Elizabeth Dowler and Susie Leder say, “Food reveals who we are, what we value, and whether we have the capacity to meet our basic needs.”
Food is 'a tool for expressing identity and a center of belonging.'
The hustle and bustle of finding affordable food (in local grocery stores where prices are high and stocks are often low), the struggle to maintain a normal diet, especially if you have children, the risk of trying a new diet when you have no alternative if your family can't eat or throws away food, and the inability to afford to enjoy meals as a social activity—all these are examples of how food is not just a physiological need for the poor, but a social one.
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
The phenomenon of needs being socially and culturally conditioned is more evident in the context of modern consumer society [than in Smith's time].
From a cultural perspective, consumption is both a venue for relative deprivation and a signifier of identity.
As the tendency to define identity by possessions increases, “the poor are recast as ‘defective consumers.’” The pressures of television advertising, primarily aimed at children and adolescents, create a “culture of acquisition,” making it difficult for poor parents to meet their children’s needs.
When brands and trademarks mean more than the product itself, even the most basic clothing and footwear needs become unattainable for a small price.
It's not about whether you can buy something, but rather the quality (whether it's second-hand, a well-known brand, or your own product) and the source (whether it's a popular retailer or an informal channel like a thrift store).
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
One of Rountree's studies, which addressed the question, "Why do the poor spend their meager income on entertainment rather than food?", reveals his understanding that basic needs are not just physical but also social.
“Workers are just human beings, just like people with more money.
[Humans] cannot live 'barely filling their bellies'.
They, like us, long for rest and entertainment.
But… they accept the deprivation because it can only be achieved by reducing something essential to physical health.”
---From "Chapter 1: Definition of Poverty"
“Many of the people whose language I collected had one thing in common… they asserted that they too were human.” (…) “The typification that lumps all poor people together makes them inhuman in the eyes of others.
Otherization is used as a 'symbolic exclusion strategy' that makes it easy to blame others for one's own and society's problems, and makes the 'poor' perceive themselves as the problem.
Furthermore, the stigmatization of the 'poor' also serves as a warning to others.
Poverty thus becomes 'a specter, a socially constructed object of beneficial fear.'
In the relationship between 'us' and 'them', othering justifies the socioeconomic inequalities that form the basis of poverty.
It also justifies the privileges of 'us' based on superiority and the oppression of 'them' based on inferiority, thereby concealing the structural causes.
Here, the way power relations are imprinted in the process of typing is clearly revealed.
Therefore, it can be assumed that inequality will be extreme in places where typification is prominent.
---From "Chapter 4: Poverty Discourse: From Othering to Respect"
The principle of equal value and recognition of human dignity is mostly just lip service.
(…) As Anne Phillips put it, “A sufficiently wealthy society that ignores extreme poverty, or arbitrarily pays one skill 100 times more than another, does not recognize its citizens as human beings of equal value.” The wealthy are too socially, and sometimes geographically, to perceive the poor as beings of equal “dignity.”
It is not easy for respect to cross the 'boundary of inequality'.
…in so-called meritocratic societies like the US and UK, “there is no place for failure on the scale of respect.” Poverty means failure.
---From "Chapter 4: Poverty Discourse: From Othering to Respect"
The two-way movement into and out of poverty is, on the one hand, a product of individual actions (whether poor or non-poor), and on the other hand, a product of economic and social processes and government policies.
(…) In many developed countries, the proportion of people who move in and out of poverty each year is very high, and it is revealed that more people experience poverty over a period of time than can be captured by one-off measurements.
Trajectories of poverty, and particularly the process of sliding into poverty, can be triggered by life-cycle events such as the birth of a child or the dissolution of a partnership, which particularly affect women.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that external shocks can push many people into poverty, especially those in precarious employment and those without access to adequate and inclusive social security.
---From "Chapter 5 Poverty and Agency: From Enduring to Organizing"
Publisher's Review
In a society where everyone speaks of different kinds of poverty,
What do you think poverty is?
Everyone has a different idea of what poverty is.
For some people, it might be a lack of immediate food or shelter, a lack of money for living expenses, or even the inability to purchase items from the brands they want.
The media sometimes uses the term 'poor' to describe people who own assets such as houses or cars but have low purchasing power, such as 'house poor' or 'car poor'.
The answer to the question, “What is poverty?” similarly varies greatly depending on the region, country, and era.
When we think of poor countries, we often think of countries on the African continent, and when we discuss the poverty we are currently experiencing in Korea, comparisons like "Barley Pass" often come up.
Are all these "poverty" the same? If not, are some "fake" poverty and some "real" poverty? Could my current situation be considered poverty?
The author opens the book with the statement that there are still many people suffering from poverty in both poor and rich countries.
Poverty is not a phenomenon unique to African countries, nor is it a concept confined to specific periods, such as wartime.
Numerous studies have confirmed that even in developed countries, many people still drift between poverty and the current economic downturn, and the COVID-19 pandemic has particularly exposed how easily individuals can drift into poverty, regardless of their national financial situation.
The perception of necessities that determine poverty also changes significantly over time.
As children were unable to go to school due to COVID-19, tablets and smartphones became essential for children's basic right to education.
To solve the problem of poverty, a reasonable definition appropriate to the country, region, and era is needed, and poverty must be measured according to that definition.
Furthermore, to develop effective solutions, we need to hear the voices of those living in poverty, not just measure poverty in numbers.
This book closely defines poverty and suggests solutions to it, structured as follows:
Chapter 1 of the book examines the most basic definition of poverty and the latest discussions on poverty, while Chapter 2 introduces increasingly sophisticated methods of measuring poverty.
Chapter 3 deals with the relationship and interaction between poverty and inequality, and Chapter 4 deals with the representation of the 'poor' and its history and ethics.
Chapter 5 covers the lives and political spheres of the poor based on their "agency," and Chapter 6 discusses solutions to poverty from a human rights perspective.
The author, who has worked as a scholar and anti-poverty activist for a long time and is currently a senator, has contributed widely in academia, social movements, policy, and politics. In this book, he thoroughly covers various discussions on how to define, measure, and solve poverty, including the voices of those who are poor, and presents practical alternatives.
Do people who have no concept of money and spend money recklessly become poor?
The Long History and Illusion of "Poverty Aversion"
As low interest rates persisted due to COVID-19 and labor incomes declined or became unstable, many people turned to investing in stocks and real estate, and the media repeatedly used the expression "suddenly broke" to encourage this trend.
The expression "sudden beggar", which means that if you don't start investing right away, you will become a beggar overnight, makes us perceive poverty as a punishment for ignorance, incompetence, and failure.
The author points out that, especially in meritocratic societies like the United States, the aversion to poverty, combined with a culture like the "American Dream," solidifies the perception that "poverty equals failure."
But Nobel Prize-winning economists Duflo and Banerjee say poor people are actually more rational than rich people.
Contrary to popular belief, these are 'complex asset managers' who work tirelessly.
For them, survival is impossible without careful management of all resources, including not only money but also time, health, and social relationships.
A famous investment expert encouraged stock investment on TV with expressions like “poverty is a disease” and “financial illiteracy is a highly contagious disease.”
As the pandemic exposes the loopholes in the existing welfare system and increases the number of people suffering from it, such expressions based on prejudice and hatred only amplify the fear of poverty and the illusory hatred of "welfare dependence" and "welfare hijacking."
The hate speech that compares poverty to an “epidemic” is particularly deep-rooted.
In 19th-century London, the poor were often described as a "plague" and a "wave of vice and disease."
Moreover, poverty came to be associated with criminality, decadence, laziness, vice, and pollution, and these stigmas influenced the criteria used to distinguish between the "deserving poor" and the "undeserving poor" in modern welfare systems.
The hateful prejudices and views about poverty and the 'poor' repeatedly attribute poverty to a problem of individual temperament and inclination, thereby erasing the structural causes of poverty.
The author emphasizes that while individual actions are a factor in creating poverty, we must not overlook the fact that structures such as society and culture have a significant impact, and that individual actions are also shaped within these structures.
Not an 'ambulance at the bottom of a cliff'
The principle of "building a fence around a cliff" is the solution to poverty.
The understanding of poverty proposed in this book is not limited to precise definitions for 'accurate' numerical counting or measurement.
The author argues that while narrow and focused definitions may help measure the scale and depth of poverty, they only provide a superficial depiction of the reality of poverty.
In addition to focusing on material hardship as the core of poverty, the book presents a variety of perspectives on understanding poverty holistically and comprehensively.
We suggest that we complement this perspective by viewing poverty as a relational and symbolic phenomenon within a broader framework, and that we view the issue of poverty as a matter of human rights, civil rights, happiness, and human prosperity.
This multifaceted understanding allows us to move beyond simply placing ambulances at the foot of a cliff and instead build fences around it.
For example, the current standard for welfare benefits in Korea is ‘income.’
Because welfare recipients must not exceed an income threshold to receive benefits, they are forced to remain in low-wage work.
While standards like income enable precise measurement, their limitations prevent welfare benefits from playing a proper role in escaping poverty.
In particular, when income is measured at the household level, it becomes more difficult to determine actual living conditions and poverty, as it is easy to overlook the poverty vulnerability of women, children, and elderly members who do not have labor income.
The book comprehensively examines perspectives that are often overlooked in the world of poverty, such as age, gender, disability, geography, and race.
Analyzing various definitions and measures of poverty and various attempts to establish a 'poverty line', the author points out that the boundary between 'poor' and 'non-poor' is not clear.
This is why a "universalist" perspective that guarantees equal attention and respect to all citizens is seen as a progressive poverty response that increases the potential of the social security system, rather than a "selectivist" perspective that easily "replaces solidarity with compassion," damages dignity and self-esteem in the process of proving eligibility for benefits, and stigmatizes poverty itself.
What do you think poverty is?
Everyone has a different idea of what poverty is.
For some people, it might be a lack of immediate food or shelter, a lack of money for living expenses, or even the inability to purchase items from the brands they want.
The media sometimes uses the term 'poor' to describe people who own assets such as houses or cars but have low purchasing power, such as 'house poor' or 'car poor'.
The answer to the question, “What is poverty?” similarly varies greatly depending on the region, country, and era.
When we think of poor countries, we often think of countries on the African continent, and when we discuss the poverty we are currently experiencing in Korea, comparisons like "Barley Pass" often come up.
Are all these "poverty" the same? If not, are some "fake" poverty and some "real" poverty? Could my current situation be considered poverty?
The author opens the book with the statement that there are still many people suffering from poverty in both poor and rich countries.
Poverty is not a phenomenon unique to African countries, nor is it a concept confined to specific periods, such as wartime.
Numerous studies have confirmed that even in developed countries, many people still drift between poverty and the current economic downturn, and the COVID-19 pandemic has particularly exposed how easily individuals can drift into poverty, regardless of their national financial situation.
The perception of necessities that determine poverty also changes significantly over time.
As children were unable to go to school due to COVID-19, tablets and smartphones became essential for children's basic right to education.
To solve the problem of poverty, a reasonable definition appropriate to the country, region, and era is needed, and poverty must be measured according to that definition.
Furthermore, to develop effective solutions, we need to hear the voices of those living in poverty, not just measure poverty in numbers.
This book closely defines poverty and suggests solutions to it, structured as follows:
Chapter 1 of the book examines the most basic definition of poverty and the latest discussions on poverty, while Chapter 2 introduces increasingly sophisticated methods of measuring poverty.
Chapter 3 deals with the relationship and interaction between poverty and inequality, and Chapter 4 deals with the representation of the 'poor' and its history and ethics.
Chapter 5 covers the lives and political spheres of the poor based on their "agency," and Chapter 6 discusses solutions to poverty from a human rights perspective.
The author, who has worked as a scholar and anti-poverty activist for a long time and is currently a senator, has contributed widely in academia, social movements, policy, and politics. In this book, he thoroughly covers various discussions on how to define, measure, and solve poverty, including the voices of those who are poor, and presents practical alternatives.
Do people who have no concept of money and spend money recklessly become poor?
The Long History and Illusion of "Poverty Aversion"
As low interest rates persisted due to COVID-19 and labor incomes declined or became unstable, many people turned to investing in stocks and real estate, and the media repeatedly used the expression "suddenly broke" to encourage this trend.
The expression "sudden beggar", which means that if you don't start investing right away, you will become a beggar overnight, makes us perceive poverty as a punishment for ignorance, incompetence, and failure.
The author points out that, especially in meritocratic societies like the United States, the aversion to poverty, combined with a culture like the "American Dream," solidifies the perception that "poverty equals failure."
But Nobel Prize-winning economists Duflo and Banerjee say poor people are actually more rational than rich people.
Contrary to popular belief, these are 'complex asset managers' who work tirelessly.
For them, survival is impossible without careful management of all resources, including not only money but also time, health, and social relationships.
A famous investment expert encouraged stock investment on TV with expressions like “poverty is a disease” and “financial illiteracy is a highly contagious disease.”
As the pandemic exposes the loopholes in the existing welfare system and increases the number of people suffering from it, such expressions based on prejudice and hatred only amplify the fear of poverty and the illusory hatred of "welfare dependence" and "welfare hijacking."
The hate speech that compares poverty to an “epidemic” is particularly deep-rooted.
In 19th-century London, the poor were often described as a "plague" and a "wave of vice and disease."
Moreover, poverty came to be associated with criminality, decadence, laziness, vice, and pollution, and these stigmas influenced the criteria used to distinguish between the "deserving poor" and the "undeserving poor" in modern welfare systems.
The hateful prejudices and views about poverty and the 'poor' repeatedly attribute poverty to a problem of individual temperament and inclination, thereby erasing the structural causes of poverty.
The author emphasizes that while individual actions are a factor in creating poverty, we must not overlook the fact that structures such as society and culture have a significant impact, and that individual actions are also shaped within these structures.
Not an 'ambulance at the bottom of a cliff'
The principle of "building a fence around a cliff" is the solution to poverty.
The understanding of poverty proposed in this book is not limited to precise definitions for 'accurate' numerical counting or measurement.
The author argues that while narrow and focused definitions may help measure the scale and depth of poverty, they only provide a superficial depiction of the reality of poverty.
In addition to focusing on material hardship as the core of poverty, the book presents a variety of perspectives on understanding poverty holistically and comprehensively.
We suggest that we complement this perspective by viewing poverty as a relational and symbolic phenomenon within a broader framework, and that we view the issue of poverty as a matter of human rights, civil rights, happiness, and human prosperity.
This multifaceted understanding allows us to move beyond simply placing ambulances at the foot of a cliff and instead build fences around it.
For example, the current standard for welfare benefits in Korea is ‘income.’
Because welfare recipients must not exceed an income threshold to receive benefits, they are forced to remain in low-wage work.
While standards like income enable precise measurement, their limitations prevent welfare benefits from playing a proper role in escaping poverty.
In particular, when income is measured at the household level, it becomes more difficult to determine actual living conditions and poverty, as it is easy to overlook the poverty vulnerability of women, children, and elderly members who do not have labor income.
The book comprehensively examines perspectives that are often overlooked in the world of poverty, such as age, gender, disability, geography, and race.
Analyzing various definitions and measures of poverty and various attempts to establish a 'poverty line', the author points out that the boundary between 'poor' and 'non-poor' is not clear.
This is why a "universalist" perspective that guarantees equal attention and respect to all citizens is seen as a progressive poverty response that increases the potential of the social security system, rather than a "selectivist" perspective that easily "replaces solidarity with compassion," damages dignity and self-esteem in the process of proving eligibility for benefits, and stigmatizes poverty itself.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: July 4, 2022
- Page count, weight, size: 384 pages | 492g | 140*210*23mm
- ISBN13: 9791187038887
- ISBN10: 1187038881
You may also like
카테고리
korean
korean
![GQ KOREA Mark (Monthly): December [2025]](http://librairie.coreenne.fr/cdn/shop/files/8ef265dbbfbf186523ed75ba7319009d.jpg?v=1765340328&width=3840)
