Abstract
In this chapter I want to reflect on a set of phenomena regarding poverty in Europe, in particular in its richest states, which I believe is best understood by using the concept of “absolute poverty”. I will proceed in three steps: firstly, I will begin by drafting a conceptual framework for understanding absolute poverty in Europe, also as distinct from relative poverty. Secondly, I will explore two thick characteristics of absolute poverty in Europe: vulnerability and invisibility. Finally, I will discuss certain phenomena and important features that shape absolute poverty in Europe. I intend to name just three of them: exclusion, stigmatization and domination.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter is part of a larger project on “absolute poverty” in Europe, which I am pursuing at the Centre for Ethics and Poverty. A volume on this topic was published by Policy Press: Gaisbauer, Schweiger, and Sedmak (Gaisbauer et al. 2019).
- 2.
I should not belittle the poor and I should certainly not disrespect them by questioning their hardship. That is an important acknowledgement especially for well-off poverty researchers.
- 3.
Tony Fahey (2010) argues that the deprivation measure of EU-SILC also falls into the category of relative and not absolute poverty although its benchmark is determined for the whole EU.
- 4.
The World Bank’s poverty measure is heavily contested. See for example (Reddy and Pogge 2010).
- 5.
I will follow in this chapter the suggestion of Christian Neuhäuser who interprets the benchmark M as a social context (either a particular or a universal one). This interpretation is not without alternatives. One could, for example, argue that the benchmark M should be interpreted as biological needs or a thick understanding of what humans should accomplish in their lives.
- 6.
As Amartya Sen (Sen 1983) has argued in his take on the distinction between relative and absolute.
- 7.
I say here that the objectivist route follows expert opinion because objective facts are not easily accessible, but their factuality and objectiveness is epistemically construed. That does not imply that such needs are merely construction but that they often enter the discourse on poverty as expert opinion. For example, nutritional needs are certainly determined by the human body (this is an objective fact) but they enter the discourse on poverty as the opinion of certain experts like doctors or biologists. As such, opinions on an objective fact like nutritional needs can vary (regarding the quantity and quality of the food needed).
- 8.
The relation between objective goods and subjective preferences is a complicated one and certainly not straightforward. Choosing an objectivist route comes with certain advantages, but also disadvantages, for example its proneness to paternalism and to undervalue feelings and emotions. Unfortunately, I do not have the space to investigate them in this chapter.
- 9.
- 10.
EU-SILC and other measures call this the poverty gap.
- 11.
I will refrain from exploring the ethical consequences of such an understanding. Obviously there appears to be some relation to what is called prioritarianism in political philosophy. See for example (Arneson 2006).
- 12.
Jonathan Wolff and Avner de-Shalit (Wolff and de-Shalit 2007) argued in favor of capturing the most disadvantaged by clustering “corrosive” disadvantages. Disadvantages are “corrosive” insofar as they lead to or sustain other disadvantages.
- 13.
It would be interesting to see if stigmatization becomes more problematic or happens more often in line with the severity of poverty.
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Schweiger, G. (2020). Absolute Poverty in European Welfare States. In: Beck, V., Hahn, H., Lepenies, R. (eds) Dimensions of Poverty. Philosophy and Poverty, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31711-9_10
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