Poverty as Capability Deprivation: Conceptualising and Measuring Poverty in Contemporary Europe. (16th January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hick, Rod
• Is Part Of: Archives européennes de sociologie. Volume 55:Number 3(2014)
• Page Start: 295
• Page End: 323
• Publication Date: 2015-01-16
• Subjects: Social sciences -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Periodicals; 300.5
• DOI: 10.1017/S0003975614000150
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-9756

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>Poverty analysis is in the midst of a multidimensional "turn" due, in part, to the growing awareness of the limitations of relative income measures of poverty. In this paper, we argue that the conceptualisation of poverty remains a neglected aspect of this multidimensional turn to date, and demonstrate that the counter-intuitive results which flow from relative income analyses are not problems of measurement, but are entirely consistent with the conceptualisation of poverty under Peter Townsend's dominant <italic>Poverty as Relative Deprivation</italic> framework. In response to these problems we articulate an alternative framework, <italic>Poverty as Capability Deprivation</italic>, drawing on Amartya Sen's capability approach, and argue that this provides more persuasive explanations as to why some nations have greater poverty than others and why poverty remains a problem even in the richest nations.</p> </abstract>