The problem of poverty is global in scope and has devastating consequences for many essential aspects of life: health, education, political participation, autonomy, and psychological well-being. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Poverty presents the current state of philosophical research on poverty in its breadth and depth. It features 39 chapters divided into five thematic sections: Concepts, theories and philosophical aspects of poverty research Poverty in the history of Western philosophy and philosophical traditions Poverty in non-Western philosophical thought Key ethical concepts and poverty Social and political issues The handbook not only addresses questions concerning individual, collective, or institutional responsibility towards people in extreme poverty and the moral wrong of poverty, but it also tackles emerging applied issues that are connected to poverty such as gender, race, education, migration, and climate change. Additionally, it features perspectives on poverty from the history of Western philosophy, as well as non-Western views that explore issues unique to the Global South. Finally, the first section of essays provides an overview of the most important aspects of social science poverty research, which serves as an excellent resource for philosophers and philosophy students unfamiliar with how poverty is empirically researched in practice. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Poverty is an essential resource for students and researchers in philosophy, political science, sociology, development studies, and public policy who are working on poverty.

Clemens Sedmak's Doing Local Theology, presents the construction of "local theologies" as an enterprise that is not just for Latin Americans, Asians, or Africans. Nor just for theologians. Instead, it is the art of thinking theologically about any local church and implementing a process that grounds people intentionally and aesthetically in the deepest Christian dimensions of their daily lives. This book is beautifully written and will become a standard in courses on method in theology, foundations of ministry, and adult discussion groups. Theologizing, in Sedmak's terms, is reflection on people's everyday world, on everyday occurrences, and on local realities. Most of all, he shows how the everyday is where people encounter God in their relationships with one another, their larger communities, and the very physical environment we live in. If Robert Schreiter's monumental Constructing Local Theologies provides theoretical underpinning on the nature of local theologies, Clemens Sedmak shows that it is an art in which people learn to understand themselves and find full freedom as God's daughters and sons.

A main focus of poverty research is the question of how to alleviate poverty. Poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon involves soft factors and hard factors - poverty alleviation has to consider all these aspects. In many cases interactions with institutions limit or enhance poor people's right to freedom, freedom of choice and action. In many cases, institutions play an important role in empowerment processes. The contributions of this volume identify approaches to poverty alleviation from different perspectives and analyze the role of institutions in poverty reduction efforts.

This book explores the philosophical, and in particular ethical, issues concerning the conceptualization, design and implementation of poverty alleviation measures from the local to the global level. It connects these topics with the ongoing debates on social and global justice, and asks what an ethical or normative philosophical perspective can add to the economic, political, and other social science approaches that dominate the main debates on poverty alleviation. Divided into four sections, the volume examines four areas of concern: the relation between human rights and poverty alleviation, the connection between development and poverty alleviation, poverty within affluent countries, and obligations of individuals in regard to global poverty. An impressive collection of essays by an international group of scholars on one of the most fundamental issues of our age. The authors consider crucial aspects of poverty alleviation: the role of human rights; the connection between development aid and the alleviation of poverty; how to think about poverty within affluent countries (particularly in Europe); and individual versus collective obligations to act to reduce poverty. Judith Lichtenberg Department of Philosophy Georgetown University This collection of essays is most welcome addition to the burgeoning treatments of poverty and inequality. What is most novel about this volume is its sustained and informed attention to the explicitly ethical aspects of poverty and poverty alleviation. What are the ethical merits and demerits of income poverty, multidimensional-capability poverty, and poverty as nonrecognition? How important is poverty alleviation in comparison to environmental protection and cultural preservation? Who or what should be agents responsible for reducing poverty? The editors concede that their volume is not the last word on these matters. But, these essays, eschewing value neutrality and a retreat into technical mastery, challenge us to find fresh and reasonable answers to these urgent questions. David A. Crocker School of Public Policy University of Maryland

This book explores the philosophical, and in particular ethical, issues concerning the conceptualization, design and implementation of poverty alleviation measures from the local to the global level. It connects these topics with the ongoing debates on social and global justice, and asks what an ethical or normative philosophical perspective can add to the economic, political, and other social science approaches that dominate the main debates on poverty alleviation. Divided into four sections, the volume examines four areas of concern: the relation between human rights and poverty alleviation, the connection between development and poverty alleviation, poverty within affluent countries, and obligations of individuals in regard to global poverty. An impressive collection of essays by an international group of scholars on one of the most fundamental issues of our age. The authors consider crucial aspects of poverty alleviation: the role of human rights; the connection between development aid and the alleviation of poverty; how to think about poverty within affluent countries (particularly in Europe); and individual versus collective obligations to act to reduce poverty. Judith Lichtenberg Department of Philosophy Georgetown University This collection of essays is most welcome addition to the burgeoning treatments of poverty and inequality. What is most novel about this volume is its sustained and informed attention to the explicitly ethical aspects of poverty and poverty alleviation. What are the ethical merits and demerits of income poverty, multidimensional-capability poverty, and poverty as nonrecognition? How important is poverty alleviation in comparison to environmental protection and cultural preservation? Who or what should be agents responsible for reducing poverty? The editors concede that their volume is not the last word on these matters. But, these essays, eschewing value neutrality and a retreat into technical mastery, challenge us to find fresh and reasonable answers to these urgent questions. David A. Crocker School of Public Policy University of Maryland

Engaging systematically with severe forms of poverty in Europe, this important book stimulates academic, public and policy debate by shedding light on aspects of deprivation and exclusion of people in absolute poverty in affluent societies. It investigates different policy and civic responses to extreme poverty, ranging from food donations to penalisation and "social cleansing" of highly visible poor and how it is related to concerns of ethics, justice and human dignity.

Although deeply contested in many ways, the concept of human dignity has emerged as a key idea in fields such as bioethics and human rights. It has been largely absent, however, from literature on development studies. The essays contained in The Practice of Human Development and Dignity fill this gap by showing the implications of human dignity for international development theory, policy, and practice. Pushing against ideas of development that privilege the efficiency of systems that accelerate economic growth at the expense of human persons and their agency, the essays in this volume show how development work that lacks sensitivity to human dignity is blind. Instead, genuine development must advance human flourishing and not merely promote economic betterment. At the same time, the essays in this book also demonstrate that human dignity must be assessed in the context of real human experiences and practices. This volume therefore considers the meaning of human dignity inductively in light of development practice, rather than simply providing a theory or philosophy of human dignity in the abstract. It asks not only “what is dignity� but also “how can dignity be done?� Through a unique multidisciplinary dialogue, The Practice of Human Development and Dignity offers a dialectical and systematic examination of human dignity that moves beyond the current impasse in thinking about the theory and practice of human dignity. It will appeal to scholars in the social sciences, philosophy, and legal and development theory, and also to those who work in development around the globe. Contributors: Paolo G. Carozza, Clemens Sedmak, Séverine Deneulin, Simona Beretta, Dominic Burbidge, Matt Bloom, Deirdre Guthrie, Robert A. Dowd, Bruce Wydick, Travis J. Lybbert, Paul Perrin, Martin Schlag, Luigino Bruni, Lorenza Violini, Giada Ragone, Steve Reifenberg, Elizabeth Hlabse, Catherine E. Bolten, Ilaria Schnyder von Wartensee, Tania Groppi, Maria Sophia Aguirre, and Martha Cruz-Zuniga

The word stress is everywhere and highly overused. Everyone is stressed, it seems, all the time. Looking into the meaning of stress in the natural science and the humanities, this book explores cellular stress as cause of and in correlation with what humans experience as stress. When do we psychologically feel stress and when do we show physiological evidence of stress in our brain? Stress is a deviation from what feels normal and healthy. It can be created by social or economic factors and become chronic, which has substantial impacts on the individual and society as a whole. Focusing on poverty as one chronic inducer of stress, this book explores how the lack of pressure-free time, the hardships and unpredictability of everyday life and a general lack of protection lead to destructive toxic stress. This pressure affects cognitive and social functioning, brain development during childhood and may also result in premature aging. How can the sciences inform our understanding of and our response to stress? What can be done about toxic stress both on a personal level and in terms of structures and policies? The book is written for anyone interested in stress, its causes and consequences, and its relationship to poverty.

This volume presents philosophical contributions examining questions of the grounding and justification of taxation and different types of taxes such as inheritance, wealth, consumption or income tax in relation to justice and the concept of a just society. The chapters cover the different levels at which the discussion on taxation and justice takes place: On the principal level, chapters investigate the justification and grounding of taxation as such and the role taxation plays and should play in the design of justice, be it for a just society or a just world order. On a more concrete level, chapters present discussions of these general reflections in more depth and examine different types of taxation, tax systems and their design and implementation. On an applied level, chapters discuss certain specific taxes, such as wealth and inheritance taxes, and examine whether or not a certain tax should be favored and for what reasons as well as why it is just to target certain kinds of assets or income. Finally, this volume contains chapters that discuss the central issue of international and global taxation and their relation to global justice.

This volume of 23 essays on diverse aspects of the complex and challenging concept of "decent work" has its inception in the "Impulses of Salzburg 2009." Questions of decent work and decent unemployment have become especially salient in times of an economic and financial crisis. The establishment of decent working conditions and decent unemployment provisions - a complex matter of securing the right ethical mix of security and incentives - are perceived as major challenges not only for developing and undeveloped countries, which still don't have stable economies and where the rate of poverty and corruption is still high, but also for "developed" societies themselves.

This book is the fruit of a close collaboration between three leading scholars with a background in systematics, philosophical theology and ethics. It sets out a new account of how incarnation is mediated in the world of space and time, leading to a new orientation of theology within the world. The doctrinal ('from above') and philosophical ('from below') sections lead to a new exposition of Christian life in confrontation with deep-seated problems of ethics and justice.The three pieces closely interweave with each other in the elaboration of a new kind of practical, doctrinal theology of full philosophical integrity. There are extended passages of reflection upon the historical processes which shaped the theological present in terms of the evolution of science and cosmology, and the consequent development of an array of idealist or anti-empirical conceptualities and methods.This book offers a powerful and sustained critique of modern theologies across the traditions which evade, assimilate or fail to take account of the real world of sensible embodiment, in which, according to creedal affirmations, incarnation continues. In place of idealist readings of faith in different guises, it argues for the centrality of sensibility and the unresolved problematics of everyday empirical existence as the primary place of divine disclosure in which theology is learned and practiced with integrity.

This volume brings into conversation two major moral traditions in the social sciences and humanities that offer common areas for understanding, interpreting, and transforming the world. Over the last decade, moral theologians who work on issues of poverty, social justice, human rights, and political institutions have been finding inspiration in the capability approach (CA). Conversely, social scientists who have been working on issues of poverty and social justice from a CA perspective have been finding elements in the Catholic social tradition (CST) to overcome some of the limitations of the CA, such as its vagueness regarding what counts as a valuable human life and its strong individual focus. Integral Human Development brings together for the first time social scientists and theologians in dialogue over their respective uses of CST and CA. The contributors discuss what their mutual grounds are, where they diverge, and where common areas of collaboration and transformative action can be found. The contributors offer a critical analysis of CA from the perspective of theology. They also provide an original account of CST. The book offers a broader historical, biblical, social, economic, political, and ecological understanding of CST than that which is currently available in the CST literature. The book will interest students and practitioners in global affairs, development studies, or the social sciences who seek to better understand the Catholic tradition and its social teachings and what they can offer to address current socio-environmental challenges. Contributors: Séverine Deneulin, Clemens Sedmak, Amy Daughton, Dana Bates, Lori Keleher, Joshua Schulz, Katie Dunne, Cathriona Russell, Meghan J. Clark, Ilaria Schnyder von Wartensee, Elizabeth Hlabse, Guillermo Otano Jiménez, James P. Bailey, Helmut P. Gaisbauer, and Augusto Zampini-Davies.

Die AutorInnen des Bandes reflektieren aus den Blickwinkeln der Philosophie, OEkonomie, Politikwissenschaft, Wirtschaftspsychologie, des Sozialrechts und der Gerontologie die Problematik der Besteuerung von Vermoegen und Vermoegensubertragungen. Die Beitrage stehen im Kontext einer breiteren Auseinandersetzung um Fragen der Finanzierbarkeit und Ausgestaltung des Wohlfahrtsstaates, des Zusammenhanges zwischen Armut, Alter und Gesundheit, von steuerpsychologischen Fragen und solchen der sozialen Gerechtigkeit. Der Band spannt damit einen interdisziplinaren Bogen von grundsatzlichen Themenstellungen bis hin zu solchen der Umsetzung und Funktionalitat verschiedener Ansatze. Er bietet damit in Summe neue, stimulierende Perspektiven auf ein viel diskutiertes Thema

Die AutorInnen des Bandes untersuchen aus den Blickwinkeln der Philosophie, Sozialgeographie, Politikwissenschaft, Kommunikationswissenschaft, Theologie, Sozialpsychologie und Padagogik die Wirkung von Wissensproduktion und Wissensvermittlung bzw. Padagogik auf Armutssituationen und soziale Ausgrenzung. Sie reflektieren verschiedene Ebenen der Armutsforschung von der Herausforderung lokales Armutswissen zu fassen bis hin zu internationalen und kulturvergleichenden Perspektiven. Neben den empirischen Befunden zeigen die Erkenntnisse die Relevanz einer, fur die Armutsforschung besonders bedeutsamen, Sensibilitat gegenuber Begriffen und Diskursen auf: in der Wissensproduktion ebenso wie im Feld gesellschaftlicher Praxis.

Auf welche konkreten und gesellschaftlich relevanten Fragestellungen lasst sich der von Amartya Sen und Martha Nussbaum formulierte Capability Approach anwenden? Eignet er sich als Grundlage fur Studien und Projekte, die sich mit der Konzeptualisierung und Minderung von Kinderarmut beschaftigen? Die Autorinnen und Autoren gehen diesen Fragen aus unterschiedlichen fachlichen Perspektiven nach und zeigen das Potential des Ansatzes auf. Dabei werden sowohl seine theoretischen Grundlagen reflektiert als auch methodische Herausforderungen aufgegriffen, die bei seiner Anwendung auftreten.

Dieses Buch stellt eine einfache Frage: Was konnen wir aus den fruhchristlichen Texten im Hinblick auf die moderne Resilienzforschung gewinnen? Resilienz bezeichnet die Widerstandskraft die Kirchenvater sprachen in diesem Zusammenhang von der Kraft der Seele. Dieser Band versammelt 12 Beitrage, die eine interdisziplinare Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema der Krisenbewaltigung und der Schicksalsresistenz in Verbindung mit den Konzepten von Hoffnung, Handlungsfahigkeit, Selbsterforschung und innerem Wachstum aufzeigen. Betrachtet werden Zeugnisse, die aus den ersten funf Jahrhunderten des Christentums stammen, u.a. Leben und Werk von Antonius dem Grossen, Evagrios Pontikos, Johannes Chrysostomos, Augustinus, Gregor von Nazianz, Makros dem Eremiten. Anhand der patristischen Lehre werden Standpunkte und Modelle der Resilienzforschung diskutiert und weiters in einen Dialog mit der zeitgenossischen Philosophie gebracht. Das Buch richtet sich an Philosoph/inn/en und Theolog/inn/en, die sich mit dem Thema Lebenskrisen befassen, sowie an Resilienzforscher/innen aus allen Humandisziplinen und kann auch mit Gewinn von denen gelesen werden, die sich allgemein fur Widerstandskraft interessieren."

Thomas Boehler - Otto Neumaier - Gottfried Schweiger - Clemens Sedmak Das vorliegende Werk ist das Ergebnis einer Zusammenarbeit, die anlasslich der vom Zentrum fur Ethik und Armutsforschung der Universitat Salzburg und der Sa- burg Ethik Initiative veranstalteten Konferenz Perspectives on Work im Mai begonnen wurde. Es stellt den Versuch dar, sich aus unterschiedlichen themati schen aber auch disziplinaren Perspektiven dem Phanomen der Arbeit zu nahern und damit auch einen Beitrag zur Entwicklung von Loesungsvorschlagen zu leis ten. Auch wenn sich spatestens seit dem Ende des Vollbeschaftigungstraums in den er Jah ren eine weitreichende Debatte um den Begri und die Zukunft der Ar beit, um neue und alternative Arbeitsformen, um die Aufgaben des Staates und der OEko nomie sowie um den Umgang mit Arbeitslosigkeit entwickelt hat, sind namlich die damit verbundenen Probleme noch lange nicht geloest. Der herausragende Status von (Erwerbs-)Arbeit in den Arbeitsgesellschaften des . Jahrhunderts, seien sie nun fordistisch oder po- fordistisch, Wissens- oder Informationsgesellschaften genannt, stellt vielmehr noch immer eine Herausforderung dar, der sich der Einzelne, die Gesell schaft, die Politik und auch die Wissenschaft nicht entziehen kann. Dabei stellen sich die Fragen und Probleme auf unterschiedlicher E bene, weshalb wir uns auch entschlos sen haben, uns ei ner gewissen Systematik folgend aber in Einzelbeitragen dem Thema zu nahern. Arbeit, so lasst sich sagen, ist Teil der conditio humana, gerade auch uber die Umbruche ihr es Verstandnisses und ihrer Organisation hinweg.

The word stress is everywhere and highly overused. Everyone is stressed, it seems, all the time. Looking into the meaning of stress in the natural science and the humanities, this book explores cellular stress as cause of and in correlation with what humans experience as stress. When do we psychologically feel stress and when do we show physiological evidence of stress in our brain? Stress is a deviation from what feels normal and healthy. It can be created by social or economic factors and become chronic, which has substantial impacts on the individual and society as a whole. Focusing on poverty as one chronic inducer of stress, this book explores how the lack of pressure-free time, the hardships and unpredictability of everyday life and a general lack of protection lead to destructive toxic stress. This pressure affects cognitive and social functioning, brain development during childhood and may also result in premature aging. How can the sciences inform our understanding of and our response to stress? What can be done about toxic stress both on a personal level and in terms of structures and policies? The book is written for anyone interested in stress, its causes and consequences, and its relationship to poverty.