Resources, Deprivation and Poverty

Poverty alleviation is a central aim of economic and social policy, and yet there is no consensus about what poverty means or how it is best measured. Often, the households below an income poverty line are counted as poor, but there may be no firm basis for concentrating on that particular income level. There may also be wide variations among the households below any income poverty line in terms of their actual living standards. This book explores what poverty means in developed countries, and shows that understanding and measuring it requires widening the focus beyond curent income. By using broader measures of resources and information on living patterns and concrete indicators of deprivation, it shows how those who are effectively excluded from participation in society due to a lack of resources can be more accurately identified, and the processes producing such exclusion better understood. The core issue of this book is how to define and measure poverty in relatively rich countries in a way which is valid, meaningful in the context, and valuable for policy-making. Extensive tables of data from a specially designed survey of a large representative sample of Irish households are used to illustrate this issue.

ISBN 0198287852   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9780198287858 (What's this?)   Pages 272 Publisher Oxford University Press   Volumes 1 Imprint Clarendon Press   Weight (grammes) 561 Format Hardback   Published in Oxford Publication date 30 May 1996   Height (mm) 234 Non-book description x261   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress HC260.5.Z9   Spine width (mm) 19 DEWEY 362.5091722   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

		List of Tables
1		Introduction		1
2		The Meaning and Measurement of Poverty		10
3		Income Poverty		39
4		Measuring Deprivation		61
5		Income, Resources, and Deprivation		93
6		Income, Deprivation, and Poverty		115
7		Class, Underclass, and Poverty		152
8		Implications for Conceptualizing and Measurement Poverty		179
9		Implications for Tackling Poverty		202
10		Conclusions		218
		Appendices		231
		References		241
		Index		255

."..They offer a definition of poverty that is multidimensional, dynamic, and based as much on the nonmaterial capabilities of inividuals as on their material resources."--Contemporary Sociology.".the book provides very useful updates on recent developments in the literature including commentaries on the 'underclass' debate and the writings of Amartya Sen. These are particularly good and will be helpful not only to poverty researchers but to students looking for comprehensive summaries of the field."--Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare"Nolan and Whelan provide a thorough, well-rounded and focused analysis of what ought to be the first step in poverty policy: understanding the complexity of poverty."--Contemporary Sociology."..the book provides an excellent portrait of poverty in Ireland. Further, it does much to address the issue of the "underclass" in the Irish context, demonstrating that the location and concentration of the poor population does not seem to have

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