Why we should care about poverty and inequality: exploring the grounds for a pluralist approach

Irene Bucelli

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Policy debates surrounding poverty and inequality often focus on practical solutions and seldom explore the normative underpinning that would justify our concerns with these phenomena. Why should we care about poverty, or about inequality? From a philosophical standpoint, can we separate the two, such that it is possible to be deeply concerned about poverty but unconcerned about inequalities? Do our reasons for caring about one contrast with our reasons for caring about the other? While there is a growing empirical literature exploring the mechanisms connecting the two, the philosophical literature has seldom focused on their relationship. Firstly, this paper provides a clear map of the philosophical debate, clarifying the normative assumptions that underlie positions conceptually prioritizing inequality and poverty respectively. Secondly, the paper suggests ‘a pluralist approach’, that stresses the overlap of our normative concerns with poverty and inequality and highlights parallel problems that restrictive interpretations of these concepts face, pointing to the importance of considering broader phenomena and processes (such as deprivation and exclusion) that illuminate the relationship between the two.

Keywords: poverty; inequality; social justice; normative justification; inclusive growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2019-02-22
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Published in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 22, February, 2019, pp. 1-22. ISSN: 1369-8230

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