PublishedFederation Press, October 2017 |
ISBN9781760021450 |
FormatSoftcover, 304 pages |
Thinking about Poverty provides a critical understanding of poverty in the global context: how global structures affect people in Australia and the way policy-makers respond. In the midst of waning public interest, the book fills an important gap in the current public discourse on poverty and covers:\n
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the extent of poverty and unprecedented wealth and income inequality across the world, including Australia;
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why neoliberalism remains at the heart of mainstream global discourse and continues to shape public policy;
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how a deregulated and speculative global economy creates massive private and public debt, undermining the real economy, employment and wage growth;
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why neoliberalism still influences national governments to implement further privatisation, deregulation and other neoliberal policies which implement corporate tax cuts, and re-distribution of wealth and income upwards, while at the same time reducing welfare provisions that exacerbate poverty, social disadvantage and inequality;
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the pivotal role and importance of the welfare state to alleviate some of the excesses of neoliberal capitalism;
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individualised and structural theories that try to explain the existence of poverty;
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mainstream and alternative poverty definitions which are not based solely on economic measurements; and
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the impact of public policy on various groups, including Aboriginal people, the unemployed, the mentally ill, older Australians, people with disabilities, women and families.
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\nThinking about Poverty argues that the quality of any society must be judged by its values and norms; that without a just and decent moral code, humanity is unlikely to be able to survive the social, economic and political challenges ahead. Having large numbers living in deprived conditions, while a few live in extraordinary luxury is clearly not just - nor is it morally defensible. The book therefore concludes that political leaders are liable to lose the legitimacy to govern if they continue the current course of governing for a chosen few rather than for the overall common good.\n\nNot just a critique, Thinking about Poverty puts forward a range of policy strategies and alternative economic thinking. With contributions from academics and practitioners, the book makes a contemporary and accessible contribution to discourse about poverty in Australia.\n\nContributors: Robert Bland, Andreas Cebulla, Benno Engels, Sue Green, Paul Harris, Ilan Katz, Helen Kimberley, Sonia Martin, Ruth Phillips, Eric Porter, David Rose, Klaus Serr, Karen Soldatic, Ben Spies-Butcher, Frank Stilwell and David Sykes.
