Philosophy and Child Poverty

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Philosophy and the Poverty of Children and their Families

   • Nicolás Brando, Gottfried Schweiger

   Pages 1-15

3. Definitions and Measurements

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. Child Poverty, Impoverished Parenting, and Normative Childhood: Some Words of Caution

      • Douglas William Hanes

      Pages 19-49

   3. Children in Measurements of Poverty Within Populations: Two Problems with Current Indexes

      • Katarina Pitasse Fragoso

      Pages 51-68

   4. Poverty, Social Expectations, and the Family

      • Jonathan Wolff

      Pages 69-89

   5. Beyond the Material Wounds of Child Poverty: The Conceptualization of Child Poverty as Moral Damage

      • Mar Cabezas, Carlos Pitillas

      Pages 91-104

4. Children and Families Living in Poverty

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-105

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   2. Making Them Strong? Vulnerability and Resilience in Poor Children

      • Alexander Bagattini, Rebecca Gutwald

      Pages 107-125

   3. Humiliation and Child Poverty

      • Gottfried Schweiger

      Pages 127-144

   4. Education, Voice and Empowerment: Learning with and from Children in Poverty

      • Rosie N. Yasmin, Babak Dadvand

      Pages 145-161

   5. The Nature of Nurture: Poverty, Father Absence and Gender Equality

      • Alison E. Denham

      Pages 163-188

   6. ‘I’ve Been Trying to Change My Life Heaps But I Always End Up Back Here’. The Complex Relationship Between Poverty, Parental Substance Dependency, and Self-Control

      • Anke Snoek

      Pages 189-207

   7. Disability and Child Poverty

      • Sarah Gorman

      Pages 209-228

   8. Precarious Childhood

      • Jennifer Mei Sze Ang

      Pages 229-244

   9. Children in Liminality: Case Studies from Ireland and Iran

      • Annie Cummins, Amin Sharifi Isaloo

      Pages 245-267

5. Rights, Responsibilities, and Policies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 269-269

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   2. A Duty-Based Approach to Children’s Right to Freedom from Extreme Poverty

      • Stamatina Liosi

      Pages 271-285

   3. Towards an Ontological Approach to Care and Child Poverty

      • Georgios Karakasis

      Pages 287-301

   4. Civic Tenderness as a Response to Child Poverty in America

      • Justin Leonard Clardy

      Pages 303-320

This book offers a broad and diverse reflection of the ways in which child poverty could be conceptualised, and the ways in which it is intertwined with childhood as a specific social condition. Furthermore, the responsibilities towards children and the possible mechanisms required for dealing with this condition will be analysed and clarified. 

This is the first volume on philosophy and child poverty. Despite the increasing number of publications on poverty, the particular phenomenon of poverty during childhood has not received much philosophical attention. This is surprising, given the severity and depth of child poverty around the globe.

This volume brings together various philosophical approaches and how they understand and tackle child poverty. This is an important addition to the philosophical literature, which is also of wider interest to scholars working in the social sciences and with an interest in child poverty.

• Child Poverty
• Philosophy of Childhood
• Family Poverty
• Philosophy of Poverty
• Global Justice
• Childhood and family poverty
• Universal Poverty Measurements
• Child Poverty and Resistance
• Living in Poverty
• Humiliation and Child Poverty
• Gender Equality and Child Poverty
• Education and Child Poverty
• Immigration and Child Poverty
• Disability and Child Poverty
• Kant and Children’s Rights
• Education for Disadvantaged Children
• Poverty and Social Welfare
• childhood studies

“Child poverty is both important and urgent. The book edited by Brando and Schweiger addresses key-questions: what child poverty is, what causes it, what is wrong with it, and who should do what in order to eradicate or mitigate it. This is pioneering work - indeed, the volume is one of the very few existing philosophical treatments of the problems raised by child poverty.” (Anca Gheaus, Ramon y Cajal researcher at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

“Surprisingly this is the first book explicitly devoted to a topic that demands our urgent attention. Much of the literature on children’s rights has been rather abstract. Yet the problem of how poverty affects children in particular is a vitally important one and also of international scope. This book is thus most welcome andits international roster of contributing authors promises a rich, wide ranging and vitally relevant discussion.” (David Archard, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast)

“The philosophy of childhood is one of the most fertile areas of philosophical research at present, but little has been done on the pressing topical issue of poverty. By collecting a wide variety of theoretical approaches to this topic, this excellent anthology both sets the agenda for and kick starts philosophical research on child poverty.” (Lars Lindblom, Linköping University, Denmark)

“The volume covers an immense variety of interesting topics from different societal and cultural contexts (such as Bangladesh, Ireland, Iran, UK, USA) and provides an excellent overview on contemporary philosophical debates on child poverty.” (Prof. Dr. Johannes Drerup, Free University of Amsterdam/University of Koblenz-Landau)

• Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

  Nicolás Brando

• Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

  Gottfried Schweiger

Nicolás Brando is a Research Fellow for the “Global Governance and Democratic Government” Programme at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies (KU Leuven), and a PhD scholar at the Institute of Philosophy (KU Leuven). He works on moral and political philosophy, particularly on issues of global justice, education and childhood. His work has been published in the Journal of World Trade, Global Policy and International Journal of Educational Development, among others.

Gottfried Schweiger is a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg. He works in social and political philosophy. Previous publications include (co-authored with Gunter Graf) “A Philosophical Examination of Social Justice and Child Poverty” (Palgrave Macmillan 2015) and (co-edited with Johannes Drerup, Gunter Graf and Christoph Schickhardt) “Justice, Education and the Politics of Childhood” (Springer 2016).

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