{"title":"Poverty as capability deprivation: Considering the relational approach, group-based analysis, and socio-structural lens","authors":"Katarina Pitasse Fragoso","doi":"10.1177/13684310241270471","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Amartya Sen has argued that poverty means much more than lacking income: it means that a person falls short of securing a basic level of capabilities. His main justification for this claim is that we need to look at what is important in a person's life (what a person's actual functionings are, and what alternative outcomes could be achieved), rather than just at what a person has. In this article, I argue that, although Sen's conceptualisation expands our understanding of poverty, it can limit us when evaluating what is wrong with poverty. Conceptualising poverty in a diverse and unequal society rather requires a broader perspective, one capable of including an explicitly relational approach, group-based analysis, and a socio-structural lens. Otherwise, we miss the fundamental role played by systematic oppression in the context of poverty. In developing these ideas, my aim is to update the picture of poverty as capability deprivation.","PeriodicalId":2,"journal":{"name":"ACS Applied Bio Materials","volume":"8 50","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ACS Applied Bio Materials","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13684310241270471","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MATERIALS SCIENCE, BIOMATERIALS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Amartya Sen has argued that poverty means much more than lacking income: it means that a person falls short of securing a basic level of capabilities. His main justification for this claim is that we need to look at what is important in a person's life (what a person's actual functionings are, and what alternative outcomes could be achieved), rather than just at what a person has. In this article, I argue that, although Sen's conceptualisation expands our understanding of poverty, it can limit us when evaluating what is wrong with poverty. Conceptualising poverty in a diverse and unequal society rather requires a broader perspective, one capable of including an explicitly relational approach, group-based analysis, and a socio-structural lens. Otherwise, we miss the fundamental role played by systematic oppression in the context of poverty. In developing these ideas, my aim is to update the picture of poverty as capability deprivation.
期刊介绍:
ACS Applied Bio Materials is an interdisciplinary journal publishing original research covering all aspects of biomaterials and biointerfaces including and beyond the traditional biosensing, biomedical and therapeutic applications.
The journal is devoted to reports of new and original experimental and theoretical research of an applied nature that integrates knowledge in the areas of materials, engineering, physics, bioscience, and chemistry into important bio applications. The journal is specifically interested in work that addresses the relationship between structure and function and assesses the stability and degradation of materials under relevant environmental and biological conditions.