Why poverty is more than a lack of income: Thoughts from China

We are extremely lucky to have Prof. Dr. Robert Walker, who will be discussing on our understanding of poverty beyond income.

Abstract

Because economists, especially developmental economists, have been so important in shaping discussions about poverty, it has long been measured, and sometimes conceptualised, simply as a lack of income in relation to needs. Times change, and poverty is increasingly being thought about in multidimensional terms, both within policy and academic circles. However, there is little conceptual basis for the choice of dimensions that are measured. Moreover, policy attention remains largely focussed on the people in poverty who need to be helped and are often thought to be the cause of the problem. The political reality is different. Poverty exists because those who are not poor do not care about poverty or the people who experience it. Political attention needs to focus on the prosperous middle class. China has eradicated absolute poverty only to find that relative poverty remains. This talk considers whether the Chinese middle-class care enough about relative poverty to have anything done about it and concludes that it does not. And the reasons seem to have as much to do with psychology as with economics.

Biography

Robert Walker is Professor at the Institute of Social Management/School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University under China's 'High Level Foreign Talents' programme. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Oxford where he is also Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College and 2021 Shorenstein Fellow, Harvard University. He was formerly Professor of Social Policy at the University Nottingham and before that Professor of Social Policy Research, Loughborough University where he was Director of the Centre for Research in Social Policy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Academy of Social Sciences and was awarded an MBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for his services to social policy research. In 2020 he was nominated for a Friends of China award by the Chinese Ministry of Education. His research interests are eclectic but include poverty, social security, children’s studies, media presentation, policy evaluation and research methodology.

Format

Prof. Walker will be speaking for the first 45 minutes. We will then be holding a Q&A Session.

This session is part of the larger project:

Dissecting Capitalism: Its past, present and future

This series aims to explore the tenets of capitalism over the fabric of time and examine its influence on the global economy and social classes.