A Philosophical Examination of Social Justice and Child Poverty

This book is open access under a CCBY license. This book investigates child poverty from a philosophical perspective. It identifies the injustices of child poverty, relates them to the well-being of children, and discusses who has a moral responsibility to secure social justice for children. This book is open access under a CCBY license. Child poverty is one of the biggest challenges of today, harming millions of children. In this book, it is investigated from a philosophical social justice perspective, primarily in the context of modern welfare states. Based on both normative theory (particularly the capability approach) and empirical evidence, the authors identify the injustices of child poverty, showing how it negatively affects the well-being of children as well as their whole life course. But child poverty is not 'given by nature'. It is avoidable and there is certainly the moral duty to alleviate it. Therefore, Graf and Schweiger develop a normative theory of responsibilities, which clarifies the moral role of different agents in the poor child's environment - the family, the state and many others, that have so far been neglected in philosophical theories. They conclude their book by sketching how their theory can be extended to global child poverty and what it means to show equal respect and concern for every child - no matter where and in which context they were born "Child poverty is one of the biggest challenges of today, harming millions of children. In this book, it is investigated from a philosophical social justice perspective, primarily in the context of modern welfare states. Based on both normative theory (particularly the capability approach) and empirical evidence, the authors identify the injustices of child poverty, showing how it negatively affects the well-being of children as well as their whole life course. But child poverty is not 'given by nature'. It is avoidable and there is certainly the moral duty to alleviate it. Therefore, Graf and Schweiger develop a normative theory of responsibilities, which clarifies the moral role of different agents in the poor child's environment: the family, the state and many others, that have so far been neglected in philosophical theories. They conclude their book by sketching how their theory can be extended to global child poverty and what it means to show equal respect and concern for every child - no matter where and in which context they were born."--Publisher's website This book examines child poverty as a topic of social justice. The authors develop a theory of social justice for children based within the capability approach, apply it to the injustice of child poverty and propose a theory of the responsibilities of different agents towards children living in poverty. Das Buch behandelt Kinderarmut als Thema der sozialen Gerechtigkeit. Ausgehend von einer Konzeption der sozialen Gerechtigkeit für Kinder, die im Capability Approach beheimatet ist, legen die Autoren eine Kritik der Kinderarmut vor und entwickeln eine Theorie über die verantwortlichen Aktuere, die zur Linderung von Kinderarmut verpflichtet sind.

This book examines child poverty as a topic of social justice. The authors develop a theory of social justice for children based within the capability approach, apply it to the injustice of child poverty and propose a theory of the responsibilities of different agents towards children living in poverty.

Cover Contents List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction: Philosophy and ChildPoverty 1 Social Justice for Children – ACapability Approach 2 The Injustice of Child Poverty 3 Responsibilities for Children inPoverty 4 Advancing Our Approach toGlobal Justice for Children References Index