The Global Poor as Agents of Justice

Journal of Moral Philosophy 10 (4):125-150 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

“Agent-centered” approaches to global poverty insist that effective arguments for poverty reduction must specify the concrete duties of particular duty-bearers. This article takes up a recent, influential, version of this view, Thomas Pogge’s human rights-based argument for global economic reforms to reduce chronic deprivation. While signaling a welcome shift from the diffuse allocation of responsibilities common to much philosophical writing on poverty, I argue that Pogge’s approach too readily assigns to powerful institutions in the global North the role of devising and directing anti-poverty initiatives. In so doing, he overlooks the agency—actual and potential—of the poor themselves, as evidenced by poor-led political movements and poor-centered, participatory models of poverty reduction in development theory and practice. While agent-oriented approaches are right to focus our attention on structures that cause poverty, they ought not to assume that the powerful agents responsible for these are the only—or most appropriate—agents to lead the way to poverty reduction. Just as development organizations working in the global South have come to recognize that the participation of poor communities is critical to the success of development strategies, so should normative theorists writing about global injustice acknowledge the importance of the poor as active agents in poverty reduction efforts

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Punishing states that cause global poverty.Thom Brooks - 2007 - William Mitchell Law Review 33 (2):519-32.
The duty to eradicate global poverty: Positive or negative?Pablo Gilabert - 2005 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 7 (5):537-550.
Poverty and Poverty Alleviation.Scott Wisor - 2012 - In M. Juergensmeyer & H. K. Anheier (eds.), Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Sage Publications.
Recognition theory and global poverty.Gottfried Schweiger - 2014 - Journal of Global Ethics 10 (3):267-273.
Pogge on Poverty: Contribution or Exploitation?Gerhard Øverland - 2013 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 30 (4):319-333.
Poverty, negative duties and the global institutional order.Magnus Reitberger - 2008 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 7 (4):379-402.
Immigration, Global Poverty and the Right to Stay.Kieran Oberman - 2011 - Political Studies 59 (2):253-268.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-01-23

Downloads
66 (#222,838)

6 months
10 (#135,809)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Monique Deveaux
University of Guelph