Should Poverty Researchers Worry About Inequality?

The paper constructs a case for arguing that poverty researchers need not worry about inequality (as poverty researchers). It reviews conceptualisations of poverty as essentially relational, a particular reflection of prevailing inequalities. In this approach, people are in poverty because they are less well off than others along important dimensions of wellbeing. As against this view, the paper constructs a case for studying poverty as non-relational. In this approach, people are in poverty because they are worse off than they might have been along important dimensions of wellbeing. The argument is developed in the space of justice, and by reference to prioritarian approaches. Some implications of adopting a prioritarian perspective on poverty are briefly discussed. A note discusses counterparts to this argument in poverty analysis