Towards a new poverty knowledge: poverty, agency and voice
18 November 2022 | On the seventh anniversary of the death of Giancarlo Quaranta
Over the last few decades, there has been a growing awareness that poverty in contemporary societies can under no circumstances be considered a unitary phenomenon but is characterised by such intense complexity and diversification processes that make it difficult to straightforwardly conceptualise and measure it. This in turn undermines the possibility to build standardised policy systems around poverty and makes it necessary to put the very experiences and personal accounts of those living in different kinds of poverty or marginalised conditions at the centre of the analysis, together with their emotions and the agency they do express. Having the voices of those involved finally heard, would challenge the stigma surrounding poverty and support the understanding of what inequalities actually mean in today’s world and what are their consequences on political representation and citizenship rights.
The seminar addresses these issues in dialogue with Ruth Lister, whose pioneering work is foundational for those engaging with research in this perspective, and Sofia Strid, scientific coordinator of Resistiré, a European-funded research project analysing the impact of COVID-19 policies on gendered, intersectional inequalities.
The seminar is held on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the death of Giancarlo Quaranta, founding member of Knowledge and Innovation – School of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Research.
The working language is English.
Speakers
Ruth Lister is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University and a member of the House of Lords. She holds an international reputation for her influential research on the conceptualisation and experience of poverty in modern rich societies, and also wrote extensively on gender and citizenship.
Sofia Strid is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Gothenburg and holds positions as Associate Professor in Gender Studies at Örebro University and as Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. Her research focuses on different forms of inequalities, their intersections and consequences in different domains.