Book review: Combating Poverty in Europe – Active Inclusion in a Multi-Actor Context
| Author | Filip Bojić |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1388262719869528 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
indigenous law in Latin America and several articles and book chapters on constitutional law and
social rights and social protection systems in Latin America.
Rune Halvorsen and Bjørn Hvinden (eds.), Combating Poverty in Europe – Active Inclusion in a Multi-
Actor Context, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016, XIIIþ236 pages, ISBN 978-1-78471-
217-4 (hardcover).
Reviewed by: Filip Bojic
´,University of Belgrade, Serbia
DOI: 10.1177/1388262719869528
‘Poverty is the worst form of violence’,
-Mahatma Gandhi
Combating poverty has been one of the strongest initiatives of the 20th century, especially after
World War II. The 1944 Philadelphia Declaration of the International Labour Organisation states
that ‘poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere.’ Nevertheless, in the 21st
century, poverty continues to be one of the global problems that society is constantly facing. Most
authors agree that there is no general and universal definition of poverty but, overall, poverty can
be understood as a lack of resources to meet basic needs.
Each country’s task is to define soc ial policy measures, or national po licies to reduce the
poverty rate. For the implementation of effective social policy measures within each society, a
stable normative framework is required, and the obligation to provide a greater scope of rights for
the most vulnerable categories of the population. In addition, it is essential to devise appropriate
measures within the national social security system with the aim of reducing the poverty rate.
The main question of Halverson and Hvinden’s book, ‘Combating Poverty in Europe,’ is how
governments in Europe approach the complex aim of combating poverty and social exclusion. The
book represents the results of the collective effort by a strong team of European researchers from
prestigious universities and institutes in the research project ‘Combating Poverty in Europe: Re-
organising Active Inclusion through Participatory and Integrated Models of Multi-level Govern-
ance.’ Thisproject has been conducted withinthe European Union Seventh FrameworkProject under
the auspices of the scientific coordinator, Professor Martin Heidenreich (Carl von Ossietzky Uni-
versity Oldenburg, Germany) at the Universities of Lund, Edinburgh, Milan, Warsaw and Oslo as
well as at the Institute of Economic and Social Research of the German Hans Bo¨ckler Foundation.
In the introductorychapter, the editors state that ‘different forms of povertyhave existed through-
out Europe’s recor ded history.’ Ther efore, the questi on is how to treat pover ty as a phenomenon in
the 21st century.Researchers on the project studiedthe extent to which coherence, coordination and
cooperation have been achieved in and across diverse territorial levels – European, national and
subnational – in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. The research focuses on three target
groups: single mothers, long-term unemployed persons and the ‘working poor.’ The data include
quantitativesurvey data, documents,experts’ interviews and life-course interviewswith persons who
have experienced poverty and belong to one of the three target groups.
Book review 293
To continue reading
Request your trial