Do We Accept the Right to be Extremely Poor? Results from an Empirical Enquiry

Robert Walker is currently a professor of Social Policy at the University of Oxford in England and an adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty. His work examines the way in which the pain of poverty extends beyond material hardship. Rather than being shameless, as is often claimed by the media, people experiencing poverty almost invariably feel ashamed at being unable to fulfill both their personal aspirations or societal expectations due to their lack of income and other resources. Walker calls this a key global challenge and advocates a new response to poverty based on global human rights legislation.Walker is also the author of The Shame of Poverty, a two year qualitative investigation of the nature and consequences of shame associated with poverty conducted in seven settings located in rural Uganda and India; urban China, Pakistan, Korea the United Kingdom and Norway. The research presented results consistent with the thesis that the shame is always associated with poverty and that this may reduce personal efficacy and contribute to the duration and prevalence of poverty, a process that may be aggravated by policies that stigmatise recipients of social protection.