Poverty in Europe: competing paradigms of analysis

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between some of the dominant conventional perspectives on European social policy and the European poverty research agenda: in particular, the studies of poverty which have been conducted under the auspices of the European Commission. These studies have been shaped by the political agenda of the Commission but have been relatively isolated from theoretical debates concerning European social policy. However, a substantial reconfiguration of the European poverty discussion is now under way, involving redirection of the research agenda towards wider issues of social stratification and political order.