Disadvantage

Abstract What does it mean to be disadvantaged? Is it possible to compare different disadvantages? What should governments do to move their societies in the direction of equality, where equality is to be understood both in distributional and social terms? Linking analytical philosophical theory with broad empirical studies, including interviews conducted for the purpose of this book, it is shown how taking theory and practice together is essential if the theory is to be rich enough to be applied to the real world, and policy systematic enough to have purpose and justification. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 presents a pluralist analysis of disadvantage, modifying the capability theory of Sen and…