Since 1990, the World Bank, most of the other international agencies and an increasing number of governments have committed themselves to the eradication of poverty. But the basis of their work badly needs overhaul and concerted verification. Breadline Europe provides a scientific and international basis for the analysis and reduction of poverty. It demonstrates that there is far more important research into the problem of poverty going on in many countries of Europe than the international agencies and national governments admit or even realise. Knowledge of the major scientific advances in research needs to be spread among other countries within as well as outside Europe. Breadline Europe has been written by a number of leading European poverty researchers and has three main themes: the need for a scientific poverty line: for better definition and measurement of what is the biggest and rapidly growing international social problem; the need for better theories distinguishing between poverty and social exclusion, with the corresponding policies calculated to diminish these problems;the need for better international social policy and for better policy-related analyses of poverty: for more exact analysis of the year-by-year contribution of specific policies to poverty. This is the first book to examine poverty in Europe within the international framework agreed at the 1995 World Summit on Social Development. Breadline Europe provides up-to-date, essential reading for social science undergraduates and postgraduate students. It will also be of considerable interest to policy makers and NGOs with a concern for poverty reduction.

About the Author
David Gordon is Professor of Social Justice and Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. Peter Townsend was Professor of International Social Policy at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Science until his death in June 2009.

Reviews
"The Policy Press is fast carving out a niche for itself in producing up-to-date and accessible material on issues directly and indirectly relevant to policy. This book is exemplary on these counts." Sociology
".. Provides rich material for students of poverty.." Community Care - -research mattters.
"... one of the most authoritative works on poverty." European Journal of Social Security
"This is the first intellectually solid charge sheet drawn up against the post-Reagan free market economy in the European Union and, above all, in the post-Communist 'transition' states." Neal Ascherson, The Observer
"Breadline Europe will serve as a major reference book for poverty research as well as for the public discourse on poverty policies for years to come." Professor Jurgen Kohl, Institute of Sociology, University of Heidelberg, Germany
"... an undeniable contribution to understanding the complexity of poverty, its measurement and relations with inequality and social exclusion ... will be useful for researchers and valuable for students interested in poverty issues." The British Journal of Social Work



Book Information
ISBN 9781861342928
Author David Gordon
Format Paperback
Page Count 480
Imprint Policy Press
Publisher Policy Press