The Importance of Visibility for Social Inequality Research

Some authors, commentators and policy makers choose to equate absolute poverty with some sort of objective measurement of the phenomenon in question - as if that were possible - while others insist that the standard of living and the values of the community must be taken into consideration in determining what constitutes poverty, and therefore they believe that poverty should be understood in comparison with the living standards of the majority of the community (Saunders 2002a: 2,4). The recent Australian Senate report on poverty and financial hardship, entitled A hand up not a hand out (Australian Senate Community Affairs References Committee 2004) helpfully published the definitions of poverty provided by many of the key stakeholders, including the government department responsible for families and community services, the peak body representing social service delivery agencies in Australia, several religious organisations and a couple of research institutions 1.