wall charts
global poverty and individual responsibility
this book considers what responsibilities affluent individuals have toward global poverty given that global poverty is a problem with structural political causes and one that generally requires collective action . while philosophers have tended to address responsibility for global poverty in exclusively moral political or legal ways gosselin examines the intersection of these three approaches giving a comprehensive look at affluent individuals relationships to poverty . she thus provides both a survey of existing literature on responsibility for global poverty as well as a positive proposal for a pluralistic and differentiated account of individual duties based on a persons moral agency her roles within collective groups including her occupational and civic roles and her institutional identities as citizen and consumer . while the agents most responsible for addressing global poverty are collectives like governments and corporations individuals have various kinds of duties to ensure that relevant groups carry out their collective responsibilities . gosselin examines three kinds of duties at length each with its own chapter beneficence redress and institutional justice . situating each duty in the relevant literature moral legal and political philosophy she explains how the duty is justified who are its appropriate duty bearers and what actions it requires of individuals . real life examples that analyze causes identify responsible agents and explain the nature of this responsibility show the applicability of each duty to particular situations of poverty . the final chapter summarizes the many and differentiated duties individuals have based on their moral institutional and role identities which in turn are based on how they are situated with respect to the global poor . a suggested list of particular actions individuals should take is given .