In a region that boasts some of the world’s wealthiest countries, does absolute poverty exist? The editors’ introductory comment that their students have doubted the existence of ‘real’ poverty in Europe, only in insert-stereotypical-poor-country-here, is one to which I can relate. While perhaps only part of the impetus for such a book, it nonetheless highlights that the definition of ‘poverty’ continues to be highly debated and personally defined, a perspective that plays out in these pages.

The introduction argues for a shift in conceptual language and a revitalisation of discussion that debates ‘absolute’ rather than ‘relative’ poverty. Relative poverty concepts and measurements have dominated the poverty discussion for the past few decades, in Europe certainly but also globally. Redefining ‘absolute poverty’ is a somewhat ambitious goal, and one that is not quite met throughout the book, something the editors acknowledge. Many of the chapters still cover topics that one could argue would broadly fall under the umbrella of ‘relative poverty’, and indeed do draw on many of the concepts and measures that have followed on from the seminal work of Peter Townsend (Reference Townsend1979). Nonetheless, the book draws out and highlights important debates – and people – that are often forgotten when discussing poverty in more wealthy countries. In particular, it highlights that there are some groups of people – such as those experiencing homelessness, asylum seekers forbidden to work, undocumented migrants, marginalised unemployed workers – who are so far below the relative poverty line that it is rendered irrelevant for them.

So then, in what ways can we conceptualise poverty, beyond the absolute-relative binary? Lena Dominelli proposes a participatory relational space encompassing individual agency while recognising structural constraints (p. 27). Robert Walker’s strong – if, at times, flippant – argument for shame as the central consideration for conceptualising and measuring poverty aligns with Christian Neuhäuser’s argument that poverty is linked to dignity. Gottfried Schweiger applies the concept of justice, positing that poverty violates the justice-based entitlements of Europe’s citizens, an argument supported through Elena’s Pribytkova’s discussion of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and Guillem Fernàndez Evangelista’s arguments about the penalisation of homelessness. Taking a different approach, Jonathan Bradshaw and Oleksandr Movshuk propose five measures of extreme poverty based on analysis of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) survey data, while Ides Nicaise, Ingrid Schockaert and Tuba Bircan argue that some of the most vulnerable groups, including those experiencing homelessness and undocumented immigrants, remain underrepresented or are excluded in SILC data. Similarly, Patricia Kennedy and Nessa Winston recognise the limits of household surveys to capture information for groups living in extreme poverty.

While it includes a very diverse range of perspectives and approaches, the book largely focuses on the visibility of or responses to poverty, rather than addressing root causes. This is not necessarily a downfall; rather, it brings to light the realities of the diversity of individuals who experience poverty, something desperately needed in poverty studies (Simpson Reeves et al., Reference Simpson Reeves, Parsell and Liu2020). The experiences of migrants, both from outside and from within Europe, form the basis of several chapters of the book. Ursula Trummer discusses health care entitlements for Europe’s undocumented or irregular migrants. Clemens Sedmak describes ‘accompaniment needs’ for migrants, recognising many may have left relative poverty in their home countries for absolute poverty in Europe. Migrants play a major role in Rebecca O’Connell and Julia Brannen’s chapter on food poverty in the UK, as well as in Ruth McAreavey’s descriptions of migrant workers’ experiences in Northern Ireland. In a departure from the other chapters, Carlos Pitillas argues that trauma and the intergenerational transmission of violence is a major barrier to overcoming poverty, with a powerful narrative about the patterns repeated with a young child and his mother. However, while it makes an important and poignant case for recognising the prevalence of violence in the context of poverty, the focus of this chapter nonetheless feels a little out of place compared to the other chapters.

The question of who carries the burden of responsibility for these groups is also debated here. Dominelli makes the point that the “[r]esponsibility for addressing societal levels of poverty rests with the nation state” (p. 17), with nation states meeting this responsibility by encouraging paid employment for nationals while restricting or removing the rights of non-nationals. This viewpoint reinforces the elimination of absolute poverty as the responsibility of each individual nation state, rather than global endeavour, and this is also an argument implicit in Stefanos Papanastasiou in his comparison of EU social protection policies and extreme deprivation outcomes. Broadening beyond the nation state, Gaisbauer traces the history of poverty in EU social policy discourse, recognising combating poverty and social exclusion as “one of the cornerstones” of EU social policy realm (pp. 306-207). Anna Sofia Salonen and Tiina Silvasti, on the other hand, discuss the role of faith-based organisations in providing food relief to the extreme poor, although this is argued to be an expression of a shift from the welfare state eradicating poverty to governing the consequences (p. 275).

The book is truly interdisciplinary in scope, with work drawn from sociology, philosophy, ethics, law, economics and social policy – a little something for everyone. Some of the debates here are well-trodden ground but recognising the diversity of those experiencing poverty in its many forms and providing suggestions for how to alleviate harm – of material deprivation, income and social inequality, and social exclusion for some of Europe’s most vulnerable peoples – is a strong step in the right direction.