Invited Speaker: Jonathan Wolff (Oxford)

Poverty, Social Expectations, and the Family

Abstract: Families with children face a series of social pressures and expectations that can make them more vulnerable to the effects of low income. In this paper I will explore why this issue should engage the attention of political philosophers, and what, from a policy perspective, the social response should be.

Jonathan Wolff is the Blavatnik Chair in Public Policy in association with Wolfson College. He was formerly Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Arts and Humanities at UCL. He is a political philosopher who works on questions of equality, disadvantage and social justice.
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​His work in recent years has also turned to applied topics such as public safety, disability, gambling, and the regulation of recreational drugs, which he has discussed in his books Ethics and Public Policy: A Philosophical Inquiry (Routledge 2011) and The Human Right to Health (Norton 2012). Earlier works include Disadvantage (OUP 2007), with Avner de-Shalit; An Introduction to Political Philosophy (OUP, 1996, third edition 2016); Why Read Marx Today? (OUP 2002); and Robert Nozick (Polity 1991). His current work concerns social equality and social exclusion. He has had a long standing interest in health and health promotion, including questions of justice in health care resource allocation, the social determinants of health, and incentives and health behaviour. He has been a member of the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, the Academy of Medical Science working party on Drug Futures, the Gambling Review Body and the Homicide Review Group. He is an external member of the Board of Science of the British Medical Association, and a Trustee of the Responsible Gambling Trust, for whom he chairs their research committee. He writes a monthly column on higher education for the Guardian.