Per al mesurament de la desigualtat, la pobresa i l'exclusió : limitacions, propostes tècniques i alternatives

Abstract

From an empirical standpoint, measuring inequality is quite a developed question. From the classic work by Sen in the seventies until the work currently done by the team of investigators of the Luxemburg Income Study, there has been a systematisation of the instruments and investigation techniques on inequality. Something similar occurs with poverty (the work of the United Nations Programme for Development in this direction the Human Poverty Index 1, Human Poverty Index 2), albeit without a clear conceptualisation, or at least not devoid of controversy. As far as social exclusion is concerned, we investigators have still not achieved a theoretical corpus on its definition or measurement. There have been attempts, but we are far from achieving something similar to what occurred with inequality. This paper offers a summary overview of the different conceptualisations of the three terms: inequality, poverty and exclusion, showing in turn the different possible measurements (indicators, techniques, instruments), and concluding with a series of methodological and technical proposals for measurement which choose an open and plural reconceptualisation.