ABSTRACT
This chapter considers issues of poverty and inequality, and how these have been understood in analytic and normative terms: why do they happen, who should be held responsible, and what should happen to address them? In particular, how can we approach questions of justice for those who are recognised as the ‘undeserving’ poor, in the form of individuals who seem to act against their best interests and resist attempts to address their needs? The growing emphasis on trauma and the harms done by poverty, while valuable, is risky. Recognition of agency and, in particular, desire holds promise for efforts towards justice.
