Global Poverty: Perspectives on Gender, Nationalism and Global Justice

Abstract

This thesis aims to examine some of the key factors in causing the widespread poverty that exists across the globe today, and offers some solutions. I take a contemporary moral cosmopolitan perspective and closely consider the impacts of ethno-cultural nationalism and gender in conjunction with a skewed global economic order that intertwines with a deeply embedded patriarchal structure. I then argue that each citizen has a duty not to uphold a world order that perpetuates human rights violations, and infer from this that as this duty is unfulfilled by those that are able to satisfy it, the citizens of first world countries have a duty of assistance to the global poor. We then explore nationalism in contrast with cosmopolitanism, and consider the effects of a doctrine which dictates that the scope of justice ends at domestic borders. The role of gender in global poverty is also explored, as women are disproportionately affected by poverty. The final component of this thesis aims to provide practical multi-level solutions to global poverty.