Poverty in Iceland, Tuesday 9 October: 12–13

Tuesday 9 October 2012 the Association of Icelandic Historians holds a lunchtime meeting where Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson of the Politics Department of the University of Iceland will discuss “Poverty in Iceland 1991–2004”. The meeting takes place at the National Museum of Iceland lecture hall from 12.05 to 13.00. It has frequently been asserted, in particular before the 2003 and 2007 parliamentary elections that poverty  increased in Iceland in the 1990s and early 2000s despite much economic growth. It was even said that poverty was more prevalent here than in the other Nordic countries. But how is poverty to be defined? Is it the lack of necessities, as traditionally conceived? Or is it the counterpart to wealth, as Hegel and some other philosophers maintain? What do measurements of poverty in Iceland in 1991–2004 show? These questions will be answered by looking at the evidence presented by the Icelandic Statistical Bureau and the EU Statistical Bureau and also at surveys conducted by the Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland. While the meeting is held by the Association of Icelandic Historians, it forms part of the project “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”, jointly organised by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists.