Higher education in the fight against poverty from the capabilities approach: The case of Spain

Abstract This article describes relative poverty in Spain in relation to the other States in the European Union, following the European indicator AROPE. The official data provided by the National Statistical Institute of Spain and by Eurostat, refer to the year 2014 (the last one for which definitive data are available is 2015). Given the relative poverty of Spanish population, the failure of conventional economic theories, which conceive social development as GDP growth, is clear, and it is argued in favour of the human capabilities approach as a more adequate option for development, from a theoretical-practical point of view, for the reduction and/or eradication of poverty, as well as the…