Poverty and precarity Books

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Book Synopsis''A mesmerising book, full of story, truth, pain, lyricism, humour and astonishment: the stuff of a difficult life, fully lived, and masterfully transformed into art'' SALMAN RUSHDIE''Intimate and wise, poignant and compassionate, redemptive and raw. You have to read this beautiful book'' CHERYL STRAYED, author of WildAn electrifying, dazzlingly written reckoning and an essential addition to the conversation about race and class, Survival Math takes its name from the calculations that award-winning author Mitchell S. Jackson made to survive the Portland, Oregon, of his youth. This dynamic book explores gangs and guns, near-death experiences, sex work, masculinity, composite fathers, the concept of ''hustle'' and the destructive power of addiction - all framed within the story of Jackson, his family and his community. Mitchell S. Jackson presents a microcosm of struggle and survival in contemporary urban America - an Trade Review'An unforgettable mix of sharp humor, wide interrogation, and indelible tragedy. Jackson's mesmerizing voice and style draws you into the survival calculations for millions of American kids and families, revealing a need-to-know reality for all of us' * Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black *An extensive and illuminating look at the city of [Jackson's] childhood, exploring issues like sex, violence, addiction, community, and the toll this takes on a person's life * Buzzfeed, Most Anticipated Books of 2019 *Vivid and unflinching ... Mitchell's memoir in essays chronicles the struggles of friends and family with drugs, racism, violence, and hopelessness and puts a face on the cyclical nature of poverty * Boston Globe, Most Anticipated Books of 2019 *"A dynamic, impressive debut memoir from the Whiting Award-winning author of The Residue Years (2013)... A potent book that revels in the author's truthful experiences while maintaining the jagged-grain, keeping-it-a-100, natural storytelling that made The Residue Years a modern must-read." * Kirkus Reviews *Jackson's musings skillfully illuminate the bloodlines, both inherited and earned, that pulse through the body of America's gang-graffitied carceral state * Tyehimba Jess, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olio *'Survival Math is the best memoir I've read in ages. With honesty, insight, and a tremendous amount of heart, Mitchell S. Jackson takes us deep into the stories that made, ruined, and saved him. I had the feeling while reading it that I'd never read anything quite like it before. It's intimate and wise; poignant and compassionate; redemptive and raw. You have to read this beautiful book' * Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild *Survival Math should be praised for many reasons--its literary integrity, its cinematic pace, its creativity and candor. But what I find most striking about this work, what I think distinguishes it, is its heart * Jason Reynolds *

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Book SynopsisUnearths the practical social theology of the 19th century church in ScotlandMany believe that the church was largely mute on the widespread poverty and deprivation which accompanied the rapid expanse of urban life in Scotland. This study shows that the church was not lacking in commitment to improving such conditions, through the example of theologian Robert Flint and the parish minister Frederick Lockhart Robertson. For example, publication of Flint''s ''Christ''s Kingdom upon Earth'' led the Church of Scotland in Glasgow to investigate slum housing conditions and to the conclusion that religion could not be complacent about the need for social action.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; 1. Signs and Signals - The Stirrings of Social Criticism; 2. From Church to Kingdom - Robert Flint's new model; 3. The Church and Housing - Flint's social theology in practice; 4. The Parting of the Ways - Social Theology in the United Free Church; 5. The Clash of Opposites - The Kingdom of God in Debate; 6. Full Circle - Social Criticism in the Inter-War Years.

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Book SynopsisIt has been widely believed that the church was largely mute on the widespread poverty which accompanied the rapid expanse of urban life. This study asserts that the church was not lacking in commitment to improving such conditions, through the example of theologians Robert Flint and the parish minister Frederick Lockhart Robertson.

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Book SynopsisThis book traces the cause of poverty to a widely accepted social institution, just as slavery once was, and reveals a way in which this defect could be remedied by introducing a more efficient way of funding government.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Introduction; The Great Enigma of Our Times; Justice is the First Quality in the Moral Hierarchy; Leo Tolstoy and Henry George; The Unflinching Service of a Holy Ecclesiastic; Henry George’s Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII; The Giving of Alms Cannot Abolish Poverty; Christian Socialism and the Labour Party; The Inadequacy of Socialistic Remedies; The Significance of Land; A Remedy for the 21st Century; The Way Forward; About the Author; Further Reading

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Book SynopsisStories of economic shame in Britain and a hopeful way forward for capitalism Trade Review‘How the system became rigged so that even the fortunate lose out: a masterpiece.’ * Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1% *‘The latest in the series of powerful books on the divisions in modern Britain, and will take its place on many bookshelves beside Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and Owen Jones’s Chavs.’ * Andrew Marr, Sunday Times on Posh Boys *‘[A] hard-hitting, forensic takedown.’ -- Herald (Glasgow)

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Book SynopsisJames Beard Awardwinning author Kim Foster reveals a new portrait of hunger and humanity in America. Food is a conduit for connection; we envision smiling families gathered around a tableeating, happy, content. But what happens when poverty, mental illness, homelessness, and addiction claim a seat at that table? In The Meth Lunches, Kim Foster peers behind the polished visions of perfectly curated dinners and charming families to reveal the complex reality when poverty and food intersect. Whether it's heirloom vegetables or a block of neon-yellow government cheese, food is both a basic necessity and a nuanced litmus test: what and how we eat reflects our communities, our cultures, and our place in the world. The Meth Lunches gives a glimpse into the lives of people living in Foster's Las Vegas communitythe grocery store cashier who feels safer surrounded by food after surviving a childhood of hunger; the inmate baking a birthday cake with coffee

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Book SynopsisAn explosive work with far-ranging historical implications, White Poverty promises to be one of the most influential books of the 2024 US election cycle

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Book SynopsisReading groups have grown rapidly in popularity and continue to be a significant cultural phenomenon. Reading groups in public libraries, linked to the learning and social inclusion agenda, have expanded to include a wide range of groups within society, including people with visual impairments (VIPs). This under-researched area is the focus of this book. Library-based VIP reading groups are interesting on many levels. Given that these groups predominantly use audio versions of the text (rather than print), this links to debates about the changing nature of reading in a multi-modal age. This book discusses whether contemporary society still defines reading as a visual activity or whether technological developments have led to a broadening of the definition of reading. The author goes on to discuss how policy is translated into practice within the library context and whether the wide range of reading groups linked to libraries suggests that libraries understand and are taking the socTrade Review’For anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the role of the reading group - particularly the impact they have on the lives of blind and partially sighted people - this book is a must. Drawing on in-depth, participatory research, Eileen Hyder sets the reading group in the context of the readers’ daily lives - and also the daily lives of the libraries where they meet.’ John Vincent, The Network - tackling social exclusion in libraries, museums, archives and galleries, UK ’Those who take part in or run reading groups for people with visual impairments, and anyone with an interest in disability studies, will welcome this thoughtful and well-researched book. Hyder discusses important issues about social inclusion, as well as providing practical suggestions for the future.’ Jenny Hartley, University of Roehampton, UK ’Eileen Hyder uses one reading group for visually impaired people as a case study to raise thought-provoking questions about reading groups in general, about reading, about life-long learning, and about the role libraries play in the social inclusion of marginalized populations. As publishers explore new formats that might replace print books, and readers discover new ways to enjoy literature, will blind people be at the forefront of new reading technologies and methods, or continue to lag behind? How will librarians advocate for universal access to their collections? Reading Groups, Libraries and Social Inclusion will be a valuable resource for librarians, educators, blind and partially sighted people and any reader interested in the future of the book.’ Georgina Kleege, University of California, Berkeley, USA ’I now feel far more informed about not only reading groups but the issues faced by VIPs and would recommend this book to anyone involved in running reading groups, working with VIPs or who are interested in the idea of setting up groups of this nature. I also think it would be of interest to anyone with a passion for encouragiTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The Reading Histories; Chapter 3 Reading Matters; Chapter 4 Reading Groups and Social Justice; Chapter 5 Libraries, Reading Groups and Lifelong Learning; Chapter 6 A Broader Picture;

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Book SynopsisExplains why poverty has persisted in South Africa. Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass demonstrate who has and who has not remained poor, how public policies both mitigated and reproduced poverty, and how and why these policies were adopted.Table of ContentsChapter 1: glances briefly at the nature of poverty in the colonial and pre-colonial past; Chapter 2: considers how racialised patterns of poverty were established around a set of key institutions and practices: labour migrancy, segregated cities, the colour bar, and white political power; Chapter 3: examines the changing faces of poverty among black South Africans during the first half of the 20th century; Colin Bundy is one of South Africa's foremost historians and the former Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford. His books include The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry and three Jacana pocketbooks, biographies of Nelson Mandela and Govan Mbeki and Short-changed? South Africa since Apartheid; Chapter 4: reviews some startling changes in the nature of poverty during the four decades of apartheid; Chapter 5: explores the responses of successive ANC governments to an inherited legacy of mass poverty rooted in mass unemployment; Finally, Chapter 6: asks what policy options are available to any South African government trying to reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality.

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Book SynopsisChristina G. Villegas, PhD, is Associate Professor of Political Science at California State University, San Bernardino, USA.

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Book SynopsisThroughout the 20th century Scottish miners resisted deindustrialisation through collective action and by leading the campaign for Home Rule. This book shows that coal miners occupy a central position in Scotland's economic, social and political history.

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Book SynopsisMark Maclay examines the part the Republican Party played in shaping and eventually curtailing President Johnson's War on Poverty. He shows how Republican politicians and presidents consistently influenced how the 'war' was fought, before President Reagan symbolically ended the effort with his social welfare cuts in 1981.Trade Review"In this sprightly and vigorous book, the 'War on Poverty' emerges as a productive battleground for the Republican Party, during its long road back from the Goldwater debacle of 1964." -Gareth Davies, Institute of the Americas, University College London

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Book SynopsisAmericans are overworked. After declining for a century through hard-fought labor movement victories, average annual work hours increased approximately 8 percent for all working adults from 1979 to 2016. In Worked Over, sociologist Jamie McCallum reveals how the battle over time on the job has been central to conflicts over capitalism from the beginning, how overwork is at the heart of the inequities and injustices in America's economy today, and why workers must fight to take control of the time they spend working.From Amazon warehouses to Silicon Valley campuses, from late night Uber deliveries to later night strip clubs, from factories in Ohio to retail floors everywhere, McCallum explains how the contemporary American workplace exploits workers' time and constrains their lives. Whether it's the manager's stopwatch, the scheduling algorithm's dispassionate authority, or our own internal clock that pushes us because we're afraid of falling behind or losing our jobs, ordinary people have lost much say over when and how much we work. Work, more than anything else, dictates when we sleep, eat, raise our kids, and live the rest of our lives. Popular discussions of overwork tend to focus on striving professionals, but as McCallum demonstrates, it's the hours of low-wage workers have increased the most, and it's their working lives that remain the most precarious and unpredictable in a service-oriented, on-demand economy. What's needed is not individual solutions but collective struggle. Throughout Worked Over, McCallum offers inspiring stories of how the battle to win back control of time has been renewed today by those most vulnerable to the capitalist society's electronic whip.Combining the rigor of a scholar, the storytelling of a journalist, and the vision of an activist, McCallum shows that winning shorter hours will require a radical break from our current political and economic system. Worked Over is an inside look at why our lives became tethered to work -- and how we might regain a greater say over our work time and build a more just society in the process.

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Book SynopsisThe last, acceptable form of prejudice in America is based on class and executed through state-sponsored economic discrimination, which is hard to see because it is much more subtle than raw racism.While the American meritocracy officially denounces prejudice based on race and gender, it has spawned a new form of bias against those with less education and income. Millions of working-class Americans have their opportunity blocked by exclusionary snob zoning. These government policies make housing unaffordable, frustrate the goals of the civil rights movement, and lock in inequality in our urban and suburban landscapes.Through moving accounts of families excluded from economic and social opportunity as they are hemmed in through "new redlining" that limits the type of housing that can be built, Richard Kahlenberg vividly illustrates why America has a housing crisis. He also illustrates why economic segregation matters since where you live affects access to transportation, employment opportunities, decent health care, and good schools. He shows that housing choice has been socially engineered to the benefit of the affluent, and, that astonishingly the most restrictive zoning is found in politically liberal cities where racial views are more progressive.Despite this there is hope. Kahlenberg tells the inspiring stories of growing number of local and national movements working to tear down the walls that inflicts so much damage on the lives of millions of Americans.

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Book SynopsisAn in-depth look at the profound challenges facing today's South Africa.

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Book Synopsis"Enthralling; it is well worth the trip.” --New York Journal of Books Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York’s Blackwell’s Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, "a lounging, listless madhouse." Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the island’s inhabitants. We also hear from the era’s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. And we follow the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwell’s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Damnation Island shows how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us—and reminds us how much work still remains.

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Book SynopsisHow to end homelessness in America: a must-read guide to understanding housing instability, supporting our unhoused neighbors, and reclaiming our humanity. A deeply humanizing analysis that will change the way you think about poverty and homelessness?for the socially engaged reader of Isabel Wilkerson''s Caste and Matthew Desmond''s Evicted.Think about the last time that you saw or interacted with an unhoused person. What did you do? What did you say? Did you offer money or a smile, or did you avert your gaze?When We Walk By takes an urgent look at homelessness in America, showing us what we lose?in ourselves and as a society?when we choose to walk past and ignore our neighbors in shelters, insecure housing, or on the streets. And it brilliantly shows what we stand to gain when we embrace our humanity and move toward evidence-based people-first, community-driven solutions, offering social analysis, economic and political histories, and the real stories of unhoused people.Authors Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burnes, with Amanda Banh and Andrijana Bilbija, recast chronic homelessness in the U.S. as a byproduct of twin crises: our social services systems are failing, and so is our humanity. Readers will learn: Why our brains have been trained to overlook our unhoused neighbors The social, economic, and political forces that shape myths like ?all homeless people are addicts? and ?they?d have a house if they got a job? What conservative economics gets wrong about housing insecurity What relational poverty is, and how to shift away from ?us versus them? thinking That for many Americans, housing insecurity is just one missed paycheck away Who ?the homeless? really are?and why that might surprise you What you can do to help, starting today A necessary, deeply humanizing read that goes beyond theory and policy analysis to offer engaged solutions with compassion and heart, When We Walk By is a must-read for anyone who cares about homelessness, housing solutions, and their own humanity.

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Book SynopsisToronto's Poor reveals the long and too often forgotten history of poor people's resistance. This is a rebellious book that links past and present in an almost two-hundred year story of struggle and resistance. It is about men, women, and children relegated to lives of desperation by an uncaring system, and how they have refused to be defeated.

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Book Synopsis''Enlightening and startling... The world needs more writers like Matthew Small.'' Charlie Carroll''Brings into sharp relief the realities of poverty... inspiring and uplifting.'' Tracy Shildrick''A fascinating insight into what it feels like to live on the streets of the UK and India today.'' Joanna MackPoverty stretches across all of humanity and by travelling East, Small encounters the raw faces of poverty in India's slums; he works in a leprosy community, and joins the Sisters of Mercy on the smoggy and exhilarating streets in Calcutta. He then returns to the UK, to Bath, to see what the passing of three months means to those who are scarred by one of the most unglamorous of all humanities' ills, being poor.Small engages with different community members who are living with poverty, to answer these long standing questions: What's keeping them down? What's pushing them out? And how can we move forward?

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Book SynopsisToday 13 million people are living in poverty in the UK. According to a 2017 report, 1 in 5 children live below the poverty line. The new poor, however, are an even larger group than these official figures suggest. They are more often than not in work, living precariously and betrayed by austerity policies that make affordable good quality housing, good health and secure employment increasingly unimaginable. In The New Poverty investigative journalist Stephen Armstrong travels across Britain to tell the stories of those who are most vulnerable. It is the story of an unreported Britain, abandoned by politicians and betrayed by the retreat of the welfare state. As benefit cuts continue and in-work poverty soars, he asks what long-term impact this will have on post-Brexit Britain and - on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the 1942 Beveridge report - what we can do to stop the destruction of our welfare state.Trade Reviewa hard hitting expose of the problems and suffering of people who are at the lower end of the pay scale and therefore at the mercy of those who wish to take advantage. This book is very much in the mould of George Orwell's The Road To Wigan Pier and makes for uneasy, but essential reading. -- Richard Blair, Patron of the Orwell Society'A visceral experience, punching through the layers of rationalisation, ignorance and self-interest separating those who live comfortably from those who don't. . . The outstanding feature of The New Poverty is Armstrong's persistent effort to connect local experience and action the systematic context in which poverty is not only thriving but also taking increasingly sinister forms' * London Review of Books *With singleness of purpose, Armstrong constructs a story of the new poverty around impeccable data, attention to lived experience, and heartening examples of resilience. -- Carol-Anne Hudson * Alternate Routes *

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Book SynopsisAgainst the Odds is a Machiavellian study of the machinations of three senior politicians in quite different developing countries who adroitly played the tough political game in ways that reduced poverty. The three - former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and Chief Minister Digvijay Singh in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh - had scarcely heard of one another, and never communicated. And yet they used a broadly similar repertoire of political devices - persuasion, distractions, bargaining, stealth and pressure - to pursue broadly similar goals. They demonstrated two crucial things: poverty reduction is politically feasible, even in the teeth of daunting economic and political constraints; and it is politically beneficial to those who achieve it, since it enhances their popularity, legitimacy and influence. If leaders in other developing countries who are naturally preoccupied with their own political interests recognise these things, then serious efforts to reduce poverty will become more common elsewhere. This book is, unusually, the work of three well-known political scientists from Brazil, Kenya and Britain - each of whom specialises in one of the three countries that are analysed. After extensive field research, they engaged in detailed comparative discussions that impart greater coherence to Against the Odds, especially its conclusions.Trade ReviewThe key message of this uplifting and hugely important book is that 'politics matters; politicians matter'. The authors show that political entrepreneurship in the service of the poor is not only possible, but can be made to work, including for the politician. Institutions matter, and so do path dependencies, but not as much as we are often told. That's another message of this book and it's one that is written into the careers of its main protagonists, Yoweri Musaveni, Digvijay Singh and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. -- Stuart Corbridge, Professor of Development Studies, London School of EconomicsThis is a first-rate exploration of political strategies employed by "reform champions" in the introduction and implementation of policies to combat endemic poverty. It successfully combines analysis of institutions and the agency of reform leaders in finding room to manoeuvre in the promotion of policy change. -- Merilee S. Grindle, Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development, Harvard UniversityWhen we look back we need biographies as well as studies of institutions, politics and economies, but the literature on recent and ongoing development politics and economics typically ignores political leaders, unless to twist them into bogeymen of the liberal imagination, or ossify them as impossible heroes. This book does the rare and hugely needed job of highlighting the role and characters of three remarkable leaders in different continents. -- Christopher Cramer, Professor of the Political Economy of Development, SOAS, and author of Civil War Is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing CountriesThis book makes a strong argument for the potential power of politicians in developing countries to positively influence the poverty reduction agenda, in contrast to the often used "lack of political will" explanation for failures in the struggle against poverty. ... The analysis makes the important argument that pro-poor policies are not only politically feasible, but can also be advantageous for politicians. The authors' conclusion offers an insightful discussion on the conditions under which politicians might pursue poverty reduction agendas, and provide a useful unpacking of the construct of "political will". -- Dr Bina Fernandez, University of Leeds

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Book SynopsisIn 1797 Jeremy Bentham prepared a map of poverty in Britain, which he called 'Pauperland.' More than two hundred years later, poverty and social deprivation remain widespread in Britain.Yet despite the investigations into poverty by Mayhew, Booth, and in the 20th century, Townsend, it remains largely unknown to, or often hidden from, those who are not poor. Pauperland is Jeremy Seabrook's account of the mutations of poverty over time, historical attitudes to the poor, and the lives of the impoverished themselves, from early Poor Laws till today. He explains how in the medieval world, wealth was regarded as the greatest moral danger to society, yet by the industrial era, poverty was the most significant threat to social order. How did this change come about, and how did the poor, rather than the rich, find themselves blamed for much of what is wrong with Britain, including such familiar-and ancient-scourges as crime, family breakdown and addictions? How did it become the fate of the poor to be condemned to perpetual punishment and public opprobrium, the useful scapegoat of politicians and the media?Pauperland charts how such attitudes were shaped by ill-conceived and ill-executed private and state intervention, and how these are likely to frame ongoing discussions of and responses to poverty in Britain.Trade Review'This is a beautifully written book that suggests that our current debates about welfare dependency and entitlements are nothing new. ... Seabrook traces perceptions of the poor over four centuries, and how the authorities have alternated between severity and leniency. He also uses his 50 years' experience as a social worker and researcher to pen poignant descriptions of the realities of being poor in modern Britain. [Pauperland] is a powerful plea for better understanding and humanity.' * The Sunday Times *'Intelligent and subtle analysis of the linked ideas of poverty and wealth ... Seabrook's fascinating book - part intellectual history, part heartfelt polemic - is a plea to redefine wealth and poverty in a less materialistic way.' * The Guardian *'Nothing changes, the poor are always with us - and so are the punitive attitudes of those who confine others to that condition. From Speenhamland to the work house to Iain Duncan Smith, Jeremy Seabrook's enlightening tour through this sorry history reveals the unceasing need of the comfortable to remoralise the paupers, not themselves.' * Polly Toynbee, columnist for The Guardian and author of Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain *'Seabrook's history of the poor and attitudes towards them is a powerful political and moral polemic.' * The Times *'Seabrook sensitively chronicles attitudes towards the poor from the Elizabethan Poor Laws onwards. ... The historical backgrounding is solid, but where Pauperland comes into its own is through its refusal to disregard oral history: the sidelining of the poor is an intrinsic tool in the perpetuation of inequality. Seabrook's examination of the 20th century and beyond comes alive with these oral histories, as well as through personal recollection and insight that never descends into mawkishness.' * New Humanist *'The inspirational Jeremy Seabrook beats any celebrity radical in the art of speaking hard truths through fine prose.' * Boyd Tonkin, The Independent *'Jeremy Seabrook is one of England's most imaginative and creative writers, with a preacher's talent for prophecy and a capacity for righteous indignation reminiscent of George Orwell.' * Richard Gott, The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisAn increasing number of families are becoming homeless, often as a result of domestic violence, which leaves women and their school age children without homes. This multidisciplinary volume is the first to look at the variety of problems encountered by this group and to propose strategies for managing those problems. The contributors to this book provide evidence that homeless children often have more acute problems and needs than other children; as a result of the insecurity of their situation, they may experience physical health problems and developmental delay. They are also at high risk of emotional and behavioural difficulties such as sleep disturbance, eating problems, aggression, over-activity, anxiety, depression and self-harm. At the same time, due to their unstable situation, they are less able to access support from the health, education and social services.Homeless Children defines the specific problems and needs of homeless children, and draws up practical guidelines for staff and agencies on recognising and dealing with those problems. It then looks at policy and service development for homeless families in education, health and social care, and concludes that conventional methods of provision have to be adapted to meet the specific needs of this vulnerable group.Trade ReviewThis is a well-organized book and a worthwhile read for those working in this area. The focus on children and families is important, as is the multidisciplinary approach. Examples of programs that are working in other countries would have made this book richer. The recommendations do not provide the reader with a clear model for successful service delivery or policy development. What does emerge is the realization that conventional methods of service providers must be more flexible if they are to meet the specific needs of this vulnerable and marginalized group. -- CASW BulletinTable of Contents1. Introduction, Stuart Cumella and Panos Vostanis, University of Birmingham. 2. Homeless Families, Stuart Cumella. 3. Health Problems and Homeless Children, Kath Hutchinson, Health Visitors Association. 4. Child Mental Health Problems, Panos Vostanis. 5. Parenting Issues in Homeless Families, Jacqueline Barnes, Tavistock Clinic and Royal Free Medical School. 6. Homeless Children and Domestic Violence, Gill Hague and Ellen Malos, University of Bristol. 7. Homeless Adolescents, Robert Wrate and Caroline Blair, Young People's Unit, Edinburgh. 8. Effects of Changes in Housing Legislation, Pat Niner, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham. 9. The Impact of Health and Social Services, Stuart Cumella. 10. Homeless Children: Public Health Perspectives, Christine R. Victor, Public Health Research Unit, Brighton. 11. Doubly Disadvantaged: Education and the Homeless Child, Sally Power, University of Bristol, Geoff Whitty and Deborah Youdell, Institute of Education, University of London. 12. Access to Voluntary Sector Agencies, Leila Baker, Shelter. 13. Family Homelessness in the USA, John C. Buckner and Ellen L. Bassuk. 14. Responding to Family Homelessness, Stuart Cumella and Panos Vostanis.

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Book SynopsisPoverty and precarity have gained a new societal and political presence in the twenty-first century's advanced economies. This is reflected in cultural production, which this book discusses for a wide range of media and genres from the novel to reality television. With a focus on Britain, its chapters divide their attention between current representations of poverty and important earlier narratives that have retained significant relevance today.The book's contributions discuss the representation of social suffering with attention to agencies of enunciation, ethical implications of 'voice' and 'listening', limits of narratability, the pitfalls of sensationalism, voyeurism and sentimentalism, potentials and restrictions inherent in specific representational techniques, modes and genres; cultural markets for poverty and precarity. Overall, the book suggests that analysis of poverty narratives requires an intersection of theoretical reflection and a close reading of texts.

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Book SynopsisStudies the working poor in the United States, focusing on the relation between welfare and low-wage earnings among working mothers. Grounded in the experience of thirty-three women living in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, this title tells the story of their struggle to balance child care and wage-earning in poorly paying jobs.Trade Review"The originality of Both Hands Tied lies not just in its rich case study interview materials - in poor women's voices and the trajectories of their work and home lives - but in its careful tying of those materials to shifting national, state, and local economic policies." - Micaela di Leonardo, Northwestern University"

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Book SynopsisThe farm crisis of the 1980s was the greatest economic disaster to hit rural America since the Depression. The crisis gave rise to a social trauma that affects farmers in the 21st century. This is a chronicle of the experience.Trade Review"Dudley presents a subtle, insightful, and nuanced treatment of the rural 'community' itself, emphasizing its divisions and contradictions.... [A] very good and enlightening book. With Debt and Dispossession, Kathryn Dudley joins the ranks of such anthropologists as Jane Adams, Deborah Fink, and Sonya Salomon." - David Danbom, Rural History; "Dudley writes with rare skill and passion. This is a mid-stream account of America coming of age. Midwesterners are protagonists who may yet wrest a more satisfactory resolution, thanks to this superb contribution." - Deborah Fink, Annals of Iowa

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Book SynopsisBased on over 500 interviews/case studies of families in inner-city Philadelphia, this text reveals how parents managed different levels of resources and dangers in low-income neighbourhoods and how this management, rather than community involvement, contributed to the success of their children.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on surveys of public attitudes and analyses of more than 40 years of television and news-magazine stories on poverty, this book demonstrates how public opposition to welfare is fed by a potent combination of racial stereotypes and misinformation about the true nature of America's poor.

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Book SynopsisThere was a time when America's poor faced a stark choice between access to social welfare and full civil rights - a predicament that forced them to forfeit their citizenship in exchange for economic relief. Over time, however, our welfare system improved dramatically. This work demonstrates that its legacy of disenfranchisement persisted.Trade Review"This outstanding book incisively recasts the history of the American welfare state as a series of struggles over the terms of citizenship. Through a succession of carefully researched and artfully drawn historical case studies, Goldberg demonstrates that conflict over the citizenship status of welfare beneficiaries played a major role in the fundamental battles about race, class, and gender that shaped the nation." - Robert C. Lieberman, author of Shaping Race Policy"

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Book SynopsisWhen middle-class residents fled American cities in the 1960s and '70s, government services and investment capital left too. Countless urban neighborhoods entered phases of precipitous decline, prompting the creation of community-based organizations to bring resources back to the city. This book examines such organizations that drive urban life.Trade Review"This is a valuable work that will influence the way sociologists understand the cycle of development of poor, urban neighborhoods. Nicole Marwell makes a unique contribution with an analytic strategy that emphasizes the important role played by community-based organizations, actors that have been generally ignored in urban sociology." - Mitchell Duneier, author of Sidewalk"

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Book SynopsisA close-up look at the hows and whys of policing poverty in the contemporary United States.

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