Poverty and precarity Books

Book SynopsisWINNER: The 2019 Lillian Smith Book Award, 2018 McGannon Center Book Prize, and shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social JusticeAstra Taylor, author of The People''s Platform: The single most important book about technology you will read this year.Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body: A must-read.A powerful investigative look at data-based discrimination?and how technology affects civil and human rights and economic equityThe State of Indiana denies one million applications for healthcare, foodstamps and cash benefits in three yearsbecause a new computer system interprets any mistake as failure to cooperate. In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model t

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Book SynopsisExplores Ethiopia's complex job market and its challenges. The book advocates for targeted measures to boost worker productivity, promote self-employment, and create inclusive job opportunities; it highlights the role of social safety nets; and it offers insights for policymakers and researchers.

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Book SynopsisA well-respected hunger activist and former journalist brings us the stories of a group of Kenyan farmers working to transcend lives of dire poverty and hunger through a transformation of Africa's agriculture sector.

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Book SynopsisCan entrepreneurship serve as a pathway out of poverty? Are the poor able to create ventures that can improve their economic circumstances and enhance their lives? Poverty, Disadvantage and the Promise of Enterprise: A Capabilities Perspective argue that it depends. To understand the poverty and entrepreneurship interface, we must first understand poverty. Using a lens of disadvantage theory and the capabilities framework, the book explores the implications of poverty's complex, multi-dimensional nature when one is trying to start and grow a business. Four key liabilities directly impact the opportunities these individuals are able to recognize, the types of ventures they create, how the businesses perform, and the impacts on the well-being of the entrepreneur. Because of these liabilities, these ventures tend to fall into what the authors call the commodity trap, where they struggle with low sales volumes and marginal profits. However, the trap is avoidable, and, with the right kinds of support, the performance of these ventures can be meaningfully improved. Key design elements of a successful intervention approach, together with an alternative perspective on the roles of community-based entrepreneurial ecosystems and public policy, are introduced. Emphasis is also placed on the critical roles of faith, hustle, and the fears of both failure and success.

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