* Authored by an international team of researchers* Marshals a wealth of evidence to expose the little-examined links between urban governance and poverty * Provides policy guidance for cities, governments, practitioners, and the poor for alleviating the growing problem of urban poverty In this book an international team of researchers examines the hitherto little-examined relationship between urban governance and growing poverty. The core of the book is the result of three years of research in ten cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America including interviews with key actors both within and outside city governments, discussions with poverty groups, community organizations, and NGOs, as well as analyses of data on poverty, services, and finance. Ultimately the evidence demonstrates that in many countries the global trend towards decentralization and democratization offers exciting new opportunities for the poor to have an influence on the decisions that affect them. It proves that the extent of that influence depends on the nature of those democratic arrangements and decisionmaking processes at the local level. The book presents insights, conclusions, and practical examples that are of relevance for all cities, and it outlines policy implications for national and local governments, NGOs, and donor agencies.

The first fully comparative study of fuel poverty across the EU, this work analyses the relationship between domestic energy efficiency, fuel poverty and health. The book adopts a holistic approach, incorporating a large number of social and economic risk factors to present a large-scale, cross-country, longitudinal analysis. The book is unique in: * Developing a new (consensual) methodology for calculating cross-country fuel poverty levels; * Presenting a detailed econometric/statistical analysis of EU fuel poverty; * Detailing the results of an empirical investigation of EU housing conditions, affordability and housing satisfaction; * Identifying risk factors related to seasonal variations in mortality across the EU; * Offering an empirical examination of health outcomes associated with fuel poverty; * Providing startling new evidence on fuel poverty in Southern Europe. Housing, Fuel Poverty and Health provides a powerful reference source for researchers and practitioners in the areas of energy economics, public health and epidemiology, housing and social policy.

We Are Better Than This is a collection of essays and poetry addressing the Australian government's asylum seeker policy. The aims of the book are several: to provide some of the information about the situation in detention camps that is being withheld by the government; to correct some of the government's misrepresentations of the current situation; to clarify some of the complex legal issues surrounding the right to seek asylum, and to give some insight into the plight of those who are seeking asylum. It is hoped that this book will better inform people about the government's policies: to support those who are unsatisfied and seeking to change the situation, as well as those who are uncertain and need more easily accessible and reliable information. Contributors are drawn from several areas of expertise and engagement with asylum seekers.

Bangladesh has low levels of urbanization but a high urban population in absolute terms, being one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Rapid urbanization in developing countries brings numerous problems and challenges; urban poverty is one important issue. This important volume presents the findings of a complex and revealing multidisciplinary cohort study conducted in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Detailed information was assembled on material, social and economic conditions, livelihoods, health and nutritional status. Together with associated qualitative work, the data forms the basis for understanding groups who are vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and stresses, and for differentiating strategies which might be adaptive in situations of hardship and scarcity. The author examines many aspects of poverty and vulnerability including livelihoods, work disabling illness and coping strategies, the female workforce, women's negotiation and well being, marital instability, child labour, and investments in health and nutrition, and utilizes the assembled material to debate on policy options.

How are poverty and social inequality entrenched through a failing justice system? In this important book, Jon Robins and Daniel Newman examine how the lives of people already struggling with problems with their welfare benefits, jobs, housing and immigration are made much harder by cuts to legal aid and the failings of our creaking justice system. Over the course of 12 months, interviews were carried out on the ground in a range of settings with people as they were caught up in the justice system, in a range of settings such as foodbanks in a church hall in a wealthy part of London; a community centre in a former mining town; a homeless shelter for rough sleepers in Birmingham; and a destitution service for asylum seekers in a city on the South coast, as well as in courts and advice agencies up and down the country. The authors argue that a failure to access justice all too often represents a catastrophic step in the life of the person concerned and their family. This powerful, yet moving, account humanises the hostile political debates that surround legal aid and reveals what access to justice really means in Austerity Britain.

A unique historical review that traces health spending from ancient times to the present and forecasts 21st century trends. There are many histories of medicine, yet none that assess the dynamics of expenditures over decades and centuries. Economists have not yet addressed the magnitude of the transformation that occurred during the twentieth century as payments shifted from solo physician practices to health systems, nor the legacy effects of social practices accumulated over millennia that will shape health spending in the twenty-first. In Money and Medicine, Thomas E. Getzen provides a unified narrative of medical spending from ancient Egypt and Babylonia to the present day. Drawing on a wealth of historical reports, data, and documents, Getzen concentrates on a single ratio-the share of income devoted to medical care-to frame the evolutionary path of medicine, revealing an S-shaped growth curve that rose rapidly after 1900 as science made therapies more effective and more expensive, inflected as national health systems coalesced and rates of expansion peaked in the 1960s, then decelerated after 1975. International trends in forty-three countries are graphically illustrated with analysis supporting a parsimonious financial model. Significant lags are seen between medical innovation or macroeconomic shocks and the corresponding changes in national health expenditures. Getzen explains inertial responses to the 2008 financial crisis and Covid-19 recession, provides a method for projecting trends over the next fifty years, and suggests why spending is so much higher in the United States than other countries. As rising costs and unequal distribution of medical care have created a sense of crisis in many countries, Money and Medicine shows that we must look beyond the last few years to craft sensible solutions.

Globalization is characterised by persistent poverty and growing inequality. Conventional wisdom has it that this global poverty is residual - as globalization deepens, the poor will be lifted out of destitution. The policies of the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO echo this belief and push developing countries ever deeper into the global economy.
Globalization, Poverty and Inequality provides an alternative viewpoint. It argues that for many - particularly for those living in Latin America, Asia and Central Europe - poverty and globalization are relational. It is the very workings of the global system which condemn many to poverty. In particular the mobility of investment, and the large pool of increasingly skilled workers in China and other parts of Asia, are driving down global wages.
This poses challenges for policy makers in firms and countries throughout the world. It also challenges the very sustainability of globalisation itself. Are we about to witness the implosion of globalisation, as occurred between 1913 and 1950?
Using a variety of theoretical frameworks and drawing on a vast amount of original research, this book will be an invaluable resource for all students of globalization and its effects.

The studies collected here centre on the social and economic life of medieval Germany, within a broader European context. The first three articles engage the day-to-day workings of rural society: literature, verbal attack and the language of mediated settlement of conflicts lead to a nuanced view of social hierarchy, in which the meek too have a say. The next group examines some major elements of rural life, dealing with technology, resources, ecology, transport, communication and credit. In the second part, the author focuses on the life of the Jews in Germany, first charting the process of settlement of Jews in Germany, the dynamics of social stratification and household composition, and the impact of economics and persecution on settlement patterns. A case study uncovers the motives and steps that led up to the expulsion of the Jews of Nuremberg in 1498. These themes are followed up into the early modern period, when German Jewry mostly came to live a village life. The last studies deal with the economic history of medieval European Jews, including professions other than moneylending, and with the function of women in economic life.

Collected in this volume are the best articles and symposia from Poverty & Race, the bimonthly newsletter journal of The Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), a Washington, DC-based national public interest organization founded in 1990. Poverty & Race in America includes over six-dozen works originally published between mid-2001 and 2005, many of which have been updated and revised. The contributors represent the best of progressive thought and activism on America's two most salient, and seemingly intractable, domestic problems-race and poverty. Divided into topical sections, this volume considers the issues of race, poverty, housing, education, health, and democracy. Poverty & Race in America is especially concerned with the links between and among these areas, both for purposes of analysis and policy prescriptions. Featuring a foreword by Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., this edited collection will be of great interest to policy makers and human rights activists and hopefully stimulate creative thought and action to bring an end to racism and poverty.

Over the past century, American demographics and social norms have shifted dramatically. If trends continue, we should expect to see more people living alone, later-in-life marriages, fewer (and smaller) new families, and a majority-minority population that skews older and older. Americans' daily life and preferences have also changed, whether by choice or by force, to become more virtual, more mobile, and less stable. But housing today largely looks the same as it did in 1950. In Brave New Home, Diana Lind shows why the government-subsidized suburbs full of single-family houses are bad for us and our planet, and details the new efforts underway that better reflect the way we live now, to ensure that the way we live next is both less lonely and more affordable. Lind takes readers into the homes and communities that are seeking alternatives to the American norm, from multi-generational living, in-law suites, and co-living to microapartments, tiny houses, and new rural communities. Drawing on Lind's expertise and the stories of Americans caught in or forging their on paths outside of our cookie-cutter housing trap, Brave New Home offers a diagnosis of the current crisis in American housing and a radical re-imagining of the possibilities of housing.

Most changes in education-including the rise of standardized testing, holding teachers accountable for their students' academic performance, and rewriting math and reading standards-don't address poverty. Understanding the relationship between poverty, class, and education for decades has been framed through studies on the behavior and culture of poor students and their families. Educators are caught up in the history of classism and are often guilty of buying into the mindset-including the implementation of activities and strategies for working with 'parents' in poverty or 'students' in poverty-that leads them to believe in the need to 'fix' the poor instead of eliminating the inequities that oppress them. So it is not just one or the other; nature or nurture, poor or not poor. Poverty is a potential outcome for all of us. Culture, Poverty, and Education: What's Happening in Today's Schools? is intended to not only discuss 5 myths about the culture of poverty and its effects on education, but provide some resources on alternatives for educator's to better address this growing barrier to student achievement in today's schools.

While many scholars have argued that confrontation and protest were the most effective ways for the poor to empower themselves during the social change of the 1960s, Karen Hawkins demonstrates that moderate, local leadership and biracial cooperation were sometimes just as forceful. Everybody's Problem shows these values at play in the nation's first rural Community Action Agency to receive federal funding as a part of Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. Karen Hawkins describes the founding of Craven Operation Progress in North Carolina, discusses the philosophies and tactics of its directors, and outlines the tensions that arose between local leadership and federal control. Using previously untapped primary sources including oral interviews with antipoverty workers and local citizens, records from the U.S. Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, and documents from the North Carolina Fund, Hawkins adds to the story of the factors that helped lower poverty rates and advance economic development during the 1960s and beyond.

Drawing on the emerging field of narrative theory in sociology and psychology, this book argues that an individual's response to job loss is a product of the shape of the story a person tells about their experience. This, in turn, is a product of both individual creativity and the structuring effects of their social location. Based on a qualitative study of the experience of unemployment in Australia, three main types of job loss narratives are identified. First, romantic narratives describe job loss as a positive experience of liberation from an oppressive job, leading to a gradually improving future. Second, tragic narratives describe job loss as undermining a person's life plan, leading to a phase of depression, anxiety and self-deprecation. Finally, job loss narratives may be complicated by marital breakdown or serious illness. The book breaks new ground in its use of narrative theory to account for the variations in responses to unemployment.

Every society has had to cope with poverty and the poor. Traditionally, most scholars have located the origins of modern philanthropies in the free-grain-distribution schemes common in ancient Greece and Rome, while most social workers see the history of philanthropic or welfare institutions as beginning with the Elizabethan Poor Laws. A few students know that the early Christian church made provisions for the poor, but few are aware of what occurred prior to the beginning of Christianity. This volume provides evidence that contemporary philanthropic and welfare institutions owe a greater debt to Judaism than to the Greco-Roman culture.

By skillful use of source documents, the author explores Jewish influence on early Christian charities, seeing it as more important than previously believed.He traces the evolution of charitable institutions in ancient Judaism from the days of the monarchy until the conclusion of the Talmud, a period of about fifteen hundred years. He demonstrates how responsibility for support of the poor was initially placed on the individual, with every farmer obligated to provide for the poor from his field. Dramatic increases in the number and proportion of poor people made major structural changes imperative. A theme throughout the book is how communal institutions evolved in place of individual responsibility. The change was gradual and not without opposition. How these changes came about and in what functional areas they occurred are discussed, as well as an analysis of Jewish support for the non-Jewish poor and non-Jewish support for the Jewish poor. In an appendix, the author discusses the philanthropies of the early Christians.

From Charity to SocialJustice adds to current debates on the role of religious institutions in welfare programs. It will be of particular interest to those who are interested in the history of philanthropy and in the development of welfare institutions. For the first time relevant sections of the Talmud and other post-biblical Jewish writings are made available to those who cannot read these in the original.

In his foreword, the president of the World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn, states plainly and precisely the rationale for this volume. "Evaluation is a central aspect of any poverty reduction endeavor. Evaluation implies that we have adopted a methodology that allows us to look in an effective way at the results of what we are doing so that we can, in turn, adapt our future actions toward the effective achievement of our goals. Evaluation adds value if we can learn something useful from it. It is not just a scorecard. It is something that helps us change our behavior or influence the behavior of others." This high powered collection of papers illustrates this statement. The network of world class scholars and development practitioners covers the gamut from methodological issues to policy concerns with respect to participatory evaluation, poverty reducing growth, macro and micro levels of intervention, health, nutrition and population programs, social inclusion and the changing role of the civil society. The participants include major figures, including a Nobel Laureate as well as cutting edge policy makers. Poverty reduction is examined in innovative ways-utilizing state of the art techniques of the social and economic sciences. The editors and contributors emphasize "what works" in poverty reduction programs. They point to making interventions context specific with a holistic vision of the problem. Contributors emphasize social funds and safety nets, social services, crisis prevention, informal social security and insurance systems, anti-corruption programs, mobilization of the poor, and ultimately, the creation, where none existed in the past, of a workable civil society. In short, this volume lies at the intersection of development economics and political economy. It seeks to promote development effectiveness through social learning and problem solving. The volume is unabashedly focussed on pro-poor growth. It has its roots in a conference sponsored by the Operations Evaluation Department, an independent unit within the World Bank. The goals of evaluation are to learn from experience, to provide an objective basis for assessing the results of the Bank's work, and to provide accountability in the achievement of its objectives. Osvaldo N. Feinstein is a manager, and Robert Picciotto, director general of the Operations Evaluation Department. The World Bank is located in Washington, D.C. with offices throughout the developing world.

This volume collects papers with a historical theme. They represent a fundamental review of A Study of Town Life and its impact on the study of poverty and empirical research more generally.

"This slim, useful book ... is suitable for students ... The fairly tight North American focus allows for great accuracy and detail, and the Canadian material is especially interesting, because Canadian social policy is less well known than that of the United States, and seems far more progressive on homelessness." . The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

" The authors] present key themes from the available literature in a way that affords policy makers and other practitioners access to what it is that anthropology has to offer in thinking about and responding to homelessness on a day-to-day, ground level. In this endeavor, the book] is supremely successful." . American Anthropologist

As homelessness continues to plague North America and also becomes more widespread in Europe, anthropologists turn their attention to solving the puzzle of why people in some of the most advanced technological societies in the world are found huddled in a subway tunnel, squatting in a vacant building, living in a shelter, or camping out in an abandoned field or on a beach. Anthropologists have a long tradition of working in poverty subcultures and have been able to contribute answers to some of the puzzles of homelessness through their ability to enter the culture of the homeless without some of the preconceptions of other disciplines.

The authors, anthropologists from the U.S.A. and Canada, offer us an analysis of homelessness that is grounded in anthropological research in North America and throughout the world. Both have in-depth experience through working in communities of the homeless and present us withthe results of their own work and with that of their colleagues.

Irene Glasser has widely published on homelessness and has been Professor of Anthropology at Eastern Connecticut State University, specializing in urban, applied, and medical anthropology. Since 1994 she has also been Director of Canadian Studies. Rae Bridgman is Research Associate at the Department of Social Anthropology of York University, Canada."

WINNER OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY PETER TOWNSEND PRIZE 2017 Welcome to Foodbank Britain, where emergency food provision is an increasingly visible and controversial feature of ongoing austerity. We know the statistics, but what does it feel like to be forced to turn to foodbanks for help? What does it take to get emergency food, and what's in the food parcel? Kayleigh Garthwaite conducted hundreds of hours of interviews while working in a Trussell Trust foodbank. She spoke to people like Anna and her 11 year old daughter Daisy who were eating out of date food since Anna left her job due to mental health problems. Glen explained the shame he felt using the foodbank having taken on a zero hours contract. Pregnant Jessica walked two miles to the foodbank because she couldn't afford public transport. This provocative book provides a much needed voice for foodbank users and volunteers in the UK, and a powerful insight into the realities of foodbank use from the inside.

This is a major collection of primary materials on the metropolitan poor, covering the period from the emergence of London as the world centre of trade and commerce, to the beginning of the First World War. The metropolitan poor has attracted much academic interest in recent years as a consequence of which we now have a sophisticated understanding of poverty and its distribution. Contemporary representations of the poor, however, have all too often been neglected.

This book addresses key issues related to teaching pupils from disadvantaged and impoverished backgrounds and provides a valuable reference and pedagogical tool for teachers and teacher educators. Research has consistently shown that the most economically disadvantaged pupils have the poorest educational outcomes. Austerity government policies and pressures of performativity on schools may have exacerbated this inequality. Yet many teachers remain ill-informed about the effects of social disadvantage on students' learning and consequently are ill-prepared in appropriate teaching methods. The text critically examines the lessons from previous policy and practice, discusses cognitive and affective aspects of school learning for disadvantaged children and explores the pedagogic implications of research evidence. Using insights from existing research, the book examines the reasons why some trainees and teachers lack a critical perspective on the contexts of poverty and may hold deficit views of students in poverty that suggests they are unable to learn and need to be controlled. It explains some of the links between poverty, special needs, literacy and educational achievement and focuses on strategies for improvement.

Urban authorities and organizations are responsible for providing the basic services that affect the lives of urban children. Cities for Children is intended to help them understand and respond to the rights and requirements of children and adolescents. It looks at the responsibilities that authorities face, and discusses practical measures for meeting their obligations in the context of limited resources and multiple demands. While the book emphasizes the challenges faced by local government, it also contains information that would be useful to any groups working to make urban areas better places for children. Cities for Children begins by introducing the concept, history and content of children's rights and the obligations they create for local authorities. The volume then goes on to look at a variety of contentious issues such as housing, community participation, working children, community health, education and juvenile justice. The final section of the book discusses the challenge of establishing systems of governance that can promote the economic security, social justice and environmental care essential for the realization of children's rights. It follows through the practical implications for the structure, policies and practices of local authorities. Written by the top experts in the field of children's issues, and including a resource section which lists publications and organizations that can provide further information and support, this volume is a must for all involved in planning for, and the protection of, children within the urban environment.

For many decades the international community has endeavoured to eliminate extreme poverty; however, it is estimated that around 800 million people still live below the international poverty line of $1.90 a day. This book looks this global problem and presents applicable solutions to show that we can eliminate poverty today and meet the challenge of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 1. The first part of the book discusses what poverty and development are and asks whether the right to development is an international commitment to eradicate poverty. The second part looks at the strategy of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the concept of happiness for all people in the world. It examines the proposition of SDG1, evaluates the first actions taken in this area, and presents the best practice of recent SDG implementation. The final part considers several proposals and presents suggestions on how to make global action more effective. Concise Guides to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals comprises 17 short books, each examining one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The series provides an integrated assessment of the SDGs from economic, legal, social, environmental and cultural perspectives.

This is a study of the organisation and practical operation of the system of poor relief in Emden from the late 15th century to the end of the 16th. The city went through dramatic economic, confessional and constitutional changes during this period and so offers an ideal setting for the study of the emergence and development of a highly organised, multi-jurisdictional system of social welfare in the early modern period. Utilising account books, church council minutes, wills, contracts, correspondence and guild records it focuses on the day-to-day operation of poor relief - how the many diverse institutions actually functioned. As elsewhere in Europe, the Reformation did not immediately result in swift changes in poor relief; the Roman Catholic components of the administration of social welfare were dissolved and replaced gradually. It was only when the vast changes in religious, social and economic life which occurred at the middle of the 16th century forced matters that the methods of relief for the needy were revolutionised. The city was flooded with refugees from the Dutch revolt, there were widespread and severe economic difficulties caused by bad harvests and skyrocketing prices, and the church underwent a period of intense Calvinisation; only then were Reformed institutions and methods introduced. At times, religious arguments dominated the poor relief debate, while at others the social welfare system was barely affected; the effectiveness of the new systems and institutions is illuminated by an analysis of the recipients of relief during the second half of the 16th century.

Why does child poverty exist in industrialized countries? In an attempt to answer this question, this book examines monetary and non-monetary poverty among immigrant children in Western Europe, with particular reference to France and Switzerland.
Set within the context of the current controversial debate on European immigration policy, this book presents an analysis of empirical data on immigrant child poverty and discusses the suitability of existing approaches such as justice-as-fairness and capability, while providing an alternative approach based on child rights and social justice. The book examines the impact of low incomes of immigrant parents and their precarious legal status in the host country which handicaps them in education, employment and the housing market.