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.

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.

""Poverty and Discrimination" provides a wide-ranging discussion of all the aspects of social policy that are related to economic disadvantage, from welfare programs to education to labor markets, with a particular emphasis on discrimination. The text provides an excellent overview of facts, of research results, and of policy debates. Interspersed in this discussion are many good lessons in data analysis and research methodology. This book is a great reference and review of many areas and will work as an excellent text for undergraduate and graduate-level courses on poverty, inequality, or discrimination."--Rebecca M. Blank, University of Michigan

"Kevin Lang's new textbook on poverty and discrimination is at once lucid, rigorous, and topical. He shows how the conceptual insights of modern economic theory can be combined with state-of-the-art statistical techniques in order to answer the questions, 'What do we know about poverty and how do we know it?' This elegant, learned, and highly accessible book will, I predict, exert a major and beneficial influence in the years ahead on the study of poverty and discrimination in the United States."--Glenn C. Loury, author of "The Anatomy of Racial Inequality"

"Kevin Lang is engaging and always thought-provoking, and he covers a lot of ground. I don't agree with him on all issues, but that is really the point of the book--to show that reasonable people can differ on some of the most important social issues of our day and then give students the tools to assess arguments critically and make their own decisions. This book is an excellent resource for any class on poverty issues."--Janet M. Currie, author of "The Invisible Safety Net: Protecting the Nation's Poor Children and Families"

"This volume will be an extraordinarily helpful tool for anyone teaching in the field of poverty and discrimination. It assembles the latest data, weaves it together with competing theories, and highlights the policy options and dilemmas that we struggle with in the United States. We have not had a textbook like this in decades and it will be a tremendous asset to students and faculty alike."--Katherine S. Newman, author of "Chutes and Ladders: Navigating the Low-Wage Labor Market"

"This book provides a theoretically grounded and empirically up-to-date review of both economic research and economic policies related to poverty and discrimination. It is a welcome contribution reflecting Kevin Lang's broad knowledge of both the massive academic literature and current policy debates."--Joshua D. Angrist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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 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.

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.

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An in-depth view of the world of low-wage female workers in the United States. Written by expert authors actively involved in the field, this work provides -- for the first time -- a focused picture of the critical issues, along with realistic solutions in the struggle of working poor women. The book covers a wide range of topics, including getting and keeping a job, struggling to balance the demands of work and family, health care, child care, and unemployment. It is set in the context of both welfare reform and the low-wage labor market and incorporates both self-employment and micro-business enterprise.

An in-depth view of the world of low-wage female workers in the United States. Written by expert authors actively involved in the field, this work provides -- for the first time -- a focused picture of the critical issues, along with realistic solutions in the struggle of working poor women. The book covers a wide range of topics, including getting and keeping a job, struggling to balance the demands of work and family, health care, child care, and unemployment. It is set in the context of both welfare reform and the low-wage labor market and incorporates both self-employment and micro-business enterprise.

The most interdisciplinary, integrated text on poverty, The Web of Poverty: Psychosocial Perspectives gives you a full understanding of poverty and its consequences, equipping you to affect social change. This unique book examines the social and personal causes of poverty, focusing on the consequences of poverty at the neighborhood and school levels and on families, children, and youth. Ethnic and racial minorities are considered throughout the text, and a chapter is devoted to the interface of poverty, segregation, and discrimination. The Web of Poverty helps you clearly see the effects of poverty by considering the cultural and social contexts of victims'lives. In doing so, it fills a gap in the literature caused by books that overlook personal issues and data related to individual experiences. Chapters address contentious and sensitive issues within a critical psychosocial perspective that informs concepts such as the subculture of poverty, social pathologies, and the "overclass." Many of the topics and perspectives you'll explore in its pages are rarely considered together in one volume. Specifically, you'll read about: the plight of impoverished mothers and their children a comparison of the poverty of disadvantaged African Americans and poor white Americans health disadvantages of the poor the effects of poverty on school systems and the quality of education students receive the factors of age, race, and ethnicity that can lead to poverty a refutation of the notion of genetic inferiority of the poorPoverty is often the cause of other social ills such as delinquency, which can destroy the social fabric of neighborhoods and limit opportunities to escape impoverished situations. The Web of Poverty will help you accurately see poverty as part of this "big picture." It contains material from the fields of sociology, developmental psychology, family studies, economics, delinquency, ethnic studies, health, and behavior genetics. This amalgamation gives you a thorough psychosocial perspective.

Ending poverty continues to be a major challenge for the global community. It is even more urgent and relevant today when the world is facing the covid-19 pandemic as it was two decades ago, when four women rose to prominent positions as ministers in charge of international development in their governments.Ending Global Poverty: Four Women's Noble Conspiracytells the story of Eveline Herfkens from the Netherlands, Hilde F. Johnson from Norway, Clare Short from the United Kingdom, and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul from Germany who joined forces to challenge the establishment policies of international institutions. Named for the Norwegian Abbey where the formalized their collaboration in 1999, the so-called Utstein Four embarked on a 'conspiracy of implementation', using foreign aid as a tool to end global poverty, rather than pursue narrow political or commercial interests. They helped achieve primary education for women, used developing countries' debt relief to lift individuals out of poverty, and put development partners in charge of setting priorities and implementing programs of assistance. Their story of female empowerment and the importance of working together is a crucial lesson, andEnding Global Povertyfocuses on the implications of this for today's development challenges, including the struggle to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals which is becoming more difficult every day. The Utstein Four's collaboration lasted for only about half a dozen years but their influence continues to be felt. Much has been achieved but some lessons have been forgotten and large new challenges remain.Ending Global Poverty: Four Women'sNobel Conspiracyconsiders the lasting legacy of the Utstein group and the lessons that their experience of commitment, collaboration and leadership offers to a new generation of leaders as they work to eradicate global poverty and achieve sustainable development.

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.

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 book assesses the global significance of China's decade-long campaign to reduce poverty. After showing how the country's unique approach to poverty alleviation brought about unparalleled progress toward achieving both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the authors shed light on how China's experience can help other countries around the globe as they try to permanently rid humanity of the scourge of poverty under ever more challenging social, economic and environmental conditions.

Do you give to someone begging? For centuries, the figure of the beggar has caused public fear, sympathy and confusion. In this book, criminologist Joe Hermer explores how the dilemma of giving to someone begging today has become an unusual site of regulation, public inquiry and law reform. This book investigates why handing pocket change to someone begging is now widely viewed as a gift crime, one that attempts to make the giving public complicit in the policing and control of visibly poor people. Drawing on the historical insight that public feeling is a central problem of policing the vagrant beggar, the author examines how a quirky provincial experiment to stop people giving to beggars morphed into an unlikely movement across England. Hermer ranges widely in his analysis, with discussions of 'diverted giving' schemes, specialised police operations, activist efforts to repeal the Vagrancy Law, and begging-like activities such as busking, Big Issue vending and flag day collections. The author pays particular attention to the Vagrancy Act 1824 and the historic reforms enabled by gift crime regulation to this storied area of criminal law. The consequence, this book argues, is the continuing abandonment of some of the most vulnerable individuals in society through direct appeals to compassion and kindness.

Transforming Welfare tells the inside story of the legislation that ended " welfare as we know it." As a key staffer on the House Ways and Means Committee, author Ron Haskins was one of the architects of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. In this landmark book, he vividly portrays the political battles that produced the most dramatic overhaul of the welfare system since its creation as part of the New Deal. Haskins starts his story in the early 1990s, as a small group of Republicans lays the groundwork for welfare reform by developing innovative policies to encourage work and fight illegitimacy. These ideas, which included such controversial provisions as mandatory work requirements and time limits for welfare recipients, later became part of the Republicans' Contract with America and were ultimately passed into law. But their success was hardly foreordained. Haskins brings to life the often bitter House and Senate debates the Republican proposals provoked, as well as the backroom negotiations that kept welfare reform alive through two presidential vetoes. In the process, he illuminates both the personalities and the processes that were crucial to the ultimate passage of the 1996 bill. He also analyzes the changes it has wrought on the social and political landscape over the past decade. In Transforming Welfare, Haskins has provided the most authoritative account of welfare reform to date. Anyone with an interest in social welfare or politics in general will learn a great deal from this insightful and revealing book.

Income - Poverty and Beyond emphasizes the need to go beyond the conventional definition of poverty and look at the various human aspects of the problem. Eminent social scientists such as Suresh Tendulkar, Abusaleh Shariff, R Radhakrishna, M S S Meenakshisundaram, Seeta K Prabhu, Ravi Srivastava and the editors, Raja J Chelliah and R Sudarshan, take a comprehensive view of poverty to include the concept of human poverty, seen as the the denial of opportunities and choices most basic to human development'. Special care has been taken to make the information and analysis accessible to the general reader. Using the latest available data for India as well as edited versions of papers commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for a South-Asia poverty monitor, the broad conclusion that has emerged is that more public action is needed to counter the high prevalence of human poverty. Therefore, current measures to reduce income-poverty, including high rates of economic growth, are not sufficient. The first two chapters dwell on the concept of income-poverty, interstate and intergroup disparities and poverty trends in India over the decade 198394. This is followed by an examination of human development in rural India, availability of food to the poor, various programmes aimed at removing poverty, the indices of human poverty and public financing of social services, human priority expenditures, and human expenditure ratios for the Indian states. The perceptions of the poor in assessing their own poverty and in developing policies to improve their status are discussed, and an epilogue appeals to the national and international community to take serious note of human poverty in the midst of which we all live.

"This is a book ripped from the headlines, from Black Lives Matter to recently thriving downtowns stripped of office workers and service workers. Those catching the brunt of it all, those with the steepest hills to climb, may have been fucked at birth. But for everyone, as Maharidge observes, the feeling of safety is folly. A sharp wake-up call to heed the new Depression and to recognize the humanity of those hit hardest." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW "Dale Maharidge takes us coast to coast in 2020, down highways along which he first reported decades ago. His honed class awareness-unrivaled among contemporary journalists-reveals that today's confluent health, economic and social crises are the logical conclusion to generations of unvalidated, untreated despair in a wealthy nation. Forget hollow commentary from detached television news studios in New York City. Fucked at Birth is the truth." -Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Dale Maharidge has spent his career documenting the downward spiral of the American working class. Poverty is both reality and destiny for increasing numbers of people in the 2020s and, as Maharidge discovers spray-painted inside an abandoned gas station in the California desert, it is a fate often handed down from birth. Motivated by this haunting phrase-"Fucked at Birth"-Maharidge explores the realities of being poor in America in the coming decade, as pandemic, economic crisis and social revolution up-end the country. Part raw memoir, part dogged, investigative journalism, Fucked At Birth channels the history of poverty in America to help inform the voices Maharidge encounters daily. In an unprecedented time of social activism amid economic crisis, when voices everywhere are rising up for change, Maharidge's journey channels the spirits of George Orwell and James Agee, raising questions about class, privilege, and the very concept of "upward mobility," while serving as a final call to action. From Sacramento to Denver, Youngstown to New York City, Fucked At Birth dares readers to see themselves in those suffering most, and to finally-after decades of refusal-recalibrate what we are going to do about it.

Why must so many children in today's cities struggle just to survive each day, and what programs and policies most effectively help them? In 1989, the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) began a three-year project to answer these and other questions vital to the well-being of urban children around the world. Based on fieldwork in Brazil, Philippines, India, Kenya, and Italy, this volume uncovers the desperate situations and the resilience of street and working children, and their families, offering critiques and recommendations for national, municipal and community action.

This book offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the experience of economic vulnerability among older adults. Drawing on various fields ranging from happiness, economics to stress research, it integrates assessments from objective and subjective measurement perspectives. The book offers nuanced insights into prevalent experiences of low economic quality of life in wealthy countries, using empirical data from Switzerland. A sample of some 1500 adults aged 65-84 is taken as the basis for a systematic comparison of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of three - overlapping - groups of potentially vulnerable pensioners: those who are income-poor (objective measure), those who report difficulties making ends meet (subjectively self-assessed measure) and those who worry about not having enough money for current expenses (subjectively perceived measure). Theoretical and empirical evidence is offered for the distinctiveness of the two subjective indicators, one of which assesses the experience of economic strain while the other captures the individual's response in terms of stress. The conceptual contribution of this research includes a typology of economic vulnerability: eight distinct profiles emerge at the intersection of the objective, self-assessed and perceived measures. These profiles correspond to specific risk constellations, and they reflect varying degrees of human agency in dealing with economic vulnerability.

Internal Migration: Challenges in Governance and Integration focuses on the challenges associated with internal migration across the developing world. While international migration captures significant attention, less attention has been paid to those migrating within recognized national borders. The sources of internal migration are not fundamentally different from international migration, as migrants may be pushed by violence, disasters, state policies, or various opportunities. Although they do not cross international borders, they may still cross significant internal borders, with cultural differences and perceived state favoritism generating a potential for "sons of the soil" conflicts. As citizens, internal migrants are in theory to be provided legal protection by host states, however this is not always the case, and sometimes their own states represent the cause of their displacement. The chapters in this book explain how international organizations, host states, and host communities may navigate the many challenges associated with internal migration.

Social work and poverty: A critical approach provides a timely review of the key issues facing social workers and service users in working together to combat poverty.First, it situates social work and poverty within a historical context, then analyses definitions and theories of poverty along with their importance in enabling anti-oppressive practice with service users. It goes on to evaluate the Welfare Reform Act 2012 in relation to the negative impact on service users and social workers alike. Key areas of social work and social care are covered with regard to the effects of poverty including, uniquely, access to food, obesity and problematic drug use. Finally the impacts of globalisation on social work and issues of poverty are explored. The book will be of interest to students, researchers and academics in social work and policy makers working in related areas.

In Poverty and Wealth in East Africa Rhiannon Stephens offers a conceptual history of how people living in eastern Uganda have sustained and changed their ways of thinking about wealth and poverty over the past two thousand years. This history serves as a powerful reminder that colonialism and capitalism did not introduce economic thought to this region and demonstrates that even in contexts of relative material equality between households, people invested intellectual energy in creating new ways to talk about the poor and the rich. Stephens uses an interdisciplinary approach to write this history for societies without written records before the nineteenth century. She reconstructs the words people spoke in different eras using the methods of comparative historical linguistics, overlaid with evidence from archaeology, climate science, oral traditions, and ethnography. Demonstrating the dynamism of people's thinking about poverty and wealth in East Africa long before colonial conquest, Stephens challenges much of the received wisdom about the nature and existence of economic and social inequality in the region's deeper past.

Poverty 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.