"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.

In 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.

Jan Brulle shows how poverty risks in Germany between 1992 and 2012 increased concentrated on those with low educational levels, in lower occupational positions, and with precarious employment careers, as the country's welfare state failed to adapt to widening inequalities in households' market incomes. Contrasting the German experience with Great Britain, where social transfers to low-income families in concert with favourable labour market conditions helped to reduce poverty between 1992 and the global financial crisis, he presents the most comprehensive comparative study on poverty trends in these two countries to date. Moving beyond a cross-sectional perspective on poverty, the author analyses why it became not only more frequent in Germany, but also more persistent in individual life-courses, and why faster exits have driven the decline in poverty in Great Britain.

The connection between poverty and lack of education seems entirely self-evident, yet real progress in overcoming the obstacles to education and economic affluence has eluded governments and social activists worldwide for decades. This title interrogates the link between education and poverty reduction and highlights the role of cross-sectoral co-ordination and policy coherence in breaking the poverty trap. The title has four sections. Section 1 examines various conceptual and theoretical frameworks in the discourse on policy coherence and looks at how research can impact on policy. Section 2 deals with poverty in higher education, showing how student income sources such as bursaries and loans, as well as higher education funding policies, create obstacles to access and favour more middle-class students. Section 3 explores the links between education and social development, educational infrastructure and learner performance, and offers practical suggestions for improving the impact of learner feeding programmes, school-based support for children at risk and infrastructure development on combating poverty at the local level. Section 4 offers a set of case studies of local and international best practice in the spheres of college education, state and business partnerships in educational enterprises, and media in education. The final section offers inspirational biographies of hope by people who have pulled themselves out of the poverty trap. Highly relevant for policy-makers, researchers, education practitioners, development professionals and activists in non-governmental organisations, this book offers some practical answers to crucially important questions.

By the early 1900s, the poor farm had become a ubiquitous part of America's social welfare system. Megan Birk's history of this foundational but forgotten institution focuses on the connection between agriculture, provisions for the disadvantaged, and the daily realities of life at poor farms. Conceived as an inexpensive way to provide care for the indigent, poor farms in fact attracted wards that ranged from abused wives and the elderly to orphans, the disabled, and disaster victims. Most people arrived unable rather than unwilling to work, some because of physical problems, others due to a lack of skills or because a changing labor market had left them behind. Birk blends the personal stories of participants with institutional histories to reveal a loose-knit system that provided a measure of care to everyone without an overarching philosophy of reform or rehabilitation. In-depth and innovative, The Fundamental Institution offers an overdue portrait of rural social welfare in the United States.

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 provides a comprehensive overview of key aspects of food insecurity, including definitional and conceptual issues, information systems and data sources, indicators, and policies. The aim is to equip readers with a sound understanding of the subject that will assist in the recognition of food insecurity and the design of suitable responses. The early chapters discuss the evolution and limitations of the concept and provide a set of conceptual frameworks for the analysis of food security. Systems used to collect data and their evolution over time are then explained, and the most commonly adopted indicators for monitoring food security are presented. Approaches to food security are then thoroughly reviewed decade by decade. Specific attention is paid to the food insecurity challenge in the new millennium, focusing particularly on recent food crises and institutional and policy-related consequences. Finally, the specific terminology of food aid and assistance is examined, with discussion of the instruments recently adopted in the food aid system. This book will be an informative and stimulating resource for both students and professionals.

Isabella Bertmann investigates the connection between disability, poverty, and quality of life, and how social protection measures can influence this relationship. The focus of this study is on South Africa. On the basis of qualitative interviews conducted with individuals affected as well as with local disability and social policy professionals, the author provides enlightening insights into the contemporary discourse on inclusive social protection systems. By combining theoretical considerations on well-being and quality of life (based on the Capability Approach) with her empirical data, she opens new perspectives on the multidimensionality of poverty, social inclusion, and self-determined living.

How many people live in poverty in the UK, and how has this changed over recent decades? Are those in poverty more likely to suffer other forms of disadvantage or social exclusion? Is exclusion multi-dimensional, taking different forms for different groups or places? Based on the largest UK study of its kind ever commissioned, this fascinating book provides the most detailed national picture of these problems. Chapters consider a range of dimensions of disadvantage as well as poverty - access to local services or employment, social relations or civic participation, health and well-being. The book also explores relationships between these in the first truly multi-dimensional analysis of exclusion. Written by leading academics, this is an authoritative account of welfare outcomes achieved across the UK. A companion volume Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK: Volume 1 focuses on specific groups such as children or older people, and different geographical areas.

Quelles realites recouvre l'image, souvent uniformisante, des transformations recentes des conditions de vie des retraites ? Certes, la pauvrete a recule chez les personnes agees, leur etat de sante s'est ameliore et la retraite ne rime plus avec exclusion sociale. Pourtant, dans les coulisses des tendances generales, d'anciennes vulnerabilites persistent et de nouvelles inegalites emergent. Melant contributions theoriques et empiriques, cet ouvrage porte sur un aspect largement occulte en sociologie de la vieillesse, celui des inegalites sociales dans la derniere etape du parcours de vie. Il interroge notamment les nouveaux modeles du bien vieillir et du vieillissement actif en portant l'attention sur les conditions de realisation socialement situees de ces modeles. Il propose egalement un regard reflexif sur les travaux sociologiques dans le domaine du vieillissement en questionnant, du point de vue historique, leur role dans le processus d'invisibilisation des effets de classe dans ce champ d'etude et en montrant comment les perspectives issues des etudes de genre ouvrent la voie a un renouveau des analyses en terme de classes dans le cadre des approches intersectionnelles.

"Did you ever go to bed and wonder if your child was getting enough to eat?" For food insecure mothers, the worry is constant, and babies are at risk of going hungry. Through compelling interviews, Lesley Frank answers the breastfeeding paradox: why women who can least afford to buy infant formula are less likely to breastfeed. She exposes the shocking reality of food insecurity for formula-fed babies and the constraints limiting mothers' ability to breastfeed. Out of Milk calls out the pressing need to establish the economic and social conditions necessary for successful breastfeeding and for accessible and safe formula feeding for families everywhere.

Why are some people poor? Why does absolute poverty persist despite substantial economic growth? What types of late economic development or 'catch-up' capitalism are associated with different poverty outcomes? Global Poverty addresses these apparently simple questions and the extent to which the answers may be shifting. One might expect global poverty to be focused in the world's poorest countries, usually defined as low-income countries, or least developed countries, or 'fragile states'. However, most of the world's absolute poor by monetary or multi-dimensional poverty - up to a billion people - live in growing and largely stable middle-income countries. At the same time, poverty has not fallen as much as the substantial economic growth would warrant. As a consequence, and as domestic resources have grown, much of global poverty has become less about a lack of domestic resources and more about questions of national inequality, social policy and welfare regimes, and patterns of economic development pursued.

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.

Betrayed takes a new approach to the subject of global poverty, one that doesn't blame the West but also doesn't rely on the West for solutions. Betrayed puts the poor themselves at center stage, and shows how their entrepreneurial energies are shackled by political and social discrimination. When these shackles are removed, as is happening in places such as China and Vietnam, the poor are able to seize opportunities and drive wealth creation. Combining the latest research into poverty and state building with the author's personal observations drawn from years running businesses in the developing world, Betrayed explains how leaders in the developing world can build more inclusive societies and more equitable governments, thereby creating dynamic national economies and giving the poor the opportunity to accumulate the means and skills to control their own destinies. This refreshing new approach will appeal to business people who are fed up with reading critiques of global poverty that see capitalism as the problem, not the solution; people in both the global North and South who want to see attention focused not on Western aid but on what developing countries and their citizens can do to help themselves; scholars and practitioners in the development field who are looking for new, practicable ideas; and general readers who want accessible and engaging accounts of ordinary people struggling to overcome poverty.

This comparative study of urban poverty is the first to chart the irregular pulse of poverty's encounters with officialdom. It exploits an unusual methodology to secure new perspectives from familiar sources. The highly localised characteristics of the welfare economy generated a peculiarly urban environment for the poor. Separate chapters examine the parameters of workhouse life when the preconceptions of contemporaries have been stripped away; the reach of institutional charities such as almshouses, schools and infirmaries; and the surprisingly broad clientele of urban pawnbrokers. Detailed analysis of the poor is achieved via meticulous matching of individuals who fell within the purview of two or more authorities. The result is a unique insight into the survival economics of urban poverty, arising not from a tidy network of welfare but from a loose assembly of options, where the impoverished positioned themselves repeatedly to fit official, philanthropic, or casual templates of the 'deserving'. This book will be essential reading for historians of English poverty and welfare, and eighteenth-century social and economic life. -- .

For many progressives, racial identities are the engine of American history, and by extension, contemporary politics. They, in short, want to separate race from class. While policymakers and pundits find an almost metaphysical racism, or the survival of an ancient and primordial tribalism at the heart of American life, these inequities are better understood when traced to more comprehensible forces: to the contradictions in access to New Deal era welfare programs, to the blinders imposed by the Cold War, to Ronald Reagan's neoliberal assault on the half-century long Keynesian consensus. As Toure Reed argues in this rigorously constructed book, the road to a more just society for African Americans and everyone else, the fate of poor and working-class African Americans is inextricably linked to that of other poor and working-class Americans.

Each year, millions of people die from poverty-related causes. In this groundbreaking and thought-provoking book, Gwilym David Blunt argues that the only people who will end this injustice are its victims, and that the global poor have the right to resist the causes of poverty. He explores how the right of resistance is used to reframe urgent political questions: is illegal immigration a form of resistance? Can transnational social movements, such as the indigenous rights movement, provide the foundations for civil resistance to global poverty? If peaceful resistance fails, is armed struggle justified? Do people living in affluent states have a responsibility to help even if it requires them to break the law? Giving clear historical examples and engaging with fields including philosophy, international law, history, and international political studies, this volume addresses real-world issues from terrorism to activism. It will be important for anyone interested in applied philosophy and global injustice.

A Fragile Balance examines strategies to promote emergency savings, especially among underserved households. Each chapter is by an expert contributor and proposes an innovative financial product or service designed to bolster emergency savings among low-asset families. This collection also offers readers insights into the role of emergency savings and mechanisms to facilitate savings behaviors, and raises critical questions of the scale, institutional capacity, sustainability, accessibility, and effectiveness of existing programs.

Arquitecto Tucci, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, is a place where crushing poverty and violent crime are everyday realities. Homicides--often involving young people--continue to skyrocket, and in the emergency room there, victims of shootings or knifings are an all-too-common sight. In Harm's Way takes a harrowing look at daily life in Arquitecto Tucci, examining the sources, uses, and forms of interpersonal violence among the urban poor at the very margins of Argentine society. Drawing on more than two years of immersive fieldwork, sociologist Javier Auyero and Maria Berti, an elementary school teacher in the neighborhood, provide a powerful and disarmingly intimate account of what it is like to live under the constant threat of violence. They argue that being physically aggressive becomes a habitual way of acting in poor and marginalized communities, and that violence is routine and carries across various domains of public and private life. Auyero and Berti trace how different types of violence--be it criminal, drug related, sexual, or domestic--overlap, intersect, and blur together. They show how the state is complicit in the production of harm, and describe the routines and relationships that residents, particularly children, establish to cope with and respond to the constant risk that besieges them and their loved ones. Provocative, eye-opening, and extraordinarily moving, In Harm's Way is destined to become a classic work on violence at the urban margins.

Is food aid the way of the future? What are the prospects for integrated public policies informed by the right to food? First World Hunger Revisited investigates the rise of food charity and corporately sponsored food banks as effective and sustainable responses to increasing hunger and food poverty in twelve rich 'food-secure' societies.