Social problems, such as childhood lead poisoning, do not occur in a vacuum. As such, defining such problems requires a holistic examination of the broad social, political, and economic influences that create and perpetuate the issue of concern. Richardson does this with eloquence and heart. She also investigates the attitudes various groups have held toward the Residential Lead-based Paint Hazard Reduction Act (Title X). In doing so, she reveals much about the attitudes officials hold toward problems that primarily affect poor communities, and demonstrates how these attitudes directly affect policymaking and policy enforcement. The social consequences of lead poisoning analyzed in this volume fall into the following categories:

• Housing
• Health
• Education
  Policy-making
• and
• Legal Challenges
• . The Cost of Being Poor would be useful to individuals in the fields of public health, policy, education, and law. Furthermore, this work would be of special use to educators, who would benefit from familiarity with lead poisoning as a factor in their students' lives and from becoming aware that there are options that poisoned children have to improve their situation. The first step necessary in eliminating social problems is to understand the nature of the problem. This study is a step in that direction.

On January 20, 1949 US President Harry S. Truman officially opened the era of development. On that day, over one half of the people of the world were defined as "underdeveloped" and they have stayed that way ever since. This book explains the origins of development and underdevelopment and shows how poorly we understand these two terms. It offers a new vision for development, demystifying the statistics that international organizations use to measure development and introducing the alternative concept of buen vivir: the state of living well. The authors argue that it is possible for everyone on the planet to live well, but only if we learn to live as communities rather than as individuals and to nurture our respective commons. Scholars and students of global development studies are well-aware that development is a difficult concept. This thought-provoking book offers them advice for the future of development studies and hope for the future of humankind.

The past decade has seen the emergence of new types of trade union representatives attracting new and more diverse activists; this book explores their motivations and values, drawing upon the voices of the activists themselves and capturing the relationship between work, social identity and class consciousness.

A senior editor at Mother Jones dives into the lives of the extremely rich, showing the fascinating, otherworldly realm they inhabit-and the insidious ways this realm harms us all. Have you ever fantasized about being ridiculously wealthy? Probably. Striking it rich is among the most resilient of American fantasies, surviving war and peace, expansions and recessions, economic meltdowns and global pandemics. We dream of the jackpot, the big exit, the life-altering payday, in whatever form that takes. (Americans spent $81 billion on lottery tickets in 2019, more than the GDPs of most nations.) We would escape "essential" day jobs and cramped living spaces, bury our debts, buy that sweet spread, and bail out struggling friends and relations. But rarely do we follow the fantasy to its conclusion-to ponder the social, psychological, and societal downsides of great affluence and the fact that so few possess it. What is it actually like to be blessed with riches in an era of plagues, political rancor, and near-Dickensian economic differences? How mind-boggling are the opportunities and access, how problematic the downsides? Does the experience differ depending on whether the money is earned or unearned, where it comes from, and whether you are male or female, white or black? Finally, how does our collective lust for affluence, and our stubborn belief in social mobility, explain how we got to the point where forty percent of Americans have literally no wealth at all? These are all questions that Jackpot sets out to explore. The result of deep reporting and dozens of interviews with fortunate citizens-company founders and executives, superstar coders, investors, inheritors, lottery winners, lobbyists, lawmakers, academics, sports agents, wealth and philanthropy professionals, concierges, luxury realtors, Bentley dealers, and even a woman who trains billionaires' nannies in physical combat, Jackpot is a compassionate, character-rich, perversely humorous, and ultimately troubling journey into the American wealth fantasy and where it has taken us.

Offering a comparative perspective, this book examines working poverty -- those in work who are still classified as "poor." It argues that the growth in numbers of working poor in Europe is due to the transition from a Keynesian Welfare State to a 'post-fordist' model of production.

The situation of young people in Europe has been significantly impacted by recent changes that have taken place in the job market. Young people's life trajectories and transitions to adulthood are increasingly less linear, more segmented, and more reversible, with a rise in unemployment and the NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) phenomenon. This book aims to investigate the youth policies implemented in Europe and how they are integrated in the socio-economic contexts of the various member states and their welfare regimes, educational systems, and skills markets. A significant number of young adults neither study nor work, and live in a constant state of discouragement and inactivity, giving up on their search for job opportunities. The strategic choices implemented at the European level in response to this problem promote ALMPs (Active Labour Market Policies), including the creation of the Youth Guarantee Program, which is examined here both at the European level and, specifically, in the Italian context.

The EPIC PLAN reveals a common sense solution to end poverty, wars and terrorism. It is based upon ideals of influential and successful leaders of the past. Help solve the world problem. Read this book. This is vital to all!

This book analyses the accessibility and success of vocational training programmes for unemployed and disadvantaged youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Examining the implementation of vocational education and training programmes, the author assesses various internal and external enabling factors that can help foster youth employment. In doing so, the author presents a solid base for robust and evidence-informed practice and policy making for vocational training programmes, analysing such themes as employability skills, the labour market, and work-integrated learning. It also emphasises the importance of stakeholders taking into account the enabling and disabling environments found in a given local, regional or national context. It will be of interest to scholars of vocational training programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, as well as of youth poverty and unemployment.

Susan R. Holman examines the theme of poverty in the fourth-century sermons of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen, and Gregory Nysson. These sermons are especially important for what they tell us about the history of poverty relief and the role of fourth century Christian theology in constructing the body of the redemptive, involuntary poor. Some of the topics explored include the contextualization of the poor in scholarship, the poor in late antiquity, and starvation and famine dynamics. In exploring this relationship between cultural context and theological language, this volume offers a broad and fresh overview of these little-studied texts.

'The definitive account of the history of poverty finance' - Susanne Soederberg Finance, mobile and digital technologies - or 'fintech' - are being heralded in the world of development by the likes of the IMF and World Bank as a silver bullet in the fight against poverty. But should we believe the hype? A Critical History of Poverty Finance demonstrates how newfangled 'digital financial inclusion' efforts suffer from the same essential flaws as earlier iterations of neoliberal 'financial inclusion'. Relying on artificially created markets that simply aren't there among the world's most disadvantaged economic actors, they also reinforce existing patterns of inequality and uneven development, many of which date back to the colonial era. Bernards offers an astute analysis of the current fintech fad, contextualised through a detailed colonial history of development finance, that ultimately reveals the neoliberal vision of poverty alleviation for the pipe dream it is.

A volume in Research on Hispanic and Latino Business Series Editors Michael William Mulnix and Esther Elena Lopez-Mulnix Approximately 25% of Latin Americans live on less than $2 a day, and Latin America is the most unequal region of the world. Poverty and inequality cause suffering and slow development. The solution must include generating an inclusive development process through satisfying the basic needs of the poor that enhance their productivity, that enable them to contribute to the development process, and that enables them to earn the income necessary to live a full life. Decentralization of taxing and spending from the central government to lower levels of government can help to satisfy basic needs of the poor and create an inclusive development process. However, decentralization is a stepby- step process that must implemented by taking into account real-world circumstances such as a lack of administrative ability in local government, and by formulating policy accordingly. The book derives economic principles for implementing the process of decentralization, and it presents cases that illustrate the principles at work. It is an economic guide for policymakers and practitioners.

How much are we morally required to do to help people who are much worse off than us? Philosophers have often raised this question in assessing the plausibility of particular moral theories. But it is a pressing question whatever one's moral outlook. Any plausible moral outlook should recognize requirements of beneficence -- requirements grounded directly in other people's need for assistance. Given this, there is a forceful case for thinking that we are morally required -- not only collectively, but also as individuals -- to devote a substantial proportion of what we have to helping the poor.
One way to present this case is by means of a simple analogy: an analogy between giving money to an aid agency and rescuing a needy person directly. Part I of Garrett Cullity's book examines this analogy in detail, discussing the ways in which it is politically and metaphysically simplistic. However, there remains an important truth in the simple analogy. It is that we are morally required to help.
In one way, our world imposes a radical separation between its rich and poor inhabitants: our material circumstances are starkly different. In another way, however, it does not: the human experiences and fulfillments of rich and poor are fundamentally the same. This is an important part of the case for thinking that their welfare grounds requirements of beneficence on us to help them. But Part II shows that it is also part of the case for limiting those requirements. Drawing attention to the range of goods that ground requirements on us to help each other, Cullity argues that these requirements only make sense on the assumption that a life of a certain kind -- a life that is not restricted in an extremely demanding way -- is one that it is not wrong for us to live.

Insecure temporary employment is growing in Europe, but we know little about how being in such jobs affects political preferences and behaviour. Combining insights from psychology, political science and labour market research, this book offers new theories and evidence on the political repercussions of temporary jobs.

Nine million people in the United States live in rural poverty. This large segment of the population has generally been overlooked even as considerable attention, and social conscience, is directed to the alleviation of urban poverty. This timely, needed volume focuses on poor, rural people in poor, rural settings. Rural poverty is not confined to one section of the country or to one ethnic group. It is a national problem and the resolution of hidden America's persistent economic plight will now depend on a better understanding of who is poor and why. The clear, authoritative chapters describe the declining opportunities available in rural areas--including the social, educational, and political factors that so often pose barriers to economic advancement.

Part One provides a comprehensive description of the poor population and an analysis of rural poverty's underlying dynamics. Low wages, the character of rural labor markets, and chronic inter-generational poverty are carefully considered to lay the basis for formulating sound responses. Part Two looks at the condition of particular groups suffering poverty in rural areas. These include African-Americans, Appalchians, Native Americans, and migrant workers. It addresses the special problems of those who, although in relatively prosperous rural areas, live at or below the poverty level. Part Three looks to successful lessons from the past and evaluates current steps that may be taken to frame policy recommendations that will mitigate present stress, foster improved opportunities, and open a better life to America's rural poor.

This book offers a detailed account of the employment promises made to local East Londoners when the Summer Olympic Games 2012 were awarded to London, as well as an examination of how those promises had morphed into the Olympic Labor market jamboree from which local communities were excluded. Regarding the global job market of London, this study provides a nuanced empirical view on how the world's biggest mega event was experienced and endured in terms employment by its immediate hosts, in one of the UK's poorest, most ethnically complex, and transient areas. The data has been collected through ethnographic observation and interviews with local residents, and expert interviews with the Olympic delivery professionals. Using Bourdieusian theory of contested capital, the findings provide an important bearing on the reproduction of inequality in the local labor markets of Olympic host cities.

Poverty is a pressing and persistent problem. While its extent varies across countries, its presence always represents the diminution of human capacity. Therefore, it seems natural to want to do something about it. Have countries made progress in mitigating poverty? How do we determine who is poor and who is not poor? What intuitions or theories guide the design of anti-poverty policy? Is overall labor market performance the key to keeping the poverty rate low? Or, does it matter how well-connected an individual is to those who know about the availability of jobs? Does being an immigrant increase the odds of being poor? Are there anti-poverty policies that work? For whom do they work? If I'm poor, will I have access to health care and housing? Am I more likely to be obese, polluted upon, incarcerated, un-banked, and without assets if I'm poor? Is poverty too hard a problem for economic analysis? These are some of the questions that a distinguished group of scholars have come together to confront in this Handbook.
The Handbook is written in a highly-accessible style that encourages the reader to think critically about poverty. Theories are presented in a rigorous but not overly-technical way; concise and straightforward empirical analyses enlighten key policy issues. The volume has six parts: Poverty in the 21st Century; Labor Market Factors; Poverty Policy; Poverty Dynamics; Dimensions of Poverty; and Trends and Issues in Anti-Poverty Policy. A goal of the Handbook is to stimulate further research on poverty. To that end, several chapters challenge conventional thinking about poverty and in some cases present specific proposals for the reform of economic and social policy.

This work assesses the possibilities and limitations of reducing poverty among families with children by increasing the work effort of the adults in those families. Following a historical review of family poverty since 1995, the authors present several policy simulations, including increased employment, a higher minimum wage, more generous tax credits, a child allowance, and reduced childcare or medical expenses. Specific policy proposals-including the proposals of the Biden Administration-are assessed using four criteria: reducing child poverty; equitable treatment of the poorest groups; promotion of self-sufficiency; and cost-effectiveness. The authors conclude that while no single policy is able to reduce family poverty by half while meeting the other criteria, several combinations of policies have the potential to do so.

This title provides a one-stop resource for understanding the crisis of homelessness in the United States. It covers risk factors for homelessness, societal attitudes about the homeless, and public and private resources designed to prevent homelessness and help those in need. There are a number of questions to be answered when addressing the subject of homelessness in the United States. What are the primary causes of homelessness? What are the economic and socioeconomic factors that have an impact on homeless people? What demographic trends can be identified in homeless populations? Is the U.S. addressing the needs and concerns of homeless people adequately? Where are the areas with the highest homeless populations? What can be done to help homeless people who live with mental illness and/or addiction problems? Homelessness in America: A Reference Handbook answers all of these questions and more. It thoroughly examines the history of homelessness in the U.S., shining a light on the key issues, events, policies, and attitudes that contribute to homelessness and shape the experience of being homeless. It places special emphasis on exploring the myriad problems that force people into homelessness, such as inadequate levels of affordable housing, struggles with substance abuse, and gaps in the U.S.' social welfare system. In addition, it explains why some demographic groups are at heightened risk of homelessness. Original essays that provide insightful perspectives on causes and effects of homelessness Tables, graphs, and charts that provide important data for understanding various facets of homelessness A chronology of important events, laws, policies, and reforms pertaining to homelessness A glossary of terms used in the study of homeless populations

'One of the most exciting and provocative books that I've read in a long time' - Mike Davis, author of Planet of the Slums Can people who live in shantytowns, shacks and favelas teach us anything about democracy? About how to govern society in a way that is inclusive, participatory and addresses popular needs? This book argues that they can. In a study conducted in dozens of South Africa's shack settlements, where more than 9 million people live, Trevor Ngwane finds thriving shack dwellers' committees that govern local life, are responsive to popular needs and provide a voice for the community. These committees, called 'amakomiti' in the Zulu language, organise the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, public works and crime prevention especially during settlement establishment. Amakomiti argues that, contrary to common perception, slum dwellers are in fact an essential part of the urban population, whose political agency must be recognised and respected. In a world searching for democratic alternatives that serve the many and not the few, it is to the shantytowns, rather than the seats of political power, that we should turn.

This book brings together a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives on conceptualization, measurement, multidimensional impacts and policy and service responses to address child and family poverty. It illuminates issues and trends through country level chapters, thus shedding light on dynamics of poverty in different jurisdictions. The book is structured into three sections: The first includes introductory chapters canvassing key debates around definition, conceptualization, measurement and theoretical and ideological positions. The second section covers impacts of poverty on specific domains of children's and families' experience using snapshots from specific countries/geographic regions. The third section focuses on programs, policies and interventions and addresses poverty and its impacts. It showcases specific interventions, programs and policies aimed at responding to children and families and communities and how they are or might be evaluated. Cross national case studies and evaluations illustrate the diversity of approaches and outcomes.

The politics of austerity has seen governments across Europe cut back on welfare provision. As the State retreats, this edited collection explores secular and faith-based grassroots social action in Germany and the United Kingdom that has evolved in response to changing economic policy and expanding needs, from basic items such as food to more complex means to move out of poverty. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and practitioners in several areas of social intervention, the book explores how the conceptualization and constitutive practices of citizenship and community are changing because of the retreat of the State and the challenge of meeting social and material needs, creating new opportunities for local activism. The book provides new ways of thinking about social and political belonging and about the relations between individual, collective, and State responsibility.

Poverty and inequality remain at the top of the global economic agenda, and the methodology of measuring poverty continues to be a key area of research. This new book, from a leading international group of scholars, offers an up to date and innovative survey of new methods for estimating poverty at the local level, as well as the most recent multidimensional methods of the dynamics of poverty. It is argued here that measures of poverty and inequality are most useful to policy-makers and researchers when they are finely disaggregated into small geographic units. Poverty and Social Exclusion: New Methods of Analysis is the first attempt to compile the most recent research results on local estimates of multidimensional deprivation. The methods offered here take both traditional and multidimensional approaches, with a focus on using the methodology for the construction of time-related measures of deprivation at the individual and aggregated levels. In analysis of persistence over time, the book also explores whether the level of deprivation is defined in terms of relative inequality in society, or in relation to some supposedly absolute standard. This book is of particular importance as the continuing international economic and financial crisis has led to the impoverishment of segments of population as a result of unemployment, bankruptcy, and difficulties in obtaining credit. The volume will therefore be of interest to all those working on economic, econometric and statistical methods and empirical analyses in the areas of poverty, social exclusion and income inequality.