Music Downtown Eastside draws on two decades of research in one of North America's poorest urban areas to illustrate how human rights can be promoted through music. Harrison's examination of how gentrification, grant funding, and community organizations affect the success or failure of human rights-focused musical initiatives offers insights into the complex relationship between culture, poverty, and human rights that have global implications and applicability. The book takes the reader into popular music jams and music therapy sessions offered to the poor in churches, community centers and health organizations. Harrison analyzes the capabilities music-making develops, and musical moments where human rights are respected, promoted, threatened, or violated. The book offers insights on the relationship between music and poverty, a social deprivation that diminishes capabilities and rights. It contributes to the human rights literature by examining critically how human rights can be strengthened in cultural practices and policy.

The 1840s witnessed widespread hunger and malnutrition at home and mass starvation in Ireland. And yet the aptly named 'Hungry 40s' came amidst claims that, notwithstanding Malthusian prophecies, absolute biological want had been eliminated in England. The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were supposedly the period in which the threat of famine lifted for the peoples of England. But hunger remained, in the words of Marx, an 'unremitted pressure'. The politics of hunger offers the first systematic analysis of the ways in which hunger continued to be experienced and feared, both as a lived and constant spectral presence. It also examines how hunger was increasingly used as a disciplining device in new modes of governing the population. Drawing upon a rich archive, this innovative and conceptually-sophisticated study throws new light on how hunger persisted as a political and biological force. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero hunger. -- .

This book describes the experience of joblessness and unemployment in contemporary Poland. It does so by combining qualitative and quantitative data from a special project conducted in Poland after the Great Recession and the long-term Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN) to describe the lives of the jobless: women and men currently out of work, the recently re-employed, and housewives. The book uses a class and inequality perspective to investigate how these women and men became jobless, how they look for and find employment, their household and social activities, and their political participation. It contextualizes these experiences with a description of Poland's economy, labor market and employment policies after the fall of Communism and builds on the active interviewing and social constructionist approaches to explore the complex interviewer-respondent relationship.

Developing a contemporary account of political friendship and synthesizing it with the radical movement of degrowth, this book provides the ethical grounding and the rationale of an alternative economy which serves human flourishing. The Aristotelian political friendship embodies active concern for the others' well-being that contemporary societies lack; the crucial problems of ecological destruction and global poverty illustrate this friendship deficit. Arguing for the need for re-embracing a friendly civic ethos and re-aligning the economy with moral objectives, the author updates the Aristotelian idea and identifies it with democratic-autonomous political-economic praxis that ensures citizens' self-actualization. Degrowth movement questioning economic growth and productivism, and privileging a simpler life with less material goods, favours political friendship precisely because it nourishes its unconscious substratum namely human instinctual sociality. The call for genuine democratic political praxis that political friendship implies could enable the degrowth movement to retain its radical character and accomplish the shift to an economy which serves life. The book is worthwhile studying by students and researchers across social sciences and especially by scholars in the fields of sociology, philosophy, and politics, but also a broader readership sensitive to the issues of social and environmental sustainability will find this work extremely interesting.

Does recognition of the basic human right to subsistence imply that the needy are morally permitted to take and use other people's property to get out of their plight? Should we respect the exercise of this right of necessity in a variety of scenarios - from street pickpocketing and petty theft to illegal squatting and encamping? In this concise and accessible book, Alejandra Mancilla addresses these complex and controversial moral questions. The book presents a historical account of the concept of the right of necessity-from the medieval writings of Christian canonists and theologians to seventeenth century natural law theory. The author then goes on to ground this right in a minimal conception of basic human rights, and proposes some necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for its exercise. She confronts the main objections that may be posed against this principle and ultimately concludes that the exercise of this right should be considered as a trigger to secure a minimum threshold of welfare provisions for everyone, everywhere.

The largest UK research study on poverty and social exclusion ever conducted reveals startling levels of deprivation. 18m people are unable to afford adequate housing; 14m can't afford essential household goods; and nearly half the population have some form of financial insecurity. Defining poverty as those whose lack of resources forces them to live below a publicly agreed minimum standard, this text provides unique and detailed insights into the nature and extent of poverty and social exclusion in the UK today. Written by a team of leading academics, the book reports on the extent and nature of poverty for different social groups: older and younger people; parents and children; ethnic groups; men and women; disabled people; and across regions through the recent period of austerity. It reflects on where government policies have made an impact and considers potential future developments. A companion volume Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK Volume 2 focuses on different aspects of poverty and social exclusion identified in the study.

Unemployment and the state in Britain offers an important and original contribution to understandings of the 1930s. Through a comparative case study of south Wales and the north-east of England, the book explores the impact of the highly controversial means test, the relationship between the unemployed and the government and the nature of some of the largest protests of the interwar period. This study will appeal to students and scholars of the depression, social movements, studies of the unemployed, social policy and interwar British society. -- .

Welcome to the city shadows in Valdemingomez: a lawless landscape of drugs and violence. Through vivid testimonies and images, Briggs and Monge tell the stories of the people who live there, placing them in a political, economic and social context of spatial inequality and oppressive mechanisms of social control.

Looking beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary social interactions, The Moral Power of Money investigates the forces of power and morality at play, particularly among the poor. Drawing on fieldwork in a slum of Buenos Aires, Ariel Wilkis argues that money is a critical symbol used to negotiate not only material possessions, but also the political, economic, class, gender, and generational bonds between people. Through vivid accounts of the stark realities of life in Villa Olimpia, Wilkis highlights the interplay of money, morality, and power. Drawing out the theoretical implications of these stories, he proposes a new concept of moral capital based on different kinds, or "pieces," of money. Each chapter covers a different "piece"-money earned from the informal and illegal economies, money lent through family and market relations, money donated with conditional cash transfers, political money that binds politicians and their supporters, sacrificed money offered to the church, and safeguarded money used to support people facing hardships. This book builds an original theory of the moral sociology of money, providing the tools for understanding the role money plays in social life today.

* Fascinating reading for advanced undergraduate and any postgraduate students of discourse studies as well as those with an interest in the relationship between charity, poverty and social exclusion. The conceptual material will also appeal more widely to researchers who wish to study processes of psychologisation and neoliberal government from a critical perspective * Direct applications of concepts to the real-world example of food banks offer an accessible entry into Foucault's thought and can offer practical guidance for those designing empirical projects in critical psychology * Addresses a clear gap in the market for a book that engages critically with the discourses and power dynamics in charity settings and may even inform the practices of anti-poverty campaigners and encourage critical reflection among food bank volunteers

* Fascinating reading for advanced undergraduate and any postgraduate students of discourse studies as well as those with an interest in the relationship between charity, poverty and social exclusion. The conceptual material will also appeal more widely to researchers who wish to study processes of psychologisation and neoliberal government from a critical perspective * Direct applications of concepts to the real-world example of food banks offer an accessible entry into Foucault's thought and can offer practical guidance for those designing empirical projects in critical psychology * Addresses a clear gap in the market for a book that engages critically with the discourses and power dynamics in charity settings and may even inform the practices of anti-poverty campaigners and encourage critical reflection among food bank volunteers

* Explores and explains what happens when citizens cannot pay the debts they owe to their governments * Provides insights for students and academics in criminology, sociology, public policy, and economics, as well as policymakers and government officials interested in effecting change * Unique in addressing the various ways in which governments have become privileged creditors, using their power to collect debts owed to them by their citizens

What does day-to-day life involve for those who receive out-of-work benefits? Is the political focus on moving people from 'welfare' and into work the right one? And do mainstream political and media accounts of the 'problem' of 'welfare' accurately reflect lived realities? For whose benefit? The everyday realities of welfare reform explores these questions by talking to those directly affected by recent reforms. Ruth Patrick interviewed single parents, disabled people and young jobseekers on benefits repeatedly over five years to find out how they experienced the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and whether the welfare state still offers meaningful protection and security in times of need. She reflects on the mismatch between the portrayal of 'welfare' and everyday experiences, and the consequences of this for the UK's ongoing welfare reform programme. Exploring issues including the meaning of dependency, the impact of benefit sanctions and the reach of benefits stigma, this important book makes a timely contribution to ongoing debates about the efficacy and ethics of welfare reform.

With the target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) behind us, this book asks did they work? And what happens next? Arguing that to effectively look forward, we must first look back, the editors of this insightful book gather leading scholars and practitioners from a range of backgrounds and regions to provide an in-depth exploration of the MDG project and its impact. Contributors use region-specific case studies to explore the effectiveness of the MDGs in addressing the root causes of poverty, including resource geographies, early childhood development and education, women's rights and disability rights as well as the impact of the global financial crisis and Arab Spring on MDG attainment. Providing a critical assessment that seeks to inform future policy decisions, the book will be valuable to those working in the development community as well as to academics and students of international development, international relations and development economics.

Does recognition of the basic human right to subsistence imply that the needy are morally permitted to take and use other people's property to get out of their plight? Should we respect the exercise of this right of necessity in a variety of scenarios - from street pickpocketing and petty theft to illegal squatting and encamping? In this concise and accessible book, Alejandra Mancilla addresses these complex and controversial moral questions. The book presents a historical account of the concept of the right of necessity-from the medieval writings of Christian canonists and theologians to seventeenth century natural law theory. The author then goes on to ground this right in a minimal conception of basic human rights, and proposes some necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for its exercise. She confronts the main objections that may be posed against this principle and ultimately concludes that the exercise of this right should be considered as a trigger to secure a minimum threshold of welfare provisions for everyone, everywhere.

Development has alleviated poverty in many countries during the 50 years since the end of War World II, yet half of mankind remains poor; a fifth are very poor. Poverty is not a state of nature, but, as Stepanek shows, can be ascribed to manmade institutions that reflect self-serving and self-indulgent ideologies, poorly tested theories and policies, weak governments, and poverty alleviation programs that are questionably designed and poorly administered. Dr. Stepanek asserts that poverty cannot be alleviated without challenging all of its root causes, and he shows that well-designed development strategies and foreign assistance programs can create growth and reduce poverty. Western governments, international banks, and donor agencies must reexamine how they design and administer foreign aid if they are to be successful. Stepanek explains foreign aid in general and in specific, in history and theory, and in its present and practical forms.

Poverty reduction challenges in the twenty-first century are not the same as those from the previous century. The shift is due in no small part to climate change and climate-related weather disasters, such as extreme flood and drought. The magnitude and frequency of such events are only expected to increase in the coming decades, affecting more and more impoverished people across the globe. Poverty Reduction in a Changing Climate, edited by Hari Bansha Dulal, is a work which discusses the new innovations and funding mechanisms which have emerged in response to the rise of climate-related challenges in the twenty-first century. Dulal and the text's contributors explore the synergies and implications of those innovations with respect to poverty alleviation goals. This collection brings together a range of scholars from different backgrounds, ranging from political science, economics, public policy, and environmental science, all analyzing poverty reduction challenges and opportunities from different, forward-thinking perspectives.

The promotion of social protection in Sub-Saharan Africa happens in a context where informal labour markets constitute the norm, and where most workers live uncertain livelihoods with very limited access to official social protection. The dominant social protection agenda and the associated literature come with an almost exclusive focus on donor and state programmes even if their coverage is limited to small parts of the populations - and in no way stands measure to the needs. In these circumstances, people depend on other means of protection and cushioning against risks and vulnerabilities including different forms of collective self-organizing providing alternative forms of social protection. These informal, bottom-up forms of social protection are at a nascent stage of social protection discussions and little is known about the extent or models of these informal mechanisms. This book seeks to fill this gap by focusing on three important sectors of informal work, namely: transport, construction, and micro-trade in Kenya and Tanzania. It explores how the global social protection agenda interacts with informal contexts and how it fits with the actual realities of the informal workers. Consequently, the authors examine and compare the social protection models conceptualized and implemented 'from above' by the public authorities in Tanzania and Kenya with social protection mechanisms 'from below' by the informal workers own collective associations. The book will be of interest to academics in International Development Studies, Political Economy, and African Studies, as well as development practitioners and policy communities.

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.

The Poverty of Privacy Rights makes a simple, controversial argument: Poor mothers in America have been deprived of the right to privacy. The U.S. Constitution is supposed to bestow rights equally. Yet the poor are subject to invasions of privacy that can be perceived as gross demonstrations of governmental power without limits. Courts have routinely upheld the constitutionality of privacy invasions on the poor, and legal scholars typically understand marginalized populations to have "weak versions" of the privacy rights everyone else enjoys. Khiara M. Bridges investigates poor mothers' experiences with the state-both when they receive public assistance and when they do not. Presenting a holistic view of just how the state intervenes in all facets of poor mothers' privacy, Bridges shows how the Constitution has not been interpreted to bestow these women with family, informational, and reproductive privacy rights. Bridges seeks to turn popular thinking on its head: Poor mothers' lack of privacy is not a function of their reliance on government assistance-rather it is a function of their not bearing any privacy rights in the first place. Until we disrupt the cultural narratives that equate poverty with immorality, poor mothers will continue to be denied this right.

The essays in this volume explore continuities and changes in the role of philanthropic organizations in Europe and North America in the period around the French Revolution. They aim to make connections between research on the early modern and late modern periods, and to analyze policies towards poverty in different countries within Europe and across the Atlantic. Cunningham and Innes highlight the new role for voluntary organizations emerging in the late eighteenth century and draws out the implications of this for received accounts of the development of welfare states.

Originally published in 1997 Working for Women? examines the ways in which women's patterns of paid and unpaid work have been mediated by the policies of governments throughout the 20th century. It looks at the state in defining what is women's work and men's work, and at equal pay and opportunities policies. This book will appeal to academics of sociology, gender and women's studies.

1) This is a comprehensive book on understanding equity in the context of the northeastern states in India. 2) It contains case studies from all seven states in the north eastern region. 3) This book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies and Development Studies across UK and USA.

Poverty is a multi-dimensional concept which is complex in its origin as well as in its manifestations. Oppression and denial of Human Rights can contribute to poverty. However, this oppression and exploitation of the poor is not to be understood simplistically but as a systemic injustice rooted within the context of well organized socio-political and cultural structures of oppression. This study is a concerted effort to identify, articulate and highlight the existence, the causes and effects of poverty in Nigeria, particularly in Igboland, where Human Rights infringements have contributed to poverty. It also aims at alerting the respective governments to their administrative inadequacies that are contrary to social ethics and have given rise to poverty. It concludes by discussing viable strategies of alleviating poverty in Igboland.