Originally published in 1981, Automatic Poverty provides a much-needed alternative to the Radical Right's analysis. The book argues that Britain's economic decline is symptomatic of an advanced stage of industrialisation in which productive processes are increasingly mechanised, but output remains static. Under these circumstances workers become redundant, the income of the working class diminishes, and dependence on the state increases. The 'Ricardo phenomenon' has become long-term feature of the British economy, and the author shows that neither Keynesian nor monetarist policies can remedy its consequences. It reflects a critical stage in the development of capitalism.

Originally published in 1940, The Unemployment Services provides a thorough examination of the system of unemployment relief. The book looks at fundamental proposals for the extension of necessary provisions for improving the conditions of the unemployed, and their dependents. The book provides a detailed knowledge of regulations and scales, and uses an unorthodox dissection of the principles embodied in this code of laws, which plays so large a part in the lives of industrial workers and their dependents.

Originally published in 1987 Pressure for the Poor looks at the debate surrounding the role of pressure groups in policy making. It closely relates theories of pressure group behaviour with the findings of research into the poverty lobby in the UK. The analysis is based on interviews with leading activists in more than forty interest groups, which are all concerned with trying to influence social security policies of government in the field of income maintenance. The book examines the origins and maintenance of such a wide range of interest groups in in this field, the strategies they pursue, and their impact on policy outcomes.

In comparison to other social groups, India's rural poor - and particularly Adivasis and Dalits - have seen little benefit from the country's economic growth over the last three decades. Though economists and statisticians are able to model the form and extent of this inequality, their work is rarely concerned with identifying possible causes. Employment, Poverty and Rights in India analyses unemployment in India and explains why the issues of employment and unemployment should be the appropriate prism to understand the status of wellbeing in India. The author provides a historical analysis of policy interventions on behalf of the colonial and postcolonial state with regard to the alleviation of unemployment and poverty in India and in West Bengal in particular. Arguing that, as long as poverty - either as a concept or as an empirical condition - remains as a technical issue to be managed by governmental technologies, the 'poor' will be held responsible for their own fate and the extent of poverty will continue to increase. The book contends that rural unemployment in India is not just an economic issue but a political process that has consistently been shaped by various socio-economic, political and cultural factors since the colonial period. The analysis which depends mainly on ethnography extends to the implementation of the 'New Rights Agenda', such as the MGNREGA, at the rural margin. Challenging the dominant approach to poverty, this book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of South Asian studies, Indian Political Economy, contemporary political theories, poverty studies, neo-liberalism, sociology and social anthropology as well as development studies.

Homing Devices is a collection of ethnographies that address the central problem affecting not only the United States but also other developed and developing nations around the globe-affordable housing. These ethnographies cut across national and cultural borders, offering a diverse look at housing policies and practices as well as addressing the problems associated with providing or obtaining affordable housing. The studies incorporate perspectives of both policymakers and recipients and as such provide comparative insight into public housing policy programs and practices based on qualitative research. The collected experts provide an analysis of such problems as displacement, resettlement, policy implementation, collaborative planning, exclusionary practices, environmental racism, and silencing the voices of dissent. Editors Schuller and thomas-houston have assembled a strong volume that offers a fresh approach to discussing policy while bringing the particular problem of housing to the forefront in a way that will appeal to scholars of anthropology and social science, governmental policy departments, and activists from the general public across the nation.

The Mediation of Poverty: The News, New Media, and Politics discusses the influence of the increasing use of digital technologies on media and political responses to poverty in the United Kingdom and Canada. Considering poverty politics at symbolic and structural levels, Joanna Redden uses a frame analysis of mainstream and alternative news content to identify which narratives dominate poverty coverage, what is missing from mainstream news coverage, and what can be learned by looking at alternative sources of news and information. The Mediation of Poverty argues that news coverage privileges and embeds neoliberal approaches to the issue of poverty in Canada and the United Kingdom. Interviews with journalists, politicians, researchers, and activists enable discussion, on a micro level, of the changing nature of news, politics, and activism, and how these changes influences poverty politics. Redden raises concerns about how the speed of digitally-mediated working environments is reshaping even foreclosing opportunities for communication, reflection, and contestation in a way that reinforces the dominance of market-based thinking, and limits political responses to poverty."

Epdf and ePUB available Open Access under CC BY NC ND licence. The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone - but, for some, existing social inequalities were exacerbated, and this created a vital need for research. Researchers found themselves operating in a new and difficult context; they needed to act quickly and think collectively to embark on new research despite the constraints of the pandemic. This book presents the collaborative process of 14 research projects working together during COVID-19. It documents their findings and explains how researchers in the voluntary sector and academia responded methodologically, practically, and ethically to researching poverty and everyday life for families on low incomes during the pandemic. This book synthesises the challenges of researching during COVID-19 to improve future policy and practice. Also see 'A Year Like No Other: Family Life on a Low Income in COVID-19' to find out more about the lived experiences of low-income families during the pandemic.

At a time when the divide between the wealthy and the disadvantaged is widening, this major textbook provides students with a critical understanding of poverty and social exclusion in relation to wealth, rather than as separate from it. Raising fundamental questions about the organisation of society, social structures and relationships and social justice, the book is split into four main sections exploring key concepts and issues; 'people and place' (poverty and wealth across different groups and situations); the role of the state; and prospects for the future. This is the only textbook to focus on the links between wealth and poverty and contains an edited collection of chapters specially written by a distinguished panel of contributors including Pete Alcock, Daniel Dorling, Mary Shaw, Gill Scott and Jay Ginn. It is designed with the needs of students in mind and includes useful chapter summaries, illustrative boxes and diagrams, and pointers to relevant websites and other sources of further information. This is an essential textbook for level 1/2 undergraduate students studying social policy either as a main subject or as part of their course. It is a core text for level 3/4 specialist modules in this field.

First published in 1854, this comprehensive work charts over three volumes the history of poor relief in England from the Saxon period through to the establishment of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 and its reception. This edition, updated in 1898, also includes a biography of the author, Sir George Nicholls. Volume III examines poor relief from 1834 to 1898. This set of books will be of interest to those studying the history of the British welfare state and social policy.

Unequal Health examines the reasons why stark differences in health and well-being persist, even as the health care industry and access to health care grow. The third edition of this powerful book retains the accessible style and focus on inequality from previous editions while featuring significant new material throughout. After an overview of key themes, the book introduces the concept of epidemiology-measuring the number of people who are sick or dying-and offers an overview of health trends over time. Author Grace Budrys distills the latest research to consider the relevance of sex, race, income, and education, and relative social status on health. The book discusses disease, habits that contribute to health, the relationship between health care and health status, genetics, socioeconomic inequality, health policy, and more. The third edition features a new chapter on diet, an increased discussion of substance abuse and the attention it receives based on who is engaging in this behavior, new material on income and education variables and inequality, a new discussion of the Affordable Care Act and its impact, and more.

First published in 1979, Urban Poverty in Britain 1830-1914 examines the plight of the poor in towns as a direct result of industrialization. This valuable study examines the major causes of poverty - low pay, casual labour, unemployment, sickness, widowhood, large families, old age, drink and personal failings - and society's response to the problem. It also pays attention to the changes in food consumption brought about by migration to the urban areas. Detailed accounts of specific problems and specific situations are combined with a look at the broader questions, and subsequently provides a thorough account of urban poverty in this period.

Across South Asia in the last two decades, there has been widespread emphasis on governance reforms aiming to reduce poverty through Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The recent development agenda has had great impact over the region , and this book finds that it largely widens the gap between the rich and poor, which combined with rising inflation, contributes to political instability. The book analyses the discourses of development agenda and governance crisis and provides a survey of the region by not only focusing on India, Pakistan and Bangladesh but also on the smaller countries in the region, such as Bhutan. Explaining three components of the development agenda as criteria for economic development - poverty reduction, governance reforms and civil society participation through liberal democracy - this book explores the consequences of the neo-liberal democracy and recent development agenda coupled with governance reforms. This work argues that the political economy of South Asia is largely derived from experiences of historical colonialism and recent changes driven by contemporary rise of India as a global power after the triumph of new-liberal democracy and market capitalism in the post-cold war era. It proposes a strengthening of the instruments of endogenous governance and people's participation in South Asian countries to reduce poverty through MDGs and other development goals in combination with top-down and bottom up approaches. Offering an understanding of governance and development in the context of the South Asia, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Political Economics, International Development Studies, Political Science, and Governance Studies, as well as policy makers.

First published in 1854, this comprehensive work charts over three volumes the history of poor relief in England from the Saxon period through to the establishment of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 and its reception. This edition, updated in 1898, also includes a biography of the author, Sir George Nicholls. Volume I examines poor relief from the Saxon period to the reign of Queen Anne. This set of books will be of interest to those studying the history of the British welfare state and social policy.

First published in 1854, this comprehensive work charts over three volumes the history of poor relief in England from the Saxon period through to the establishment of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 and its reception. This edition, updated in 1898, also includes a biography of the author, Sir George Nicholls. Volume I examines poor relief from the accession of George I to 1854. This set of books will be of interest to those studying the history of the British welfare state and social policy.

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.

This book studies the transformation of work in couples in Germany, the Netherlands, the Flemish part of Belgium, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, and China. It provides evidence that gender role change in couples has been slow and asymmetric, and demonstrates the importance of institutional differences among modern societies, determining the timing, speed, and pattern of the transition from male breadwinner to the dual-earner family mode.

Poor people in developing countries are often affected by droughts, floods, illness, crop failure, job loss, and economic downturns. Much of their energy goes into coping with these shocks and into day-to-day survival. While insurance and credit markets, combined with widespread social security, provide an important cushion against poverty in rich countries, the need for immediate survival may lock the poor into persistent poverty in developing countries. The poor in developing countries do have informal mechanisms to cope with risk and misfortune. These are based on income diversification, risk avoidance, self-insurance by saving together with family, and community-based mutual assistance. Nevertheless, the scope of these mechanisms remains limited. Repeated individual-specific shocks such as illness or pests, or covariate risks associated with drought, flood, or recession, undermine the ability of individuals and their families to cope with risk. We now know much more about vulnerability to risk and how poor people cope. Even more importantly, we have learned much about the large long-term consequences of these risks, which condemns many to persistent poverty and excludes them from economic growth. But there is much that can be done. The micro-level studies that underpin this book offer new insights on how effective public action could be more effective in protecting the vulnerable against persistent poverty. Policy should focus on providing a comprehensive menu of ex-ante and post-crisis protection mechanisms, including new forms of insurance, savings, safety nets, and the means to strengthen the poor's asset base. Local communities have a big role to play: public funds should not be used to replace indigenous community-based support networks; rather they should be used to build on the strengths of these networks to ensure broader and more effective protection. With numerous thematic chapters and case studies of both best practice and of failure, from a mix of low-income and middle-income countries across the developing world, this book evaluates alternatives in widening insurance and protection provision, and makes an important contribution to the topical field of insurance and risk.

A splendid - and necessary - publication...a great resource Iain Sinclair Charles Booth's landmark survey of life in late-19th-century London, published for the first time in one volume. In the late nineteenth century, Charles Booth's landmark social and economic survey found that 35 percent of Londoners were living in abject poverty. Booth's team of social investigators interviewed Londoners from all walks of life, recording their comments, together with their own unrestrained remarks and statistical information, in 450 notebooks. Their findings formed the basis of Booth's colour-coded social mapping (from vicious and semi-criminal to wealthy) and his seventeen-volume survey Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People of London, 1886-1903. Organized into six geographical sections, Charles Booth's London Poverty Maps presents the hand-colored preparatory and printed social mapping of London. Accompanying the maps are reproductions of pages from the original notebooks, containing anecdotes and observations too judgmental for Booth to include in his final published survey. An introduction by professor Mary S. Morgan clarifies the aims and methodology of Booth's survey and six themed essays contextualize the the survey's findings, accompanied by evocative period photographs. Providing insights into the minutia of everyday life viewed through the lens of inhabitants of every trade, class, creed, and nationality, Charles Booth's London Poverty Maps brings to life the diversity and dynamism of late nineteenth-century London.

The first and only monograph focusing on intergeneration mobility in the context of China's poverty alleviation. Studies the relationship between education and intergenerational social mobility Uses large-scale social survey data including the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), and the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP)

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was enacted in India with the multiple objectives of providing employment in a rights-based framework, addressing rural poverty, checking migration, and building rural infrastructure. As such, every year around 15-20 per cent of households in India overall and 30 per cent in rural India receive some form of employment share under the MGNREGA programme. This volume looks at various aspect of the scheme, its linkage with employment, agricultural wages, livelihood and food security, gender issues, and migration in rural India. It also discusses challenges in implementation, hurdles and the relative successes of the scheme. Based on primary survey data from 16 major states in the country, the findings of the study provide key insights into MGNREGA and assess the implications for other welfare-oriented programmes. Rich in empirical data, this volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of political economy, economics, agriculture, rural development and sociology, as well as policymakers and nongovernmental organisations.

A compelling investigation into the phenomenon of dirty work - labour that society considers essential, but morally compromised. A New Statesman Book of the Year 'This book will prompt a public reckoning with inequality in work' Michael J. Sandel 'A scathing and thoughtful book about labor and principles' Rebecca Solnit 'A writer in the tradition of George Orwell and Martha Gellhorn' Corey Robin 'Confronts a series of deep and vexing moral questions... penetrating, astutely observed, beautifully written' Patrick Radden Keefe Guards who patrol the wards of America's most violent and abusive prisons; undocumented immigrants who man the 'kill floors' of industrial slaughterhouses; drone operators who kill people from thousands of miles away. These are the essential workers we prefer not to think about. Their morally dubious, often physically violent and dangerous activity sustains modern society yet is concealed from our gaze. It is work that falls disproportionately in deprived areas, on immigrants and people of colour, and entails a less familiar set of occupational hazards - stigma, shame and moral injury. A striking, sophisticated and nuanced investigation, Dirty Work will change the way you think about society.

The India Migration Report 2017 examines forced migration caused by political conflicts, climate change, disasters (natural and man-made) and development projects. India accounts for large numbers of internally displaced people in the world. Apart from conflicts and disasters, over the years development projects (including urban redevelopment and beautification), often justified as serving the interests of the people and for public good, have caused massive displacements in different parts of the country, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. The interdisciplinary essays presented here combine a rich mix of research methods and include in-depth case studies on aspects of development-induced displacement affecting diverse groups such as peasants, religious and ethnic minorities, the poor in urban and rural areas, and women, leading to their exclusion and marginalization. The struggles and protests movements of the displaced groups across regions and their outcomes are also assessed. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of development studies, economics, sociology and social anthropology and migration studies.

First published in 1972, Victorian Aspirations is the story of the personal struggles and achievements of Charles and Mary Booth, as remembered by their families and as revealed in private family papers, especially in their letters to each other. Charles Booth started his investigations into the social conditions of the English lower classes at the critical moment in the history of social reform. From this work, he produced Life and Labour of the People in London, a comprehensive and instructive account of the condition of the London poor. All seventeen volumes were carefully revised and corrected by his wife Mary. This book reveals a detailed and fascinating picture of the way of life of the late Victorian intelligentsia and provides interesting glimpses of many well-known figures of English public life who were relatives and friends of the Booths, such as Macaulay and the Webbs. It will be of particular interest to students of Victorian social history.

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.

From the bottom to the top of our economy, capitalism is too blunt an instrument to tackle Britain's epidemic of inequality. Soaring rents, unfair taxation and a growing gig economy have brought about unprecedented economic shame: Amazon warehouse workers living in tents, nurses turning to foodbanks, London firemen commuting hundreds of miles to work. Even those higher up the ladder are losing their grip on the life they were promised. Barristers take home less than the minimum wage and doctors are starting out with GBP100,000 student debts on salaries lower than the national average. We're all facing a new economic phenomenon - in-work poverty. At the same time a generation of young professionals is coming to terms with never being able to own even the cheapest home in their area. From the bottom to the top of our economy, capitalism is too blunt an instrument to tackle Britain's epidemic of inequality. Soaring rents, unfair taxation and a growing gig economy have brought about unprecedented economic shame: Amazon warehouse workers living in tents, nurses turning to foodbanks, London firemen commuting hundreds of miles to work. Even those higher up the ladder are losing their grip on the life they were promised. Barristers take home less than the minimum wage and doctors are starting out with GBP100,000 student debts on salaries lower than the national average. We're all facing a new economic phenomenon - in-work poverty. At the same time a generation of young professionals is coming to terms with never being able to own even the cheapest home in their area. Hard work no longer pays off. But there is hope for a better, fairer future.