Winner of the 2011 Paul Davidoff award

This is a book about poverty but it does not study the poor and the powerless; instead it studies those who manage poverty. It sheds light on how powerful institutions control "capital," or circuits of profit and investment, as well as "truth," or authoritative knowledge about poverty. Such dominant practices are challenged by alternative paradigms of development, and the book details these as well. Using the case of microfinance, the book participates in a set of fierce debates about development - from the role of markets to the secrets of successful pro-poor institutions. Based on many years of research in Washington D.C., Bangladesh, and the Middle East, Poverty Capital also grows out of the author's undergraduate teaching to thousands of students on the subject of global poverty and inequality.

This book looks at the role of social policy and particularly social security in addressing the ongoing challenge of poverty in East Asia despite the region's spectacular experience of economic growth in decent decades. The East Asian miracle resulted over the last four decades in a transformation of the region's traditional agrarian economies and significant increases in standards of living for many ordinary people. Even though it was given little attention, poverty has remained an ongoing problem. The problem became particularly evident however with the Asian financial crisis of 1997 when many low income and middle class workers became unemployed. As a result of this crisis, the need for effective social policies and social security programs were recognized. The idea that economic growth would solve the problem of poverty was increasingly challenged. Even in China today, where rapid growth has created new employment opportunities and the promise of prosperity for many, the government has recognized that the problem of poverty cannot be addressed only through economic growth but that comprehensive social policies must be formulated, and this includes the development of an effective security system.

In contemporary European and American urban policy and politics and in academic research it is typically assumed that spatial concentrations of poor households and/or ethnic minority households will have negative effects upon the opportunities to improve the social conditions of those who are living in these concentrations. Since the level of concentration tends to be correlated with the level of spatial segregation the 'debate on segregation' is also linked to the social opportunity discussion. This book explores the central questions in urban and housing studies:

• Do poor neighbourhoods make their residents poorer?
• Does the neighbourhood structure exert an effect on the residents (behavioural, attitudinal, or psychological) even when controlling for individual characteristics of the residents?

This issue has offered a locus for multi-disciplinary investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, and this volume demonstrates the rich geographical, sociological, economic and psychological dimensions of this issue.
This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Housing Studies.

As Jeff Singleton shows, the rapid expansion of unemployment relief in the early 1930s generated pressures which led to the first federal welfare programs. However the process has received relatively little attention from historians, and unemployment relief does not play a major role in discussions of the current state of welfare.

Singleton seeks not only to fill this gap, but to challenge popular interpretations of relief policy in the early 1930s. He shows that relief was expanding prior to the depression and that the modern aspects of social policy implemented in the 1920s profoundly influenced the response of the welfare system to the early stages of the economic crisis. Relief under President Herbert Hoover was neither primarily voluntarist nor traditional. The first full-fledged federal welfare program was implemented under the Hoover administration by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The initial goals of the New Deal's Federal Emergency Relief Administration were to reduce the national relief caseload and the federal welfare role, while improving standards for those on the dole. The institutionalization of state-level welfare was a consequence of the failure of the 1935 reform program (the WPA and the Social Security Act) to eliminate the dole, not a product of conscious liberal policy. Singleton concludes by evaluating the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act in the context of these conclusions. If the dole was not a product of liberal reform, but, instead, arose to fill a policy vacuum, then it will be difficult to eliminate by legislative fiat unless states and the federal government are willing to finance relatively costly alternatives. A provocative analysis of interest to historians and social scientists concerned with American social and labor policy.

Asia contains the bulk of the world's poor, as many as 500 million people. A significant fraction of these poor are chronically poor, which means that they and their families have been poor for years and will remain in poverty unless governmental policies are adopted which can lift them out of poverty.

This book focuses on rural poverty and those countries in Asia with the largest number of chronically poor, including the two emerging superpowers of China and India, other countries of South Asia and the Mekong region as well as Indonesia and Philippines in Southeast Asia. Systematic analysis of who is poor, where they live, and why they are poor is carried out. Microeconomic, sector and macroeconomic policies which have been adopted to address this important social issue are also discussed. Through specific country analysis, the book outlines additional concrete measures that can be taken to reduce chronic poverty and improve the welfare of these people.

'The class war is over. But the struggle for true equality has only just begun, ' Tony Blair has declared. The world indeed enters the 21st century heaving with poverty and inequality. Just three super-rich men have a net worth equal to the income of the 36 poorest countries in the world. The gap between rich and poor is also growing in the advanced economies as well. 14 million people, a quarter of the population of the United Kingdom are currently classified as poor, compared to only four million in 1979.

In this important new book, Alex Callinicos explores the meaning of equality in the contemporary world. He traces its origins as a political ideal in the great democratic revolutions of the 17th and the 18th century, and in the efforts of the socialist movement to force capitalism to live up to its promise of liberty, equality and fraternity. Callinicos also shows how the theories of egalitarian justice developed over the past generation by philosophers such as John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Amartya Sen and G. A. Cohen have given a much more precise meaning to the ideal of equality. Individuals are entitled to be protected from the consequences of circumstances beyond their control - for example, the socio-economic position and the natural talents they inherit - in order to have equal freedom to pursue their own well-being.

The implications of egalitarian justice are radical. Callinicos critically reviews the versions of this ideal - equality of opportunity and social inclusion - by supporters of the Third Way such as Gordon Brown and Anthony Giddens. He argues that the strategy pursued by New Labour to increase equality is riddled with contradictions and contains anunderlying authoritarian dimension. Fundamentally, equality and the market are irreconcilable. Any attempt seriously to increase social equality will come into conflict with the logic of the capitalist economic system. Only a socialist society, organized along democratic and decentralized lines, can realize the ideal of equality.

This book will be of great interest to students of politics, philosophy and sociology, and all those interested in this key and controversial topic.

Sex Discrimination in the Workplace is an interdisciplinary volume that examines the various approaches to the study of sex discrimination and explores solutions and interventions. With riveting first-hand accounts from plaintiffs, lawyers and expert witnesses who have mounted battles against discriminatory employers, it is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of precisely what sex discrimination is and what can be done to combat it.
Examines sex discrimination through the eyes of law, economics, sociology, and psychology, providing expert descriptions of the fundamental research related to sex discrimination and their field
Contains first hand accounts of sex discrimination cases, many of which relate to landmark contemporary incidents
Concludes with solutions to the problems of discrimination from individual, organizational, and societal perspectives
Written in clear, engaging prose with contributions from eminent scholars

Severe poverty is one of the greatest moral challenges of our times. But what place, if any, do ethical thinking and questions of global justice have in the policies and practice of international organizations? This books examines this question in depth, based on an analysis of the two major multilateral development organizations - the World Bank and the UNDP - and two specific initiatives where poverty and ethics or human rights have been explicitly in focus: in the Inter-American Development Bank and UNESCO.

The current development aid framework may be seen as seeking to make globalization work for the poor; and multilateral organizations such as these are powerful global actors, whether by virtue of their financial resources, or in their role as global norm-setting bodies and as sources of hegemonic knowledge about poverty. Drawing on their backgrounds in political economy, ethics and sociology of knowledge, as well as their inside knowledge of some of the case studies, the authors show how, despite the rhetoric, issues of ethics and human rights have - for very varying reasons and in differing ways - been effectively prevented from impinging on actual practice.

Global Poverty, Ethics and Human Rights will be of interest to researchers and advanced students, as well as practitioners and activists, in the fields of international relations, development studies, and international political economy. It will also be of relevance for political philosophy, human rights, development ethics and applied ethics more generally.

'This is an important and powerful book because of the rigour of the analysis, the good sense of the innovative strategies for action by government, business and civil society, and the concern throughout for social justice.' - John Langmore, Director, UN Division for Social Policy and Development One in six Australian kids live below the poverty line. Among the twenty-five leading industrialised countries, Australia has the fifth highest child poverty rate. This is a useful, if stark, indicator of the extent of long-term disadvantage in this country. Creating Unequal Futures? brings together eight of Australia's leading social scientists to introduce the reader to the processes which create and sustain persistent patterns of poverty and disadvantage. Although the contributors use different approaches, their research leads to a united call for a rethinking away from the prevailing 'gloom and doom' presentations of Australian material life. They signal pathways out of the dilemmas that bind people to poverty and disadvantage. If followed, those pathways will guide us to a future characterised by less inequality. If ignored, we may further entrench patterns of disadvantage and risk creating unequal futures for all Australians.

This book concentrates on ethnic minorities such as former slaves, outcastes and indigenous peoples dispossessed of homeland. These groups are universally without power, usually undereducated, and always victims of their fellow citizens. The book asks why these socially excluded groups remain at the bottom of their social hierarchies as the poorest of the poor, even in nations long committed to equal opportunity.

Their slow progress has four causes: obviously discrimination and poor education, but also low economic growth and cultural heritage. Low growth limits revenues for schools as well as new job opportunities, and perpetuates traditional exploitative social relations and customs. Traumatic histories of enslavement or conquest may induce behaviours by victims that reduce upward mobility. Together these four interacting variables suggest a "mobility model" that explains the impasse. The book develops and applies this model to interpret and compare the mobility history of five stigmatized, low-status ethnic groups: U.S. African Americans, Japan's Burakumin, Afro-Cubans, India's Dalits (Untouchables) and Bolivia's Highland Indians. The book also compares actions by governments and the groups themselves to overcome barriers to progress, including job quotas, boycotts, mass protests, and the unique kangaroo courts of Japan's Burakumim.

Meerman's unusual cross-disciplinary approach and fascinating comparative studies of success and failure will appeal to scholars, development practitioners, and advocates working on issues of discrimination, poverty, equity and inequality in an ethnic context.

The idea of giving cash, no-strings-attached, to the poor has become popular in the 21st century. While hardly a radical form of global redistribution, these cash grants, often known as unconditional cash transfers, claim to offer a new type of care that is less paternalistic than other forms of assistance. Caring Cash explores the caring practices that these grant experiments produced in the Nairobi ghetto of Korogocho. After receiving the grants, people there did not only look after themselves and their family, friends, lovers, clients and patrons, but also maintained the bonds that held them all together. Putting his interlocutors' lives in conversation with ideas around care, ethics and economies, Tom Neumark argues that for those in the ghetto, caring for relationships is as important as the care that takes place within relationships. Seeing care in this way reveals the importance of managing one's proximity, distance and detachment to others, and raises questions about the disquieting decisions that allow people to live together amidst violence and poverty.

The problem of escalating population displacement demands global attention and country co-ordination. This book investigates the particular issue of development-induced displacement, whereby land is seized or restricted by the state for the purposes of development projects. Those displaced by these schemes often risk losses to their homes, livelihoods, food security, and socio-cultural support; for which they are rarely fully compensated. Bringing together 22 specialist researchers and practitioners from across the globe, this book provides a much-needed independent analysis of country frameworks for development-induced displacement spanning Asia, Africa, Central and South America. As global competition for land increases, public and private sector lenders are lightening their social safeguards, shifting the oversight for protecting the displaced to national law and regulations. This raises a central question: Do countries have effective ways of addressing the risks and lost opportunities for their people who are displaced? While many countries remain impervious to the problem, the book also shines a light on the few who are pioneering new legislation and strategies, intended to address questions such as: should the social costs to those displaced help determine whether a project meets the public interest and merits financing? Does the modern state need powers of eminent domain? How can country laws, systems, institutions and negotiations be reformed to protect citizens better against disempowering public and private sector development displacement? This book will interest those working on forced and voluntary migration, property and expropriation law, human rights, environmental and social impact assessment, internal and refugee displacement from conflicts, environment change, disasters and development.

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.

This book explores the vital role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in compensating for the market's and government's inability to provide vital services. Its key theoretical contribution is the notion that poverty is the result of a triadic failure-when markets, government, and civil society become dysfunctional at the same time. Using data on Catholic missionaries' development work, this study presents the various ways by which FBOs mitigate market and government failures in healthcare, education, and social services, and in the process build and strengthen civil society. This study has two main objectives. First, it aims to present an overview of missionaries' development work, evaluating the socioeconomic significance of their faith-based development work. In addition, various comparative advantages and disadvantages have been imputed to FBOs in the religion-development literature, and we assess to what extent missionaries actually exhibit these posited qualities in practice. Second, the groundwork is laid for future religion-development scholars by presenting a theoretical framework and a method for evaluating the role and contributions of FBOs in the larger community. This is an important investigation of contemporary worldwide Christianity and its relationship with development. As such, it will interest scholars of religious studies and missiology, as well as development economics, public service and the political economy.

Although there is much interest in poverty reduction, there are few agreed upon strategies to effectively reduce poverty. In this new book, the editors have gathered together various evidences on poverty dynamics, based on panel data from the last few decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu in India, compared with more recent data from sub-Saharan Africa. The major finding of this research project is that rural households in sub-Saharan African are beginning to experience the same pattern of structural change in income composition and poverty reduction that Asian households have experienced in the past 20-25 years.

The chapters in the book explore how the spread of Green Revolution has triggered the subsequent transformation of rural economies. Many rural households in Asia have been able to move out of poverty in the presence of increasing scarcity of farmland initially by increasing rice income through the adoption of modern rice technology and gradually diversifying their income sources away from farm to non-farm activities. Increased participation in non-farm employment has been more pronounced among the more educated children, whose education is facilitated by an increase in farm income brought about by the Green Revolution. This book identifies the importance of Green Revolution and non-farm employment for poverty reduction in Asia, which provides valuable lessons for sub-Saharan Africa.

There are estimated to be almost 60 million people living in poverty throughout the European Union. This bleak statistic underlines the value of this important book which explores the nature and extent of poverty and social exclusion in six European countries, namely: Austria, Germany, Greece, Norway, Portugal and the UK. The book focuses on four 'life course' groups who might be considered particularly at risk: young adults, lone parents, the sick and disabled, and the retired.The authors show how poverty is the outcome of the interaction between several factors including education, gender and family structure. They emphasise the importance of distinguishing between poverty and non-monetary measures of deprivation and isolation. Although the poor are more at risk of suffering from deprivation, the authors demonstrate that this relationship is more tenuous than many people suppose. Employing rigorous theoretical and methodological analyses they go on to relate their findings to the policy environment in each of the countries, which were specifically chosen to reflect differing welfare systems. In this way the authors compare the impact of government policy on both the level of poverty and social exclusion, and on who is most at risk of experiencing them. Both statistically and in policy terms this book will be essential reading for students and academics of economics and the social sciences, and policy makers at both the national and European level.

'This book aims to inspire the conservation community not to regard poverty reduction as someone else's job but to take responsibility for it as part of ecosystem restoration. Though no solutions are perfect,the text and examples given offer encouraging and useful guidance.' Gill Shepherd, poverty and landscapes thematic leader, IUCN Forest Conservation Programme. 'This book could be the catalyst for a real paradigm shift - not just in capital cities and international conference centres, but also on the ground in locations where poor people are struggling to make a living.' Policy Matters (praise for the first edition). High levels of rural poverty in many of the world's ecosystems make it an ethical and practical imperative to find more equitable and realistic ways of achieving conservation. Livelihoods of the rural poor and options for conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity are so intimately entwined that they are better addressed through an integrated approach, irrespective of whether the primary motivation is one of development or one of conservation. This highly accessible book, a revised edition of the 2005 book Poverty and Conservation: Landscapes, People and Power, offers a grand overview of the issues and a conceptual framework for addressing poverty reduction in the context of conservation, and conservation in the context of poverty reduction. It will appeal to professionals working in the field as well as to students across the fields of conservation, development and sustainability. It looks at the rationale for addressing the links between conservation and poverty reduction, arguing that such a focus is both ethically essential and a source of opportunities. It alsoreviews experiences in dealing with people and conservation and identifies some key lessons and concepts. The book presents cases studies illustrating various approaches and a discussion of some of the issues that appear when implementing combined conservation and poverty reduction. The book emphasizes the importance of multiple spatial scales and negotiating trade-offs between scales. It also tackles the complex issue of institutional landscapes and the way in which changes at various institutional levels can lead to different and often more positive outcomes. The Final part summarizes some of the main features of the authors' integrated approach and identifies some of the challenges involved in efforts to combine conservation and poverty reduction. Published with IUCN - The World Conservation Union.

Cash transfers are but one form of income supplementation, and a fuller presentation of antipoverty proposals would include both transfers in-kind (such as food, housing, and medical care) and human investment programs aimed at increasing the earning capacity of individuals. Much discussion has centered on how to reduce poverty by getting more cash income in the hands of poor people. This collection brings together in one accessible volume the most widely discussed plans for reducing financial poverty in the United States through cash transfers.

Those who have tried to follow the American debate over cash transfers will undoubtedly have been struck by the confusing ways in which proposals are described and compared. Proposed beneficiaries sometimes provide the basis of comparison, as with proposals of old-age pensions or child allowances. In other cases, plans are described and compared as negative income taxes or welfare reforms by virtue of the administrative changes they imply or the mechanism for reducing benefits with respect to increased income. In this book, the proposals have been thoughtfully grouped to facilitate comparison. Specifically, they have been grouped according to the social problems which they are intended to solve, the advantage being that discussion of means is not so likely to submerge awareness of the ends intended. Arranged in this way, the proposals in this volume are primarily directed at the problems of welfare and poverty, and at the inequities in the tax system's treatment of poor persons. These categories are not, of course, mutually exclusive; the problems are interrelated and the solutions to anyone affect the others indirectly.

Organized in a manageable and comprehensive way, this volume presents some of the widely diverse cash transfer proposals that grew out of reformist debates. This collection will be of interest to a wide array of from scholars of public policy and politics to economics and economic theory.

"Theodore R. Marmor" is professor of public policy and management and professor of political science at Yale School of Management. He currently sits on the editorial board of both the "Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice and Journal of Health, Politics, Policy, and Law" as well as on the international advisory board of the London School of Economics (Health and Social Care). He is an author or co-author of numerous books and author of over a hundred scholarly articles.

Public discussion of global healthcare issues is dominated by those who believe that top-down, government-driven interventions are the solution to the myriad health problems suffered by people in less developed countries. This thinking is responsible for a plethora of harmful policies, ranging from a drive towards socialized healthcare systems, to calls for the centralization and semi-nationalization of pharmaceutical research and development, to impractical but grandiose UN-sponsored schemes for tackling HIV/AIDS and malaria.

In spite of the abysmal track record of top-down approaches, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies continue to promote them, to the detriment of the private sector, economic development, and human health. The resulting politicization of diseases such as HIV/AIDS has led to a diversion of resources away from more easily treatable diseases that affect more people. Meanwhile, cost-effective and simple interventions such as vaccination are being subordinated to other more politically correct diseases.

This centralizing mindset has also resulted in many governments in less developed countries attempting to plan and control universal healthcare systems, which has encouraged rationing, inequitable access, and entrenched corruption. It has also seriously undermined the effectiveness of overseas development aid. Moreover, the politicization of diseases such as HIV/AIDS has led to a diversion of resources away from more easily treatable diseases that affect more people. As a result, cost-effective and simple interventions are neglected by donors.

There has to date been little public discussion of the role of markets and their underlying institutions--property rights and the rule of law--in improving human health. Economic growth and globalization has led to unprecedented improvements in human health. The challenge is to enable the poorest countries to take part more fully in this process. This work demonstrates how current thinking is flawed and proposes practical ways of improving health in lower income countries.

The Third World debt crisis, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank's adjustment policies have compelled many countries to move towards a contraction of public sector expenditure in favour of market orientated development policies. Women in general and the poorest amongst them in particular have borne a disproportionate burden of the ensuing hardships. This book addresses the shortcomings in the current gender blind analytical frameworks of governments and financial organisations and offers alternative strategies for combating recession and poverty.

One of the United States great promises is that all children will be given the opportunity to work to achieve a comfortable standard of living. That promise has faded profoundly for children who grow up in poverty, particularly black and Hispanic children, and many of the deepening fault lines in the social order are traceable to this disparity. In recent years the promise has also begun to fade for children of the middle class. Education and hard work, once steady paths to economic success, no longer lead as far as they once did. But that doesn't have to be the case, as Duncan Lindsey shows in this articulate, impassioned volume. We can provide true opportunity to all children, insuring them against a lifetime of inequality, and when we do, the walls dividing the country by race, ethnicity, and wealth will begin to crumble.
Long a voice for combating child poverty, Lindsey takes a balanced approach that begins with a history of economic and family policy from the Great Depression and the development of Social Security and moves onward. He details the shocking extent of economic inequality in the U.S., pointing out that this wealthiest of countries also has the largest proportion of children living in poverty. Calling for reform, Lindsey proposes several viable universal income security policies for vulnerable children and families, strategies that have worked in other advanced democracies and also respect the importance of the market economy. They aim not just to reduce child poverty, but also to give all children meaningful economic opportunity. Just as Social Security alleviates the sting of poverty in old age, asset-building policies can insulate children from the cumulativeeffects of disadvantage and provide them with a strong foundation from which to soar.
Politicians, pundits, and parents always say that children are the future, but as long as so many grow up poor or without opportunity, that slogan will sound hollow. Duncan Lindseys book should be read by anyone who wants to know how we can take real action to brighten the future for children and for society as a whole.

Prior work has shown that there is a significant amount of turnover amongst the African poor as households exit and enter poverty. Some of this mobility can be attributed to regular movement back and forth in response to exogenous variability in climate, prices, health, etc. ('churning'). Other crossings of the poverty line reflect permanent shifts in long-term well-being associated with gains or losses of productive assets or permanent changes in asset productivity due, for example, to adoption of improved technologies or access to new, higher-value markets. Distinguishing true structural mobility from simple churning is important because it clarifies the factors that facilitate such important structural change. Conversely, it also helps identify the constraints that may leave other households caught in a trap of persistent, structural poverty. The papers in this book help to distinguish the types of poverty and to deepen understanding of the structural features and constraints that create poverty traps. Such an understanding allows communities, local governments and donors to take proactive, effective steps to combat persistent poverty in Africa. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Development Studies.

First published in 1999, this volume explores the nature of poverty and interprets it across a range of policy reforms and project interventions in different geographical settings. It is the culmination of a cooperative effort between development academics and professionals from diverse national and disciplinary backgrounds, who came together for two events: 1) The Development Study Association's Rural Development Study Group Symposium on the theme of the book's title, hosted by the Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme at the University of Manchester's Institute for Development Policy and Management. 2) The Commonwealth Secretariat's Regional Workshop for East and Central Africa on Strategies for Poverty Reduction. The volume is underpinned by the conviction that it is morally and ethically repugnant that over 1.3 billion people live in conditions of endemic hunger and poverty while the wealth of a minority continues to increase exponentially. The authors offer wide ranging analysis of some of the causes of this situation, and of the efforts being made to eliminate or alleviate absolute poverty.

First published in 1910, this volume is a dispassionate analysis of the changes in and the various aspects of official policy towards pauperism from the 'Revolution of 1834' to the Majority and Minority Reports of 1909. In their preface to this volume the Webbs wrote: "What obscured the history was the manner in which masses of heterogeneous facts were heaped together. To read, one after another, these complicated Orders and lengthy Reports, each dealing with all kinds of paupers and various methods of relief, was but to accumulate confusion. They resembled a heap of geological conglomerates which could not be assayed until they had been broken up in such a way as to sort the different materials into separate homogeneous parcels". This book succeeds in presenting a masterly survey of this sector of the British social services on the eve of the foundation of the Welfare State, and completes the corpus of the Webbs on the Poor Law.

Prior work has shown that there is a significant amount of turnover amongst the African poor as households exit and enter poverty. Some of this mobility can be attributed to regular movement back and forth in response to exogenous variability in climate, prices, health, etc. ('churning'). Other crossings of the poverty line reflect permanent shifts in long-term well-being associated with gains or losses of productive assets or permanent changes in asset productivity due, for example, to adoption of improved technologies or access to new, higher-value markets. Distinguishing true structural mobility from simple churning is important because it clarifies the factors that facilitate such important structural change. Conversely, it also helps identify the constraints that may leave other households caught in a trap of persistent, structural poverty. The papers in this book help to distinguish the types of poverty and to deepen understanding of the structural features and constraints that create poverty traps. Such an understanding allows communities, local governments and donors to take proactive, effective steps to combat persistent poverty in Africa. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Development Studies.