Contents:
1. Introduction: social exclusion, partnership and local governance - new problems, new policy discourses in the European Union John Benington and Mike Geddes
2. Social exclusion and partnership in the European Union Mike Geddes and John Benington
3. Partnerships against exclusion in a Nordic welfare state: a difficult mix? Mikko Kautto and Matti Heikkila
4. Local partnerships and social exclusion in France: experiences and ambiguities Patrick le Gales and Patricia Loncle-Moriceau
5. Grassroots local partnerships in Germany: instruments for social inclusion and economic integration? Karl Birkholzer and Gunter Lorenz
6. Catalysts for change? Public policy reform through local partnership in Ireland Jim Walsh
7. Partnership and local development in Portugal: from 'globalised localism' to a new form of collective action? Fernanda Rodrigues and Steven Stoer
8. A new approach to partnership: the Spanish case Jordi Estivill
9. Local partnership and social exclusion in the UK: a stake in the market? Mike Geddes
10. Partnerships as networked governance? Legitimation, innovation and problem solving John Benington
11. Local partnerships, welfare regimes and local governance: a process of regime restructuring? Mike Geddes and Patrick le Gales

Most of the literature on revitalizing downtowns have been based on the experience of large urban centres. This book provides a starting point for understanding the unique development problems of downtown in small urban communities. It includes a series of case studies that examine some principles of downtown revitalization, urban design and infrastructure redevelopment, waterfront and brownfields redevelopment, and retail and commercial redevelopment.

This title was first published in 2000: Analyzing the poverty trends in Mexico during the 1980s and early 1990s, this work is concerned with the extent to which changes in the levels of poverty have modified the extent of participation in the labour market. The period covered is 1982 to 1994, when the Mexican economy experienced an economic crisis and the government set in motion the main stabilization policies and structural adjustment reforms. The author challenges the idea that adjustment reforms have had "social costs" in terms of income and formal employment loss. Despite income losses, well-being indicators continued to improve; and employment statistics show that employment grew despite the economic crisis and adjustment. The paradox of household income decline and the increase in income poverty is explained.

In June 1848, two irregular armies of the urban poor fought a four-day battle in the streets of Paris that decided the fate of the French Second Republic. The Parisian National Workshops and the Parisian Mobile Guard-organizations newly created at the time of the February Revolution-provided the bulk of the June combatants associated with the insurrection and repression, respectively. According to Marx's simple and compelling hypothesis, a nascent French proletariat unsuccessfully attempted to assert its political and social rights against a coalition of the bourgeoisie and lumpenproletariat, represented by the Parisian Mobile Guard. Through a detailed study of archival sources, Mark Traugott challenges this interpretation of these events and proposes an organizational explanation.

Research has consistently shown that skilled artisans and not unskilled proletarians stood at the forefront of the revolutionary struggles of the nineteenth century. Traugott compares the social identities of the main participants on opposite sides of the conflict and sorts out the reasons for the political alignments observed. Drawing on work by Charles Tilly and Lynn Lees, Traugott demonstrates that the insurgents were not highly proletarianized workers, but rather members of the highly skilled trades predominant in the Parisian economy. Meanwhile, those who spearheaded the repression were little different in occupational status, though they tended to be significantly younger. Traugott's "organizational hypothesis" makes sense of the observed configuration of forces. He accounts for the age differential as a by-product of the recruitment criteria that Mobile Guard volunteers were required to meet. Finally, he explains why class position creates no more than a diffuse political predisposition that remains subject to the influence of situation-specific factors such as organizational affiliations.

Armies of the Poor helps clarify our understanding of the dynamic at work in the insurrectionary turmoil of 1848 in particular and in the great waves of early industrial revolutionism in general. It now is a standard interpretation for subsequent research on the French Revolution of 1848. Armies of the Poor will be of interest to historians seeking a re-interpretation of a major revolutionary episode and social scientists considering a re-examination of Marx and Engels' hypotheses of the roots of political mobilization and protest.

The second volume of Helen Forrester's powerful, painful and ultimately uplifting four-volume autobiography of her poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool during the Depression. The Forrester family are slowly winning their fight for survival. But life remains extremely tough for fourteen-year-old Helen. Along with caring for her younger siblings and suffering terrible hardships she is also battling with her parents to persuade them to allow her to earn her own living. Helen is desperate to lead her own life after the years of neglect and inadequate schooling. Written with an unflinching eye, Helen's account of her continuing struggles against severe malnutrition and dirt (she has her first bath in four years) and, above all, the selfish demands of her parents, is deeply shocking. But Helen's fortitude and her ability to find humour in the most harrowing of situations make this make this a story of amazing courage and perseverance.

Poverty and race -- two of America's most salient, and seemingly intractable, domestic problems -- form the cornerstone of this volume. Featuring contributions by some of the most progressive thinkers on these subjects, the book focuses on the key questions as we begin the new century. From the possibility of achieving true integration (as opposed to mere desegregation), environmental justice, education and its role as counter to structural poverty, to the promise (and lack thereof) of recent anti-poverty policies, Challenges to Equality shines an unflinching light on some of the most important issues we face as a society.

Poverty and race -- two of America's most salient, and seemingly intractable, domestic problems -- form the cornerstone of this volume. Featuring contributions by some of the most progressive thinkers on these subjects, the book focuses on the key questions as we begin the new century. From the possibility of achieving true integration (as opposed to mere desegregation), environmental justice, education and its role as counter to structural poverty, to the promise (and lack thereof) of recent anti-poverty policies, Challenges to Equality shines an unflinching light on some of the most important issues we face as a society.

There is much in Vasant Moon's extraordinary story of his vasti, his childhood neighbourhood in India, that would probably be true of any urban ghetto anywhere in the world. But there is much that is peculiarly and vividly Indian. In this first autobiography of a so-called Untouchable, we learn about the inescapable hierarchy imposed by caste, based on ancient principles of heriditary pollution. We see the unmatched importance of the heroic Dr. B. R. Ambedkar for India's awakened and newly ambitious Dalits. We feel, viscerally, Nagpur's heat and the joy brought by the monsoon. Vasant Moon's Vasti, the first Dalit autobiography to be published in English, is a moving and eloquent testament to a uniquely Indian life as well as to the universal human spirit.

Open and distance learning has been used in many ways in the recent past to provide both primary education and adult education. The Commonwealth of Learning works with governments, schools and universities with the aim of strengthening the capacities of Commonwealth member countries in developing human resources required for their economic and social development. Many existing policy documents link distance education with new information and communication technologies, portraying them as a promising universal access and exponential growth of learning.
This book reviews world experience in order to answer key questions about open and distance learning in basic education. It is the first major overview of this topic for twenty years.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203187628

Open and distance learning has been used in many ways in the recent past to provide both primary education and adult education. The Commonwealth of Learning works with governments, schools and universities with the aim of strengthening the capacities of Commonwealth member countries in developing human resources required for their economic and social development. Many existing policy documents link distance education with new information and communication technologies, portraying them as a promising universal access and exponential growth of learning.
This book answers the key questions to these issues and assesses the impact and effect of the experience of basic education at a distance all over the world and in a wide variety of forms. This is the first major overview of this topic for twenty years.

This work explores the lives and literacies of different generations of people living in Spitalfields and The City at the end of the 20th century. It contrasts these two square miles of London, which outwardly symbolize the huge difference between poverty and wealth existing in Britain at this time. The book presents a study of living, learning and reading as it has taken place in public settings, including the school classroom, clubs, places of worship, theatres, and in the home. Over fifty people recount their memories of learning to read in different contexts and circumstances. Eve Gregory and Ann Williams contextualize the participants' stories and go far to dispel the deep-seated myths surrounding the teaching and learning of reading and writing in urban, multicultural areas. The result is both poignant and highly significant to the study of literacy.

This study addresses the experience of, and responses to poverty in a range of transition economies including Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Romania, Albania and Macedonia. It covers topics such as the definition of poverty lines and the measurement of poverty; the role of income-in-kind in supporting families; homelessness and destitution; housing; the design, targeting and administration of welfare; and personal responses to economic transition.

'Skilfully packaged papers ... the book represents a rich and comprehensive documentation of the current status.' - Building Research & Information

'Deserves to join the other essential texts on the bookshelves of all those concerned with eradicating fuel poverty'. - Energy Review

Half a century after the launch of the War on Poverty, its complex origins remain obscure. Battle for Bed-Stuy reinterprets President Lyndon Johnson's much-debated crusade from the perspective of its foot soldiers in New York City, showing how 1960s antipoverty programs were rooted in a rich local tradition of grassroots activism and policy experiments. Bedford-Stuyvesant, a Brooklyn neighborhood housing 400,000 mostly black, mostly poor residents, was often labeled "America's largest ghetto." But in its elegant brownstones lived a coterie of home-owning professionals who campaigned to stem disorder and unify the community. Acting as brokers between politicians and the street, Bed-Stuy's black middle class worked with city officials in the 1950s and 1960s to craft innovative responses to youth crime, physical decay, and capital flight. These partnerships laid the groundwork for the federal Community Action Program, the controversial centerpiece of the War on Poverty. Later, Bed-Stuy activists teamed with Senator Robert Kennedy to create America's first Community Development Corporation, which pursued housing renewal and business investment. Bed-Stuy's antipoverty initiatives brought hope amid dark days, reinforced the social safety net, and democratized urban politics by fostering citizen participation in government. They also empowered women like Elsie Richardson and Shirley Chisholm, who translated their experience as community organizers into leadership positions. Yet, as Michael Woodsworth reveals, these new forms of black political power, though exercised in the name of poor people, often did more to benefit middle-class homeowners. Bed-Stuy today, shaped by gentrification and displacement, reflects the paradoxical legacies of midcentury reform.

Unemployment is one of Southern Europe's most serious political problems. Though much has been written about unemployment's causes and cures, systematic attention to its consequences is lacking. This collection of original essays deals with the effects of unemployment on regimes, parties, immigrants, economies and families, highlighting the differences and the similarities among Southern European states and offering lessons about the profound human consequences of unemployment in general.

This study, first published in 1993, analyses the relationship among poverty, food insecurity and commercialization in rural China by employing agricultural household models. Data are derived from a 10,000 household subsample of the annual rural household consumption and expenditure survey.

Poverty or Development offers a unique look at world inequality, by comparing the development problems and prospects of southern Mexico and the U.S. South in the context of global restructuring and NAFTA. Both regions have a history and legacy as labor-repressive producers of primary commodities. However, the U.S. South today encompasses poles of considerable wealth and poverty, while the Mexican South remains mired in the world periphery. Ranging from the Mexico-U.S. apparel connection and the restructuring of Mexico's coffee farming to agribusiness and immigration in Florida, the contributors trace the past and future of these two Souths.

Beginning this year, federal payment recipients will receive their government benefits through electronic funds transfer (EFT)-- what most of us call direct deposit. Although cost-cutting is the driving force behind the move to a virtually all-electronic federal payment system, Michael Stegman believes the initiative has a far broader potential: to bring poor Americans into the banking mainstream. In this book Stegman outlines how many families will enter the mainstream banking system through EFT '99, as the program is called. He explains in careful detail the thinking behind the shift to EFT and the implementation of the program this year. He also argues that, for maximum success, EFT '99 should be combined with a program of national Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), dedicated savings accounts for low-income people that can be used for purchasing a first home, acquiring more education or job training, or starting a small-business. Essentially, EFT '99 will bring people into the banking system, and IDAs will give them an incentive to use the system to its fullest in order to make their money work for them and their children. There are other steps that the government can take to boost EFT's ability to help public aid recipients achieve self-sufficiency. It can: add a direct deposit option to state benefits payments programs; give banks significant additional Community Reinvestment Act Credit for establishing accounts for EFT recipients; and regulate fees for cashing government benefits and voluntary accounts so that people are not charged excessively for accessing their money. This book demonstrates that -- with careful planning and a relatively small investment -- the government's EFT initiative can have a major payoff in real assets and improved prospects for those who have been, for far too long, on the fringes of the country's mainstream banking system. Brookings Metro Series

Series Information:
The State of Welfare

In a forward looking appraisal of the welfare state, this text examines such issues as: the current dynamics of poverty in Britain, drawing on similar developments in Europe and the US; and the major areas of social policy within which the abandonment and demonization of the poor is taking place; the historical antecendents to this relationship between the state and the poor; the creation and expansion of a "welfare" state that characterized the era of social democracy until the mid-1970s and from the point of view of the poor, was limited and conditional; the ideology and organization of the New Right; and the new terrain on which the struggle over the future of welfare and social policy must take place.

The individual and institutional capacities required for the prevention and reduction of nutritional insecurity and hunger in lesser-developed countries as the twenty-first century approaches are identified in this book. Household nutritional "security" can be defined as the successful
The essays in this book champion the idea of increasing, or scaling up, grass roots operations to provide nutritional security, while scaling down the efforts of national and international institutions. Scaling up involves strengthening local capacities to improve and expand upon current successful programs by building upon existing local culture and organizations. This, in turn, enables the programs to strengthen relationships with national governments, international bilateral/multilateral donors, as well as non-governmental organizations. Scaling down concerns the ways and means by which these various organizations encourage and complement the local development. Therefore, as local capacities are scaled up, the national/international control over decisions and functions is, ideally, scaled down. The volume also directly addresses the resultant complication: how to create programs that are both culturally specific and that will flourish well into the future.

International efforts to regulate fertility rates so that populations do not grow beyond the earth's capacity have included technical assistance and capital; improved health care conditions to lower the risk of infant mortality; increased opportunities to develop literacy; the democratization of governments; and several decades of liberal immigration and refugee policies favoring third world nations. The persistence of high fertility despite international efforts confounds demographers.
"Population Politics" brilliantly dissects the paradigm responsible for the counterproductive efforts of nations and international agencies. Abernethy, a renowned anthropologist, shows why policies hamper the shift to lower fertility. Ireland, Indonesia, Cuba, China, Turkey and Egypt are but a few of the countries Abernethy examines, showing how economic, sociocultural, and agricultural factors that have caused population growth can be harnessed to stabilize population size.
"Population Politics" is a provocative examination of the influence of aid and liberal immigration policies on world population growth, and often counterproductive to the role of the United States as an industrial power. This volume's uniquely interdisciplinary perspective will enlighten the lay reader, as well as demographers and epidemiologists, conservationists, reproduction and family specialists, agricultural economists, and public health personnel.
"Addresses one of the most vexing issues of our time--why after five or more decades of helping' poor countries improve their standard of living, is poverty still the rule? In light of Abernethy's facts, leaders in the United States cannot be excused from rethinking policies with respect to immigration and foreign aid. This book provides a fresh look at classic and neoclassic views of overpopulation."--Kingsley Davis, The Hoover Institution, Stanford, California
"A splendid critique of how U.S. foreign aid and liberal immigration policy] result in population growth here and abroad."--Donald L. Huddle, Rice University, Houston, Texas
"Virginia D. Abernethy" is professor emeritus of psychiatry (anthropology) at Vanderbilt Medical School and was for 11 years the editor of the scholarly journal "Population and Environment.
"Garrett Hardin" is emeritus professor of human ecology in the Department of Biological Sciences and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

After more than 20 years of mass unemployment in Britain and throughout much of Europe can the aspiration of "jobs for all" once again become a reality? This text considers the feasibility of full employment in a modern market economy. The book is written by aothors who were pivotal in pushing full employment up the political agenda in the mid 1990s. They identify the hard choices which policy makers must face and discuss why full employment has been so elusive for the past 20 years. The authors examine: the effects of new technology and increased trade; the increased participation of women in the labour market; the impact of labour market regulation on employment; worksharing; how welfare reform can help the long term unemployed into jobs; the role of industrial policy; and reform of pay bargaining.

The number of poor people in China is huge, despite recent economic advances. This book investigates the problem of poverty in China's regions, discussing in particular the role of rural-urban migration in reducing poverty. It surveys the distribution and characteristics of poverty, examines anti-poverty initiatives by the Chinese government and includes the results of original research conducted in Shanxi, a typical province in Central China.

Cheap, plentiful food is an American tradition. We spend a smaller percentage of our income on food than any other nation. We feed much of the world with our surpluses. Consumers, retailers, and restaurants throw away one-quarter of our food stock every year. And yet data collected by the federal government show that almost 12 percent of American households either suffer from hunger or worry about going hungry.

Why are so many Americans afflicted with "food insecurity" during such prosperous times? According to this book, it's not simply an artifact of poverty: even most of the poorest homes have access to adequate food. Nor is it indifference to their plight or a lack of ways to help: Americans strongly support government food assistance, and there are a host of public and private programs devoted to feeding the hungry.

Peter Eisinger seeks to unravel the puzzle of America's hunger and asserts that it is a problem that can be solved. He believes that the perception of hunger and responses to it emerge from a complex, intellectual, political, and social context. He begins by looking for a meaningful definition of hunger, then examines the structure and funding of government food assistance programs, the roles of Congress and community interest groups, and the contributions of volunteer organizations. He concludes by offering ideas to reduce the nation's perplexing hunger problem, based on creating stronger partnerships between public and private food programs.