Do "human rights" as embodied in constitutions, national laws, and international agreements foster improvements in the lives of the poor or otherwise marginalized populations? When, where, how, and under what conditions? Closing the Rights Gap: From Human Rights to Social Transformation systematically compares a range of case studies from around the world in order to clarify the conditions under which and institutions through which economic, social, and cultural rights are progressively realized in practice. It concludes with testable hypotheses regarding how significant transformative change might occur, as well as an agenda for future research to facilitate rights realization worldwide.

The world of welfare has changed radically. As the poor trade welfare checks for low-wage jobs, their low earnings qualify them for a hefty check come tax time a combination of the earned income tax credit and other refunds. For many working parents this one check is like hitting the lottery, offering several months' wages as well as the hope of investing in a better future. Drawing on interviews with 115 families, the authors look at how parents plan to use this annual cash windfall to build up savings, go back to school, and send their kids to college. However, these dreams of upward mobility are often dashed by the difficulty of trying to get by on meager wages. In accessible and engaging prose, It's Not Like I'm Poor examines the costs and benefits of the new work-based safety net, suggesting ways to augment its strengths so that more of the working poor can realize the promise of a middle-class life.

'The Left Behind' is a defining motif of contemporary British political discourse. It is the thread that knits together the 2016 Brexit referendum, the crumbling of the fabled 'Red Wall' in the North, and the pernicious culture war being waged today. But who are the Left Behind? James Morrison goes in search of the reality behind the rhetoric, offering the first comprehensive, historical analysis of the origins, uses and meanings of the term. He interrogates the popular archetype of the Left Behind - as a working class, leave-voting white male from a former industrial heartland - and situates the concept in the context of longstanding, demonising discourses aimed at communities seen as backward and 'undeserving'. Analysing national newspaper coverage and parliamentary discussions, and drawing on interviews with MPs, community leaders, charities and people with direct lived experiences of poverty and precarity, The Left Behind grapples with the real human cost of austerity for neglected post-industrial communities and other marginalised groups across the world, and the stigmatising discourse that does little to serve them.

This unique and innovative text provides undergraduate students with tools to think sociologically through the lens of everyday life. Normative social organization and taken for granted beliefs and actions are exposed as key mechanisms of power and social inequality in western societies today. By "unpacking the centre" students are encouraged to turn their social worlds inside out and explore alternatives to the dominant social order. The text is divided into three parts. In Part One students learn how to use theory and methodology, which are blended seamlessly throughout the text. It shows how to position Michel Foucault as a companion to theorists such as Karl Marx and Stuart Hall, while signaling the importance of non-western and Indigenous knowledges, experiences, and rights. In Part Two, students explore - and challenge - normativity; the normal body, heterosexuality, whiteness, the two-gender system, aging, and the under-side of citizenship. In Part Three, shorter chapters critique everyday practices such as thinking scientifically, practicing self-help, going shopping, managing money, buying coffee, being a tourist, and marginalizing Indigeneity. Each chapter includes intriguing exercises, study questions, and key terms that link to the volume's comprehensive glossary. Instructors are provided PowerPoint slides, test banks, and multimodal supplementary resources that make the book adaptable to blended and online learning environments. Essay-style lectures are also available to accompany the textbook.

Part of the New Approaches to Sociology series, Social Inequalities is a relevant and valuable exploration of how we see the world, through a decolonised lens. Aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students of sociology, this textbook offers a critical re-reading of traditional approaches to understanding social inequalities and responds to the call from university administrations, academics and students to decolonise the curriculum and challenge its lack of diversity. It presents an intersectional approach to understanding diversity and social inequalities and, in so doing, allows for alternative knowledge sources and voices to be heard. From looking at social groups such as race, age, sexuality and class alongside a nuanced evaluation of traditional sociological theories such as Marxism, functionalism and feminism - this book is an expert guide to the debates central to understanding the challenges individuals face in society. Including personal stories and case studies, students will be exposed to an authentic and real-world view of how individuals have encountered discrimination. Social Inequalities is an essential resource for anyone working and studying across sociology, and anyone interested in challenging established ways of looking at the world. Professor Anya Ahmed, Dr Deirdre Duffy and Dr Lorna Chesterton work in the faculty of health and education at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

This book provides up to date discussion and evidence about inequalities, social divisions and stratification. Its innovative style engages readers and encourages them to reflect upon the many dimensions of social inequality. This updated third edition contains: Three new chapters on employment, sexualities and migration Updated coverage of intersectionality throughout Thirteen new in-depth case studies (one per chapter) This is a must read as a key introductory companion for students who wish to understand the dynamics of contemporary social inequality. Louise Warwick-Booth is a Reader at the School of Health, Leeds Beckett University

A critical examination of the complex system of college pricing-how it works, how it fails, and how fixing it can help both students and universities. How much does it cost to attend college in the United States today? The answer is more complex than many realize. College websites advertise a sticker price, but uncovering the actual price-the one after incorporating financial aid-can be difficult for students and families. This inherent uncertainty leads some students to forgo applying to colleges that would be the best fit for them, or even not attend college at all. The result is that millions of promising young people may lose out on one of society's greatest opportunities for social mobility. Colleges suffer too because losing these prospective students can mean lower enrollment and less socioeconomic diversity. If markets require prices to function well, then the American higher-education system-rife as it is with ambiguity in its pricing-amounts to a market failure. In A Problem of Fit, economist Phillip B. Levine explains why institutions charge the prices they do and discusses the role of financial aid systems in facilitating-and discouraging-access to college. Affordability issues are real, but price transparency is also part of the problem. As Levine makes clear, our conversations around affordability and free tuition miss a larger truth: that the opacity of our current college-financing systems is a primary driver of inequities in education and society. In a clear-eyed assessment of educational access and aid in a post-Covid economy, A Problem of Fit offers a trenchant new argument for educational reforms that are well within reach.

Most of us assume that public schools in America are unequal--that the quality of the education varies with the location of the school and that as a result, children learn more in the schools that serve mostly rich, white kids than in the schools serving mostly poor, black kids. But it turns out that this common assumption is misplaced. As Douglas B. Downey shows in How Schools Really Matter, achievement gaps have very little to do with what goes on in our schools. Not only do schools not exacerbate inequality in skills, they actually help to level the playing field. The real sources of achievement gaps are elsewhere. A close look at the testing data in seasonal patterns bears this out. It turns out that achievement gaps in reading skills between high- and low-income children are nearly entirely formed prior to kindergarten, and schools do more to reduce them than increase them. And when gaps do increase, they tend to do so during summers, not during school periods. So why do both liberal and conservative politicians strongly advocate for school reform, arguing that the poor quality of schools serving disadvantaged children is an important contributor to inequality? It's because discussing the broader social and economic reforms necessary for really reducing inequality has become too challenging and polarizing--it's just easier to talk about fixing schools. Of course, there are differences that schools can make, and Downey outlines the kinds of reforms that make sense given what we know about inequality outside of schools, including more school exposure, increased standardization, and better and fairer school and teacher measurements. How Schools Really Matter offers a firm rebuke to those who find nothing but fault in our schools, which are doing a much better than job than we give them credit for. It should also be a call to arms for educators and policymakers: the bottom line is that if we are serious about reducing inequality, we are going to have to fight some battles that are bigger than school reform--battles against the social inequality that is reflected within, rather than generated by--our public school system.

Mobility is a keyword of late modernity that suggests an increasingly unrestrained and interconnected world of individual opportunities. However, as privileges enable some to live in a seemingly borderless world, others remain excluded and marginalized. Boundaries are created, modified and consolidated, particularly in times of hypermobility. Evidently, mobility is closely tied to immobility. This volume features ethnographic research that challenges the concept of mobility with regard to social inequalities and global hierarchies.

Social Mobility: Chance or Choice?, a sequel to `Born to Fail? Social Mobility, a Working Class View' (October 2017), sets out the current chances and choices available for those considered by the establishment to need social mobility. Revisiting mutuality, Sonia Blandford asks whether we care enough as a society by considering the issues, solutions and impact to the education and social issues that push against the chance or choice of social mobility. Citing the views from interviews with education and business leaders, Social Mobility: Chance or Choice? reflects on the changing skillsets and capacities of workers required by employers, business and industry and the inescapable conclusion that the skillsets and capacities will continue to change in ways that are almost impossible for us to predict. In these contexts, we must question whether the traditional acme and 'recognised journey' of educational achievement - maximising university entrance - is still relevant or useful for working class children and young people and children facing disadvantage. Apprenticeships, at their best, can offer an updated and forward-facing solution to the providing choice for working class and all children and young people. Despite current policy developments to encourage meaningful apprenticeships, apprenticeship programmes are experiencing challenges. Social Mobility: Chance or Choice? argues that applied learning and work-based learning should be more accessible and available to all children and young people. If we are serious about unleashing the talent of all children and young people, regardless of their background, challenges or needs, we must consider new and innovative approaches to post-14 education. If we are to unleash the potential of all children and young people, the role of Further Education needs to be respected and understood. Quality Further Education and training in partnership with business is a credible answer to social mobility. Further Education is an underused but ideally placed sector to develop meaningful change for working-class young people, providing real chances and choices. Beginning with Leaders - professionals, practitioners, parents or carers, and members of society have a shared responsibility to ensure that all children and young people have a right to chance or choice and support these opportunities. Building a society that is truly inclusive.

Growing up in Diverse Societies provides a comprehensive analysis of the integration of children of immigrants in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. It is based on the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), which included harmonised interviews with almost 19,000 14-15-year-olds. Growing up in Diverse Societies studies the life situation, social relations, and attitudes of adolescents in different ethnic minority groups, and compares these systematically to the majority youth in the four countries. The chapters cover a wide range of aspects of integration, all addressing comparisons between origin groups, generations, and destination countries, and elucidating processes accounting for differences. The results challenge much of the current thinking on the state of integration. In some respects, such as own economic means, delinquency, and mental health, children of immigrants are surprisingly similar to majority youth, while in other respects there are large dissimilarities. There are also substantial differences between ethnic minority groups, with the economic and cultural distance of the origin regions to the destination country being a key factor. For some outcomes, such as language proficiency or host country identification, dissimilarities seem to narrow over generations, but this does not hold for other outcomes, such as religiosity and attitudes. Remaining differences partly depend on ethnic segregation, some on socioeconomic inequality, and others on parental influences. Most interestingly, Growing up in Diverse Societies finds that the four destination countries, though different in their immigration histories, policy approaches, and contextual conditions, are on the whole rather similar in the general patterns of integration and in the underlying processes.

We are said to be living in the age of entitlement, and millennials-those in their late teens to early thirties-are declared by scholars and pundits to expect special treatment more than any prior generation. The Myth of the Age of Entitlement peels back the layers of the entitlement myth, exposing its anti-democratic faults and offering a more nuanced understanding of the millennial generation. Cairns argues that the majority of millennials in fact face bleak economic prospects and mounting ecological disaster. In lively prose, and punctuated with insights from millennials rarely profiled in mainstream media-including indebted university students, young retail workers, Indigenous youth, and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement-he offers a passionate defense of how this generation is bravely addressing a legacy of inequality and social and ecological injustice. It is this kind of action that can precisely reinvigorate democracy and bring about a new era of universal entitlement.

Contemporary democracies vary greatly in how much income inequality they tolerate. Some, like the United States and the United Kingdom, have seen high and rising levels for decades, while others, such as the Nordic countries, are much more equal. This comprehensive text draws on a wealth of cutting-edge theories and empirical data to examine the political and economic causes and consequences of income inequality around the globe. It is organized around a set of key questions, including: - Is there something morally wrong with inequality? - Is inequality good or bad for economic growth? - How does inequality affect political participation and engagement? - Who decides in the politics of inequality? Systematic and accessible, this is the perfect book for students with an interest in the connections between politics and inequality.

Powerful Schools seeks to release the creative vision within all educators, and show how schools can lead the way in establishing structures and practices that will support young people to become productive members of a global society. If educators are liberated to recognise that the vast potential of schools need not be constrained by expectations about qualifications, curriculum, the length of the school day, or physical buildings, then their imagination soars, as does their capacity for invention. Powerful Schools is a blueprint, showing how each and every school can grow abundantly rich in opportunities for individuals to develop the skills to become more socially and globally mobile, actively supported by numerous people and organisations who are consciously working to engage them in making the most of these opportunities.

A bedrock American principle is the idea that all individuals should have the opportunity to succeed on the basis of their own effort, skill, and ingenuity. --Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

Income inequality has been on the rise since the late 1970s, but the economic and financial crisis of 2008 instigated an unemployment epidemic that dramatically compounded this problem in the United States and catapulted the issue to the center of debate. There is wide agreement across the political spectrum that high inequality is contributing to undesirable circumstances such as stagnant household income, rising poverty rates, and increased borrowing and debt, though there is much less agreement on remedies.

"Inequality in America" provides a snapshot of the issues posed by the growing concentrations of income, focusing on the United States but drawing on international comparisons to help set the context. The authors examine the economic, technological, and political drivers of inequality and identify worrying trends associated with its rise. They demonstrate how specific factors have exacerbated income inequality, including technological change, international trade, changes in labor market participation, and the increasing role of the financial sector. Their clear and concise exposition makes the issues surrounding income distribution accessible to a wider public.

As they write in the conclusion: "We have argued that tackling the worst effects of inequality and re-establishing a measure of equal opportunity requires increased investment in crucial public goods: first, education; second, a more progressive and simplified tax system; and third, increased international cooperation to avoid a race to the bottom. Education, tax, and other such policies are pursued by other highperforming advanced countries and can be shaped for the United States in a way that is fully consistent with an efficient and competitive American economy."

An Institutional Framework for Policymaking offers a new approach to the study of institutions and adds to the growing body of literature in the field of 'new institutionalism.' Dr. Matt Evans utilizes previous characterizations of institutions to analyze the framework affecting policymaking and the tools used for policy implementation. In examining the effect of institutional change on public policy, this book compares the implementation of population dispersal policy in Israel over two fifteen-year periods. The first period, which includes the years between 1951 and 1965, was characterized by limited electoral competition and societal values that emphasized collective over individual interests. By contrast, the period from 1988 to 2002 constituted a framework of heightened political competition and public policies geared toward individual and group interests. An Institutional Framework for Policymaking provides a critical examination of the role of coercion in public policy, and provides insight into the relevance of national plans and their effectiveness in modern governance. The research in this book will appeal to scholars of political science, public policy, and urban planning.

Internally displaced persons are those who have been forced to flee their homes and who do not cross an internationally recognized border. There are an astounding 28 million people around the world who currently qualify as IDPs. Unlike refugees, they have no organisation to deal with their plight. Very little is known about how people respond to the experience of displacement. In economic terms, the presence of the internally displaced is obvious. What are less obvious are the informal protection mechanisms that enable people to cope with the experience of displacement: the information networks that warn them of impending danger, or of events in their home villages. This is the first book to put together information on the networks that people have evolved for coping in such situations. Examining those people who have become IDPs as the result of violence and war, it uses case studies from different countries, different settings and different phases of displacement. The authors identify cross-cultural patterns of coping strategies, examine whether these strategies are effective and highlight to what extent they are dependent upon culture or the experience of displacement. Ideal for use as a resource of information on IDPs, it is also a practical handbook that will help international organisations formulate their relief plans to support - rather than inadvertently damage - existing coping mechanisms. Case studies include Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Burma, Colombia, Georgia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Sudan and Uganda.

The Izhavas are an ex-untouchable community in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Politically and economically weak, stigmatised as 'toddy tappers' and 'devil dancers', and considered unapproachable by clean caste Hindus, a century ago Izhavas were associated with other manual-labouring untouchable castes. In recent decades they have sought to improve their position by accumulating economic, symbolic and cultural capital through employment, religion, politics, migration, marriage, education and have tried to assert their right to mobility, often in the face of opposition from their high status Christian and Nayar neighbours. This study examines how Izhavas, through repudiation of their nineteenth-century identity and search for mobility, have come into complex relationships with modernity, colonialism and globalisation. Filippo Osella and Caroline Osella highlight the complexities and contradictions of modern identity, both locally and globally. The authors' approach builds upon and goes beyond a south Asian focus, showing how the Izhavas represent the rise of formerly stigmatised groups who remain at the same time trapped by stereotype and material disadvantage. Absolute mobility, they argue, has not led to relative mobility within a society which remains stratified and prone to new forms of social exclusion.

During the 1930's, 23 million peasants left their villages and moved to Soviet cities, where they comprised almost half the urban population and more than half the nation's industrial workers. Drawing on previously inaccessible archival materials, David L. Hoffmann shows how this massive migration to the cities an influx unprecedented in world history had major consequences for the nature of the Soviet system and the character of Russian society even today.Hoffmann focuses on events in Moscow between the launching of the industrialization drive in 1929 and the outbreak of war in 1941. He reconstructs the attempts of Party leaders to reshape the social identity and behavior of the millions of newly urbanized workers, who appeared to offer a broad base of support for the socialist regime. The former peasants, however, had brought with them their own forms of cultural expression, social organization, work habits, and attitudes toward authority. Hoffmann demonstrates that Moscow's new inhabitants established social identities and understandings of the world very different from those prescribed by Soviet authorities. Their refusal to conform to the authorities' model of a loyal proletariat thwarted Party efforts to construct a social and political order consistent with Bolshevik ideology. The conservative and coercive policies that Party leaders adopted in response, he argues, contributed to the Soviet Union's emergence as an authoritarian welfare state."

The state of Kerala in southern India is notable for the ways in which lower-class mobilization and state intervention have combined to create one of the most successful cases of social and redistributive development in the Third World. In contrast to predictions that labor militancy in developing countries threatens to overload fledgling democratic institutions and derail economic growth, The Labor of Development shows that the political and economic inclusion of industrial and agricultural workers in Kerala set the stage for a democratically negotiated capitalist transformation.When compared to the other Indian states, Kerala's departure from the national pattern is tied to its history of social movements and highlights the significance of understanding sub-national patterns of democratic consolidation and state building. The case of Kerala provides important theoretical insights into the circumstances under which the expansion of political and social citizenship can become the basis for managing economic change. Using examples from agriculture, industry, and the informal sector, Patrick Heller examines the institutional and political dynamics through which the demands of organized labor and the imperatives of capitalist growth have evolved from a period of open conflict and stagnation to one of class compromise. He also demonstrates that the Kerala model has broad ramifications for understanding the relationship between substantive democracy and market economies in low-income countries.

"A brilliantly clear and concise guide. Highly recommended." - Ben Chu Economic inequality in the UK is currently at historically high levels and the rise in income inequality over the last 30 years is one of the largest across developed nations. But what caused this sustained increase in inequality and what does it mean for modern society in the UK? In this book, Economist Mike Brewer discusses the causes and consequences of these high levels of economic inequality, outlining why the UK became so unequal in the 1980s and how this has developed further since the 2008 financial crash and the austerity that followed. Brewer then presents new analysis of the top 1% and 0.1%, before assessing the relevance of Thomas Piketty's landmark work and predictions around wealth inequalities. The author then outlines six key areas that need addressing to move the UK off its high-inequality path and towards a fairer society, including wealth redistribution, social mobility, and excessive pay at the top. ABOUT THE SERIES: The 'What Do We Know and What Should We Do About...?' series offers readers short, up-to-date overviews of key issues often misrepresented, simplified or misunderstood in modern society and the media. Each book is written by a leading social scientist with an established reputation in the relevant subject area. The Series Editor is Professor Chris Grey, Royal Holloway, University of London