Shortlisted for BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed's second Ethnography Awards in partnership with the British Sociological Association! Educational Binds of Poverty tackles the assumptions made by many recent social and educational policy initiatives suggesting that the best way to improve educational prospects of children in poverty is through an increased emphasis upon a culture of control, discipline, regulation and accountability. In this book, Ceri Brown presents these assumptions against a review of the research literature and an original ethnographic longitudinal study into the lives of children in poverty, in order to highlight the gap between policy discourses and the lived experiences of children themselves. Through the theoretical concept of a set of 'binds' against educational success, the book explores four key areas that children in poverty have to navigate if they are to be successful in school. These are: material deprivation the cultural contexts of school, home and the community friendship and social capital the effects of student mobility through atypical school changes. In seeking to characterise and explain what life is like for young school children, this book questions why policy makers have a radically different frame of reference in purporting to understand how their policies will change the behaviour of those living in poverty. This leads onto a consideration of what lessons may be learned in order to contribute towards a more appropriate policy agenda that attends to the multiple binds that children in poverty have to negotiate.

The single-room occupancy (SRO) tenements and welfare hotels located throughout New York City, but concentrated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, provided housing for many of society's troubled, marginal members in the late 1970s, when this book was originally published. The predominant population of these buildings was old, non-white, unemployed, disabled, and in poor health. What distinguished this community, however, was not that it is was part of a ghetto or slum, but that it was composed of poor people living amidst affluence, combining elements of both the law-abiding and criminal worlds.

Institutionally, the SRO tenement world described in this book is seen as a half-way area between open society and the total institution. Without the support and control available in the SROs, confinement in a total institution would be a certainty for many of the residents. This book, a participant-observer journal as well as an ethnographic study, suggests an alternative to institutionalization.

As Edward Sagarin notes in his preface, Siegal does not lack compassion for the sufferings of the people, but the focus is on the descriptions of their lives. Outposts of the Forgotten documents the circumstances of some of New York's forgotten residents.

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is world s largest civil society movement fighting against poverty and inequality, incorporating over 100 affiliated country-level coalitions. It has become a significant global actor and its annual days of mobilisation now attract over 175 million people around the world.

This book seeks to explore GCAP s power and its embodiment of emancipatory change. It develops a framework that assesses its external power as an actor by exploring how power works in it, and the relationship between the two. Gabay demonstrates that GCAP, and actors like it, may transcend some of the obstructions they face in navigating and proposing alternatives to dominant codes and practices of neo-liberal globalisation. Thematically, the book explores GCAP s constitutive powers along three axes: hegemony, inclusion and legitimacy. It draws on a wide range of social and political theory, including Liberalism, Anarchism and postcolonial theory and featuring case studies on Malawi and India.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, international development, global governance, social movements and civil society. "

What if the idealized image of American society-a land of opportunity that will reward hard work with economic success-is completely wrong? Few topics have as many myths, stereotypes, and misperceptions surrounding them as that of poverty in America. The poor have been badly misunderstood since the beginnings of the country, with the rhetoric only ratcheting up in recent times. Our current era of fake news, alternative facts, and media partisanship has led to a breeding ground for all types of myths and misinformation to gain traction and legitimacy. Poorly Understood is the first book to systematically address and confront many of the most widespread myths pertaining to poverty. Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard, and Heather E. Bullock powerfully demonstrate that the realities of poverty are much different than the myths; indeed in many ways they are more disturbing. The idealized image of American society is one of abundant opportunities, with hard work being rewarded by economic prosperity. But what if this picture is wrong? What if poverty is an experience that touches the majority of Americans? What if hard work does not necessarily lead to economic well-being? What if the reasons for poverty are largely beyond the control of individuals? And if all of the evidence necessary to disprove these myths has been readily available for years, why do they remain so stubbornly pervasive? These are much more disturbing realities to consider because they call into question the very core of America's identity. Armed with the latest research, Poorly Understood not only challenges the myths of poverty and inequality, but it explains why these myths continue to exist, providing an innovative blueprint for how the nation can move forward to effectively alleviate American poverty.

The persistence of poverty hurts us all, and attacking poverty is a major policy objective everywhere. In Britain, the main political parties have an anti-poverty mandate and in particular an agreed commitment to eliminate child poverty by 2020, but there is controversy over how this should be done. This book addresses one of the main causes of poverty, financial exclusion the inability to access finance from the high-street banks. People on low or irregular incomes typically have to resort to loan sharks, doorstep lenders and other informal credit sources, a predicament which makes escape from the poverty trap doubly difficult.

Over the last fifteen years, a strategy of breaking down the poverty trap has been implemented, known in the UK as community development financial institutions (CDFIs), typically non-profit lending institutions focussed on the financially excluded, and seeking to learn from the achievements of microfinance around the world. Focussing on the period 2007-09, during which the UK went into a global recession, this book investigates how CDFIs work and how well they have helped low-income people and businesses to weather that recession. Based on a study of eight CDFIs in four UK cities, we ask: what ideas for overcoming financial exclusion have worked well, and which have worked badly? What can we learn from the experience of these CDFIs which can help reduce poverty in this country and globally?

We assess the impact of CDFIs using a range of indicators (including income, assets, education, health) and ask what changes in policy by both CDFIs and government agencies (for example, benefits agencies) might be able to increase impact. Some of the key lessons are: CDFIs need to work with appropriate partners to build up savings capacity in their clients; the community environment is vital in determining who escapes from the poverty trap; and CDFIs can never function properly unless they learn how to control their overdue debts.

This book will be vital reading for those concerned with social policy, microfinance and anti-poverty policies in industrialised countries and around the world."

Money was already tight for UK families living on a low income before the COVID-19 pandemic, but national lockdowns made life much harder. Telling the stories of these families, this book exposes the ways that pre-existing inequalities, insecurities and hardships were amplified during the pandemic for families who were already in poverty before COVID-19, as well as those pushed into poverty by the economic fallout it created. Drawing on the Covid Realities research programme, and developed in partnership with parents and carers, it explores experiences of home-schooling, social security receipt and government, community and charitable support. This book sets out all that is wrong with the status quo, while also offering a powerful agenda for change. Also see 'COVID-19 Collaborations: Researching Poverty and Low-Income Family Life during the Pandemic' (Open Access) to find out more about the challenges of carrying out research during COVID-19.

In Poverty and Wealth in East Africa Rhiannon Stephens offers a conceptual history of how people living in eastern Uganda have sustained and changed their ways of thinking about wealth and poverty over the past two thousand years. This history serves as a powerful reminder that colonialism and capitalism did not introduce economic thought to this region and demonstrates that even in contexts of relative material equality between households, people invested intellectual energy in creating new ways to talk about the poor and the rich. Stephens uses an interdisciplinary approach to write this history for societies without written records before the nineteenth century. She reconstructs the words people spoke in different eras using the methods of comparative historical linguistics, overlaid with evidence from archaeology, climate science, oral traditions, and ethnography. Demonstrating the dynamism of people's thinking about poverty and wealth in East Africa long before colonial conquest, Stephens challenges much of the received wisdom about the nature and existence of economic and social inequality in the region's deeper past.

Most governments attempt to target resources directly at the poor through a variety of measures including food and credit subsidies, job creation schemes and basic health and education projects. These measures are usually classified as being either promotional (to help raise welfare in the long term), or protectional (to support the poor in times of adverse shocks). However, for many Asian countries the reality of these poverty targeting measures has proved disappointing. Following a comprehensive overview by the editor, this book offers a detailed assessment of the results of directly channelling resources to the poor and extensively discusses the experience of five Asian countries - India, Indonesia, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines and Thailand. The authors demonstrate how in many cases these targeting measures have failed due to their high cost and errors of both undercoverage (where many of the poor are excluded) and leakage (when many of the better-off also benefit from these schemes). The authors conclude that whilst poverty targeting remains a critically important objective, past targeting errors must not be forgotten and improved methods of both identifying and reaching the poor must be implemented. Written by leading experts in the field and including analysis of original country surveys, this seminal text documents clearly the operation and success of aid schemes in Asia. This book will make a worthy addition to the literature on development, poverty reduction, social welfare and Asian studies. It will also be an important source of reference for academics and students of economic development, aid practitioners, government officials and development NGOs.

First published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In the field of anti-poverty policies, the interplay between the Europe 2020 overarching strategy and the 'Semester' have marked major discontinuity vis-a-vis the Open Method of Coordination for social protection and social inclusion (Social OMC) of the Lisbon phase. This book therefore asks whether and how Europe matters in the fight against poverty and social exclusion by assessing the emergence and possible institutionalisation of a European multi-level, multi-stakeholder and integrated policy arena in the new institutional framework. Supranational developments, multi-level interactions, as well as the strategy effects at the national level are analysed in six European countries - Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, UK and Sweden - with the aim to identify the key factors affecting the implementation of the Europe 2020 anti-poverty strategy. This book will be of key interest to students, scholars and practitioners in social policy, political science and European governance, and more broadly to European Union politics, European integrations studies, sociology and economics.

NOW IN ITS SEVENTH ANNUAL EDITION, The Reality of Aid 2000 looks at how the performance of OECD donor countries on aid and development cooperation has matched up to the challenge of eliminating absolute poverty. The report charts some improvements at the level of donor policy and rhetoric. But its stark conclusion is that the potential of aid to combat poverty is constantly undermined by governments, both North and South, who fail to address the extreme inequalities of income and the structural, social and political injustices that entrench people in poverty. Part I of The Reality of Aid 2000 presents an overview of poverty in the current global context and an analysis of recent trends in aid - looking particularly at basic education. In Part II, chapters by experts from NGOs in OECD countries and the European Union show how donor aid administrations approach poverty - and highlight the weakness of political commitment in the North to the needs of the poor. Part III sets out Southern perspectives on development cooperation. Part IV provides 'at a glance' comparisons of donors' aid outlook and commitment to development cooperation in the 21st century, poverty eradication, gender and public support. Throughout the book, information is presented in easily interpreted diagrams and graphs. The Reality of Aid has established itself as a unique source of independent evaluation and comment on aid policies and development. It is indispensable for all in the field, whether in the official or voluntary sectors, providing a regular reality check on just how much the international community is doing to realise the achievable goal of eliminating poverty. 'Indispensable ... it gives you most of the hard facts you need to know about the major issues' Nett-' Internationalist 'The most comprehensive and rigorous independent analysis of the aid and development policies of the world's wealthiest nations ... Essential reading' Charity World 'The Reality of Aid remains an essential purchase by the libraries of development institutions and an invaluable reference for development practitioners' Development & Change 'A reliable 'watchdog' for anyone interested in this important aspect of international relations' ORBIT 'An accessible reference ... [it] encompasses many key issues and stimulates further research' Commonwealth & Comparative Politics Originally published in 1999

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Though a globally shared experience, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected societies across the world in radically different ways. This book examines the unique implications of the pandemic in the Global South. With international contributors from a variety of disciplines including health, economics and geography, the book investigates the pandemic's effects on development, medicine, gender (in)equality and human rights, among other issues. Its analysis illuminates further subsequent crises of interconnection, a pervasive health provision crisis and a resulting rise in socioeconomic inequality. The book's assessment offers an urgent discourse on the ways in which the impact of COVID-19 can be mitigated in some of the most challenging socioeconomic contexts in the world.

The popular perception of Japanese society is that it possesses a homogeneity and cultural conformity unlike anything to be found in the West. In fact Japan has its own underclass living outside the mainstream in economic circumstances that are radically different to the more usual perception of a wealthy and sucessful society. Carolyn S. Stevens has produced a new study that intimately explores the lives of Japan's social outcasts as well as those volunteers who seek to help them and as a consequence become socially marginalized themselves.

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.

A unique historical review that traces health spending from ancient times to the present and forecasts 21st century trends. There are many histories of medicine, yet none that assess the dynamics of expenditures over decades and centuries. Economists have not yet addressed the magnitude of the transformation that occurred during the twentieth century as payments shifted from solo physician practices to health systems, nor the legacy effects of social practices accumulated over millennia that will shape health spending in the twenty-first. In Money and Medicine, Thomas E. Getzen provides a unified narrative of medical spending from ancient Egypt and Babylonia to the present day. Drawing on a wealth of historical reports, data, and documents, Getzen concentrates on a single ratio-the share of income devoted to medical care-to frame the evolutionary path of medicine, revealing an S-shaped growth curve that rose rapidly after 1900 as science made therapies more effective and more expensive, inflected as national health systems coalesced and rates of expansion peaked in the 1960s, then decelerated after 1975. International trends in forty-three countries are graphically illustrated with analysis supporting a parsimonious financial model. Significant lags are seen between medical innovation or macroeconomic shocks and the corresponding changes in national health expenditures. Getzen explains inertial responses to the 2008 financial crisis and Covid-19 recession, provides a method for projecting trends over the next fifty years, and suggests why spending is so much higher in the United States than other countries. As rising costs and unequal distribution of medical care have created a sense of crisis in many countries, Money and Medicine shows that we must look beyond the last few years to craft sensible solutions.

This book examines economic and political polarisation in post-Soviet Russia, and in particular analyses the development of rural inequality. It discusses how rural inequality has developed in post-Soviet Russia, and how it differs from the Soviet period, and goes on to look at the factors that affect rural stratification and inequality, using human and social capital, profession, gender, and village location as independent variables. The book uses survey data from rural households and fieldwork in Russia in order to highlight the multiplicity of divisions that act as fault lines in contemporary rural Russia.

This book offers an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to thinking about inequality, and to understanding how inequality is produced and reproduced in the global South. Without the safety net of the various Northern welfare states, inequality in the global South is not merely a socio-economic problem, but an existential threat to the social contract that underpins the democratic state and society itself. Only a response that is firmly grounded in the context of the global South can hope to address this problem. This collection brings together scholars from across the globe, with a particular focus on the global South, to address broad thematic areas such as the conceptual and methodological challenges of measuring inequality; the political economy of inequality in the global South; inequality in work, households and the labour market; and inequalities in land, spaces and cities. The book concludes by suggesting alternatives for addressing inequality in the global South and around the world. The pioneering ideas and theories put forward by this volume make it essential reading for students and researchers of global inequality across the fields of sociology, economics, law, politics, global studies and development studies.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Originally published 1974. Thousands of elementary schools for the children of the poor were founded during the nineteenth century, yet there is scarcely a published history of a single one of them. This volume is precisely such a history and the authors trace its story against the background of local and national change in education and society. On the basis of a unique collection of records the authors have pieced together a picture of the social composition of the school, its curriculum and teaching methods, and its administration and finance. They relate the history of the school to that of London and the church, to that of educational authorities and educational policy.

NOW IN ITS SIXTH ANNUAL EDITION, The Reality of Aid has for the first time analysed the 'fair share' of bilateral aid for basic social services basic education, basic health, reproductive health, nutrition, clean water and sanitation - that should come from each donor; an analysis which shows only two donors meeting their fair share and the G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US) falling behind by over US$5 billion. This year and next, The Reality of Aid focuses on basic education, as a right and not a privilege, and its role in development cooperation and poverty elimination. A key feature of The Reality of Aid 1998/1999 is the ten chapters offering analysis of development cooperation from the perspective of southern NGOs. Many of these focus on basic education and raise issues around transparency, gender and civil society. 'If policies were programmes and promises were dollars, The Reality of Aid could report great progress on the road to eradicating global poverty this year. But at a time when donors acknowledge that ending poverty is possible, it seems that commitments are being offered instead of resources and real change.' From the Summary Part I presents a useful Summary, highlighting the steps that donors could take now to make progress towards poverty eradication, and reviews the trends in development cooperation, debt relief measures targeted towards the new millennium and commitment to the goal of ensuring basic education for all. Part II gives a full report on the overseas aid performance of OECD country aid donors and the European Union over the last year. Part III sets out a Southern perspective on development cooperation. Part IV provides 'at a glance' comparisons of donors' aid outlook and commitment to development cooperation in the 21st Century, poverty eradication, gender and public support. Part V contains handy reference material. Throughout the book, information is presented in easily interpreted diagrams and graphs. The Reality of Aid has established itself as a unique source of independent evaluation and comment on aid policies and development. It is indispensable for all in the field, whether in the official or voluntary sectors. 'Indispensable ... it gives you most of the hard facts you need to know about the major issues' New Internationalist 'The most comprehensive and rigorous independent analysis of the aid and development policies of the world's wealthiest nations ... Essential reading' Charity World 'The Reality of Aid remains an essential purchase by the libraries of development institutions and an invaluable reference for development practitioners' Development & Change 'A reliable 'watchdog' for anyone interested in this important aspect of international relations' ORBIT 'An accessible reference ... [it] encompasses many key issues and stimulates further research' Commonwealth & Comparative Politics Originally published in 1998

Located in the heart of Mumbai, Dharavi is estimated to be the largest slum in Asia. Often referred to as Little India, it has been home to thousands of migrants from across the country providing opportunities for work and livelihood. As such, Dharavi presents a fascinating paradox: the convergence of stereotypes associated with the slum poverty and misery and an effervescent economic vitality, impelled by globalisation and international capital flows.

Bringing together 20 years of painstaking fieldwork, this book reveals the social, economic, political, and urban complexities that define Dharavi beneath the shadow of Mumbai, the financial capital of India. It provides a rare account of the slum s history, with a special focus on the original populace of leather workers who form the backbone of its urban informal economy their work, organisation and increasing political awareness. Dominated by a population of ex- untouchables, conventionally stigmatised by poverty and low status, Dharavi illustrates how traditional caste-based occupational and regional divisions continue to be strong and affect structures of political governance and economy. At the same time, it testifies to an intimate encounter with consumerism, liberalisation and technological innovations, and its resultant cultural globalisation under the heady influence of media, advertising and cinema transmitted by the city of Mumbai.

This book traces the mega-slum s gradual transformation as a thriving trade centre, through an informal economy s successful adaptation to global markets, in turn establishing an urban paradigm. It will be useful to those in sociology, anthropology, urban studies, politics, public policy and governance, and to those interested in globalisation, transnational migration and town planning.

This book describes the Pathways project that traces the individual development of several black young men from poor families who grew up in the Roxbury/North Dorchester ghetto from 1967 to 1974. It is about aspects of self-perception and identity, and resources and pathways to reach goals.

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Experts review the leading social policy scholarship from the past year in this comprehensive volume. Published in association with the Social Policy Association, the latest volume in this long-running series addresses current issues and critical debates throughout the international social policy field with a particular focus on employment policy, housing policy and climate justice. Contributors also explore key developments including researching during the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants' access to social benefits in Germany, the right(s) to healthcare in Italy, American and European homelessness policies and much more. This annual review is essential reading for students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.