The use of participatory research techniques to provide policy-makers with information about poor people's perspectives on poverty became increasingly common in the 1990s. This book focuses on the use of participatory research in poverty reduction policies, and presents a series of participants' reflections on recent and ongoing processes. The 1990s witnessed a shift in the application of participatory methodologies, adding to the project planning approaches of the 1980s a new focus on participatory research for policy. Much of this centres on poverty issues. In this volume, contributions from researchers and practitioners in the field of poverty reduction examine how participatory research has affected the way poverty is understood, and how these understandings have been acted on in policy-making for poverty reduction. Coming from diverse backgrounds, the authors' critical reflections feature various aspects of the relationship between participation and policy, spanning different levels, from the individual researcher to the global institution. They address technical, ethical, operational, political and methodological problems. Through raising their concerns, they highlight lessons to be learnt from current practice, and challenges for the future. These include the balancing of knowledge, action and consciousness in participatory research processes which can effectively influence the development of policy that reflects and responds to the needs and priorities of poor people.

This title was first published in 2000. The privatization of former social state housing through recent public-private partnerships is becoming increasingly prevalent in Third World as well as in Western countries. In most Third World countries, this shift has had profound effects upon the patterns of access of shelter. Drawing on studies of South Asian and other Third World contexts, as well as original in-depth empirical research from Amritsar, a city in North-West India, this book offers an analysis of the withdrawal of state housing provision. It develops and applies a unique model based on social status to analyze the new routes of access to housing and land by the urban poor. Its conclusions argue that these new privatization policies largely rely upon already existing informal and self-help settlements which continue to attract the poor and to be the largest housing providers in many cities, thus providing a ready-made safety net for such policies. The inter-linkages between the private state and the public market make up a highly diversified and complex picture of shelter arrangements being accessed by the poor which is reflected in the social differentiation and increasingly stratified housing market. The book argues that these partnership policies therefore have long-term implications upon social patterns of inclusion and exclusion which must be addressed.

This book examines how black children, who grow up in an impoverished environment construct their social reality, and why this process is a particularly critical factor in their perception and creation of self.

First published in 1997. Considerable research has been done to identify neighbourhood influences on children's affective states, motivation, and behaviour. This population, along with the elderly, are the nation's largest dependent groups. In contrast, little research has been done to determine what impact living among poor neighbours has upon older Americans, specifically upon their psychological well-being and neighbourhood satisfaction. In this study the author has sought out to explore this deficit, using a sociological standpoint to examine quality-of-life issues relevant to elderly inner-city residents. This title will be of interest to students of sociology and urban studies.

This book, first published in 1996, examines an important developmental transition: the formation of identity, as well as the influence that having a well-developed identity may have, on a sample of adolescents living in urban Chicago. This study proposes that identity commitment, exploration, and continuity will be associated with positive psychological and behavioural outcomes for adolescents. This title will be of interest to students of sociology, psychology and urban studies.

This special issue of Educational Studies explores poverty and schooling. Divided into two sections of articles and book reviews, the papers address topics such as: the creation of an urban normal school - what constitutes quality in alternative certification?; children with disabilities; educating students about poverty and health needs; and more. The contributors include K. Burch, N.K. Mutua, L.R. Bloom, J.H. Romeo and M. Haberman.

This title was first published in 2003. The rapid demographic aging of populations worldwide, and most dramatically in developing countries, will result in unprecedented increases in the absolute and relative numbers of the aged in these countries. Whilst developed economies already have the basic infrastructure in place through which to support their ageing populations, developing nations frequently do not, and it should not be assumed that their best course of action is to attempt to duplicate the supportive infrastructures of developed countries. In developing nations these may be culturally inappropriate, geographically inaccessible, economically or politically unsustainable, or all of these. Effective and sustainable support services must be designed with reference to the circumstances of the client group, and it is increasingly evident that knowledge of the lives of the aged in developing countries is currently very limited. This book aims to inform the reader on the livelihoods of elders in developing countries and to stimulate a discussion of appropriate methods of supporting them in maintaining their quality of life during and beyond the coming decades of demographic change. It does so through reporting the lives and livelihoods of the aged population of Kikole (a pseudonym), a highly impoverished village in Uganda. Individual livelihoods are explored from a lifecourse perspective, with present day quality of life being shown often to be the result of earlier enforced changes in circumstances arising in economic, social or cultural marginalization, political or physical insecurity, or macro-economic change, rather than in the physical or mental changes that may accompany advancing age.

Contents:
1. Poverty, Ethnicity and Achievement in American Schools: Bruce J. Biddle; 2. First Person Plural: Education as Public Property: Peter W. Cookson Jr; 3. Poverty, Welfare Reform, and Children's Achievement: Greg J. Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn; 4. Linking Bordieu's Concept of Capital to the Broader Field: The Case of Family-School Relationships: Annette Lareau; 5. Defensive Network Orientations as Internalized Oppression: How Schools Mediate the Influence of Social Class on Adolescent Development: Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar: 6. Family Disadvantage, The Self, and Academic Achievement: David DuBois; 7. Policy, Poverty and Capable Teaching: Assumptions and Issues in Policy Design: Michael S. Knapp; 8. Social Class, Poverty and Schooling: Social Contexts, Educational Practices and Policy Options: Peter M. Hall

This title was first published in 2002: An investigation into the problem of identifying the poor and determining the poverty line. The book focuses on one particular approach to the issue, where survey respondents are asked for their views, and outlines the four variants in the approach: the consensual income method; the consensual standard of living method; the income evaluation method; and the income satisfaction method. The book contains an extensive and thorough review of the theoretical and empirical literature, as well as rigorous analysis of survey data from Belgium. The result is a conclusive assessment of the validity and usefulness of the subjective and consensual approaches to poverty measurement.

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.

The last decade has witnessed a conspicuous alteration in policies protecting unemployed people in modern welfare states. Social policies are increasingly designed to encourage economic independence. Policy makers have introduced a wide range of reforms linking disability, unemployment, and welfare programs cash benefits to work-oriented measures. Welfare policies are being framed by a new emphasis on recipients' obligations, emphasizing that the receipt of benefits creates a responsibility to take action towards becoming self-reliant. The objective is to minimize the duration of dependence or improve the well-being of family or community. Activating the Unemployed addresses this growing interest in work-oriented measures. This represents a shift in the dominant discourse on social welfare from focus on the citizen's rights to social benefits to emphasis on their responsibilities to work and lead an active life. In this volume, a distinguished array of international contributors provide cross-cultural perspectives to analyze recent diverse policy initiatives to activate the unemployed in nine countries-Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Each provides a systematic account of the background, design, implementation, and results of employment-oriented measures. Collectively they permit comparison of organized responses to common problems in the areas of public assistance (welfare), unemployment, and disability, among others. Further chapters seek to broaden perspectives on policy options, the issues raised, and lessons learned in the course of activating the unemployed. This thorough and insightful account addresses significant contemporary issues and concerns about welfare, social security, and unemployment. It will aid policy makers, professionals, and scholars in assessing current trends in welfare in various countries throughout the world. Neil Gilbert is Chernin Professor of Social Services and Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Center for Comparative Study of Family Welfare and Poverty Research. Dr. Gilbert served as a Senior Research Fellow for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva and was twice awarded Fulbright Fellowships to study European social policy. His numerous publications include 22 books and 100 articles that have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Public Interest, Society, Commentary, and other leading academic journals. Rebecca Van Voorhis is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the State University of California, Hayward.

In his foreword, the president of the World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn, states plainly and precisely the rationale for this volume. "Evaluation is a central aspect of any poverty reduction endeavor. Evaluation implies that we have adopted a methodology that allows us to look in an effective way at the results of what we are doing so that we can, in turn, adapt our future actions toward the effective achievement of our goals. Evaluation adds value if we can learn something useful from it. It is not just a scorecard. It is something that helps us change our behavior or influence the behavior of others." This high powered collection of papers illustrates this statement. The network of world class scholars and development practitioners covers the gamut from methodological issues to policy concerns with respect to participatory evaluation, poverty reducing growth, macro and micro levels of intervention, health, nutrition and population programs, social inclusion and the changing role of the civil society. The participants include major figures, including a Nobel Laureate as well as cutting edge policy makers. Poverty reduction is examined in innovative ways-utilizing state of the art techniques of the social and economic sciences. The editors and contributors emphasize "what works" in poverty reduction programs. They point to making interventions context specific with a holistic vision of the problem. Contributors emphasize social funds and safety nets, social services, crisis prevention, informal social security and insurance systems, anti-corruption programs, mobilization of the poor, and ultimately, the creation, where none existed in the past, of a workable civil society. In short, this volume lies at the intersection of development economics and political economy. It seeks to promote development effectiveness through social learning and problem solving. The volume is unabashedly focussed on pro-poor growth. It has its roots in a conference sponsored by the Operations Evaluation Department, an independent unit within the World Bank. The goals of evaluation are to learn from experience, to provide an objective basis for assessing the results of the Bank's work, and to provide accountability in the achievement of its objectives. Osvaldo N. Feinstein is a manager, and Robert Picciotto, director general of the Operations Evaluation Department. The World Bank is located in Washington, D.C. with offices throughout the developing world.

Title first published in 2003. This informative volume addresses the impact of the EU on national policies to combat poverty in European member states. The editors bring together leading academics to discuss the issue of and fight against poverty in Germany in particular, within the context of ongoing trends and debates across other European states.

In Engaging Schooling, the authors use case studies to engagingly demonstrate how schools can use pedagogical change to enable students from low SES backgrounds to benefit academically and socially from their schooling. The book, which builds on Exemplary Teachers of Students in Poverty from the same research team, deals with key issues around the reshaping of schooling and teaching, focusing on structures for mentoring and research practice among teachers. It significantly advances international literature that highlights the role of pedagogy for engagement in the educational success of students from low SES backgrounds. Moving beyond the individual classroom to focus on whole-school change, the book provides a clearer picture of processes which schools might undergo to engage students in low SES contexts, including teacher research, mentoring practices, instructional leadership and classroom discourses. The book will be of interest to all students, teachers and professional researchers in the field of teacher education.

This title was first published in 2003. The working poor of the world are observed to engage in long hours in hard jobs and to work more if wages are further reduced. Mainstream economics brushes off this tendency to increase labour supply as wages fall as perverse because it does not fit the conventional wisdom and tries to explain it as a result of "subsistence mentality", "limited aspiration", or "target income" behaviour of the poor. This however ignores the observed fact that the poor work long hard hours but most of the time, fail to meet their minimum needs of subsistence and live impoverished lives in absolute poverty deficient of both food and physical rest. This book postulates that the observed behaviour is the result of economic distress the working poor suffer and analyses it as a rational behaviour using the conventional utility maximization framework and derives both theoretical and empirical results consistent with the observation. This book aims to correct a serious misconception persisting in the literature relating to the working-poor labour-supply behaviour that is almost universally observed. It also goes onto develop, using the supply function, a methodology to determine the standard of subsistence income and physical rest for the worker.

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

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.

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.

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.

Why is it that children from disadvantaged backgrounds find it so difficult - and often impossible - to achieve? Few questions are of such fundamental importance to the functioning of a fair and effective society than this one, yet the academic and political narratives that exist to explain the problem are fundamentally contradictory: some say the root of the problem lies in racial prejudice; others that the key factor is class; others again argue that we should look first at laziness, government's commitment to provide demotivating 'safety nets,' and to the appeal of easy money earned from a criminal lifestyle. Jay Macleod's seminal work of anthropology is one of the most influential studies to address this issue, and - in suggesting that problems of class, above all, help to fuel continued social inequality, Macleod is engaging in an important piece of problem-solving. He asks the right questions, basing his study on two different working class subcultures, one white and largely devoid of aspiration and the other black and much more ambitious and conformist. By showing that the members of both groups find it equally hard to achieve their dreams - that there really 'Ain't no makin' it,' as his title proposes - Macleod issues a direct challenge to the ideology of the American Dream, and by extension to the social contract that underpinned American society and politics for the duration of the twentieth century. His work - robustly structured and well-reasoned - is now frequently studied in universities, and it offers a sharp corrective to those who insist that the poor could control their own destinies if they choose to do so.

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.

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

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.

Child poverty is rising across affluent Western societies; how it is measured is vital to how governments act to prevent, alleviate or eliminate it. While the roots of childhood poverty are fiercely debated and contested, they are all too often misrepresented in policy and media discourses. Seeking to redress this problem, Treanor places children's experiences, needs and concerns at the centre of this critical examination of the contemporary policies and political discourses surrounding poverty in childhood. She examines a broad range of structural, institutional and ideological factors common across developed nations, and their impacts, to interrogate how poverty in childhood is conceptualised and operationalised in policy and to forge a radical pathway for an alternative future.