The politics of austerity has seen governments across Europe cut back on welfare provision. As the State retreats, this edited collection explores secular and faith-based grassroots social action in Germany and the United Kingdom that has evolved in response to changing economic policy and expanding needs, from basic items such as food to more complex means to move out of poverty. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and practitioners in several areas of social intervention, the book explores how the conceptualization and constitutive practices of citizenship and community are changing because of the retreat of the State and the challenge of meeting social and material needs, creating new opportunities for local activism. The book provides new ways of thinking about social and political belonging and about the relations between individual, collective, and State responsibility.

This collection of essays focuses attention on the global impact of legal policies on levels of poverty. They illustrate the distinct dimensions of poverty in a range of different political and cultural settings and also show how poverty is exacerbated by quite discrete local cultural factors in some instances. There is,nonetheless a universal element which runs through all the contributions. The fate of those who are disadvantaged in society depends crucially on their access to goods through the world of work. Thus gender, ethnic background or disability can result in individuals having a much higher chance of experiencing poverty than those outwith these groups and the success of these groups in achieving a measure of prosperity is bound up with a multiplicity of geographical and political factors. This book is part of the Onati International Series in Law and Society.

The Gospel Coalition Book Award What does the good news of Jesus mean for economics? Too often, Christian teaching and ministry have focused only on the gospel's spiritual significance and ignored its physical, real-world ramifications. But loving our neighbor well has direct economic implications, and in our diverse and stratified society we need to grapple with them now more than ever. In The Economics of Neighborly Love pastor Tom Nelson sets out to address this problem. Marrying biblical study, economic theory, and practical advice, he presents a vision for church ministry that works toward the flourishing of the local community, beginning with its poorest and most marginalized members. Nelson resists oversimplification and pushes us toward more complex and nuanced understandings of wealth and poverty. If we confess the gospel of Jesus, he insists, we must contend anew with its implications for the well-being of our local communities. Together we can grow in both compassion and capacity.

When discussing health, we talk about ailments and afflictions, the potential of modern medicine and the behaviours that affect our health. Yet although these relationships exist, they undermine a more socio-economic understanding of health. This timely book takes a critical perspective to argue that urban poverty and health inequalities are intimately interconnected, and that the increasing disparity between rich and poor will necessarily exacerbate health issues within urban communities. Urban Poverty and Health Inequalities documents how life has become increasingly insecure and stressful for growing numbers of people due to increased insecurities in employment, income and housing, rising living costs, and the retrenchment of welfare and social services. The book explores the role of history and media depictions of poverty and health inequalities in influencing the current situation. A central objective is to advance ways to understand and respond to urban poverty as a key social determinant of health. The authors pay particular attention to the ways in which punitive responses to urban poverty are further exacerbating the hardships faced by people living in urban poverty. Looking at issues of class, age, gender, ethnic and disability-based inequalities, the book offers both critical theory and grounded solutions to enable those living in poverty to live healthier lives. The collateral damage resulting from current socio-economic arrangements reflects political choices regarding the distribution of resources in societies that needs to be challenged and changed. The authors attend to initiatives for change, offering practical responses to address urban poverty, including efforts to address wealth distribution, the potential of living wage and Universal Basic Income initiatives, social housing and anti-oppressive welfare systems.

This book addresses key issues related to teaching pupils from disadvantaged and impoverished backgrounds and provides a valuable reference and pedagogical tool for teachers and teacher educators. Research has consistently shown that the most economically disadvantaged pupils have the poorest educational outcomes. Austerity government policies and pressures of performativity on schools may have exacerbated this inequality. Yet many teachers remain ill-informed about the effects of social disadvantage on students' learning and consequently are ill-prepared in appropriate teaching methods. The text critically examines the lessons from previous policy and practice, discusses cognitive and affective aspects of school learning for disadvantaged children and explores the pedagogic implications of research evidence. Using insights from existing research, the book examines the reasons why some trainees and teachers lack a critical perspective on the contexts of poverty and may hold deficit views of students in poverty that suggests they are unable to learn and need to be controlled. It explains some of the links between poverty, special needs, literacy and educational achievement and focuses on strategies for improvement.

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.

Hurricane Katrina inflicted damage on a scale unprecedented in American history, nearly destroying a major city and killing thousands of its citizens. With far too little help from indifferent, incompetent government agencies, the poor bore the brunt of the disaster. The residents of traditionally impoverished and minority communities suffered incalculable losses and endured unimaginable conditions. And the few facilities that did exist to help victims quickly became miserable, dangerous places. Now, the victims of Hurricane Katrina find themselves spread across the United States, far from the homes they left and faced with the prospect of starting anew. Families are struggling to secure jobs, homes, schools, and a sense of place in unfamiliar surroundings. Meanwhile, the rebuilding of their former home remains frustrating out of their hands. This bracing read brings readers to the heart of the disaster and its aftermath as those who survived it speak with candor and eloquence of their lives then and now.

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 is one of the most important pieces of social legislation ever enacted. Its principles and the workhouse system dominated attitudes to welfare provision for the next 80 years. This new "Seminar Study" explores the changing ideas to poverty over this period and assesses current debates on Victorian attitudes to the poor. David Englander reviews the old system of poor relief; he considers how the New Poor Law was enacted and received and looks at how it worked in practice. The chapter on the Scottish experience will be particularly welcomed, as will Dr Englander's discussion of the place of the Poor Law within British history.

Throughout the 1990s an ambitious global process of policy making was associated with the work of UN agencies which believed that global co-ordination and connection was key to dealing with a range of pressing challenges. Gender inequality in education and poverty reduction featured prominently in these concerns and in attendant policy. As 2010 approached and commentators could look back at ten years of the MDG process, a large number of studies were published assessing the successes or difficulties with this framework. However few looked at how it had been interpreted in particular national and sub-national contexts or how staff in different organisations operating at a global level viewed this approach.

This book contributes to filling the gap in the empirical literature. Drawing on case-study research that examined initiatives which engaged with global aspirations to advance gender equality in and through schooling in contexts of poverty in Kenya and South Africa, it looks at how global frameworks on gender, education and poverty are interpreted in local settings and the politics of implementation. It thus sets discussion of the form of global agreements in a particular context, which allows for an appraisal of how they have been understood by the people who implement them. In using an innovative approach to comparative cross country research it illuminates how ideas and actions connect and disconnect around particular meanings of poverty, education and gender in large systems and different settings. Its conclusions will allow assessments of the approach to the post-2015 agenda to be made taking account of how policy and practice relating to global social justice are negotiated, sometimes negated, the forms in which they are affirmed and the actions that might help enhance them.

This book will be valuable for students, researchers, academics, senior teachers, senior government and inter-government officials and senior staff in NGOs working in the field of education and international development, gender, poverty reduction, and social development. It should be of particular interest to students and academics studying and researching in education, economics, international relations, social policy, African area studies, Development Studies, Women s Studies.

'At the beginning of the 2000-2010 decade, Bob Baulch (with John Hoddinott) was setting the micro-econometric agenda on poverty dynamics and chronic poverty and producing work that 'non-economists' had to read if they wanted to conduct serious research on these issues. In this volume - through his analytical excellence, the pursuit and methodological rigour, extraordinary energy, and his ability to lead such a distinguished network of colleagues - Bob Baulch has set the research agenda on poverty dynamics and chronic poverty for the next ten years.'- From the foreword by David Hulme, University of Manchester, UK 'This volume on poverty dynamics in developing countries, whose authors include the leaders in this field, is a must for analysts and research students. It advances the literature by addressing three important issues - measurement error, attrition, and tracking. For each of these questions, the volume leads by example, showing how they can be handled in specific cases. The results show that escape from poverty is a diverse phenomenon, and establish the importance of country and context specificity. The volume provide an analytical platform for careful policy assessment of policy alternatives.' - Ravi Kanbur, Cornell University, US This edited book analyzes what traps people in chronic poverty, and what allows them to escape from it, using long-term panel surveys from six Asian and African countries. The distinguishing feature of these studies, which were commissioned by the Chronic Poverty Research Center, is they span longer periods or have more survey waves than most developing country panels. This allows a detailed account of the maintainers of chronic poverty and drivers of poverty dynamics. Many of the studies (from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa and Vietnam) are written by leading development economists, and all pay careful attention to the difficult issues of attrition, measurement error and tracking. The book's comparative perspective highlights the common factors which cause people to fall into chronic poverty and allow them to break-free from it. A number of promising policies and interventions for reducing chronic poverty are identified. This up-to-date book will be an excellent resource for international development agencies, academics specializing in development economics and development studies, and researchers in international NGOs. Graduate students of development economics and development studies will also find much to interest them. Contributors include: B. Baulch, S.D. Bhatta, V.H. Dat, S. Dercon, D. Hulme, H.R. Lohano, J. May, C. Porter, A. Quisumbing, S. Sharma, I. Woolard

Based on several years of fieldwork in Egypt and Turkey, Caring for the Poor tells the stories of charity providers and volunteers. The book also places their stories within the overall development of Islamic ethics. Muslim charity, Tugal argues, has interacted with Christian and secular Western ethics over the centuries, which themselves have a conflict-ridden and still evolving history. The overall arch that connects all of these distinct elements is (a combined and uneven) liberalization. Liberalization tends to transform care into a cold, calculating, and individualizing set of practices. Caring for the Poor meticulously documents this insidious process in Egypt and Turkey, while also drawing attention to its limits and contradictions (by using the American case to highlight the contested nature of liberalization even in its world leader). However, as historians have shown, charitable actors have intervened in decisive ways in the rise and demise of social formations. Tugal raises the possibility, especially through his study of two controversial Turkish organizations, that Islamic charity might appropriate elements of liberalism to shift the world in a post-liberal direction.

The Eastern Himalaya region covers a geographical area that spans five nations and has diverse landscapes, a multitude of ethnic groups and a rich variety of flora and fauna. The region is relatively poor in terms of GDP and per capita income; industrialisation and infrastructure is under-developed; climate-induced disasters are frequent; and maternal and infant mortality rates are high. Economic constraints combined with restrictive cultural norms create barriers for women in education, employment and decision-making, thus further entrenching unequal gender relations. This book explores the ways in which gender-sensitive and inclusive policies can be developed to address the basic issues of marginalisation, livelihood, poverty and vulnerability in the Eastern Himalayas. The chapters in the volume touch upon current concerns, such as the economic and social challenges faced by women, their control over resources, questions of patriarchy, discrimination, gender rights and equity, information, empowerment and participation, and women as agents of change. This volume will be useful to researchers and scholars in gender studies, sociology and social anthropology, development studies, economic and human geography, politics, northeast and Himalayan studies, South Asian studies, as well as policymakers and those in the development sector and non-governmental organisations.

In this persuasive study, social welfare and policy expert Paul Spicker makes a case for a relational view of poverty. Poverty is much more than a lack of resources. It involves a complex set of social relationships, such as economic disadvantage, insecurity or a lack of rights. These relational elements tell us what poverty is - what it consists of, what poor people are experiencing, and what problems need to be addressed. This book examines poverty in the context of the economy, society and the political community, considering how states can respond to issues of inequality, exclusion and powerlessness. Drawing on examples of social policy in both rich and poor countries, this is an accessible contribution to the debate about the nature of poverty and responses to it.

'The alleviation of poverty and the protection of the environment are both critical challenges for the vindication of basic human rights for all of humankind. This relationship is however not necessarily an easy one. While there is an inextricable link between poverty and the degradation of the environment, a sophisticated analysis of a problem needs to deal with those cases where the need to increase economic opportunity for poor communities may appear to conflict with fragile ecosystems or the preservation of traditional practices. This collection provides the most sustained engagement with these problems. Drawing on the expertise of a range of distinguished authors, this book presents the reader with an integrated global engagement with these problems. In doing so, it represents a landmark effort towards the creation of a coherent literature to deal with one of humankind's most pressing challenges.' - Dennis Davis, Judge of the High Court, South Africa This timely book explores the complex relationship between the alleviation of poverty and the protection of the environment. There is every reason to believe that these issues are in many ways interdependent. However this book demonstrates that there are situations where alleviation of poverty and the protection of the environment appear to be in a fraught relationship. The contributing authors illustrate that the role played by law in this relationship, whether at the international or national level, will vary depending on the situation and will be more successful at pursuing environmental justice in some cases than in others. This interdisciplinary study will appeal to academics and students in environmental law and other environmental disciplines, environmental policy makers and NGOs interested in issues of poverty, environment and indigenous peoples. Contributors: C.D. Aceves-Avila, D. Behn, K. Bubna-Litic, M.A. Cohen, E. Couzens, J.J. Gonzalez Marquez, S. Gruber, O.F. Jauregui, M. Kidd, Y. Le Bouthillier, P. Martin, A. Mumma, L.C. Paddock, C.G. Pring, G.W. Pring, S. Sabzwari, D.N. Scott, D. Shelton, S.L. Smith

This introduction to social change covers the momentous and relatively recent changes that have occurred in the human condition, examining not only the major causes and conditions underlying our current situation, but also the main choices and options we face as we strive to shape our individual and collective futures. This edition of Social Change has been thoroughly updated and revised. Building on previous editions, the book introduces a social scientific approach to change, discusses the components of change and the factors driving them, examines change on the macro-level, then looks toward the future with a discussion of planned change. Most chapters explore societies of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and include comparative dimensions, especially along First, Second, and Third World lines. The engaging narrative traces several themes, such as the rise of capitalism and the socialist alternative, or civil rights movements in the United States and elsewhere, throughout the book. Social Change, Third Edition features a new discussion of the recent economic crisis and the interconnectedness of the global economy, new empirical data on globalization, and updated discussions of the concepts of evolution and altruism. It also incorporates the dramatic changes in India and China throughout the book.

Cash Transfers, for all their notable successes, have been criticised for their limited ability to move poor households to provide sustainable routes out of poverty. This book draws on original qualitative research by leading scholars and development policy experts from a range of disciplines to examine whether cash transfers can have transformative spillover effects on individuals, households and communities. Case studies from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America show that, while there are limits to the sustainability of the transformations brought about by Cash Transfers, they can bring about changes affecting the social and political integration of very poor households. With chapters on Psycho-Social Wellbeing, Social Accountability and Social Capital, this comprehensive volume casts new light on the ongoing debates over the significance of the Cash Transfer 'revolution'. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Journal of Development Studies.

This book documents and explains the remarkable decline in the American marriage rate that began about 1970. This decline has occurred in spite of the fact that married people are better off than unmarried people in many ways. Many other attempts to explain the "retreat from marriage" blame it on culture change involving a devaluation of marriage, and/or on ignorance of the benefits of marriage among the unmarried population. In turn, because unmarried adults and single-parent families are poorer than others, poverty and its associated problems are attributed to the failure to marry. The argument presented here is that the declining marriage rate is due to the deteriorating position of workers, particularly men, in the American economy. Not only have jobs disappeared and wages decreased, especially for the less-educated, but existing jobs have become more precarious. Less-educated workers can't count on having jobs in the future, and can't count on earning enough to support families if they have jobs because their wages have stagnated. In this economic environment, the flexibility to change partners becomes a survival strategy for the economically marginalized population, which has been increasing in size for the past four decades. Arrangements such as cohabitation allow for this flexibility; marriage does not. This argument implies that marriage is not a realistic choice for many Americans. In fact, it is a choice that many people don't actually have. Marriages between economically marginal men and women would not eventuate in the benefits that middle-class people experience when they marry, and would eliminate an option they may need to survive in the face of unrelenting poverty. We won't convince these people that marriage would improve their lives, because in most cases it wouldn't be true. To return the marriage rate to its pre-1970 level, we need to address the economic factors that have caused the decline.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Chapter 1.

"Provides important insight into the manner in which federal support of faith-based poverty relief initiatives affect religious identity in the Golden Triangle Region of rural Mississippi."--"Journal of Church and State"

"The book provides a thorough historical overview of the events that led up to the Bush administration's decision to promote faith-based social welfare. This thoughtful book is a useful addition to the growing literature on the subject and should be widely consulted."--"Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare"

"Well-written and clearly organized."--"Journal of Social Services"

"In depth profiles...with obvious strengths."--"Contemporary Sociology"

"The findings raise serious concerns related to discriminatory practices around who will get served, and the qualification of those providing the services. . . . Highly recommended."
--"CHOICE"

"The comparative case method stretched across a complex analytical framework sketches the terrain in broad, suggestive, analytical strokes. We benefit from the timeliness of Bartkowski and Regis's study."
--"American Journal of Sociology"

"Nothing short of exceptional..."Charitable Choices" is a very readable book that makes an evident contribution to contemporary discourse about welfare reform and its possibilities and pitfalls."
--"Social Forces"

aThese stories reveal not only the profound commitment that clergy can have for their flock but how existing social structures can render the poor invisible. Charitable Choices is more useful as a description of an under-recognized aspect of American religious life than as an analysis of government welfarepolicy.a
"Religious Studies Review"

Congregations and faith-based organizations have become key participants in America's welfare revolution. Recent legislation has expanded the social welfare role of religious communities, thus revealing a pervasive lack of faith in purely economic responses to poverty.

Charitable Choices is an ethnographic study of faith-based poverty relief in 30 congregations in the rural south. Drawing on in-depth interviews and fieldwork in Mississippi faith communities, it examines how religious conviction and racial dynamics shape congregational benevolence. Mississippi has long had the nation's highest poverty rate and was the first state to implement a faith-based welfare reform initiative. The book provides a grounded and even-handed treatment of congregational poverty relief rather than abstract theory on faith-based initiatives.

The volume examines how congregations are coping with national developments in social welfare policy and reveals the strategies that religious communities utilize to fight poverty in their local communities. By giving particular attention to the influence of theological convictions and organizational dynamics on religious service provision, it identifies both the prospects and pitfalls likely to result from the expansion of charitable choice.

In this lively social history, first published in 1988, Lionel Rose explores in detail the plight of the street poor between 1815 and 1985. He describes the Victorian 'Rogues and Vagabonds' who made elicit peddling, begging frauds and other petty crime their profession. He considers the relevant legislation and systems for coping with the street poor, from the 1824 Vagrancy Act and accompanying improvements in policing, through the casual ward systems of the workhouses and the role of common lodging houses, to the development of Social Services in the 1940s and local authority provision of accommodation. This title will be of interest to students of history, criminology and sociology.

This fascinating study investigates the experience of English poverty between 1700 and 1900 and in the ways in which the poor made ends meet. The phrase 'economy of makeshifts' has often been used to summarise the patchy, desperate and sometimes failing strategies of the poor for material survival. Incomes or benefits derived from such strategies allegedly ranged from wages supported by under-employment via petty crime through to charity, but allusions to this array of makeshifts usually fall short of answering vital questions about how and when the poor secured access to them. This book represents the single most significant attempt in print to supply the English 'economy of makeshifts' with a solid, empirical basis and to advance the concept of makeshifts from a vague but convenient label to a more precise yet inclusive definition. Individual chapters written by some of the leading, young historians of welfare examine how advantages gained from access to common land, mobilisation of kinship support, resorting to crime, and other marginal resources could prop up struggling households. They suggest how the balance of these strategies might change over time or be modified by gender, life-cycle and geography. A comprehensive introduction summarises the state of research on English poverty, and a thought-provoking conclusion makes valuable suggestions for the direction of future research. This book will be crucial for historians of social life and welfare, of interest to researchers working on eighteenth /nineteenth- century England and will be useful to undergraduates seeking guidance on the historiography of poverty.

Around 2.8 billion people globally, also known as the "Other Third" or "energy poor", have little or no access to beneficial energy that meets their needs for cooking, heating, water, sanitation, illumination, transportation, or basic mechanical power. This book uniquely integrates the hitherto segmented and fragmented approaches to the challenge of access to energy. It provides theoretical, philosophical and practical analysis of energy for the low energy (non-hydrocarbon based) Other Third of the world, and how the unmet needs of the energy poor might be satisfied. It comprehensively addresses the range of issues relating to energy justice and energy access for all, including affordable - sustainable energy technologies (ASETs). The book breaks new ground by crafting a unified and cohesive framework for analysis and action that explains the factual and socio-political phenomenon of the energy poor, and demonstrates why clean energy is a primary determinant of their human progress. This is a must-read for all scholars, students, professionals and policy makers working on energy policy, poverty, and sustainable energy technologies.

Unequal Health examines the reasons why stark differences in health and well-being persist, even as the health care industry and access to health care grow. The third edition of this powerful book retains the accessible style and focus on inequality from previous editions while featuring significant new material throughout. After an overview of key themes, the book introduces the concept of epidemiology-measuring the number of people who are sick or dying-and offers an overview of health trends over time. Author Grace Budrys distills the latest research to consider the relevance of sex, race, income, and education, and relative social status on health. The book discusses disease, habits that contribute to health, the relationship between health care and health status, genetics, socioeconomic inequality, health policy, and more. The third edition features a new chapter on diet, an increased discussion of substance abuse and the attention it receives based on who is engaging in this behavior, new material on income and education variables and inequality, a new discussion of the Affordable Care Act and its impact, and more.

In the 1960s, America set out to end poverty. Policy-makers put forth an unprecedented package of legislation, funding poverty programs and empowering the poor through ineffectual employment-related education and training. However, these handouts produced little change, and efforts to provide education and job-training proved inconsequential, boasting only a 2.8 percent decrease in the poverty rate since 1965. Decades after the War on Poverty began, many of its programs failed. Only one thing really worked to help end poverty-and that was work itself, the centerpiece of welfare reform in 1996. Poor No More is a plan to restructure poverty programs, prioritizing jobs above all else. Traditionally, job placement programs stemmed from non-profit organizations or government agencies. However, America Works, the first for-profit job placement venture founded by Peter Cove, has the highest employee retention rate in the greater New York City area, even above these traditional agencies. When the federal government embraced the work-first ideal, inspired by the success of America Works, welfare rolls plummeted from 12.6 million to 4.7 million nationally within one decade. Poor No More is a paradigm-shifting work that guides the reader through the evolution of America's War on Poverty and urges policy-makers to eliminate training and education programs that waste time and money and to adopt a work-first model, while providing job-seekers with the tools and life lessons essential to finding and maintaining employment.

In the 1960s, America set out to end poverty. Policy-makers put forth an unprecedented package of legislation, funding poverty programs and empowering the poor through ineffectual employment-related education and training. However, these handouts produced little change, and efforts to provide education and job-training proved inconsequential, boasting only a 2.8 percent decrease in the poverty rate since 1965. Decades after the War on Poverty began, many of its programs failed. Only one thing really worked to help end poverty-and that was work itself, the centerpiece of welfare reform in 1996. Poor No More is a plan to restructure poverty programs, prioritizing jobs above all else. Traditionally, job placement programs stemmed from non-profit organizations or government agencies. However, America Works, the first for-profit job placement venture founded by Peter Cove, has the highest employee retention rate in the greater New York City area, even above these traditional agencies. When the federal government embraced the work-first ideal, inspired by the success of America Works, welfare rolls plummeted from 12.6 million to 4.7 million nationally within one decade. Poor No More is a paradigm-shifting work that guides the reader through the evolution of America's War on Poverty and urges policy-makers to eliminate training and education programs that waste time and money and to adopt a work-first model, while providing job-seekers with the tools and life lessons essential to finding and maintaining employment.

Drawing on a range of contemporary evidence, Stephen Constantine studies the nature and causes of unemployment in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s, and analyzes the failure of successive inter-war governments to make a constructive response.