"Encountering Poverty disrupts the new optimism about poverty action, challenging mainstream frameworks of global poverty. Going beyond poverty as a problem that can be solved through economic resources or technological interventions, the book focuses on the power and privilege underpinning persistent impoverishment. It explores poverty action's place in the opportunities and limits of the current moment, with its rapacious market forces and resurgent social and civil rights movements. Encountering Poverty invites students, educators, activists, and development professionals to think and act against inequality by foregrounding, not sidestepping, the long history of development and the ethical dilemmas of poverty action today."--Provided by publisher.
Encountering Poverty challenges mainstream frameworks of global poverty by going beyond the claims that poverty is a problem that can be solved through economic resources or technological interventions. By focusing on the power and privilege that underpin persistent impoverishment and using tools of critical analysis and pedagogy, the authors explore the opportunities for and limits of poverty action in the current moment. Encountering Poverty invites students, educators, activists, and development professionals to think about and act against inequality by foregrounding, rather than sidestepping, the long history of development and the ethical dilemmas of poverty action today.
The paradox of poverty amidst plenty has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century--why should the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rates of poverty among the industrialized nations? Based on his decades-long research and scholarship, one of the nation's leading authorities provides the answer. In The Poverty Paradox, Mark Robert Rank develops his unique perspective for understanding this puzzle. The approach is what he has defined over the years as structural vulnerability. Central to this new way of thinking is the distinction between those who lose out at the economic game versus why the game produces losers in the first place. Americans experiencing poverty tend to have certain characteristics placing them at a greater risk of impoverishment. Yet poverty results not from these factors, but rather from a lack of sufficient opportunities in society. In particular, the shortage of decent paying jobs and a strong safety net are paramount. Based upon this understanding, Rank goes on to detail a variety of strategies and programs to effectively alleviate poverty in the future. Implementing these policies has the added benefit of reinforcing several of the nation's most important values and principles. The Poverty Paradox represents a game changing examination of poverty and inequality. It provides the essential blueprint for finally combatting this economic injustice in the years ahead.
Communicating Development with Communities aims to take students, researchers and development professionals away from the theory of the classroom or policy-making boardroom and out into the community. Building on the work of Robert Chambers and Arturo Escobar, the book is an empirically grounded critical reflection on how the development industry defines, imagines and constructs development at the implementation level. Communicating Development With Communities is written for students, scholars and practitioners in participatory development, to prepare them for the complexities and challenges that await them when it comes to working with marginalised people in both the north and the south.
The United States has been epitomized as a land of opportunity, where hard work and skill can bring personal success and economic well-being. The American Dream has captured the imagination of people from all walks of life, and to many, it represents the heart and soul of the country. But there is another, darker side to the bargain that America strikes with its people -- it is the price we pay for our individual pursuit of the American Dream. That price can be found in the economic hardship present in the lives of millions of Americans. In Chasing the American Dream, leading social scientists Mark Robert Rank, Thomas A. Hirschl, and Kirk A. Foster provide a new and innovative look into a curious dynamic -- the tension between the promise of economic opportunities and rewards and the amount of turmoil that Americans encounter in their quest for those rewards. The authors explore questions such as: -What percentage of Americans achieve affluence, and how much income mobility do we actually have? -Are most Americans able to own a home, and at what age? -How is it that nearly 80 percent of us will experience significant economic insecurity at some point between ages 25 and 60? -How can access to the American Dream be increased? Combining personal interviews with dozens of Americans and a longitudinal study covering 40 years of income data, the authors tell the story of the American Dream and reveal a number of surprises. The risk of economic vulnerability has increased substantially over the past four decades, and the American Dream is becoming harder to reach and harder to keep. Yet for most Americans, the Dream lies not in wealth, but in economic security, pursuing one's passions, and looking toward the future. Chasing the American Dream provides us with a new understanding into the dynamics that shape our fortunes and a deeper insight into the importance of the American Dream for the future of the country.
Provides extensive and current information, as well as insight into the contemporary debate on poverty, and contains over 800 original articles written by more than 125 renowned scholars.
Confronting Poverty is a text that introduces students to the dynamics of poverty and economic hardship in the U.S. It address four fundamental question: 1) What is the nature, prevalence, and characteristics of poverty; 2) Why does poverty exist; 3) What are the effects and consequences of poverty upon individuals and the wider society; and 4) How can poverty be reduced and alleviated? In clear and engaging writing, Confronting Poverty provides students with the most up-to-date research and thinking regarding American poverty and inequality. It includes the many insights of the author’s 30 years of writing and teaching on the subject. It is designed to be used as either a primary or secondary text in a wide range of courses across academic disciplines. In addition, Confronting Poverty makes use of an innovative companion website developed by the author. The focal point of the website is an interactive tool, called the Poverty Risk Calculator, that has been constructed with hundreds of thousands of case records extracted from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data set. The website also includes a discussion guide on various aspects of poverty along with many other interactive links and activities (short documentary films, video interviews and lectures, interactive data sources, research briefs, magazine and newspaper articles). Each chapter includes an on-line activity from the companion website for students to engage in, resulting in a dynamic learning experience.
The Handbook of Contemporary Families explores how families have changed in the last 30 years and speculates about future trends. Editors Marilyn Coleman and Lawrence H. Ganong, along with a multidisciplinary group of contributors, critique the approaches used to study relationships and families while suggesting modern approaches for the new millennium. The Handbook looks at how changes within the contemporary family have been reflected in family law, family education, and family therapy. The Handbook of Contemporary Families is an excellent resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, educators, and practitioners who study and work with families in several disciplines, including Family Science, Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology, Marriage & Family Therapy, and Social Work.
This book offers a critical analysis on employing a universal understanding of poverty and suggests ways forward for poverty reduction for developing countries in a post-2015 era. Taking specific country-contexts into account, the author argues that national poverty lines should be the benchmark for future anti-poverty policies.
