The Last Underclass

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The Last Underclass

Author : Dean Warren
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1462817211
Total Pages : 399 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (628 download)

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Book Synopsis The Last Underclass by : Dean Warren

Download or read book The Last Underclass written by Dean Warren and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2002-02-22 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilized humanity historically has an impoverished, downtrodden underclass: the Egyptian pyramid workers, the Roman Empires slaves, the medieval serfs, and the twentieth centurys urban ghetto-dwellers. Normally this class has a useful role: manual labor in mine and field, or service in home and restaurant. Cannon fodder. But as the computer age develops, complex machinery replaces labor, smart programs obsolete human services, and fire and forget missiles replace infantry. Even the need for skilled labor and middle management shrivels. In the twenty-first century the productivity of an individual worker skyrockets, so much so that only a few produce all of civilizations basic needs. Thus billions of people become useless, while high technologys surplus prevents starvation, plague, and war. Humanity changes itself, too. Many rich couples select superior genetic characteristics for their babies. Stem-cell injections rejuvenate aged brains. Then members of the upper class transplant those brains into bodies of the young poor. Finally, chromosome-alteration leads to extended life spans. Two classes, the unemployed that live on welfare and the powerful, separate into different sub-species. Surplus population damages the environment and discomfits the rich. They anticipate eternal life and want parkland, fresh air, and carefree association with their own kind. They dissolve fertility suppressant in ghetto water supplies. Thus science and greed conspire against the poor. John "QUIET" Griffin is a "Welfie raised in the crowded ghetto of San Angeles, the combined San Diego and Los Angeles megacity. He must battle the rulers of his society to avoid genocide and achieve justice. REVIEWS In the July, 2002 issue, the Midwest Book Review says "The Last Underclass is enthusiastically recommended for hard core science fiction fans." # The Compulsive Reader reports in July, 2002 that "Dean Warren has written a fascinating science fiction story that moves through time and space at lightning speed...This book is certainly thought provoking as well as entertaining reading." # Curled Up With A Good Book reports on July 18, 2002 that "The Last Underclass is the kind of book that redeems the whole self-publishing print-on-demand trend. Well-written and thoughtful..." # MY SHELF, on 11/1/2002, states: "Read THE LAST UNDERCLASS" # RAMBLES, a cultural arts magazine, states in August of 2002: "Warren manages to tell a story heavy in dialogue and political manuevering without losing a sense of speed. His message will likely speak to the growing number of people concerned with the fast march of science. THE LAST UNDERCLASS is good enough to set people talking about the issues that scare them." # THE LAST UNDERCLASS tells a story that has the basic traits for a super movie. I give the book top rating. Dave Foster, Pigeon Forge, TN.

Underclass

Author : John Welshman
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 0826434827
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Underclass by : John Welshman

Download or read book Underclass written by John Welshman and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2007-01-10 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who are those at the bottom of society? There has been much discussion in recent years, on both Left and Right, about the existence of an alleged 'underclass' in both Britain and the USA. It has been claimed this group lives outside the mainstream of society, is characterised by crime, suffers from long-term unemployment and single parenthood, and is alienated from its core values. In Underclass: A History of the Excluded, 1880-2000 John Welshman shows that there have always been concerns about an 'underclass', whether constructed as the 'social residuum' of the 1880s, the 'problem family' of the 1950s or the 'cycle of deprivation' of the 1970s. There are marked differences between these concepts, but also striking continuities. Indeed a concern with an 'underclass' has is many ways been as long as an interest in poverty itself. This book is the first to look systematically at the question, providing new insights on contemporary debates about behaviour, poverty and welfare reform. In a speech in 2006, Tony Blair signalled a major push on social exclusion. He aimed to show the Government's determination to tackle 'a hard core underclass' estimated at 1 m people. The focus in Whitehall had moved to what were termed 'high-risk, high-harm and high-cost families', and to children in care, teenage mothers, and people with mental health problems on benefit. In all of this, the rhetoric of a 'cycle of deprivation', and of inter-generational continuities, was ever-present, and it is those continuities that this book seeks to explore.

The Viral Underclass

Author : Steven W. Thrasher
Publisher : Celadon Books
ISBN 13 : 1250796652
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (57 download)

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Book Synopsis The Viral Underclass by : Steven W. Thrasher

Download or read book The Viral Underclass written by Steven W. Thrasher and published by Celadon Books. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION** **LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDALS FOR EXCELLENCE** **WINNER OF THE 2022 POZ AWARD FOR BEST IN LITERATURE** "An irresistibly readable and humane exploration of the barbarities of class...readers are gifted that most precious of things in these muddled times: a clear lens through which to see the world." —Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine From preeminent LGBTQ scholar, social critic, and journalist Steven W. Thrasher comes a powerful and crucial exploration of one of the most pressing issues of our times: how viruses expose the fault lines of society. Having spent a ground-breaking career studying the racialization, policing, and criminalization of HIV, Dr. Thrasher has come to understand a deeper truth at the heart of our society: that there are vast inequalities in who is able to survive viruses and that the ways in which viruses spread, kill, and take their toll are much more dependent on social structures than they are on biology alone. Told through the heart-rending stories of friends, activists, and teachers navigating the novel coronavirus, HIV, and other viruses, Dr. Thrasher brings the reader with him as he delves into the viral underclass and lays bare its inner workings. In the tradition of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, The Viral Underclass helps us understand the world more deeply by showing the fraught relationship between privilege and survival.

The Invention of the 'Underclass'

Author : Loïc Wacquant
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1509552197
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (95 download)

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Book Synopsis The Invention of the 'Underclass' by : Loïc Wacquant

Download or read book The Invention of the 'Underclass' written by Loïc Wacquant and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-01-28 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At century’s close, American social scientists, policy analysts, philanthropists and politicians became obsessed with a fearsome and mysterious new group said to be ravaging the ghetto: the urban “underclass.” Soon the scarecrow category and its demonic imagery were exported to the United Kingdom and continental Europe and agitated the international study of exclusion in the postindustrial metropolis. In this punchy book, Loïc Wacquant retraces the invention and metamorphoses of this racialized folk devil, from the structural conception of Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal to the behavioral notion of Washington think-tank experts to the neo-ecological formulation of sociologist William Julius Wilson. He uncovers the springs of the sudden irruption, accelerated circulation, and abrupt evaporation of the “underclass” from public debate, and reflects on the implications for the social epistemology of urban marginality. What accounts for the “lemming effect” that drew a generation of scholars of race and poverty over a scientific cliff? What are the conditions for the formation and bursting of “conceptual speculative bubbles”? What is the role of think tanks, journalism, and politics in imposing “turnkey problematics” upon social researchers? What are the special quandaries posed by the naming of dispossessed and dishonored populations in scientific discourse and how can we reformulate the explosive question of “race” to avoid these troubles? Answering these questions constitutes an exacting exercise in epistemic reflexivity in the tradition of Bachelard, Canguilhem and Bourdieu, and it issues in a clarion call for social scientists to defend their intellectual autonomy against the encroachments of outside powers, be they state officials, the media, think tanks, or philanthropic organizations. Compact, meticulous and forcefully argued, this study in the politics of social science knowledge will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, urban studies, ethnic studies, geography, intellectual history, the philosophy of science and public policy.

The "Underclass" Debate

Author : Michael B. Katz
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691188548
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The "Underclass" Debate by : Michael B. Katz

Download or read book The "Underclass" Debate written by Michael B. Katz and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do ominous reports of an emerging "underclass" reveal an unprecedented crisis in American society? Or are social commentators simply rediscovering the tragedy of recurring urban poverty, as they seem to do every few decades? Although social scientists and members of the public make frequent assumptions about these questions, they have little information about the crucial differences between past and present. By providing a badly needed historical context, these essays reframe today's "underclass" debate. Realizing that labels of "social pathology" echo fruitless distinctions between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, the contributors focus not on individual and family behavior but on a complex set of processes that have been at work over a long period, degrading the inner cities and, inevitably, the nation as a whole. How do individuals among the urban poor manage to survive? How have they created a dissident "infrapolitics?" How have social relations within the urban ghettos changed? What has been the effect of industrial restructuring on poverty? Besides exploring these questions, the contributors discuss the influence of African traditions on the family patterns of African Americans, the origins of institutions that serve the urban poor, the reasons for the crisis in urban education, the achievements and limits of the War on Poverty, and the role of income transfers, earnings, and the contributions of family members in overcoming poverty. The message of the essays is clear: Americans will flourish or fail together.

Life at the Bottom

Author : Theodore Dalrymple
Publisher : Ivan R. Dee
ISBN 13 : 161578019X
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Life at the Bottom by : Theodore Dalrymple

Download or read book Life at the Bottom written by Theodore Dalrymple and published by Ivan R. Dee. This book was released on 2003-03-08 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A searing account of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does, written by a British psychiatrist.

Underclass

Author : BT Gorman
Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1782791310
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (827 download)

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Book Synopsis Underclass by : BT Gorman

Download or read book Underclass written by BT Gorman and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-08 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered what lies beneath the surface of sleepy seaside towns in England? Underclass transports you to a world of sex, violence, assassins, drug dealers, love and surfers. In BT Gorman's stylish début thriller, we get a glimpse into two weeks of Melanie Tastyn's life as she goes "on holiday" in the seaside town of Seafordby for one last time. Her world is quickly turned upside down by characters like Sinister Dave, Will the darts-playing barman and Kelly Black, the deadly assassin. ,

The Adjunct Underclass

Author : Herb Childress
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022649666X
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis The Adjunct Underclass by : Herb Childress

Download or read book The Adjunct Underclass written by Herb Childress and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-04-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Class ends. Students pack up and head back to their dorms. The professor, meanwhile, goes to her car . . . to catch a little sleep, and then eat a cheeseburger in her lap before driving across the city to a different university to teach another, wholly different class. All for a paycheck that, once prep and grading are factored in, barely reaches minimum wage. Welcome to the life of the mind in the gig economy. Over the past few decades, the job of college professor has been utterly transformed—for the worse. America’s colleges and universities were designed to serve students and create knowledge through the teaching, research, and stability that come with the longevity of tenured faculty, but higher education today is dominated by adjuncts. In 1975, only thirty percent of faculty held temporary or part-time positions. By 2011, as universities faced both a decrease in public support and ballooning administrative costs, that number topped fifty percent. Now, some surveys suggest that as many as seventy percent of American professors are working course-to-course, with few benefits, little to no security, and extremely low pay. In The Adjunct Underclass, Herb Childress draws on his own firsthand experience and that of other adjuncts to tell the story of how higher education reached this sorry state. Pinpointing numerous forces within and beyond higher ed that have driven this shift, he shows us the damage wrought by contingency, not only on the adjunct faculty themselves, but also on students, the permanent faculty and administration, and the nation. How can we say that we value higher education when we treat educators like desperate day laborers? Measured but passionate, rooted in facts but sure to shock, The Adjunct Underclass reveals the conflicting values, strangled resources, and competing goals that have fundamentally changed our idea of what college should be. This book is a call to arms for anyone who believes that strong colleges are vital to society.

The Underclass

Author : Ken Auletta
Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 1504093577
Total Pages : 437 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis The Underclass by : Ken Auletta

Download or read book The Underclass written by Ken Auletta and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2023-12-05 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed author and New Yorker columnist delves into the core of American poverty in the early 1980s: “Invaluable.” —The Washington Post First appearing as a three-part series in the New Yorker, Ken Auletta’s The Underclass provides an enlightening look at the lives of addicts, dropouts, ex-convicts, welfare recipients, and individuals experiencing homelessness. Auletta’s investigation began with a seemingly simple goal: to find out who exactly makes up the poorest of the poor, and to trace the many paths that took them there. As the author follows 250 hardened members of this “underclass,” he focuses on efforts to help them reconstruct their lives and find a functional place in mainstream society. Through the lives of the men and women he encounters, Auletta discovers the complex truths that have made hard-core poverty in America such an intractable problem. In a nation where poverty and welfare rolls are declining but the underclass persists, the United States is as conflicted as ever about its responsibilities toward all its people. With his empathy, insight, and expert reportage, Auletta’s The Underclass remains as pertinent as ever.

The Truly Disadvantaged

Author : William Julius Wilson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226924653
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (269 download)

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Book Synopsis The Truly Disadvantaged by : William Julius Wilson

Download or read book The Truly Disadvantaged written by William Julius Wilson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-06-29 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An assessment of the relationship between race and poverty in the United States, and potential solutions for the issue. Renowned American sociologist William Julius Wilson takes a look at the social transformation of inner-city ghettos, offering a sharp evaluation of the convergence of race and poverty. Rejecting both conservative and liberal interpretations of life in the inner city, Wilson offers essential information and several solutions to policymakers. The Truly Disadvantaged is a wide-ranging examination, looking at the relationship between race, employment, and education from the 1950s onwards, with surprising and provocative findings. This second edition also includes a new afterword from Wilson himself that brings the book up to date and offers fresh insight into its findings. Praise for The Truly Disadvantaged “The Truly Disadvantaged should spur critical thinking in many quarters about the causes and possible remedies for inner city poverty. As policymakers grapple with the problems of an enlarged underclass they—as well as community leaders and all concerned Americans of all races—would be advised to examine Mr. Wilson’s incisive analysis.” —Robert Greenstein, New York Times Book Review “The Truly Disadvantaged not only assembles a vast array of data gleamed from the works of specialists, it offers much new information and analysis. Wilson has asked the hard questions, he has done his homework, and he has dared to speak unpopular truths.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review “Required reading for anyone, presidential candidate or private citizen, who really wants to address the growing plight of the black urban underclass.” —David J. Garrow, Washington Post Book World

Urban Poverty and the Underclass

Author : Enzo Mingione
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0470712651
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (77 download)

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Book Synopsis Urban Poverty and the Underclass by : Enzo Mingione

Download or read book Urban Poverty and the Underclass written by Enzo Mingione and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last two decades "poverty" has moved centrestage as an issue within the social sciences. This volume, edited by one of Europe's foremost sociologists, aims to assess the debates surrounding poverty and the responses to it, exploring the ways in which the various socio-political systems and welfarist regimes are being radically transformed. The essays examine how such change is effected by failing welfare programmes and enervating social structures such as family and community which once would have provided mechanisms of social stability. The first part of the book provides reflections on urban poverty; the second part discusses the widely debated idea of an "underclass" and its meanings in Europe and in the USA, and the final part draws on concrete empirical analyses to examine the patterns of poverty thoughout Western Europe. This volume will be of first-rate importance to all serious students of politics, sociology, geography, public policy, youth and community studies, social policy and American studies.

Poverty and the Underclass

Author : William A. Kelso
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 0814746586
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (147 download)

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Book Synopsis Poverty and the Underclass by : William A. Kelso

Download or read book Poverty and the Underclass written by William A. Kelso and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1994-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kelso analyzes how the persistence of poverty has reversed liberal and conservative positions during the last 30 years, suggests that the arguments of both the left and the right are misguided, offers new explanations for the persistence of poverty, and merges conservative, radical, and liberal ideas to suggest how the problem of poverty may be solved. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Constitutional Underclass

Author : Evan Gerstmann
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226288598
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (885 download)

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Book Synopsis The Constitutional Underclass by : Evan Gerstmann

Download or read book The Constitutional Underclass written by Evan Gerstmann and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999-04 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Supreme Court struck down Colorado's Amendment 2—which would have nullified all state and local laws protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination—it was widely regarded as a victory for gay rights. Yet many gays and lesbians still risk losing their jobs, custody of their children, and even their liberty under the law. Using the Colorado initiative as his focus, Gerstmann untangles the complex standards and subtle rhetoric the Supreme Court uses to apply the equal protection clause. The Court divides people into legal classes that receive varying levels of protection; gays and lesbians and other groups, such as the elderly and the poor, receive the least. Gerstmann reveals how these standards are used to favor certain groups over others, and also how Amendment 2 advocates used the Court's doctrine to convince voters that gays and lesbians were seeking "special rights" in Colorado. Concluding with a call for wholesale reform of equal-protection jurisprudence, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in fair, coherent, and truly equal protection under the law.

American Apartheid

Author : Douglas S. Massey
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674018211
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (182 download)

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Book Synopsis American Apartheid by : Douglas S. Massey

Download or read book American Apartheid written by Douglas S. Massey and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerful and disturbing book clearly links persistent poverty among blacks in the United States to the unparalleled degree of deliberate segregation they experience in American cities. American Apartheid shows how the black ghetto was created by whites during the first half of the twentieth century in order to isolate growing urban black populations. It goes on to show that, despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, segregation is perpetuated today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. In some urban areas the degree of black segregation is so intense and occurs in so many dimensions simultaneously that it amounts to "hypersegregation." The authors demonstrate that this systematic segregation of African Americans leads inexorably to the creation of underclass communities during periods of economic downturn. Under conditions of extreme segregation, any increase in the overall rate of black poverty yields a marked increase in the geographic concentration of indigence and the deterioration of social and economic conditions in black communities. As ghetto residents adapt to this increasingly harsh environment under a climate of racial isolation, they evolve attitudes, behaviors, and practices that further marginalize their neighborhoods and undermine their chances of success in mainstream American society. This book is a sober challenge to those who argue that race is of declining significance in the United States today.

Ghost Work

Author : Mary L. Gray
Publisher : Harper Business
ISBN 13 : 1328566242
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (285 download)

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Book Synopsis Ghost Work by : Mary L. Gray

Download or read book Ghost Work written by Mary L. Gray and published by Harper Business. This book was released on 2019 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A startling exposé of the invisible human workforce that powers the web--and how to bring it out of the shadows. Hidden beneath the surface of the internet, a new, stark reality is looming--one that cuts to the very heart of our endless debates about the impact of AI. Anthropologist Mary L. Gray and computer scientist Siddharth Suri unveil how the services we use from companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Uber can only function smoothly thanks to the judgment and experience of a vast human labor force that is kept deliberately concealed. The people who do 'ghost work' make the internet seem smart. They perform high-tech, on-demand piecework: flagging X-rated content, proofreading, transcribing audio, confirming identities, captioning video, and much more. The shameful truth is that no labor laws protect them or even acknowledge their existence. They often earn less than legal minimums for traditional work, they have no health benefits, and they can be fired at any time for any reason, or for no reason at all. An estimated 8 percent of Americans have worked in this 'ghost economy,' and that number is growing every day. In this unprecedented investigation, Gray and Suri make the case that robots will never completely eliminate 'ghost work' and the unchecked quest for artificial intelligence could spark catastrophic work conditions if not stopped in its tracks. Ultimately, they show how this essential type of work can create opportunity--rather than misery--for those who do it."--Dust jacket.

Dangerous Classes

Author : Lydia Morris
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134943156
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

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Book Synopsis Dangerous Classes by : Lydia Morris

Download or read book Dangerous Classes written by Lydia Morris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-03-11 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an authoritative and much needed critical review of British and American debates about the underclass, set in the context of historical material and policy developments. The idea of an underclass is based on a notion of social exclusion, be it cultural or structural in nature. It strikes a contrast with the idea of social citizenship. In accepted definitions of the underclass state dependence had come to be seen as a badge of exclusion rather than a guarantee of inclusion. There has been a gradual shift of emphasis in recent commentary from concern with social rights to anxiety about social obligations, much of which relates to the enforcement of the work ethic. Implicit in much of the literature is an inconclusive examination of gender roles, and particularly the failure of single mother to fulfil their social duties. The ambiguities and contradictions of this postion are uncovered. So too is the neglected issue of migrant labour and its use as a source of labour on terms not acceptable to the native population. The implications of this phenomenon for questions of social inclusion and the definition of the underclass are then considered in the wider context of the social construction of the labour market. The book has emerged from the author's long standing interest and research in unemployment, labour market change, gender relations and social policy. It will be of interest to students and researchers in all of these fields.

Improving Poor People

Author : Michael B. Katz
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400821703
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Improving Poor People by : Michael B. Katz

Download or read book Improving Poor People written by Michael B. Katz and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1997-04-02 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There are places where history feels irrelevant, and America's inner cities are among them," acknowledges Michael Katz, in expressing the tensions between activism and scholarship. But this major historian of urban poverty realizes that the pain in these cities has its origins in the American past. To understand contemporary poverty, he looks particularly at an old attitude: because many nineteenth-century reformers traced extreme poverty to drink, laziness, and other forms of bad behavior, they tried to use public policy and philanthropy to improve the character of poor people, rather than to attack the structural causes of their misery. Showing how this misdiagnosis has afflicted today's welfare and educational systems, Katz draws on his own experiences to introduce each of four topics--the welfare state, the "underclass" debate, urban school reform, and the strategies of survival used by the urban poor. Uniquely informed by his personal involvement, each chapter also illustrates the interpretive power of history by focusing on a strand of social policy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: social welfare from the poorhouse era through the New Deal, ideas about urban poverty from the undeserving poor to the "underclass," and the emergence of public education through the radical school reform movement now at work in Chicago. Why have American governments proved unable to redesign a welfare system that will satisfy anyone? Why has public policy proved unable to eradicate poverty and prevent the deterioration of major cities? What strategies have helped poor people survive the poverty endemic to urban history? How did urban schools become unresponsive bureaucracies that fail to educate most of their students? Are there fresh, constructive ways to think about welfare, poverty, and public education? Throughout the book Katz shows how interpretations of the past, grounded in analytic history, can free us of comforting myths and help us to reframe discussions of these great public issues.