The Promise of Welfare Reform - Elizabeth Segal

The Promise of Welfare Reform

Political Rhetoric and the Reality of Poverty in the Twenty-First Century

(Autor)

Buch | Hardcover
352 Seiten
2006
Routledge (Verlag)
978-0-7890-2921-8 (ISBN)
229,95 inkl. MwSt
Presents articles from 23 community practitioners and researchers who challenge the 'reform' that has turned public aid from a right to a privilege. This book analyses the consequences of legislative changes made to the public assistance program formerly known as Aid to Families with Dependant Children (AFDC).
Find out howand whylegislation has made economic rights more important than human rights

Since 1996, politicians and public officials in the United States have celebrated the success of welfare reform legislation despite little, if any, evidence to support their claims. The Promise of Welfare Reform: Political Rhetoric and the Reality of Poverty in the Twenty-First Century presents articles from 23 community practitioners and researchers who challenge the reform that has turned public aid from a right to a privilege. The authors transcend conventional academic writing, offering careful and thoughtful analysis that examines the history of welfare reform, its connection to poverty, family issues, and the impact of racism on poverty and on the treatment of the poor.

The Promise of Welfare Reform analyzes the consequences over the past ten years of legislative changes made to the public assistance program formerly known as Aid to Families with Dependant Children (AFDC). This powerful book examines the social, political, and economic context of welfare reform, including the elimination of poverty as a societal goal, how racial and ethic groups have been targeted, popular stereotypes about the poor and their work ethic, anti-immigrant hostility, the struggles of single mothers with children, domestic violence, and marriage as a realistic escape from poverty. The book’s authors address the need for empathy and understanding to change public sentiments about welfare and poverty.

Contributors to The Promise of Welfare Reform include:



Elizabeth A. Segal and Keith M. Kilty, co-founding editors of the Journal of Poverty (Haworth)

Frances Fox Piven, co-author of Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare

Ann Withorn, co-editor of For Crying Out Loud: Women’s Poverty in the United States

Mimi Abramovitz, author of Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the United States

Joel Blau, co-author with Mimi Abramovitz of The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy

Margaret K. Nelson, author of The Social Economy of Single Mothers: Raising Children in Rural America

Gwendolyn Mink, co-editor of Welfare: A Documentary History of U.S. Policy and Politics

Kenneth J. Neubeck, co-author of Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card Against America’s Poor

Lynn Fujiwara, author of Sanctioning Immigrants: Asian Immigrant Women and the Racial Politics of Welfare Reform

Nancy C. Jurik, author of Bootstrap Dreams: U.S. Microenterprise Developments in an Era of Welfare Reform

and much more!

The Promise of Welfare Reform challenges current views on welfare reform and promotes alternative methods to alleviate poverty. It is an essential resource for sociologists, political scientists, economists, public policy and management specialists, social welfare and human services workers, and anyone else concerned about changes made to public assistance by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

Elizabeth Segal

About the Editors

Contributors

Foreword (Frances Fox Piven)

Introduction

PART I: THE CONTEXT OF WELFARE REFORM

Chapter 1. Looking Up the Slippery Slope: Lessons from a Lifetime of Trying to Figure Out and Fight Poverty (Ann Withorn)

Learning Begins at Home

Political Lessons

Welfare and Welfare Rights: Remembering What We Have Lost and Learned

Lessons Learned

A Final Personal Lesson: Why It All Still Matters

Chapter 2. Neither Accidental, Nor Simply Mean-Spirited: The Context for Welfare Reform (Mimi Abramovitz)

Background: The Rise of the Welfare State

Dismantling the Welfare State

Welfare Reform

The Race Card

Fighting Back

Chapter 3. Welfare Reform: Forward to the Past (Alfred L. Joseph Jr.)

Introduction

Welfare Reform and Beyond

History of Hostility to Assistance

The Struggle Continues: Fighting Racism Is Crucial

Chapter 4. Welfare Reform in Historical Perspective (Joel Blau)

From Agricultural to Industrial

From Competitive Capitalism to Monopoly Capitalism

Chapter 5. Lessons from Vermont (Margaret K. Nelson)

The Disappearance of Grassroots Resistance

Modest Social Change

A More Active Engagement

Chapter 6. Welfare Reform and the Transformation of the U.S. Welfare State (Michael Reisch)

Introduction: The Roots of Contemporary Welfare Reform

American Exceptionalism

Race and Welfare Reform

Antiwelfare Ideology

The Impact of Welfare Reform

The U.S. Workfare Regime

Welfare Reform and Economic Globalization

Welfare State Transformation and the Nature of Social Work

Conclusion: The Workfare Regime and Power

Chapter 7. Living Economic Restructuring at the Bottom: Welfare Restructuring and Low-Wage Work (Sandra Morgen, Joan Acker, Jill Weigt, and Lisa Gonzales)

What Is a Good Job?: Measuring Poverty and Good Jobs/Bad Jobs

Jobs, Poverty, and Welfare Reform in Oregon

Jobs and Poverty in the Era of Globalization and the Jobless Recovery

Policy Directions in the Context of Neoliberalism and Globalization

PART II: POVERTY AND WELFARE REFORM

Chapter 8. Welfare Reform and the American Dream (Laura R. Peck and Sarah Allen Gershon)

What Is the American Dream?

How Has Welfare Reform Influenced the American Dream?

Discussion and Conclusion

Chapter 9. Welfare Reform: What’s Poverty Got to Do With It? (Keith M. Kilty)

Poverty: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

When Poverty Becomes Too Visible

Welfare Reform and Poverty

Chapter 10. Microenterprise Development, Welfare Reform, and the Contradictions of New Privatization (Nancy C. Jurik)

The Privatization of Collective Welfare

Microenterprise Development Programs (MDPs)

MDPs in Action: The Contradictions of New Privatization

Conclusion

Chapter 11. Welfare Reform and Housing Retrenchment: What Happens When Two Policies Collide? (Jessica W. Pardee)

Understanding Welfare Policy

Understanding Housing Policy

Discussion

Conclusion

Chapter 12. Changing the Face of Homelessness: Welfare Reform’s Impact on Homeless Families (Bart W. Miles and Patrick J. Fowler)

Introduction

The Discursive Frame of Welfare Reform

The Goals of Welfare Reform, and Its Impact on Homeless People

Change in Demographics Among Homeless People

Increase in the Number of Homeless Families

Impact of Welfare Reform on Homeless Families

Conclusion

Recommendations

PART III: FAM

Erscheint lt. Verlag 17.5.2006
Verlagsort New York
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Gewicht 703 g
Themenwelt Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Sozialpädagogik
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie
ISBN-10 0-7890-2921-9 / 0789029219
ISBN-13 978-0-7890-2921-8 / 9780789029218
Zustand Neuware
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