Routledge The Routledge Handbook of Poverty in the United States

In the United States, the causes and even the meanings of poverty are disconnected from the causes and meanings of global poverty. The Routledge Handbook of Poverty in the United States provides an authoritative overview of the relationship of poverty with the rise of neoliberal capitalism in the context of globalization. Reorienting its national economy towards a global logic, US domestic policies have promoted a market-based strategy of economic development and growth as the obvious solution to alleviating poverty, affecting approaches to the problem discursively, politically, economically, culturally and experientially. However, the handbook explores how rather than alleviating poverty, it has instead exacerbated poverty and pre-existing inequalities – privatizing the services of social welfare and educational institutions, transforming the state from a benevolent to a punitive state, and criminalizing poor women, racial and ethnic minorities, and immigrants. Key issues examined by the international selection of leading scholars in this volume include: income distribution, employment, health, hunger, housing and urbanization. With parts focusing on the lived experience of the poor, social justice and human rights frameworks – as opposed to welfare rights models – and the role of helping professions such as social work, health and education, this comprehensive handbook is a vital reference for anyone working with those in poverty, whether directly or at a macro level. Review "This Handbook is a treasure trove. Yes, it marshals the data on U.S. poverty, providing an indispensable reference guide. Even more valuably, it theorizes U.S. poverty anew, demonstrating how U.S. destitution and its "surplus populations" are shaped by neoliberalism’s global projects and logics, its economic mandates and powers of enforcement. The Handbook is thus also a compendium of knowledge for all who fight to end poverty. This is the book I want my students to have as they work in impoverished communities. It is also the book that all scholars of poverty and globalization will need to keep ready to hand." - Mark Lewis Taylor, Religion and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary "I've always maintained that the most effective way to transform our urban schools is to fight to eliminate poverty. Unless we challenge the exploitation of humanity by capitalism we will lose the battle to save our schools. This outstanding volume presents the necessary evidence to make this case. Any program of education that ignores this landmark text does so at its own peril." - Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, College of Education, Chapman University and Co-Director of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project "This important book reframes the causes and consequences of poverty, and efforts to address them, in its ideological and global context. The editors and authors have extensive experience and expertise, and add mightily to our understanding of poverty as a field of practice and subject of study." - Barry Checkoway, Professor of Social Work and Urban Planning, University of Michigan     About the Author Stephen Nathan Haymes, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the College of Education and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies and the Department of International Studies at DePaul University, Chicago. Professor Haymes’ areas of research interest are Africana Philosophy, postcolonial theory, forced migration, and education, conflict and development. Currently, he is working on a project related to place-based education and eco-justice with displaced Afrodescendent communities and a Colombian Human Rights NGO. He serves as the co-editor of The Journal of Poverty: Innovations on Social, Political and Economic Inequalities, aquarterly peer review publication of the Taylor and Francis Group. María Vidal de Haymes, Ph.D., is a Professor in the School of Social Work and Di