POVERTY, CLASS AND INEQUALITY

The Poverty, Class, and Inequality (PCI) Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) is rooted in the principles of egalitarianism, which was so eloquently expressed by Karl Marx as, “... from each according to his ability, to each according to his need (or needs)...” (1875, Critique of the Gotha Program).  In a world of growing and ever deepening inequality, the members of the PCI division, through their scholarship, research, community service and activism, focus on the issues of poverty, class and inequality as outcomes rooted in the unequal distribution of income, wealth, status and power and the resources and opportunities in industrial and capitalist society. The division’s mission is to identify the individual and structural factors that produce and reinforce existing class structures that create systemic and individual inequalities, which, in turn, produce and entrench social problems such unemployment, poverty, homelessness, and hunger, and limit access to food, housing, health care, education, and employment. Our research and scholarship also brings to light and educates about the institutional and structural barriers that limit and hinder the life chances of the sick, old, young, poor, disadvantaged, oppressed and excluded citizens in all societies.  Through our community service and activism, we raise awareness about oppression, exclusion, injustice, persecution, and discrimination.

Our members actively participate in the development, implementation and evaluation of programs, services and policies designed to address issues of equity, discrimination and exclusion in all social institutions and structures at home, regionally, nationally and globally.  Poverty, class and inequality, however, do not exist in a vacuum.  They permeate and interact with all other forms of oppression and exclusion. Seemingly inextricably bound to gender, age, racial, ethno-cultural and geographical inequalities, the mission of this division is also to dissect, examine and understand how all of the axes of inequality and social differentiation intersect and overlap in shaping the experiences of individuals, communities, activists, and scholars. The division members believe that through understanding the origin and persistence of poverty, class and inequality and using that knowledge for positive social action and change, we can truly create an egalitarian and just world, where humanism and capitalism coexist and work together for the good of all and not just the few.

Division mission statement last edited in 2013 by Tracy Peressini, Departments of Sociology and Social Development Studies, Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, Poverty, Class & Inequality Division Chair, 2012-2014.

Selected Readings

The following suggested reading list is for SSSP colleagues and their students who wish to learn more about poverty, class, and inequality. The list is divided by topic and based on recommendations by the division members and the authors.

Agger, Ben. (2000). Public Sociology: From Social Facts to Literary Acts. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

Alesina, Alberto and Edward L. Glaeser. (2005). Fighting Poverty in the U.S. and Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Alinsky, Saul (1969). Rules for Radicals.  Vintage Press.

Balmer, B., Dineen, M. and J. Swift. (2010). Persistent Poverty: Voices from the Margins. New York: Between the Lines.

Bellah, R.N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W.M., Swindler, A. and S. M. Tipton (1992). The Good Society.  Random House.

Berstein, R. J. (1971). Praxis and Action: Contemporary Philosophies of Human Activity.  University of Pennsylvania Press.

Blau, P. and O.D. Duncan. (1978). The American Occupational Structure.  Free Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice.  Cambridge University Press.

Clement, Wallace. (1975). The Canadian Corporate Elite: An Analysis of Economic Power. Ottawa: Carleton University Press.

Collins, Patricia Hill. (1990). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York and London: Routledge.

Corcoran, Mary, Greg J. Duncan, Gerald Gurin, and Patricia Gurin. (1985). Myth and Reality: The Causes and Persistence of Poverty. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 4 (4), 516-536.

Corning, P. (2011).  The Fair Society: And the pursuit of social justice.  University of Chicago Press.

Dahrendorf, R. (1979). Life Chances.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dohling, D. (2010). Injustice: Why social inequality persists.  The Policy Press.

Dolgoff, R. (2008). Understanding Social Welfare: A Search for Social Justice. Allyn & Bacon Publishers.

Duncan, Cynthia M., and Ann R. Tickamyer, (1988). Poverty Research and Policy for Rural America. The American Sociologist, 19-3, 243-259.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. (2001). Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Fanon, F. (2005). The Wretched of the Earth.  Grove Press.

Friere, Paulo. (2000). Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage.  Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

Friere, Paulo. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  Continuum Books.

Gans, Herbert. (1982). Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans.  New York: The Free Press.

Gans, Herbert. (1995). The War Against the Poor: The Underclass and Anti-poverty Policy.  New York: Harper Collins/Basic Books.

Giddens, Anthony (1986). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration.  University of California Press.

Habermas, J. (1991). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society.   MIT Press.

Hack, S. (1998). Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate.  University of Chicago Press.

Harrington, Michael. (1962). The Other America: Poverty in the United States. Baltimore: Penguin Books.

Harrington, Michael. (1977). The Twilight of Capitalism. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Hayes, Sharon. (2003). Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hills, J., Le Grand, J. andD. Piachaud. (2002). Understanding Social Exclusion.  Oxford University Press.

Hobhouse, L.T. (2010). Social Development: Its Nature and Conditions. Routledge Revivals Series (first published 1924).  Routledge Press.

Ismael, Shereen. (2006). Child Poverty and the Canadian Welfare State: From Entitlement to Charity. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.

James, O. (2008). The Selfish Capitalist.  Random House.

Lenski, Gerhardt. (1966). Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Linda McQuaig. (1993).  The Wealthy Bankers Wife.  Penguin Publishers.

Lui, Meizhu, Barbara Robles, Betsy Leonard-Wright, Rose Brewer, and Rebecca Adamson. (2006). The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide. New Press.

Marcuse, H. (1991). One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society.  Beacon Press.

Marmot, M. (2004). The Status Syndrome. Holt Paperbacks.

Marx, K. (2000). Das Kapital.  Regenry Publishing.

Mehrotra, S. and E. Delamonica (2007).  Eliminating Human Poverty: macroeconomic and Social Policies for Equitable Growth.  Zed Books Ltd.

Merton, Robert K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure. Free Press.

Mills. C. Wright (2000). The Sociological Imagination.  Oxford University Press.

Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein, and Heather Boushey. (2003). The State of Working America 2002-2003. Economic Policy Institute.

Piven, F.F. and R.A. Cloward (1979).  Poor People’s Movements: Why they succeed, how they fail.  Random House.

Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. (1993). Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare. New York: Vintage Books.

Porter, Jack (2007). Is Sociology Dead? Social Theory and Social Praxis in a Post-Modern Age.  University Press of America.

Porter, John (1965). The Vertical Mosaic.  University of Toronto Press.

Rank, Mark Robert. (1994). Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America. New York: Columbia University Press.

Raphael, Dennis (2011).  Poverty in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life.  Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.

Raphael, Dennis (2007).  Poverty and Policy in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life.  Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.

Rigney, D. (2010). The Matthew Effect: How advantage begets further advantage.  Columbia University Press.

Saul, J.R. (1995). The Unconscious Civilization.  The House of Anansi Press.

Schram, Sanford (2002). Praxis for the Poor: Piven and Cloward and the Future of Social Science in Social Welfare.   NYU Press.

Sullivan, Teresa, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Westbrook. (2000). The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt. Yale University Press.

Taylor-Gooby, Peter (1991). Social Change, Social Welfare and Social Science.  University of Toronto Press.

Wacquant, L. (2008).  Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality.  Polity Press.

Wainryb, C., Smetana, J.G. and E. Turiel. (2008). Social Development, Social Inequalities and Social Justice.  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Publishers.

Wallerstein, I. (1975). The Capitalist World-Economy (Studies in Modern Capitalism). Cambridge University Press.

Wallerstein, I. (2001).  Unthinking Social Science: The Limits of Nineteenth-Century Paradigms.  Temple University Press.

Watkins-Hayes, C. (2009). The New Welfare Bureaucrats: Entaglements of Race, Class and Policy Reform.  University of Chicago Press.

Wilkinson, R. (2005). The Impact of Inequality: How to make sick societies healthier.  The New Press.

Wilson, William Julius. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Wilson, William Julius. (1997). When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York: Vintage Press.