Poverty Regulation Social Justice

"By 2004, Ontario and British Columbia implemented "safe streets" legislation, laws that criminalize the economic activities, such as panhandling and squeegeeing, of people living in poverty. Concerned that Nova Scotia would do the same, the editors of this volume partnered with community groups to organize a public colloquium on the criminalization of poverty. Contributors to the colloquium from across Canada included a diversity of voices, from academics, policy makers and frontline workers to those affected first hand by these policies. This book, emerging from that conference, critically interrogates how state and private practices have increasingly come to over-regulate people with severely limited economic resources, and argues that the criminalization of our society's most vulnerable, the poor, women, the racialized, the disabled, youth, is materially and symbolically central to neoliberal politics and economics. The essays here also point to new ways of moving forward, approaches to poverty that minimize the use of law and regulation and have the potential to create a more compassionate future"--Back cover.

Emerging from a public colloquium on the criminalization of poverty, this volume critically interrogates how state and private practices have increasingly come to over-regulate people with severely limited economic resources, and understands this regulation as part of the dynamics of liberal capitalism. Exploring issues such as homelessness, social assistance and single mothers, and written from a diversity of perspectives from academics to frontline workers, policy-makers and those affected first hand by these practices, this book aims to help readers imagine a more compassionate future.

"By 2004, Ontario and British Columbia implemented "safe streets" legislation, laws that criminalize the economic activities, such as panhandling and squeegeeing, of people living in poverty. Concerned that Nova Scotia would do the same, the editors of this volume partnered with community groups to organize a public colloquium on the criminalization of poverty. Contributors to the colloquium from across Canada included a diversity of voices, from academics, policy makers and frontline workers to those affected first hand by these policies. This book, emerging from that conference, critically interrogates how state and private practices have increasingly come to over-regulate people with severely limited economic resources, and argues that the criminalization of our society's most vulnerable, the poor, women, the racialized, the disabled, youth, is materially and symbolically central to neoliberal politics and economics. The essays here also point to new ways of moving forward, approaches to poverty that minimize the use of law and regulation and have the potential to create a more compassionate future"--Back cover.

A clear understanding of social justice requires complex rather than simple answers. It requires comfort with ambiguity rather than absolute answers. This is counter to viewing right versus wrong, just vs. unjust, or good vs. evil as dichotomies. This book provides many examples of where and how to begin to view these as continuums rather than dichotomies.

The International Forum for Social Development was a 3 year project undertaken by the United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs between 2001 and 2004 to promote international cooperation for social development and supporting developing countries and social groups not benefiting from the globalization process. This publication provides an overview and interpretation of the discussions and debates that occurred at the four meetings of the Forum for Social Development held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, within the framework of the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development.

Focuses on values and the historical impact of socio-economic structures Understanding Social Welfare: A Search for Social Justice is presented in an organized, comprehensive, and scholarly manner, including social policy concepts. It is accessible to students and helps them acquire the basic tools for understanding, analyzing, and evaluating social welfare policies and programs. This text focuses on the impact of social structure on people’s lives, emphasizing the current concerns of diverse client populations and the search for social justice. It places U.S. welfare in philosophical, political, economic, and international contexts, and includes the latest discussion of policy issues related to gay men and lesbians. A better teaching and learning experience This program will provide a better teaching and learning experience--for you and your students. Here's how: Improve Critical Thinking – Challenges readers to make their own decisions as they encounter policies and programs with enhanced knowledge and analytic skills. Engage Students – Presents the historical evolution of social welfare and focuses on issues, trends, and conflicts in the context of influential societal developments and values. Explore Current Issues – Includes the latest discussion of policy issues related to gay men and lesbians. Support Instructors – An Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank, Computerized Test Bank (MyTest), Blackboard Test Item File, and PowerPoint presentations are included in the outstanding supplements package.

What could possibly be wrong with social justice? We like justice. We are social beings. Should not our communities be just ones? Author Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. maintains that social justice is not justice. When we pursue social justice, it is at the expense of true justice and in its pursuit of equality, social justice threatens liberty. It is a case of setting contradictory and incompatible goals. Hushbeck examines our current pursuit of social justice and how it has failed, while looking also at the scriptures we use in that pursuit and how we have misunderstood them. While we should care about our neighbors and find ways to ease the plight of the poor, social justice's emphasis on redistribution is not only often unjust but it actually makes things worse. His prescription? Pursue justice and liberty without any adjectives.

In Rethinking Poverty, James P. Bailey argues that most contemporary policies aimed at reducing poverty in the United States are flawed because they focus solely on insufficient income. Bailey argues that traditional policies such as minimum wage laws, food stamps, housing subsidies, earned income tax credits, and other forms of cash and non-cash income supports need to be complemented by efforts that enable the poor to save and accumulate assets. Drawing on Michael Sherraden’s work on asset building and scholarship by Melvin Oliver, Thomas Shapiro, and Dalton Conley on asset discrimination, Bailey presents us with a novel and promising way forward to combat persistent and morally unacceptable poverty in the United States and around the world. Rethinking Poverty makes use of a significant body of Catholic social teachings in its argument for an asset development strategy to reduce poverty. These Catholic teachings include, among others, principles of human dignity, the social nature of the person, the common good, and the preferential option for the poor. These principles and the related social analyses have not yet been brought to bear on the idea of asset-building for the poor by those working within the Catholic social justice tradition. This book redresses this shortcoming, and further, claims that a Catholic moral argument for asset-building for the poor can be complemented and enriched by Martha Nussbaum’s “capabilities approach.” This book will affect current debates and practical ways to reduce poverty, as well as the future direction of Catholic social teaching.