Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

Most Americans persist in believing that poverty results primarily from individual deficiencies: people are poor because they lack intelligence, determination, and skills. In opposition to this dominant, individualistic view, Poverty and Power proposes that American poverty is a structural problem, resulting from the failings of the political economy, not the failings of the poor. In Poverty and Power Edward Royce argues that the current poverty problem originates from changes in the larger economic, political and cultural landscape and from a corresponding shift in the balance of power that has worked to the advantage of business over labor.

Politics & Social Sciences

Royce, Edward

Social Sciences

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Most Americans persist in believing that poverty results primarily from individual deficiencies: people are poor because they lack intelligence, determination, and skills. In opposition to this dominant, individualistic view, Poverty and Power proposes that American poverty is a structural problem, resulting from the failings of the political economy, not the failings of the poor. In Poverty and Power Edward Royce argues that the current poverty problem originates from changes in the larger economic, political and cultural landscape and from a corresponding shift in the balance of power that has worked to the advantage of business over labor.

Poverty and Power asserts that American poverty is a structural problem resulting from failings in our social system rather than individual failings of the poor. Contrary to the popular belief that poverty results from individual deficiencies—that poor people lack intelligence, determination, or skills—author Edward Royce introduces students to the very real structural issues that stack the balance of power in the United States.The book introduces four systems that contribute to inequality in the U.S.—economic, political, cultural, and structural—then discusses ten institutional problems that make life difficult for the poor and contribute to the persistence of poverty. Throughout the book, the author compares individualistic and structural approaches to poverty to assess strengths and limitations of each view.The second edition of this provocative book has been revised throughout with new statistical information, as well as analysis of the recent recession, the Obama presidency, increasing political polarization, the rise of the Tea Party and appearance of the Occupy Movement, new anti-poverty movements, and more.

Business & Money

Economics

Poverty and Power examines structural inequality in American society with a focus on the issue of poverty. The third edition features new material throughout, including discussions of the 2016 election and current political climate, the geography of poverty, the weakening of the safety net, the declining quality of employment opportunities, and more. Many Americans believe that people are poor because of individual failings, such as lack of skills or work ethic. Poverty and Power challenges this view, showing that American poverty instead is a structural problem, resulting from failings of our political, economic, cultural, and social systems. The book examines the social forces and institutional problems that contribute to growing inequality and the persistence of poverty in the United States. Throughout the book, the author compares individualistic and structural approaches and makes a case for the superiority of a structural perspective on American poverty.

Vivid primary accounts of post-Civil War life by planters and freed slaves complement this study of the rise of southern sharecropping. Edward Royce employs both historical and sociological methods to probe the question of why slavery was replaced by sharecropping rather than by some other labor arrangement. His detailed analysis illuminates conflicts between labor and capital as one group struggles to preserve the plantation system while the other pursues a quest for land and autonomy.
 Royce contends that southern sharecropping occurred through a "constriction of possibilities," that it was shaped by default rather than orchestrated by economic reconstruction by white landowners and black laborers.
 Highlighting the conflict-ridden nature of the process of social change, The Origins of Southern Sharecropping includes rich descriptions of the plantation system and gang labor, the freed slaves' dream of forty acres and a mule, the black colonization movement, the Freedman's Bureau, and racial relations after the war.
 In the series Labor and Social Change, edited by Paula Rayman and Carmen Sirianni.

The Origins of Southern Sharecropping (Labor And Social Change)

Temple University Press

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Books by Royce, Edward

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Royce, Edward. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

The Origins of Southern Sharecropping (Labor And Social Change)