“The Intersectionality of Domestic Violence and Welfare in the Lives of Poor
Women”
Jyl Josephson
Illinois State University
Abstract: The U. S. social welfare system has a long history of engaging in gendered
and racialized social control of service recipients. This paper explores the utility
of an approach to examining the interaction of such categories as race, class, and
gender developed by African-American feminist scholars – the use of the heuristic
concept of “intersectionality” – and applies the approach to one
aspect of contemporary social policy in the United States: the domestic violence
provisions of the 1996 federal welfare law. The paper discusses the evidence regarding
the relationship between domestic violence and welfare receipt and analyzes the
interaction between state, social, and individual partner’s efforts to control
women receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
“Welfare, Work and Material Hardship in Single Parent and Other
Households”
Kurt J. Bauman
Population Division, U. S. Census Bureau
Abstract: Recent changes to programs of income support for the poor have focused
attention on how work requirements and incentives affect earnings and employment
of welfare recipients. The predominant way of thinking of these issues, at least
in broader political discourse, assumes that obtaining work or improving wages are
desirable goals for welfare recipients and their families. However, recent research
has begun to suggest that single parents and their families are not always better
off in the labor force. This paper uses the 1991 and 1992 panels of the Survey of
Income and Program Participation to examine welfare, work and well-being in a broader
context. The paper finds an apparent advantage of work over welfare for most households,
but not for single parent households. In addition, material hardship is found to
have strong effects on subsequent labor market participation and welfare use.
“The Commuter’s ‘Experience’ of Poverty: A Time-Geographical
Perspective on Health and Illness”
Marc Chrysanthou
University of Salford, UK
Abstract: Much research into poverty ironically confirms the excluded nature of
the relatively deprived in society by focusing on them as “the Poor.”
A neglected dimension of poverty research concerns the links between affluence and
poverty. A theoretical attempt is presented to integrate structural and phenomenological
approaches to poverty – adopting the perspective of the relatively affluent.
Adopting what may very broadly be termed a postmodernist perspective, an argument
is presented that the social geography of post-industrial Britain imposes radically
distinct movements (time-space routines) on disadvantaged and advantaged people;
and, secondly, these time-space routines are intimately correlated with distinct
lived experiences of the social world – including the awareness of one’s
relative position in society. Taken together, these two dimensions of spatial movement
and experience affect health – detrimentally for the relatively poor, and positively
for the relatively affluent. Further, I argue that this social geography also has
an impact on the relatively affluent’s political perspective on poverty; specifically,
to marginalize poverty as a political issue.
“Social Inclusion in a Midwest Local Food System Project”
C. Clare Hinrichs
Iowa State University
and
Kathy S. Kremer
Wartburg College
Abstract: Local food system projects often incorporate explicit or implicit attention
to social inclusion, but actual outcomes have rarely been closely examined. This
article develops the concept of social inclusion, drawing particularly on notions
of class and community. These themes are explored through a 1997 case study of a
Midwest community supported agriculture project (CSA), which sought to increase
low-income participation by providing financial subsidies. Analysis is based primarily
on a telephone survey conducted with 41 member-households. Although subsidized households
had lower incomes than non-subsidized, overall the CSA sample was more advantaged
in terms of income, occupation and education than local or regional reference populations.
Reasons for CSA participation and levels of participation varied by income, occupation
and education, with more advantaged members emphasizing food quality and less advantaged
members emphasizing food access reasons for participation. Perceptions of community
in the CSA project differed little across income groups, education levels or occupation
groups. The article concludes that projects striving for social inclusion may inadvertently
serve the “advantaged” poor and offers recommendations for how efforts
in local food system development might increase social inclusion.
“Welfare Reform and the Empowerment of Poor Women”
Debra M. McPhee
Barry University
Myra Marcus
Florida Gulf Coast University
Lea Caragata
Wilfred Laurier University
and
Susan Hutchinson
University of Memphis
Abstract: The following paper provides an analysis of the 1996 Personal Responsibility
and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and the specific impact of this
legislation on poor women and children. It is argued that the current political/policy
climate demands that helping professionals need to rethink their intervention methods
in working with poor women. Proposed is an innovative response to the needs of this
constituency which utilizes Freire’s (1971) theories of popular education and
“conscientization” as a model. The proposed model is founded on the belief
that in order to achieve lasting change and real self-sufficiency women welfare
recipients will need to begin to recognize themselves as political beings with the
potential for exercising both individual and collective power. Moreover, it is argued
that social workers and other frontline professionals have a critical role to play
in the promotion of social justice, and social action on behalf of the poor clients
they serve.
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