"Why American Poverty Rates Stopped Falling in the 70s, and
Why a Better Story Was Not Told About It"
Frank Stricker
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Abstract: Against welfare dependence models, this paper argues that in the 70s Americans
flooded the labor market, helping to suppress wages and make more people poor. It
also argues that capitalist markets normally generate unemployment, which sustains
poverty; capitalist nations in Europe with less poverty don’t have better free
markets but their governments pay needy people more. These facts were invisible
in the U. S. because the right framed the poverty debate. Because of the weakness
of democratic socialism and because liberalism was not very radical, there was little
opposition. American conservatives fixed people’s attention on bad poor people
and bad government rather than a failing economy and stingy government policies.
"Lesbians and Hate Crimes"
Elizabeth E. Bartle
California State University, Northridge
Abstract: This paper challenges the assumption that because lesbians report fewer
hate crimes, they experience fewer hate crimes compared to gay men. Through content
analysis of congressional hearings and personal accounts, five themes emerged that
will help practitioners and researchers understand how lesbians’ experiences
of hate crimes differ from gay men’s experiences. These themes are (1) lesbian
visibility: identification of victims; (2) creating an atmosphere for hate crimes;
(3) places and types of hates crimes: private spaces; (4) response to perpetrators
of hate crimes; and (5) police and other professionals response to victims of hate
crimes.
"Rural Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities: The Impact
of Globalization Processes and Public Policy on Economic Development"
Wanda Rushing
University of Memphis
Abstract: The name of the Clinton Administration’s Rural Empowerment Zone and
Enterprise Community Program uses powerful political symbols--empowerment and community--to
evoke the spirit of revitalization in distressed communities. This study assesses
the program’s chances for success. It reviews the legislation, program goals,
and selection process; constructs a statistical profile of the 33 rural EZ/EC communities;
and discusses the history of rural economic development in a world-economic system.
Further, this study reviews the four policy goals of the EZ/EC Program and questions
assumptions about the power of local communities and the process of globalization.
"The State and Poverty: Some Aspects of Policy for Transitional
Economies"
Kempe Ronald Hope, Sr.
University of Botswana
Abstract: This article examines and analyzes the socio-economic problem of poverty
in transitional economies and some aspects of policies which can provide some hope
for including the poor in the beneficial outcomes of the transition process. Including
the poor is a necessary and progressive step in any attempt to sustain growth, development,
and socio-economic transformation. Countries that do not include the poor in their
policy frameworks run the risk of achieving growth without development and creating
large numbers of poor and underprivileged people who would lack the fundamental
capacity to sustain further economic progress. Moreover, such a situation is likely
to lead to social and political instability in the medium- to longer-term.
"The Role of Class, Status, and Power in the Distribution of
Toxic Superfund Sites in Texas and Louisiana"
Furjen Denq
Sam Houston State University
Douglas H. Constance
Sam Houston State University
and
Su-Shiow Joung
Sam Houston State University
Abstract: Hazardous waste and environmental justice are important public issues
as well as vital areas of academic discussion. The occurrence of hazardous waste
sites in Texas and Louisiana is among the highest in the U. S. This study reexamines
the claim that hazardous waste sites are disproportionately located in communities
with higher percentages of minorities and poor in the population. Because of varying
units of analysis and improper operationalization of variables, research based on
this claim has produced inconsistent findings. This paper uses the case of Superfund
hazardous waste site locations in Texas and Louisiana combined with a multi-dimensional
conceptual frame to rectify weaknesses associated with conventional approaches to
environmental justice issues. The goal of this analysis is to address two shortcomings
in the environmental justice literature. First, we introduce the concept of relative
deprivation and, second, we expand the traditional class focus of such research
to include both status and power dimensions. The major hypothesis of this research
is that environmental justice issues are better conceptualized as environmental
classism rather than environmental racism. The results indicate that a multi-dimensional
theoretical approach that includes class, status, and power indicators is superior
to previous approaches. Furthermore, results indicate that race is not a significant
correlate with the location of hazardous waste sites. We conclude that the operationalization
of the concept of relative deprivation is valuable in sorting out the influence
of race from other independent variables.