While welfare rolls have dramatically dropped across the United States during the last decade, the high poverty rate for mothers and their children has not.  Kenneth Neubeck’s groundbreaking new book offers an incisive account of the current welfare system and a comprehensive explanation of how lone mother-headed families have been affected by welfare reform. As well, When Welfare Disappears places U.S. welfare policies in historical perspective and compares them to other industrialized nations’ policies. What emerges is a novel argument for curtailing the end of welfare as we know it: the case for respecting economic human rights.

The Dynamics of Social Welfare Policy reinvents the contemporary social welfare policy textbook. Organized around the explicit premise that every kind of social work practice embodies a social welfare policy, the book develops three types of knowledge: 1) a description of social welfare policy; 2) a model for understanding any social welfare policy, and 3) tools for critical thinking about social welfare. Recognizing the fluidity of social welfare, this knowledge is then used to identify the factors that trigger policy change and influence what social workers actually do. 

Published by Oxford University Press, 2003

Reflecting an emerging consensus that social justice is a primary mission of the social work profession, Foundations of Social Policy explicitly addresses the broad issues and human dilemmas inherent in the pursuit of social justice. Organized in four parts, the book provides a framework for policy analysis, offers a theoretical perspective on defining social problems, introduces several philosophical perspectives on what constitutes social justice, and identifies the values and assumptions reflected in contemporary policy debates, with an eye to the future of U.S. policy. In addition, the second edition now includes:

·         Works by key social work scholars David Gil, Dorothy Van Soest, Betty Garcia, and Katherine van Wormer in Chapter 1, enhancing the text’s coverage of modern and post-modern approaches to defining social justice.

·         A new chapter on disability that explores the role of disability advocacy groups.

·         Expanded coverage of international issues and globalization in Chapter 6, with a special discussion of global epidemics (HIV/AIDS and SARS) and their implications for international health authorities.

·         New content on U.S. labor policy that highlights the increased vulnerability of workers in this country, as well as a new section on incarceration as a form of social control.

·         New material on privatization and the role of government.

·         Several new major frameworks for policy analysis along with a new, improved social justice framework.

·         New web-based exercises that help students apply key concepts from the text through online searches.

·         Chapter-specific case studies titled “A Human Perspective,” which are followed by a debriefing section titled “A Social Work Perspective” (formerly “Discussion”).

·         “Think About It” discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

This text also features an eBank Instructor’s Manual available electronically on the Instructor’s portion of the Book Companion Website that contains valuable resources such as sample assignments and group exercises. In addition, the text’s Test Bank is available via email to streamline your assessment preparation. Visit us at http://www.socialwork.wadsworth.com/barusch2 for details

For a review copy go to: http://servicedirect.thomsonlearning.com or fax your request to 1-859-647-5020. Questions? Call:1-800-423-0563

Brief Table of Contents:

Part I: Policy Analysis: Frameworks and Tools

            Chapter 1: Social Justice and Social Workers

            Chapter 2: The Government’s Role

            Chapter 3: Policy Analysis and Policy Practice

Part II: Collective Responses to Social Problems

            Chapter 4: The Social Security Act

            Chapter 5: Poverty

            Chapter 6: Physical Illness

            Chapter 7: Mental Illness

            Chapter 8: Disability

Part III: Vulnerable Populations: Discrimination and Oppression

            Chapter 9: People of Color

            Chapter 10: Gay. Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Individuals

            Chapter 11: Children

            Chapter 12: Women

            Chapter 13: The Elderly

Part IV: Cycles of Liberation

            Chapter 14: A Glance Toward the Future

Breaking the Code of Good Intentions

        Foreword by Joe R. Feagin  

Dr. Melanie Bush's BREAKING THE CODE OF GOOD INTENTIONS brilliantly explores the everyday dimensions of how white Americans maintain and reproduce the inequalities of race through common interaction. Well-written and effectively argued, this study provides critical new insights and makes an important contribution to the social science literature about race.
Leith Mullings, Presidential Professor of Anthropology, CUNY

 "Dr. Bush╒s book effectively deconstructs white racial identities, showing them to be fraught with uncertainty and contradiction, and explaining the peculiar perception of beleagueredness many whites experience today. This book goes mad deep into the inner workings of white racial identity. Highly recommended!
Howard Winant, University of California, Santa Barbara and author of The World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy since World War II

Examining the contemporary white experience, Breaking the Code of Good Intentions examines why most white people in the United States believe we have achieved racial equality, even though social and economic indicators suggest otherwise. Drawing on systematic research conducted at the largest urban public university in the country, Melanie Bush explores students╒ perceptions about identity, privilege, democracy, and inter-group relations.

Framed within an analysis of economic and political transitions that have occurred within the United States and globally in the second half of the twentieth century, the author examines the shift in public opinion from a presumption of collective responsibility for the common good, toward a belief in the social survival of the fittest.

She has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and presented at a range of national conferences particularly in the fields of sociology and anthropology. Dr. Bush can be reached at melanie.e.l.bush@gmail.com

Paper ISBN 0-7425-2864-2  List Price $26.95  Discount Price $22.00  

Cloth ISBN 0-7425-2863-4   List Price $75.00  Discount Price $60.00

(Please order using this code: 4S4BUSHM)

www.rowmanlittlefield.com  1-800-462-64201.800.4  

Other Resources
 

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Review of Ir a la Escuela - Film Review
Review of Poverty Outlaw and Taylor's Campaign - Film Reviews
 

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Review of Ir a la Escuela (Going to School)
 

Produced, Directed and Edited by Richard Cohen.  Distributed by Richard Cohen Films, P.O. Box 1012, Venice, California.  Phone 310-395-3549.

URL: www.richardcohenfilms.com.  E-mail: rbc24@earthlink.net.

Ir a la Escuela is powerful film that does an excellent job of touching on a number of important social issues that are of concern to activists and educators alike.  The film can be an effective tool in the areas of community organizing, social activism, social work, political science, education, sociology and other disciplines.

 Ir a la Escuela takes us to a diverse East Los Angeles school district where a struggle over the rights of disabled school children is waged between parents, guardians and concerned teachers on one hand and the school authorities and their supporters on the other. The strength of this movie lies primarily in the voices of the people interviewed.  Through the voices of the parents we are made aware of the frustration, fear and anger they wrestle with as they try to influence a school system bent on treating their children as second class students who are not worthy of a meaningful school experience.  Ir a la Escuela shows us the irony of parents having to do battle with a system that is ostensibly in place to help all children maximize their potential.  The parents gain strength and overcome their fears as they come into contact other parents also challenging the status quo.  These parents in turn become activists and can help other parents in their struggles.

Through the voices of the teachers and classroom aides we hear the frustrations of being a cog in a giant machine that has the potential, if left unopposed, to discard and cast aside children in need of a more caring and nurturing environment.  An especially poignant part of the movie comes when an aide who is having a difficult time with a disabled student realizes that this student was having a bad day because she was being treated as something to be transported from classroom to classroom and not as a living breathing human being with complex needs, wants and desires.  The aide’s realization is something that many of us in this society need to address.  This film forces us to review our collective attitude towards disabled people. On a daily basis this society robs people of their complexity—of their humanity.  Meaning no harm to anyone, we often deprive a whole segment of the population of their humanity by assuming that they are little more than a collection of seemingly dysfunctional parts.  Which brings me to the voices of the children themselves.  They are as varied and as similar to those of any group children around the world.  They are acutely award of how they are viewed by some of their classmates, some of their teachers and by some members of the greater society.  The children are truly amazing because in spite of all that they must endure on a daily basis, somehow they remain hopeful and optimistic.  They dream about taking up helping careers so they can assist others and they giggle about dates and boyfriends.  The children want to be included, they want other children, teachers and the greater society to get to know them.  They want to be seen and heard.  They want to be dealt with as real distinct human-beings and not as a bundle of special needs.  They don’t want to be put in the other building or in the other wing. 

Another important message of the film is that without struggle there will certainly be no progress.  Ir a la Escuela is sad, depressing, frustrating and hopeful all at once.  It will force the viewer to re-evaluate their own position on a variety of things, from the nature of our educational and social systems to our own beliefs and commitment to diversity and inclusion.  Go to school, see Ir a la Escuela, the children have much to teach us and we have much to learn.

Author of Review: Alfred Joseph (Miami University)
         Forthcoming in Journal of Poverty, Volume 7, Number 3, 2003

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Teaching About Poverty Through Images: Poverty Outlaw and Taylor's Campaign

Conservative politicians and pundits often talk about various ‘wars’ going on in this society.  One does not have to wait long while listening to the radio or television or reading the news to run across some reference to a battle over ‘values’, ‘culture’, or ‘morality’. Sometimes the ‘war’ being waged is for the very “soul of America”.  Of course these “battles” are of concern only to those who oppose any and all meaningful efforts being made to make this a more open and just society.  On the other hand, those with a greater sense of reality and a cursory knowledge of contemporary American history are concerned about a real war with real casualties and real victims.  The war we are concerned with is the war being waged on the poor.  Poverty Outlaw and Taylor’s Campaign are two movies that speak to the issues that surround the real war being waged in America.

Poverty Outlaw is set in Philadelphia in the Kensington neighborhood.  Kensington is a multiracial poor working-class neighborhood on the north side of Philadelphia.  Like many of America’s inner city neighborhoods, it has been abandoned by commercial, industrial and real estate interests.  What is left is a tattered ‘safety net’ that is becoming increasingly hostile to the very people it is supposed to serve. 

The movie follows the activities of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union over several months as they attempt to address some of the needs of neighborhood people.  In short, this movie is about survival and the oppressive social forces that wear away at the mind and body of countless people in the ‘Kensingtons’ around the country and around the world.  In one hour this movie will evoke feelings of anger and frustration; it will enlighten and it will depress you, it will make you feel powerless and hopeless, but at its conclusion, it will renew your faith in the working-class and the power of collective social action.

As the movie starts, it quickly becomes apparent that poor people and their activities are of particular concern to those in authority.  It is instructive to the uninitiated to see how the arms of the state, in this case the police and childrens services, react to people who try to empower themselves.  Daily we are bombarded with messages about poor people and how they may lack the desire and motivation to take advantage of “opportunities” that can pull them out of poverty.  The implication being that if they would only get up and take control of their lives they could bring about a positive change in their situation.  This movie is about people doing exactly that.  But in the real world, they are confronted by the state.  We see poor men and women of Kensington taking over abandoned buildings to be used as homes for the homeless and places where children can have a safe and nurturing place to play.  The response from officialdom could have been supportive, but it was not.  They were arrested and faced possible imprisonment for up to ten years.  When the Union starts a tent city for the homeless on an abandoned lot overrun with weeds and refuse, they quickly come under the watchful eyes of the police.  Not soon afterwards the tent city residents become victims of a campaign of dirty tricks designed to intimidate and scare away potential supporters.  In fact, almost every act of survival on the part of the Union and its supporters is met by overt and covert acts of resistance on the part of the state.  While the police are usually the first wave of shock troops sent, the state has a deep arsenal.  Child Protective and Human services officials are used to pressure some of the women involved in the tent city project. Some children are actually taken into custody and other women have their cases “reviewed”.

The strength of Poverty Outlaw is its effective portrayal of the day to day struggles of impoverished people.  It shows people struggling to overcome feelings isolation, suspicion, and the powerful social force of racism.  The film does a good job in contradicting some of the widely held negative stereotypes that exist in our society about this group.  It does this while not idealizing or making saints of those involved.  It shows people sharing and sacrificing for the benefit of others, but it also shows that some people will be “lost to the streets” where they engage in petty criminal and self-destructive behavior.  This war is not without casualties.  Poverty Outlaw is well worth seeing.

Taylor’s Campaign, like Poverty Outlaw, tackles serious issues concerning the plight of poor and homeless people.  This movie revolves around the campaign of a formerly homeless man named Taylor trying to get elected to the city council of Santa Monica, California.  Taylor wants to become an advocate for the homeless.  Through the course of the movie, we are introduced to his “constituency”.  They are given the chance to voice their concerns, fears and hopes.  They speak with great wisdom about the true nature of 20th century capitalist America.  They have uncovered the myths and contradictions of our society.  They know all about “equal treatment before the law.”  They understand that when people tell them they will give them a job that the job may or may not be there when they show up.  They know the truth about the homeless shelters; they understand the “complicated” relationships between lack of affordable housing and homelessness.  They have also unlocked the “mystery” surrounding poverty, underemployment and unemployment.  Because they have unlocked this mystery, they know that people without jobs or people with low paying jobs tend to face more hardships than people with high-paying jobs.  They realize that contrary to what you may have learned in civics classes, people with high incomes experience more “democracy” than those without.

Like Poverty Outlaw, this movie also deals effectively with the role of the state in dealing with the poor.  The homeless are constantly under surveillance by the police.  They are constant objects of harassment.  The threat of arrest is ever present.  The message being sent is obvious, if you are poor and homeless you are potentially, if not already a criminal.  While both movies expose the true character of the state, Taylor’s Campaign also exposes the hold that anti-poor ideology has on the general population.  This movie says as much about the nature of American society as it does about the poor.  Whether it is the tourist couple complaining about the poor interfering with their ability to enjoy the sunset, the two young males who believe that maybe the poor should be allowed to perish if they can’t “make it” on their own, or the city councilpersons who want to introduce legislation to make it unlawful to publicly feed people, examples of society’s hostility towards the poor and homeless population are numerous.  This movie is very troublesome in a positive of sort way.  It will make viewers question what sort of society would invent a dumpster that makes it difficult for people to extract food and other life sustaining materials, rather than providing people with the things that are needed to live.

In Taylor’s Campaign, the movie revolved around electoral politics.  In Poverty Outlaw, the action revolved around people coming together at the grassroots level to engage in struggle.  Even though both types of political action were tried, they were met with opposition at every step of the way.  The system wins if people do nothing or blame each other for their problems.  Both of these movies offer unique glances into the lives of people that are oftentimes ignored.  For at least a little while they are listened to while they tell their story.  They are saying things that need to be heard.
        
        Author of Review: Alfred Joseph (Miami University) and Andrea Cerio (Miami University)
        Journal of Poverty, Volume 4, Number 3, 2000