Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality - Hardcover

Royce, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1538167557 ISBN 13: 9781538167557

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022

Synopsis

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 that a structural perspective on American poverty is the best explanation of the persistent inequalities and disparities that hold back progress and advancement for the country.

The fourth edition features new material throughout, including discussions of how poverty intersects with race, ethnicity, and gender; the divisive, growing political and cultural polarization in the country and its impacts on structural poverty; the exacerbating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on structural poverty; and the role of social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter and the backlash of white nationalism as they relate to structural poverty.

About this title

About the Author

Edward Royce is professor emeritus of sociology at Rollins College, where he was a recipient of the Cornell Distinguished Faculty Award. In addition to Poverty and Power, he is also the author of The Origins of Southern Sharecropping (1993) and Classical Social Theory and Modern Society: Marx, Durkheim, Weber (2015). He currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1538167557
• ISBN 13: 9781538167557
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 352