Calcutta Poor: Inquiry into the Intractability of Poverty - Hardcover

Thomas, Frederic C.

 
9781563249815: Calcutta Poor: Inquiry into the Intractability of Poverty
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1563249812 ISBN 13: 9781563249815
Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

Calcutta is notorious for its pavement dwellers, street children, and scavengers that have become a portrait of the worst sort of human degradation. In this illuminating critique, Thomas investigates the standard solutions - improved housing, increased job creation, and intervention of social services agencies - only to come to the conclusion that such initiatives have little effect on the inherent nature of the problem of poverty. Based on historical and anthropological findings, and the author's visits to the slums of Calcutta, what becomes clear is that even in the midst of great poverty, there is a nobility of character, a vitality of ethnic and cultural ties, and an energy that bring out inventiveness and ingenuity in the lives of the poor. If Calcutta's poverty is not to be an intractable problem, these internal forces must be awakened to generate solutions. Illustrated with stunning photographs, Thomas's reflections provide new insight into an age-old problem.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Thomas, Frederic C.

From the Back Cover

Calcutta is notorious for its pavement dwellers, street children, and scavengers that have become a portrait of the worst sort of human degradation. In this illuminating critique, Thomas investigates the standard solutions - improved housing, increased job creation, and intervention of social services agencies - only to come to the conclusion that such initiatives have little effect on the inherent nature of the problem of poverty. Based on historical and anthropological findings, and the author's visits to the slums of Calcutta, what becomes clear is that even in the midst of great poverty, there is a nobility of character, a vitality of ethnic and cultural ties, and an energy that bring out inventiveness and ingenuity in the lives of the poor. If Calcutta's poverty is not to be an intractable problem, these internal forces must be awakened to generate solutions. Illustrated with stunning photographs, Thomas's reflections provide new insight into an age-old problem.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Routledge
Publication date
1996
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1563249812
ISBN 13 
9781563249815
Binding
Hardcover
Edition number
1
Number of pages
200

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781563249808: Calcutta Poor: Elegies on a City Above Pretense: Elegies on a City Above Pretense

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1563249804 ISBN 13:  9781563249808
Publisher: Routledge, 1997
Softcover