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Inequalities

Social Inequality and Classes

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Social inequality happens when assets in a given society are disseminated unevenly, regularly through standards of allotment, that incite particular designs along lines of socially characterized categories of people.

It is the separation inclination of get to of social merchandise within the society brought approximately by control, religion, family relationship, glory, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, sexual introduction, and class.

Inequalities

Research Centers

Advocacy Groups

Classes

Stratification

Poverty - Hunger

Inequalities

A

Articles, books and reports

  • Alstyne, Marshall Van/ Brynjolfsson, Erik  
    [1995] Communication Networks and the Rise of an Information Elite — Do Computers Help the Rich Get Richer? 
    In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems. Amsterdam; December 14-17, 1995.
    Circumstances exist under which a telecommunications policy of universal access leads to an increase in the gap between the information «haves» and the «have-nots». A national information infrastructure which provides only channels and not incentives for information sharing might therefore lead to results which are reversed from those originally intended. This argument and several related propositions are explored through a formal theoretical model built on four simple assumptions: one cannot converse with everyone at the same time, information is not lost when shared, private information resources differ in quality, and agents can improve the quality of their information based on the quality of the resources to which they gain access. The model rigorously explains how inter-agent infrastructure can be used to help the “rich get richer” and also why “it’s not just what you know but whom you know.” This theoretical framework serves to explain several stylized events and offers several useful levers for exploring policy options.
  • American Prospect, The 
    • [Fall 1992] The Rich, the Right, and the Facts: Deconstructing the Income Distribution Debate - Paul Krugman
      Incomes have soared at the top of the U.S. income distribution. Most of the growth in productivity was ‘siphoned off’ to high-income brackets, leaving little room for income growth lower down. Most economists thought that growing poverty might be an important social issue, but the fact that some people are very rich was only a social curiosity. Krugman disagrees: the rise in incomes at the top is in fact a major economic issue. His shorthand way of conveying that point is the Krugman calculation: 70 percent of the rise in average family income has gone to the top 1 percent of families.
    • [10.12.2001] The Inequality Express - Barry Bleustone
      In the social sciences a number of possible explanations are suggested for the trend toward greater inequality. The author tries to sort them out.
    • [19.12.2001] Inequality and Social Security - Richard Leone
    • [17.05.2004] Solve Inequality with Democracy - Miles Rapoport
    • [22.04.2007] Inequality, Race, and Remedy - Alan Jenkins
    • [14.11.2012] Want Less Inequality? Tax It - Liam C. Malloy / John Case
      An attempt to revive the idea of Arthur C. Pigou en to apply it to America’s most outrageous problem: inequality.
    • [12.03.2014] The Inequality Puzzle - Robert Kuttner
      There had been no decline in intergenerational mobility during the past three decades. the ability of the affluent to pass along class advantage has intensified in countless ways. Young people from wealthy families are more likely to get into elite colleges and less likely to finish college hobbled with debt. Parents can subsidize unpaid internships useful for networking. The children of the affluent can get help with starter homes, in districts with excellent public schools. The wider the income extremes, the more money the elite has to spend assuring that their progeny stay in the family social class. The worse life becomes for ordinary people, the more incentive the rich have to extend privilege to their kids.
    • [14.08.2014] Education Alone Is Not the Answer to Income Inequality and Slow Recovery - Robert Kuttner
    • [Spring 2015] The Political Roots of Widening Inequality - Robert Reich
      The key to understanding the rise in inequality isn’t technology or globalization. It’s the power of the moneyed interests to shape the underlying rules of the market.
    • [28.09.2015] The Pope's Blind Spot: When Income Inequality and Abortion Intersect - Atima Omara
      Omara explains why reproductive healt is a social justice issue. Poor women have significantly higher rates of unintended pregnancy, which in turn lead to higher rates of abortion and unintended birth. Using effective contraception consistently is an expensive proposition that goes far beyond paying for the pills or condoms themselves. To access the most effective methods, a woman must be able to get to a clinic, see a provider, get a prescription and/or make it to follow-up visits. For a woman without insurance, without a car, who can’t get time off work, or who maybe doesn’t speak the same language as her doctor, the seemingly simple act of getting and staying on birth control is anything but.
    • [Spring 2015] Senior Class: America's Unequal Retirement - Teresa Ghilarducci
      One of the cruelest manifestations of widening inequality happens in life’s final quarter. The inequality of retirements time is the number of years between retirement and death. The poor have lower earnings and often work longer. They are less likely to have decent pensions or private savings. On average, they suffer poorer health and tend to die younger. On all counts, the affluent get to enjoy more years of retirement in relative comfort.
  • Anelauskas, Valdas
    Discovering America As It Is
    A book by Lithuanian journalist and former anti-Soviet dissident Valdas Anelauskas in which he describes America as it is and warns about the menace it constitutes to the world. The author compares the United States to the former Soviet Union, and the countries of Western Europe. He finds the U.S. to be deficient in the area of social and economic human rights. He also describes the consequences of U.S. recent welfare reform, and gives what he considers to be the reasons that the U.S. government instituted this particular change in its social policy. Valdas Anelauskas was expelled from the USSR for his human rights activities. He settled in the United States and eventually became a dissident in America just as he was in the former Soviet Union. Ten years of observation of American reality has led Anelauskas to conclude that the U.S. extreme capitalist system represents an even greater threat than Soviet mock-communism to the well-being of the world.
  • Atkinson, Anthony B.
  • Atkinson, Anthony B. / Piketty, Thomas (eds.) 
    [2006] Top Incomes over the Twentieth Century: A Contrast Between European and English-Speaking Countries
    Oxford University Press.
    A collection of studies of top incomes in ten countries: United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, and United Kingdom. Although a number of the chapters refer to evidence in other countries, this book is not a comparative study. Each country studies has its own specificities with regard to systems omf income taxation, tho the ways in which data are collected, and to the wider processes of income determination.

B

  • Benschop, Albert - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Blau, Peter
    [1977] Inequality and Heterogeneity [Summary]
    New York: Free Press, 1977, chs. 1-5 (pp. 1-126).
  • Blau, Peter / Duncan, Otis D.
    [1977] The American Occupational Structure [Summary]
    New York: Wiley, pp. 115-28, 163-77.
  • Bluestone, Barry
    [1995] The Polarization of American Society: Victims, Suspects, and Mysteries to Unravel
    New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press. 
    A working paper that presents an overview of U.S. wage, income, and wealth trends for the past quarter century. It identifies some of the economic ‘victims’ and of the ‘suspects’ of this particular era in economic history. And finally it tries to pinpoint some mysteries that in order to understand what caused the end of the Glory Days.
  • Boston Review
    • [01.02.1996] Time for a Wealth Tax? - Edward Wolff
      The tax system in the United States leaves the vast differences in wealth and power largely untouched. Because wealth is so highly concentrated, a wealth tax would be a gain for equity; because wealth inequality is tied to unequal political power, a wealth tax could make the country more democratic; and because wealth concentration is growing, a large political coalition might be prepared to endorse it. And a wealth tax would help to close the budgetary gap without visiting the costs on those who can least afford them. Wolff proposes that the United States adopt a wealth tax along the lines of the Swiss system: (i) all household effects, pensions, and annuities would be excluded from the tax base; (ii) only families with a net worth above $100,000 would be subject to the tax.

      [01.12.1996] Solving the New Inequality - Richard B. Freeman
      The United States has cemented its traditional position as the leader in inequality among advanced countries. Falling or stagnating incomes for most workers and rising inequality threaten American ideals of political ‘classlessness’ and shared citizenship. Left unattended, the new inequality threatens us with a two-tiered society in which the successful upper and upper-middle classes live lives fundamentally different from the working classes and the poor. Such an economy will function well for substantial numbers, but will not meet our nation’s democratic ideal of advancing the well-being of the average citizen. The important question is: what should we do about the new inequality? The author presents 5 strategies for Raising the Bottom (and Relieving Inequality).

    • [01.12.1998] Is Equality Passé? - Samuel Bowles / Herbert Gintis
      Some egalitarians have soured on what they consider to be a selfish electorate that identifies with materialistic middle-class values and is indifferent to the plight of the less fortunate. Bowles & Gintis believe this pessimism is fundamentally misdirected. It misunderstands the opposition to egalitarian programs and the powerful sentiments behind it. It is not self interest that opposes the welfare state, nor unconditional generosity that supports it. The authors argue that there is a solid foundation for cooperation and sharing in two basic human motives: strong reciprocity and basic needs generosity. The hostility to contemporary forms of egalitarianism is evidence for, not against, that deep foundation, and new egalitarian initiatives are fully compatible with it.
    • [01.03.2007] Inequality Matters: Why globalization doesn’t lift all boats - Nancy Birdsall
    • [01.07.2010] Mind the Gap - The Psychology of Inequality - Claude S. Fischer
      Unequal incomes correlate strongly with negative outcomes in physical health, mental balance, levels of violence, social integration, teen births, school performance, and just about everything else. Inequality makes people focus on status and their relative positions on the prestige ladder. Such obsessions, in turn, create anxiety, distrust, and social isolation, which raise people’s level of physiological stress [Wilkinson/Pickett 2009 - The Spirit Level]. Fischer poses the question whether this psychological explanation really account for the harms of inequality. How sure are we that the social ills Wilkinson and Pickett canvass are even caused by inequality? Fischer suggest that income inequality may produce bad outcomes because class divisions in a nation or state lead to political paralysis or to unconcern by the wealthy about the fate of the less well-off. If the politics of inequality account for poorer health, then one should focus on politics as the route to fixing the problems.
    • [01.12.2011] Occupy the Future: Ethics and Inequality
      The 400 wealthiest Americans have more money than the bottom 50 percent of all Americans combined. Between 1979 and 2007, the incomes of the top 1 percent of the population grew by 275 percent while the incomes of the middle class rose only 40 percent. And a staggering one in three Americans, or 100 million people, suffer in poverty or near poverty. These are startling facts, and the Occupy movement, with its references to “the 1 percent” and “the 99 percent,” has brought them to the fore of public consciousness. Inequalities can —in this case do— raise ethical concerns, and citizens are right to be outraged at the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent. Why are these inequalities are so troubling? In this series of opinion essays Stanford University professors explore the key issues raised by Occupy.
    • [09.12.2011] The Double Binds of Economic and Racial Inequality
      The Occupy movement has drawn the attention to societal problems and the potential to re-democratize American politics. This is series of opinion essays by Stanford University professors exploring key issues raised by Occupy.
    • [05.03.2012] Inequality and Solidarity
      David B. Grusky is opening the debate with the thesis: “If we’re serious about reducing inequality, we need to do more than raise taxes on the rich. We need to correct the market failures in labor and education that generate it.” David Grusky believes that taxing the rich won’t do much to solve extreme income inequality in the United States, because it does nothing to correct the real culprit—the growing gap in pre-tax income. The replies are from Rick Perlstein, Shikha Dalmia, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Stefanie Stantcheva, Neal McCluskey Anne L. Alstott, Mike Konczal, Ruy Teixeira, Barbara R. Bergmann, Susan E. Mayer, and Glenn C. Loury. Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty have shown there has been a dramatic rise over the last 30 years in pre-tax income inequality. The share of pre-tax income flowing to the top 1 percent of households increased from less than 10 percent in 1975 to more than 20 percent now. This spectacular increase in market inequality is of course exacerbated by changes in after-market taxation. However, because the takeoff in inequality is mainly generated within the market, we should look to market institutions to understand its main causes.
    • [20.01.2012] The Return of Inequality - How the Occupy Movement Shifted Electoral Politics - Ari Paul
    • [28.02.2013] Taxing Away Inequality - David B. Grusky & Emmanuel Saez
      A conversation with Emmanuel Saez about the idea that taxation, though a blunt instrument, might be the best available solution to reduce global income inequality.
    • [01.03.2013] What to Do About Inequality - David B. Grusky
    • [01.03.2013] Inequality Matters - Why globalization doesn’t lift all boats - Nancy Birdall
    • [05.03.2013] Inequality and Solidarity - Glenn C. Loury
      Loury responds on this these of David O. Grusky: “If we’re serious about reducing inequality, we need to do more than raise taxes on the rich. We need to correct the market failures in labor and education that generate it.”
    • [06.06.2013] Plumbing the Depths of Inequality - Claude S. Fisher
      A summary of several recent studies of inequality that tell us what’s been happening, why, and to what effect.
    • [06.07.2013] Plumbing depths of Inequality - Claude S. Fischer
      A brief report on several recent studies of inequality that tell us what’s been happening, why, and to what effect.
    • [31.07.2013] Inequality Hits Home - Claude S. Fischer
    • [05.08.2013] Where is Inequality Headed? - What History and Economics Tell Us About Inequality’s Future - Anthony Atkinson
    • [02.04.2014] Inequality Kills - Stephen Bezruchka
      For nearly two hundred years America was one of the healthiest and longest-lived countries, but today, over thirty countries have better health by many measures. What happened? There is growing evidence that the factor most responsible for the relatively poor health in the United States is the vast and rising inequality in wealth and income that we not only tolerate, but resist changing. Inequality is the central element, the upstream cause of the social disadvantage. A political system that fosters inequality limits the attainment of health. About one death in three in the US results from our very high-income inequality. Inequality kills through structural violence. There is no smoking gun with this form of violence, which simply produces a lethally large social and economic gap between rich and poor.
    • [22.05.2014] Does Big Data Threaten Political Inequality? - Andrew Mayersohn
    • [11.06.2014] How Changes in the Workplace Have Reinforced Pay Inequality - Claude S. Fischer
    • [16.09.2014] Fighting Inequality in the New Gilded Age - K. Sabeel Rahman
      We live in a new Gilded Age: one marked by growing income inequality, decreasing social mobility, and concentrated corporate power. At the same time, we face an increasingly dysfunctional political system, apparently incapable of addressing these fundamental economic challenges. The social science of this new Gilded Age has a clear diagnose: legislative policy is more responsive to the preferences of wealthier citizens; social welfare policies hidden in the tax code are too obscure to generate supporters; the disparities in organizational resources and power between business interests and organized labor explains the eroding support for inequality-reducing policies. So economic inequality has political origins, in policy shifts that have reduced how progressive taxes are, deregulated many industries, weakened organized labor, and eroded the social safety net. The remedy for economic inequality therefore necessarily involves addressing political inequality, in particular by improving electoral participation by the poor and working class or expanding their ability to generate political pressure on equal terms.
    • [17.04.2015] Thinking Inequality - Claude S. Fischer
      American inequality is unusually great among western societies; it has been growing substantially in recent decades; most recently, the gaps have widened especially between the very richest and the rest; and a good deal of inequality is subject to policy decisions. One thing that remains quite unclear is how average Americans think about inequality. Do they know about it, care about it, understand it, want to do anything about it? Income inequality started widening about 1970, expanded quickly in the 1980s and 1990s, and grew much more slowly since. From 1970 to about 2000, the standard Gini index of overall income inequality rose about 17%; the rise leveled off in the 2000s at an inequality comparable to that of a century ago.
  • Bowles, Samuel
  • Bowles, Samuel / Gintis, Herbert

C

Century Foundation
Workers and Economic Inequality
The gap between the rich and most other citizens is wider now in the United States than it has been at any time since the Great Depression. Whether you measure this gap in terms of income, wealth, standard of living, or opportunity, the result is the same. Poverty continues to rise and average income, after adjusting for inflation, remains stagnant. The projects of the Century Foundation are aimed at finding ways to enhance economic prosperity and equity for all citizens. The Century Foundation is exploring new approaches to controversial issues such as welfare, housing, immigration, antidiscrimination and other social policies. The site includes abstract of the publications of the foundation.

E

Environmental Inequality 
Bibliography compiled by Andrew Szasz and Michael Meuser (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA).

F

  • Fischer, Claude S. - University of California-Berkeley, USA
    • 2011] Degree Inequality
      In: Made in America, 2.2.2011
      Economic inequality has expanded greatly since about 1970. Less discussed is the widening college degree gap. Yet its implications go considerably beyond money, to widening differences in life experiences and ways of life. The correlation between education and economic fortunes in the United States has never been higher. This education-income connection cycles back: having more money means more education for the children. Affluent parents can buy homes in the best school districts or pay for private schools; and they can purchase enrichment programs after school. College students from well-off families can focus on their classes and graduate on time while less fortunate ones cut classes to work and then drop out if the money for tuition gets tight.
    • [2011] Unequal Denial
      In: Made in America, 4.10.2011
      Economic inequality is great and growing in the United States. The initial response of those who defended the policies of the Nixon and then the Reagan administrations was to deny that widening was real. The next line of defense was to argue that the widening inequality was OK, because everyone was doing better. But then it became clear that the tide was not raising everyone. The poor were falling behind and middle class folks were stagnating, treading water faster, mainly by having wives work more hours. In the last decade the basic contention of the leave-it-as-it-is crowd seems to be this: OK, inequality is widening, and OK, middle-class and working-class families are struggling, but you cannot change things. The economic forces are either too strong or meddling with them will wreck havoc on our economy.
    • [2012] Geography of Inequality
      In: Made in America, 4.6.2012
      One vision of the digital electronic future is that it would erase place and space. The vision that all places are one is not new. Over a hundred years ago a journalist wrote that, thanks to the telephone, everyone would live on their own mountain top and do their work over the electronic wire. It didn’t happen then and isn’t happening now. Where you live and work seems to matter economically and culturally at least as much now as decades ago. The obvious example is the continuing concentration of the IT industries themselves – Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, Silicon Wadi, etc. American metropolitan areas are becoming increasingly different from one another with respect to the educational levels of their residents. Greater segregation by class matters to the extent that place itself matters, the extent to which where we live and, especially among whom we live, affects our own lives.
  • Fischer, Claude S. / Hout, Michael
    [2008] Century of Difference: How America Changed in the Last One Hundred Years
    Russell Sage Foundation.
    In every generation, Americans have worried about the solidarity of the nation. Thus far, the US has a remarkable track record of incorporating new people into American society, but acceptance and assimilation have never meant equality. This book shows how the social, cultural, and economic fault lines in American life shifted in the last century. It demonstrates how distinctions that once loomed large later dissipated, only to be replaced by new ones. Differences among groups by education, age, and income expanded, while those by gender, region, national origin, and, even in some ways, race narrowed. As the twentieth century opened, a person’s national origin was of paramount importance, with hostilities running high against Africans, Chinese, and southern and eastern Europeans. Americans with advanced degrees are increasingly putting distance between themselves and the rest of society—in both a literal and a figurative sense. Differences in educational attainment are tied to expanding inequalities in earnings, job quality, and neighborhoods.
  • Fischer, Claude S. / Hout, Michael / Jankowski, Martín Sánchez / Lucas, Samuel R. / Swidler, Ann / Voss, Kim
    [1996] Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth
    Princeton University Press.
    The authors challenge arguments that expanding inequality is the natural, perhaps necessary, accompaniment of economic growth. They refute the claims of the incendiary bestseller The Bell Curve (1994) through a clear, rigorous re-analysis of the very data its authors used to contend that inherited differences in intelligence explain inequality. They offer an alternative explanation, stressing that economic fortune depends more on social circumstances than on IQ, which is itself a product of society. More critical yet, patterns of inequality must be explained by looking beyond the attributes of individuals to the structure of society. Social policies set the rules of the game within which individual abilities and efforts matter. And recent policies have, on the whole, widened the gap between the rich and the rest of Americans since the 1970s.
  • Forbes
    • The World’s Billionaires
      The Richest People on the Planet: from Bill Gates ($79.2 billion) Carlos Slim ($77.1 billion}, and Warren Buffet ($72,7 billion) to Oprah Winfrey (a miserable $3 billion) and even less fortunated beggars like the Dutch tv-tycoon Joop van den Enden ($1.6 billion). You can view the list by worth, industry or country. There is also a Rich List Generator that allows the list to be searched by net worth, home state, age, industry, and marital status.
    • The World’s Biggest Public Companies 
      List of the top ranking International companies. Companies can be searched by name, country, or industry type. Company listings contain contact information and Website addresses, and of course, the numbers: basic revenue, assets, market value, and stock price and earnings information.

G

  • Gordon, Colin - University of Iowa, USA
    [2014] Growing Apart - A Political History of American Inequality
    Americans today live in a starkly unequal society. Inequality is greater now than it has been at any time in the last century, and the gaps in wages, income, and wealth are wider here than they are in any other democratic and developed economy. Gordon describes and explains the dimensions of that inequality. An introduction into the deeply unequal American status quo, presented by Inequality.org.
  • Granovetter, Mark 
    [1981] Toward a Sociological Theory of Income Differences [Summary]
    In: Ivar Berg (ed.): Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets. New York: Academic Press, 1981, pp. 11-47.
  • Grusky, David B.
    • [2010] Inequality Makes Us Anxious
      In: Stanford Social Innovation Review
      Why is inequality so bad? It’s not just that the poorest people in highly unequal societies may go without food, shelter, or other basic subsistence goods. It’s not just that extreme inequality makes it difficult for the less fortunate to participate fully in their country’s social institutions. It’s not just that lavishing mansions, cars, and jewels on a few lucky people violates some primitive sense of justice and what’s fair. Although inequality may well be problematic for these conventional reasons, it’s mainly bad because it makes status differences more extreme and salient and thus generates insecurity about our worth and where we stand in the social hierarchy. We should dislike inequality, because it produces anxiety and because such anxiety in turn leads to chronic stress, health problems, and other undesirable outcomes. Inequality-induced anxiety has many bad effects: it makes humans feel stressed and deprived and more likely to get depressed, smoke, overeat, or engage in violent behavior. It also leads to conspicuous displays of consumption, such as buying fancy cars, big houses, and luxury clothes, all of which serve no obvious social function save that of reassurance about one’s place in the hierarchy.
    • [2011] The Stories About Inequality that We Love to Tell
      In: Grusky, David B. / Szelényi, Szonja [2011] The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class, and Gender, 2nd Edition. 
      Boulder: Westview Press. pp. 2-14.
      Many academics, policy makers and even some politician agree that poverty and social inequality should no longer be treated as soft sociale issues that can safely be subordinated to more fundamental interests in maximaizing total economic output. The reasons are manifold. (1) The spectacular increase in economic inequality and other forms of disadvantage in capitalist societies. (2) The striking persistance of many noneconomic forms of inequaliy. (3) Poverty and inequality may have negative macrolevel effects on terrorism, total economic production, and ethnic unrest. (4) Poverty has negative effects on health. political participation and a host of ohter life conditions. (5) A globale village arises in which regional disparities in the standard of living has become more widely visible and hence increasingly difficult to ignote. (6) New types of inequality based on sexual orientation, disability or citizenship which were taken for granted, rarely discussed and bareley seen are now exposed and delitimated.
    • [2011] America's army of jobless
      In: Los Angeles Times, 30.11.2011
      The term reserve army of labor is vintage Karl Marx. These workers are on reserve; they are standing ready to work. And their sheer numbers make them an army. Who is in this reserve army? It has four quite distinct divisions. (1) the unemployed: as unemployment increasingly becomes a long-term status, many former workers will no longer view themselves as workers but rather as permanently outside the economy; an important and crucial step in the formation of a so-called underclass. (2) the men and women who are involuntarily working part time because their hours have been cut back or because they are unable to find full-time jobs; these underemployed workers, who are probably trolling for whatever additional work they can find, are too often ignored because of our fixation on simple unemployment numbers. (3) the marginally attached workers who have formally withdrawn from the labor force but nonetheless want a job and have searched for work sometime: they are discouraged workers who have given up hope of finding a job, or want a job but have stopped searching for work because of family illnesses, care-giving or other commitments. (4) the massive prison population; many newly released individuals will begin to pour into the labor force, largely without job training or preparation.
  • Guangjin, Chen
    [2013] Structural Characteristics and Trends of Income Inequality in China
    In: Peilin, Li / Gorshkov, M K. / Scalon, Celi / Sharma, K.L. (eds.) [2013] Handbook on Social Stratification in the BRIC Countries - Change and Perspective, Chapter 24: 481-498. 
    Whatever measurement standard is employed, the income inequalities in China have widened since reform and opening up. Guangjin analyzes the trend and internal structure of the widening of China’s income inequalities, the inequality between urban and rural areas and that among different regions, the economic differentiation among social strata, and the formation mechanism of the income inequalities in China.

H

Hout, Michael 

I

Inequality.org
A storehouse of information, comment and original thinking about the growing inequality of income, wealth and health. Inequality.org is a non-profit organization that questions conventional measures of progress and prosperity, and looks instead at the new economy's have-nots often ignored by mainstream media coverage. Created by journalists, writers, and researchers.

K

  • Kearl, Michael - Trinity University, Texas, USA
    • Explorations in Social Inequality 
      Kearl explores the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics: the imbalance between rich and poor. Short introductions and links to topics such as: the concept of social class, age and generational stratification, regional stratification, inequalities at the personal level, forces of change and maintenance of the status quo, international stratification systems.
    • Social Psychology of Inequality
      A very short illustration of attributions of why the poor are poor.
  • Kluge, Goetz - Munich, Germany
    Entropy and Inequality Measures
    A site about measuring inequality of income or wealth. An engineer tries to explain, to compare and to interpret inequality coefficients for applications in areas, which are not the engineer's business. They keep sociologists and economists busy with a seemingly never ending discussion on how and when to use inequality measures. Kluge mainly focused on entropy measures. He recommends to use the Kullback-Liebler redundancy for computing economic and social inequalities. His D&R; coefficient is based on that redundancy (as MacRae's coefficient is based on Theil's redundancy).

L

Left Business Observer (LBO)
Income and Poverty

M

P

  • Piketty, Thomas - Paris School of Economics, Fance
    • [2014] Capital in the Twenty-First Century: a multidimensional approach to the history of capital and social classes
      In: British Journal of Sociology 65(4):736-747. 
      Piketty presents his main study humbly as “at most an introduction to a multidimensional history of capital and power” in which many important dimensions (such as geography, institutions and public policies) are not sufficiently dealt with. The inequality of labour income and the inequality of capital ownerhip are both measured and expressed by the top deciles or percentiles. He compares two different hierarchies of social groups: one hierarchy is defeined by the distribution of labour income, and the other hierarchie is definied by the distribution of capital property. Many critics have have argued that social classes should be analysed as exploitation relations between social groups, nut just as deciles in statistical distrbutions. Piketty —rather weak and evasive— reply is that “deciles and percentiles should be viewed as a language allowing for comparisons between societies that are otherwise impossible to compare.”
    • [2014] Thomas Piketty über seine Bewunderung des Kapitalismus
      In: Fazit - das Wirtschaftsblog, 25.5.2014. Interview by Gerald Braunberger.
      Piketty replies on the harsh criticism of his book by Chris Giles in the Financial Times [1] [2] and expresses his admiration for capitalism. “I admire capitalism, I admire private property and I admire the marked economy. Of course I see that economic growth primarily rises under capitalism. And of course I support private property because it is a foundation of our freedom. There has never been so much capital as today.”
    • [2015] Putting Distribution Back at the Center of Economics: 
      In: Journal of Economic Perspectives 29(1):67–88.
      A common simplification of the main theme of Capital in the Twenty-First Century [2014] is that because the rate of return on capital (r) exceeds the growth rate of the economy (g) the inequality of wealth is destined to increase infedifinitely over time. In Piketty’s view the magnitude of the gap betwee r and g is indeed one of the important forces that can explain why wealth inequality was so etreme and persistent in pretty much every sociaty up until World War I. But he does not view r > g as the only or even the primary tool for considering changes in income and wealth in the 20th century, or for forecasting the path of income and wealth inequality in the 21st century. He argues that institutional changes and political shocks played a major rol in the past, and will probably continue to do so in the future.
    • [2015] About Capital in the Twenty-First Century
      In: American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 105(5): 48–53. In Piketty’s book about the history of the distribution of income and wealth he analyses the structure and the evolution of national income and wealth since the Industrial Revolution in over 20 countries. In this article he presents three key facts about inequality in the long run and tries to sharpen and refocus the discussion about those trends. He clarifies the role that r > g played in his analysis of wealth inequality. In his analysis, the size of the gap between r and g (where r is the rate of return on capital and g the economy’s growth rate) is one of the important forces that can account for the historical magnitude and variations in wealth inequality. Piketty also discusses some of the implications for optimal taxation, and the relation between capital-income ratios and capital shares.
  • Plotnick, Robert D. / Smolensky, Eugene / Evenhouse, Eirik / Reilly, Siabohan
    [1997] Twentieth Century Record of Inequality and Poverty in the United States
    In 20th century there is no clear trend in income inequality. Inequality was high and rising during the first three decades and peaked during the Depression. It fell sharply during World War II and remained at the lower level in the 1950s and 1960s. From the 1970s through the mid 1990s inequality steadily increased to levels not seen since World War II, though well below those during the first three decades. The rate of poverty exhibited a long run downward trend from about 60-70 percent in the earlier years of the century to the 12-14 percent range in recent years. There was considerable fluctuation around this secular trend. Changes in inequality were largely produced by demographic and technological changes, the growth and decline of various industries, changes in patterns of international trade, cyclical unemployment, and World War II. The primary drivers of the rate of poverty were economic growth and factors that produced changes in income inequality, particularly demographic change and unemployment. Public policy has reduced the market-generated level of inequality, but since 1950 has had little effect on the trend in inequality. See also the book version.

R

  • Richard Cohen Films 
    Production and distribution of highly praised documentary videos investigating human dignity, courage and social justice. Cohen is shining a light on that part of society of which most of us are unaware: the problems and struggles of people who seem hidden away from our daily lives. When most of us walk down a street and ignore the presence of some individual because that person does not seem to fit the way we tend to view our own lives.
    • Taylor’ Campaign
      Hardworking people living in cardboard lean-tos, surviving by dumpster diving. When lawmakers threaten their rights and try to boot them out of town, a penniless truck runs for city council as a voice for tolerance. Narrated by Martin Sheen.
    • Hurry Tomorrow
      Cinema verite classic filmed on locked psychiatric ward in state hospital. An effort to ban this film resulted in statewide investigation of hospital conditions and patient deaths in California.
    • Deadly Force
      Gripping investigation of police accountability process in slaying of naked unarmed man.
  • Rilling, Rainer
    [2014] Thomas Piketty und das Märchen vom Gleichheitskapitalismus
    In: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, November 2014
    Pikety’s book is not a systematic fieldtheory of inequality (Paul Krugman) nor a general theory of kapital or even of kapitalism. It only covers one aspect of inequality: inequality of income and wealth. However, he does break down the classical myth that growing inequality is a feature of the early stages of capitalism and this will automatically will fade away in the course of increasing industrialisation. Piketty demonstrates that increasing inequality of income and wealth in capitalism is no exception, but the norm.

S

T

Treanor, Paul
9 Characteristics of the New Inequality in Europe

U

  • United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
    State of the World’s Children reports
    In the Progress of Nations reports the nations of the world are ranked according to their achievements in child health, nutrition, education, family planning, and progress for women. The moral behind this is clear: “The day will come when the progress of nations will be judged not by their military or economic strength, nor by the splendour of their capital cities and public buildings, but by the well-being of their peoples: by their levels of health, nutrition and education; by their opportunities to earn a fair reward for their labours; by their ability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives; by the respect that is shown for their civil and political liberties; by the provision that is made for those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged; and by the protection that is afforded to the growing minds and bodies of their children.”
  • U.S. Census Bureau
  • U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM)
    [2013] U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health

W

Research Centers

  • ADVA Center - Tel Aviv, Israel
    The ADVA center is concerned with equity and social justice issues in Israeli society and the equitable distribution of government resources. It analyzes equality and inequality in Israel in a way that integrates gender, ethnicity and nationality. Information and research reports are available in English and Hebrew. ADVA was founded in 1991 by activists from three social movements: the movement for equality for Mizrahi Jews, the feminist movement, and the movement for equal rights for Arab citizens.
  • Center for Equitable Growth (CEG) - University of California Berkeley, USA
    CEG promotes research that explores ideas for achieving economic growth that is widely and fairly distributed. It encourages research in equitable growth and helps to develop public policy that can simultaneously improve the distribution of economic well-being and economic growth.
  • Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI) - Cornell University, USA
    CSI is devoted to understanding patterns, causes and consequences of social and economic inequality. It fosters basic and applied research on social and economic inequalities, as well as the processes by which such inequalities change and persist.
  • Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality (CWI) - Columbia University, USA
    The mission of CWI is the investigation of income and wealth, along with exploring the dimensions of societal inequality in these household resources. The Center’s interests encompass issues of poverty, labor market behavior, public transfer programs and tax policy, in that each has a clear relevance to economic inequality, family resources, and to living standards.
  • Economic Policy Institue (EPI) - Washington D.C., USA
    A nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986 to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions. EPI believes every working person deserves a good job with fair pay, affordable health care, and retirement security. To achieve this goal, EPI conducts research and analysis on the economic status of working America. EPI proposes public policies that protect and improve the economic conditions of low- and middle-income workers and assesses policies with respect to how they affect those workers.
  • Egalitarian World Initiative (EWI) - University College Dublin, Ireland
    A university-wide initiative at UCD Dublin. It aims to create a body of research scholarship disseminated through teaching and outreach initiatives, in collaboration with egalitarian driven organisations locally and globally, that will lead the world intellectually in divining a vision for a new, inclusive, egalitarian global order. The EWI aims to make UCD a world leader in research and teaching on equality, social justice and human rights. Over 100 scholars are affiliated to the EWI.
  • From Heterogeneities to Inequalities (SFB 882) - University of Bielefeld, Germany
    Whether fat or thin, male or female, young or old—people are different. Alongside their physical features, they also differ in terms of nationality and ethnicity; in their cultural preferences, lifestyles, attitudes, orientations, and philosophies; in their competencies, qualifications, and traits; and in their professions. But how do such heterogeneities lead to social inequalities? What are the social mechanisms that underlie this process? These are the questions pursued by the Collaborative Research Center: From Heterogeneities to Inequalities.
  • Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) - Washington D.C. / Boston, USA
    A community of public scholars and organizers working with social movements to promote true democracy and challenge concentrated wealth, corporate influence, and military power. As a progressive multi-issue think tank, IPS has served as a policy and research resource for visionary social justice movements for over four decades — from the anti-war and civil rights movements in the 1960s to the peace and global justice movements of the last decade.
  • Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) - Washington D.C., USA
    IWPR conducts rigorous research and disseminates its findings to address the needs of women, promotes public dialog, and strengthens families, communities, and societies. It explores how poverty and inequality affect women and how pay inequality between women and men can be reduced. IWPR is affiliated with the graduate programs in Public Administration and Public Policy and Women’s Studies at the George Washington University.
  • LIS - Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg 
    A data archive and research center dedicated to cross-national analysis. LIS enables, facilitates, promotes, and conducts cross-national comparative research on socio-economic outcomes and on the institutional factors that shape those outcomes. It houses two databases: (1) the Luxembourg Income Study Database (LIS), and (2) the Luxembourg Wealth Study Database (LWS). The LIS-Database is the largest available database of harmonised microdata collected from multiple countries over a period of decades. The LWS-Database is the only cross-national wealth microdatabase in existence. The LIS project began in 1983 under the joint sponsorship of the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Centre for Population, Poverty and Policy Studies (CEPS) and is located at the CEPS/INSTEAD Institute in Differdange in Luxembourg. The site provides an introduction, newsletters, working papers, information on the annual workshops, income and poverty statistics, and extensive documentation concerning technical aspects of the survey data and the social institutions of income provision in member countries.
  • Oxford Network for Social Inequality Research (ONSIR) - University of Oxford, UK
    An interdisciplinary research centre, based at the Department of Sociology of the University of Oxford. The goal is to foster theoretically informed, methodologically sound and policy-relevant research into social inequalities in contemporary societies.
  • Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) - University of Michigan, USA
    A longitudinal survey of a representative sample of US individuals and the families in which they reside. It has been ongoing since 1968. The data are collected annually, and the data files contain the full span of information collected over the course of the study. PSID data can be used for cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intergenerational analysis and for studying both individuals and families. You can download entire datasets, including the codebooks and questionnaires.
  • Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality (SCSPI) - USA
    The center seeks answers to two questions: (1) Why is the United States so unequal and poverty-stricken? (2) What can or should be done about it? It monitors trends in poverty and inequality, to support scientific analysis of poverty and inequality, to develop science-based policy on poverty and inequality, to disseminate data and research on poverty and inequality, and to train the next generation of scholars and policy analysts.
  • University of Texas Inequality Project (UTIP) - USA
    A research group concerned with measuring and explaining movements of inequality in wages and earnings and patters of industrial changes around the world. They emphasize two techniques: the Theil’s T statistic to compute inequality indexes from industrial data, and a combination of cluster analysis on rates of wage change and discriminant analysis to isolate the principal time patterns in changing wage structures. The site offers an Inequality Watch (new developments in the measurement of inequality), Measures of Inequality, Working Papers, Data, and inequality links.

Advocacy Groups

  • Center for Community Change (CCC) 
    An Amerikan organization that empowers low-income people (and especially people of color) to make change that improves their communities and the public policies that affect their lives. It empowers the people most affected by injustice to lead social movements to improve the policies that affect their lives and living standards.
  • Executive PayWatch - AFL-CIO
    If you think America’s corporate executives are out of control with their lavish salaries, bonuses, and stock options, you’re right. Can they be stopped? Here are some facts you might not want to know. In 1965, CEOs made 44 times the average factory worker’s salary. In 2014, that figure is 373 times. If the wages of factory workers had kept up, they’d now be paid an average of $158,000 a year. This site is aimed at those corporate bigwigs who have access to the washrooms with the golden toilets. Visit the Database and compare your salary to head honcho paychecks at some major corporations. The AFL-CIO has done a great job. The labor federation and their affiliates, representing 12.5 million U.S. workers, are a leading force for reducing inequality.
  • Other 98%
    A grassroots network of concerned people that shines a light on economic injustice, undue corporate influence and threats to democracy. It seeks practical solutions to help Americans stand against the bankers, CEOs, and lobbyists who’ve hijacked our democracy to serve themselves at the expense of everyone else. It’s a storytelling force that stirs people to action.
  • OXFAM International 
    A global organization working to right the wrongs of poverty, hunger, and injustice. Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organisations working in approximately 94 countries worldwide with communities and seeks to influence the powerful, to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them.
  • United for a Fair Economy (UFE)
    An independent, nonpartisan organization concerned about the growing income, wage and wealth inequality in the United States. This project is part of a broad social movement of people concerned that the concentration of wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. Its goal is to revitalize America through a more fair distribution of wealth.
  • Wealth for Common Good
    A network of business leaders, high-income individuals and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation. They are «the 1 percent» that wants an economy that works for everyone. They believe that extreme levels of inequality are unfair and socially destructive and have nothing to do with individual merit and deservedness; the self-made man is a myth of the powerful. Inequality is bad for our democracy, economy, culture and environment.
  • Reference: American Advocacy Groups:: Bringing Down the Top, Taxing the Rich + Lifting up the Bottom, Promoting Worker Justice

Classes


Organizations and Discussion

Publications: articles and books

Stratification

Poverty - Hunger

  • Arbor Nutrition Guide 
    A massive amount of links to governmental, academic and political nutrition related sites.
  • Bread for the World 
    An American Christian movement that seeks justice for the world’s hungry people by lobbying the decision makers.
  • Cagatay, Nilufer [2001]
    Gender, Poverty and Trade 
    In: Policy Innovations, 1.10.2001
    An examination of the impact of trade liberalization on gender inequalities and on the impact of gender inequality on trade performance.
  • Canada Without Poverty / Canada Sans Pauvreté (CWP/CSP) 
    A not-for-profit and charitable organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty in Canada. To raise public awareness about poverty it produces a lots of resources about poverty in Canada.
  • Center for the Study of Urban Poverty (CSUP) - University of California at Los Angeles, USA. 
    The primary mission of the CSUP is to link university resources and expertise with those of federal, state, and local and community-based agencies and organizations concerned with issues related to urban poverty and social service delivery.
  • Center on Urban Poverty and Social Change - Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, USA 
    The Center seeks to address the problems of persistent and concentrated urban poverty and is dedicated to understanding how social and economic changes affect low-income communities, and how living in these communities affects the well-being of their residents. The site includes research program, publications titles, and links to other resources.
  • Citizen’s Guide to Food Recovery 
    A resource guide on food recovery programs, published the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It describes some of the prominent food recovery activities already taking place, and suggests how a community, a business, or an individual can support existing programs or begin new efforts. It also outlines key considerations relating to legal issues and food safety.
  • Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) - Bergen, Norway 
    The CMI specializes in social science research and advisory work on development and human rights issues in developing countries. It informs on projects on poverty and structural inequalities; population in development; human rights in North-South perspective; democratisation, institutional change and economic reform; institutions and natural resource management; aid and trade relations.
  • Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) 
    A program of the International Social Science Council (ISSC), hosted by the University of Bergen (UiB), in collaboration with UNESCO. The program is founded on the logic that reliable data and sound theories provide a basic tool for poverty alleviation. It provides information on research projects, publication lists, a handbook of international poverty research, and some links.
  • Congressional Hunger Center (CHC)  USA 
    Aims to lead, speak and act on behalf of the hungry, the poor and the victims of humanitarian crises, domestic and international.
  • CRY - Child Relief & You 
    An independent organization that wants to restore to Indian children their basic right to food, shelter & education - in short, a future!
  • Dirks, Robert S. - Illinois State University, USA
    • World Food Habits Bibliography 
      The resources for the anthropological study of food habits are organized by regions and countries, and by topics.
    • The Anthropology of Food
      Anthropologists study food from different perspectives. Some look at eating and drinking inconnection with other aspects of social life. Others are concerned with dietary matters and howfood-related practices and beliefs affect physical well-being. These two points of view (“Anthropology of Food” and “Nutritional Anthropology”) need to beconsidered together if one wants a truly complete picture of a food culture.
    • [2011] Hunger and Famine
      Hunger takes many forms. It smolders as chronic undernutrition. It can flare up intermittently, sometimes annually, because food stores are never quite sufficient to last until next harvest. Occasionally, hunger erupts infamine, an episode of want so acute as to precipitate the breakdown of societies’ most fundamental institutions. Whatever the form, the costs are immense. Eighteen million people die every year from hunger-related causes. What causes hunger and leads to such tragic consequences? Certainly it is not always shortcomings in food production. Pockets of hunger exist within some of the most agriculturally productive countries in the world, including the United States. Great regions of persistent famine exist on a planet producing more than enough food for everyone. Currently, parts of Africa suffer the most from famine. Formerly, it was areas of Asia and before that Europe.
  • Edelman, Peter - Georgetown University’s Law Center, USA
    • [2012] Peter Edelman on Ending U.S. Poverty & Why He Left Clinton Admin over Welfare Law [58:56]
      In: Democracy Now, 23.5.2012.
      Edelman resigned as assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services over then-President Bill Clinton’s signing of the 1996 welfare reform law that threw millions off the rolls. Edelman says: “Basically, right now, welfare is gone. We have six million people in this country whose only income is food stamps. That’s an income at a third of the poverty line. (...) Nineteen states serve less than 10 percent of their poor children. It’s a terrible hole in the safety net. Welfare has basically disappeared in large parts of this country.”
    • [2014] Peter Edelman on Waging Another War on Poverty [2:07]
      In: Moyers & Company, 14.1.2014.
      On the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, declared by President Lyndon Johnson in his 1964 State of the Union Address, Bill Moyers speaks with Peter Edelman, one of America’s foremost experts on poverty. During the mid-1960s, the two men worked in Washington for the Johnson administration — Edelman as an aide to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Bill as a special assistant to the president. In their conversation, they looked back at the forces that came together during that time to face down poverty in America. Enthusiasm for LBJ’s War on Poverty lost steam as the ’70s progressed. Edelman explains that the manufacturing jobs that had supported much of the middle class disappeared and were replaced with jobs that paid much less, if they were replaced at all. And with LBJ’s other war — Vietnam — raging abroad and Watergate unfolding at home, the country began to lose faith in government as a force to solve problems. Decades later, polling shows the majority of Americans don’t consider the War on Poverty a success but they do support the programs it created. In this clip, Edelman lays out what it would take for the country to wage a 21st century War on Poverty.
    • [2014] Ending Poverty in America [1:08:53]
      University of California Television (UCTV).
      Edelman speaks about the prevalence of poverty in America, focusing on income-level disparities.
    • [2014] So Rich, So Poor: Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in America [1:08:26]
      Edelam speaks at the Chautauqua Institution about the state of poverty in America. He outlines why the income-level disparity in the US is now wider than at any point since the Great Depression and delves into what is happening to the people behind the statistics.
  • Feinstein International Center (FIC) 
    Nutrition and Food Security 
    A project that tries to help prevent and eradicate hunger by facilitating the free exchange of ideas and information regarding the causes of, and solutions to, hunger. The FIC was founded in 1997 to study the nature of famine and famine relief.
  • Food for the Hungry (FH) 
    A Christian-motivated development agency promoting sponsorship programs for the relief of world hunger and poverty. It wants to feed physical and spiritual hungers of the world’s poorest people. They have ongoing programs in more than 25 countries.
  • Ford School - Michigan, USA
    Poverty and Social Policy
    Promoting interdisciplinary applied research on poverty and social welfare policy and trying to translate research findings to public policy decision.
  • Free The Children
    An international charity and youth empowerment movement that tries to establish programs and activities that will reduce the poverty and exploitation of children throughout the world, especially those in bonded, hazardous and exploitative child labour. Don’t forget to inspect the information on the Child Labour page of UNICEF.
  • Global Energy Network Institute (GENI) 
    The mission of GENI is to accelerate the attainment of the optimal sustainable energy solutions in the shortest possible time for the peace, health & prosperity of everyone.
  • Heritage Foundation, The
    Poverty and Inequality
    A research and educational institution whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. For poor people this is the message: “The typical poor person in the United States has a far higher living standard than the public imagines. While their lives are not opulent, they are far from the images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians. Policies to tackle poverty must address its major causes: the absence of married fathers in the home and low levels of work.”
  • Homeless Link  - United Kingdom
    A national membership charity for organisations working directly with people who become homeless in England. It tries to make services better and campaigns for policy change that will help end homelessness. Provides information of use to homeless people, professionals that work to help them and other interested people.
  • Hunger Project, The (THP) 
    A not-for-profit global strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. It tries to end hunger and poverty by pioneering sustainable, grassroots, women-centered strategies and advocating for their widespread adoption in countries throughout the world.
  • Hunger Site, The 
    A for-profit corporation which donates the revenue from its advertising banner to selected charities. It is a click-to-donate site that gets sponsorship from advertisers in return for delivering users who will see their advertisements. It encourages visitors to click a button once per day, asserting that each unique click results in a donation equivalent to 1.1 cups of food.
  • Institute for Policy Research (IPR) - Nortwestern University, USA
    Poverty, Race, and Inequality
    IPR researchers look at various causes of poverty, racism, and inequality and their consequences in the United States, as well as in developing countries around the world. Topics cut across race, education, social status, and more.
  • Institute on Race & Poverty (IRP) - University of Minnesota Law School in Mineapolis, USA 
    The institute focusses attention on the unique dynamic created by the intersection of racial segregation and poverty. It investigates the ways that policies and practices disproportionately affect people of color and the disadvantaged. It addresses the problems of poor people of color using a particular analytical and conceptual paradigm that avoids the mistake of focusing only on racism or only on poverty. IRP promotes a better understanding of the issues confronting communities which face the combined challenges of racial segregation and poverty.
  • Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP)  - University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA 
    A national, university-based center for research into the causes & consequences of poverty in the United States. Available on the web site are IRP publications, research interests & opportunities, and links to other poverty-related internet resources.
  • International Labour Organization (ILO)
    A United Nations agency dealing with labour issues, particularly international labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities for all. The ILO promotes rights at work, encourages decent job opportunities for all, enhances social protection & strengthens dialogue on work-related issues.
  • Kids Can Make A Difference  
    KIDS is a program of iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) the world’s largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world. The site contains an educational program inspiring kids to end hunger and poverty in their communities, their country, and their world. It is a program for middle- and high school students that focuses on the root causes of hunger and poverty, the people most affected, solutions, and how students can help. The major goal is to stimulate studente to take some definite follow-up actions as they begin to realize that one person can make a difference. Developed by Stephanie Kempf.
  • Making Change 
    A charitable organization that promotes human dignity, wellness and self-sufficient communities. It raises funds by operating poit-of-purchase programs in food retail stores. The program was founded by the American food industry to alleviate hunger and malnutrition.
  • Myths about Poverty
    On November 24, 1989 the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution that “this House seek(s) to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000.” Read what the resolution had to say about the subject and see some of the myths that the Anti-Poverty Organization has dispelled. Source: National Anti-Poverty Organization.
  • National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP)
    An American research center that promotes the interests of children in low-income families. The NCCP identifies and promotes strategies to reduce the young child poverty rate and to improve the life chances of young children still living in poverty. The site contains media resources, newsletter, state and local info, poverty research and programmes for welfare reform. It also contains a very useful page with Child Poverty Facts.
  • Odekon, Mehmet 
    [2006] Encyclopedia of World Poverty
    Provides extensive information, as well as insight into the contemporary debate on poverty. The three volumes of this state-of-the-art Encyclopedia contain over 800 original articles written by more than 125 renowned scholars. The entries contributing to this work explore poverty in various regions of the world, and examine the difficulties associated with the definition and measurement of poverty, along with its causes and effects.
  • Ongelijkheid, Armoede, Sociale uitsluiting en de Stad (OASeS) - University of Antwerp, Belgium
    The Centre on Inequalities, Poverty, Social Exclusion and the City is focused on the study of mechanisms of social exclusion and the relations between social and spatial dimensions of society.
  • Oxford University - Dept. of Social Policy and Intervention
  • Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) - Open University, United Kingdom
    A site that supports the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom research project (PSE-Research) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The research projects all use relative deprivation to examine poverty and, in particular, the consensual method. This method identifies what items are necessities on the basis of the public’s perceptions of minimum needs and then examines who is forced to go without these necessities. This research provides a unique insight into those who fall below the minimum standards set by society and how this has changed over time.
    • [2013] The Impoverishment of the UK
      The report identifies people falling below what the public agrees is a minimum standard of living and measures poverty and exclusion using a wide range of rigorous methods. It reveals a detailed picture of the extent of deprivation, low living standards and financial insecurity in the UK today. Independent surveys of poverty using this methodology were first conducted in 1983 and again in 1990, 1999, 2002/03 and 2012. The report examines trends over this thirty year period and that the proportions of the population falling below the standards set by society at the time across a range of items and activities are higher today than in 1983, 1990 and 1999.
    • [2015] Breadline Britain: The Rise of Mass Poverty - Stewart Lansley & Joanna Mack
      Poverty in Britain is at post-war highs and —even with economic growth— is set to increase yet further. Food bank queues are growing, levels of severe deprivation have been rising, and increasing numbers of children are left with their most basic needs unmet. Based on the largest ever survey of poverty in the UK, and its predecessor surveys in the 1980s and 1990s, the authors track changes in deprivation and paint a devastating picture of the reality of poverty today and its causes. Shattering the myth that poverty is the fault of the poor and a generous benefit system, they show that the blame lies with the massive social and economic upheaval that has shifted power from the workforce to corporations and swelled the ranks of the working poor, a group increasingly at the mercy of low-pay, zero-hour contracts and downward social mobility. The high levels of poverty can be traced directly to the political choices taken by successive governments.
  • Poverty Initiative - McMaster University, Canada
    A group of students, faculty and staff dedicated to research, advocacy and education and action related to poverty reduction.
  • PovertyNet - Worldbank
    Resources and support for people working to understand and alleviate poverty. The site is maintained by the Poverty Reduction Group, part of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network at the World Bank.
    • PovcalNet: an online analysis tool for global poverty monitoring
      An interactive computational tool that allows you to replicate the calculations made by the World Bank's researchers in estimating the extent of absolute poverty in the world. PovcalNet also allows you to calculate the poverty measures under different assumptions and to assemble the estimates using alternative country groupings or for any set of individual countries of the user’s choosing. PovcalNet is self-contained; it has reliable built-in software that quickly does the relevant calculations for you from the built-in database.
    • Visualize Inequality
      Highlights how gender, geography, economic circumstances, ethnicity, and other inherent characteristics affect access to basic services among children.
    • World Development Indicators
      The primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.
    • Poverty & Equity Data
    • Global Database of Shared Prosperity
  • PovertyVision - Tel Aviv, Israel
    A portal of the poverty. Founder & editor: Daniel Amarilio has a very simple economic plan for eradication poverty worldwide: it allows every country in the world to produce a very simple product on an exclusive basis. The plan does not ask that the rich countries increase their aid to the poorer nations; on the contrary, they will be required to cancel it. Indeed, a very simple plan.
  • Ravallion, Martin - World Bank
    • [1997] Can high-inequality developing countries escape absolute poverty? 
      In: Economic Letters 56:51-57.
      At any positive rate of growth, the higher the initial inequality, the lower the rate at which income-poverty falls. It is possible for inequality to be sufficiently high to result in rising poverty, despite good underlying growth prospects at low inequality. Do the poor face the same prospects for escaping poverty in high-inequality developing countries as in low-inequality countries? Is it possible for inequality to be so great as to stifle prospects of reducing absolute poverty, even when other initial conditions and policies are favorable to growth?
    • [2010] Poverty Lines across the World
      National poverty lines vary greatly across the world, from under $1 per person per day to over $40 (at 2005 purchasing power parity). What accounts for these huge differences, and can they be understood within a common global definition of poverty? For all except the poorest countries, the absolute, nutrition-based, poverty lines found in practice tend to behave more like relative lines, in that they are higher for richer countries.
    • [2012] Benchmarking Global Poverty Reduction
      Against what standards should we judge the developing world’s overall performance against poverty going forward? Ravallion proposes two measures, each with both ‘optimistic’ and ‘ambitious’ targets for 2022. The first measure is absolute consumption poverty, as judged by what poverty means in the poorest countries. The second is a new measure of global poverty combining absolute poverty with country-specific social inclusion needs, consistently with national poverty lines.
    • [2013] How Long Will It Take to Lift One Billion People Out of Poverty?
      Alternative scenarios are considered for reducing by one billion the number of people living below $1.25 a day. The low-case, pessimistic, path to that goal would see the developing world outside China returning to its slower pace of growth and poverty reduction of the 1980s and 1990s, though with China maintaining its progress. This path would take another 50 years or more to lift one billion people out of poverty. The more optimistic path would maintain the (impressive) progress against poverty since 2000, which would instead reach the target by around 2025-30.
  • Real Change - Seattle’s Homeless Newspaper 
    A Seattle-based monthly paper that covers issues of class and poverty from the perspective of homeless people and their advocates. The paper has a monthly print circulation of 27,000, and exists to be a voice of the poor and to provide immediate, flexible employment to those selling the paper on the street. This is what you'll get: Voice of the Homeless (the past two issues in full); Citizin's Participation Project (your means of staying in touch with poverty issues without being on ten mailing lists); Archives (two years' worth of homeless history indexed by subject); Hobson's Choice (an interactive game that simulates homelessness). A great and passionate site: homeless not helpless.
  • Rector, Robert
  • Robinson, Nicholas
    Immigration and Homeless 
    Some statistics on the growing homeless population in London, estimates on the numbers of refugees in London and the health problems they face. Also contains information on current research on homelessness and refugees in the UK, a survey of the literature on the subject, and links or addresses of UK organizations involved with Homelessness and Refugees.
  • Social Watch - Poverty Eradiction and Gender Justice
    An international citizin’s coalition monitoring implementation of the world governments’ commitments to eradicate poverty and achieve gender equity. The site informs with coutry and thematic reports, and on social development indicators. In English, Spanish, and French.
  • United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) 
    Provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. UNICEF works for a world in which every child has a fair chance in life.
  • United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
    • Poverty Reduction
      One of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) that was adopted in 2000 and should be accompished in 2015 is halving extreme poverty and reducing child and maternal death reates.
    • End Poverty Millenium Campaign
    • The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015
      The global mobilization behind the Millennium Development Goals has produced the most successful anti-poverty movement in history. In the year 2000 world leaders made a commitment to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.” This commitment was translated into an inspiring framework of eight goals and, then, into wide-ranging practical steps that have enabled people across the world to improve their lives and their future prospects. The MDGs helped to lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, to make inroads against hunger, to enable more girls to attend school than ever before and to protect our planet.
  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
    UNDP helps countries develop strategies to combat poverty by expanding access to economic opportunities and resources, linking poverty programmes with countries’ larger goals and policies, and ensuring a greater voice for the poor.
    • International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG)
    • Human Development Reports
    • Poverty Clock 
      A clock that illustrates how quickly poverty grows. The digital clock ticks off the increase in the number of people who are living on less than a dollar day around the world. Every number on the clock indicates another person living in poverty. They will most likely be undernourished, uneducated and undervalued by the societies in which they live. The clock was first activated in january 1995 during the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was later sent to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. The clock stands as a stark reminder that deprivation and suffering continue. Poverty eradication, however, is an achievable goal. “One hundred and fifty years ago the world launched a crusade against slavery. Today we must launch a world crusade against mass poverty” (James Gustave Speth, UNDP Administrator). The number of people living in absolute poverty is increasing by nearly 25 million a year. The number of people currently living in absolute poverty is roughly 1.3 billion (this calculation is based on the World Bank and the United Nations definition of absolute poverty: those people whose incomes are no more than $370 a year).
  • U.S. Census Bureau
    • Poverty 
      The U.S. Census Bureau presents the latest figures on poverty in the USA. In 1990 more than 1 in 5 Americans — 52 million — lived in a poverty area. In 2001 there were 32,9 million people in the USA living below the poverty thresholds.
    • Poverty Data Sources
      The Census Bureau reports income and poverty estimates from several major national household surveys and programs.
  • USDA National Hunger Clearinghouse 
    A project of the World Hunger Year (WHY), which will connect thousand of groups working on hunger, food, nutrition, and agricultural issues. The database contains information on thousands of organizations across the United States that are working on hunger, poverty, nutrition, agriculture and food issues.
  • Wealth and Poverty 
    Maps, tables and notes for an anthropology course offered at Oregon State University, USA.
  • Welzijnszorg - Samen tegen armoede
    A Belgian welfare association that fights against poverty and exclusion in Flanders and Brussels. For this, they set an annual large-scale information campaign on, each time from a different angle. They support poverty projects and pull politicians by the sleeve when the rights of socially vulnerable people are in danger.
  • WhyHunger
    A grassroots support organization that aims to build the movement to end hunger and poverty by connecting people to nutritious, affordable food and by supporting grassroots solutions that inspire self-reliance and community empowerment.
  • Wikipedia
  • World Hunger Notes
    An online publication of the World Hunger Education Service (WHES)
  • World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) - United Nations 
    Statements by United Nations, Inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and governments; press releases and official documents. The UN’s global development network (UNDP) helps countries implement sustainable development principles, connecting national and local initiatives to knowledge, experience and resources from around the world.
  • World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine 
    A worldwide event to know hunger that allows you to do someting to fight hunger in our world. Worldwide, 925 million people are hungry. Every day, as many as 11,000 children under age 5 die due to hunger-related causes. That’s one kid every 8 seconds. Here is a chance to do something about it.

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