Syllabus

Course Description

This course introduces students to academic research about the nature and consequences of poverty (in both advanced and developing nations), highlighting the contributions of scholars from the social sciences, humanities, and the law. We begin by examining several multifaceted definitions of poverty put forth by governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and by mapping the incidence of poverty (geographically and demographically).  We then examine a series of policy issues crowding the political agenda including low wage rates; sub prime lending practices; discrimination in hiring and promotion; enforcement of fair labor standards and treatment of low-skilled immigrants and migrant workers; inadequate access to quality education and health care; sexual abuse and broken families; and nutrition problems ranging from malnourishment to obesity.

Throughout, the readings and discussions reveal that collaboration across the various disciplines enhances our understanding of what it means to be poor and of the array of interlocking problems that lead to poverty, and guides the formulation of policies to prevent and alleviate poverty.

Course Objectives

It is my hope that by the end of the course you will be familiar with the approaches of the multiple disciplines engaged in poverty research and appreciate the difficulties of designing policies to address the challenges of life with low income. Equally important, I hope you will be familiar with the resources that will enable you to pursue poverty alleviation in greater depth into the future.

Readings

Required Textbooks

1. David K. Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004, ISBN-13: 978-0375708213 (preview)
2. Ashwani Kumar, Jan Aart Scholte, Mary Kaldor,  and Marlies Glasius, eds.  Global Civil Society Yearbook 2009: Poverty and Activism (Global Civil Society - Year Books), June 4, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-84860-015-7 (pbk)
3. Sarah Burd-Sharps, Kristen Lewis, and Eduardo Borges Martins. The Measure of America: American Human Development Report, 2008-09. Columbia University Press, 2008.  ISBN-13: 978-0231154956 (pbk)

Poverty News

• The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides a free email news service entitled the Poverty Dispatch accessible at http://www.irp.wisc.edu/initiatives/outreach/dispatch.htm.  You may subscribe to this news service and receive weekly mailings by sending a request to irppubs@ssc.wisc.edu and asking for a subscription. Visiting the links provided is an excellent way to discover what issues are current as well as the variety of ways our 50 States respond to these issues.  Note that this service concentrates almost exclusively on Poverty in the United States.
• The World Bank publishes a monthly newsletter, entitled the PovertyNet Newsletter, which “provides an update of new resources about understanding and alleviating poverty”.  I am not familiar with the newsletter having just subscribed myself; hopefully it will serve a similar purpose as the Poverty Dispatch except that its focus will be global poverty. You can subscribe at http://newsletters.worldbank.org/newsletters/list.htm

Grading

Exams

The midterm and final exams will be a combination of true/false, multiple choice, matching, and short-answer questions. The questions will be based on the assigned readings and class discussion.