Course Professor: Dr. Mark Alfino, Admin 416

Messages: Voice: 328-4220 x3353

E-mail: Vax: ALFINO

Mail: Admin Box #49

Class Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday, 12:45 - 2:10

Admin 130

Course Description and General Goals

In spite of several decades of intensive study from the social sciences and in spite of numerous political programs, no widespread consensus exists on answers to such basic questions as what causes poverty and how should it be alleviated. This course will familiarize students with recent research and thinking on poverty from a variety of disciplines and political perspectives.

An understanding of poverty requires an immersion in a wide range of literature. We will sample social histories, sociological literature, religious thought, and writings by policy experts, journalists and literary figures. As we gain a basic understanding of the contributions of different disciplines to the study of poverty, we will develop a philosophical discussion on two general questions: What are the ethical presuppositions of various approaches to poverty? What explanatory frameworks underlie different approaches to poverty?

In an attempt to answer the first question the following topics in ethics will be considered: the justifications of paternalism, the nature of community, the obligation to render aid, and our obligations to respect the rights of individuals to liberty, dignity, and privacy. A sophisticated understanding of the "ethics of helping" is the goal of this part of the course.

The literature of poverty will inevitably lead us to ask basic questions about how poverty should be explained. What sort of phenomenon is poverty? What are the strengths and weaknesses of different disciplinary approaches. To help with these questions we will look at some philosophical ideas on explanation and interpretation. The goal of the second part of the course is to understand what is at stake philosophically in any answer to the question, "Why is there poverty?"

Specific Course Goals

The goal of the course readings is first to bring students up-to-date on the latest information on the extent and varieties of poverty, the current (political) state of poverty policy, the history of U.S. social welfare spending. Second, we will try to develop the central philosophical problematics of the course: poverty ethics and poverty explanation. Equipped with some critical skills from this unit, we will take a closer look at the War on Poverty, the journalism and literature of poverty, poverty and the family (including the "culture of poverty" literature), and, finally, some readings on specific poverty programs. The following guide to the readings attempts to locate the importance of each reading in the context of each unit of the course. You may want to return to this guide as you work through the course readings.

Poverty Economics & Demographics. Our first two readings present contrasting perspectives on the extent and seriousness of U.S. poverty. Since our sense of ethical obligation is based in part on the degree of actual suffering which people experience, the articles by Sheahen (P#1-4) and Shuster (P#5-9) are a good place to start. In addition to learning basic facts, you should ask critical questions about the data and, most important, think about the presuppositions of each perspective. What kind of statistic information and understandings of poverty does each author employ to make their point?

The next three articles (Burtless, "Public Spending for the Poor," Danziger, "Antipoverty Policy," and Danziger, "Poverty in America: Is Welfare the Answer or the Problem?) are high level introductions to basic economic data, demographics and economic policy questions. These are relatively difficult articles, but if read carefully they can acquaint you with basic facts about the types of social welfare programs addressing poverty, their design, scope and size, and the economic impact of various kinds of spending on poverty rates from 1965 to the mid 80's. The Burtless article focuses on the relative size of different kinds of programs. The Danziger article has an extended and useful discussion of different ways of thinking about the impact of social welfare spending. This discussion (pp. 57-69) is especially helpful in understanding the conservative argument that Federal anti-poverty programs have actually worsened poverty. The Ellwood article provides an introductory discussion of this argument. We will read more about this issue later in the course.

The Current State of Poverty Policy. Periodically the poverty issue makes a brief appearance in the press. This usually happens when the two political parties hint at, but then shy away from, a new proposal on poverty. The three part New York Times series by Jason DeParle and Peter Applebome introduces us to the poverty policy gridlock, but it also gives us some basic information on the public's exposure to poverty and on urban blight. Robert Pear's brief article, "Administration Rejects Proposal for New Anti-poverty Programs," updates us on current administration thinking on poverty, while David Frum's article, "A Poorhouse Divided" locates the policy gridlock in conservative thinking. A short editorial by Stuart Butler, director of domestic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation, gives another conservative perspective. Finally, I'll ask you to read Chapter 1 of David Ellwood's book, Poor Support.

In addition to these focused articles on poverty policy, I've come across a variety of recent articles which provide additional basic information on poverty. Here's a brief synopsis of the main topic of each of these miscellaneous readings:

Author, Title

Pear, "U.S. Reports Poverty Down But Inequality Up."

Haveman et al., "State Poverty Rates for Whites, Blacks and Hispanics in the late 1980's"

Hilts, "Life Expectancy for Blacks in U.S. Shows Sharp Drop"

Rosenbaum, "Unemployment Insurance Aiding Fewer Workers"

Finder, "When Welfare Pays the Rent"

Hedges, "Mainline Protestant Ministers Turning From the Inner City"

Lee, "Banks are Ranked on Serving Poor"

Topic/Issue

Recent data on income distribution.

Reports recent data on poverty rates and income inequality by race and state.

Recent mortality data by race.

Reports on trends in availability of unemployment insurance benefits

Discusses inconsistency and inadequacy in rent subsidies for welfare recipients living in major cities.

Reports on disinterest and disillusionment among religious urban anti-poverty workers.

Reports on the first effort by New York City to rank banks on their service to poor communities.

History of U.S. Social Welfare Spending. I've chosen June Axinn and Herman Levin's, Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need as a basic text on U.S. social welfare history. You have an option, however, to read Michael Katz's, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse instead. You should choose Axinn if your U.S. history is in need of refreshing or if you are primarily interested in seeing how social welfare history follows general political and economic history. You should choose Katz if you want a more detailed account of specific movements in social welfare history, but less integration with U.S. history in general. Whichever book you read, you should organize your notes on the following main topics, all of which will be treated in lectures which overlap partially with your readings: 1) Miscellaneous details in the history of thinking about poverty before the American colonial experience; 2) Colonial and early U.S. approaches to poverty; 3) The Poorhouse Movement; 4) The Charity Organization and Settlement House Movement; 5) The Depression and New Deal; 6) The War on Poverty and its aftermath.

Poverty Explanation & Poverty Ethics. Many of the readings in this course indirectly offer explanations of poverty. In telling a history of poverty, for example, a commentator cannot help but highlight or comment upon various movements in that history in a way that suggests an approval or disapproval of our predecessors' approaches. The two principal readings present and review a wide variety of explanations of poverty. The Opposing Views series gives you quick and short essays offering a variety of current views. These essay have the virtue of being up to date and diverse, but the liability of being somewhat superficial and polemical. You should already have an adequate information base and set of critical skills to raise questions to challenge some of the Opposing Views essays. We'll see. Robert Holman gives a detailed and philosophically respectable consideration of the following approaches to poverty explanation: genetic deficiency, economic explanations, psychological deficiency, and cultural privation. Pay particularly attention to his general arguments about the inadequacy of various explanations, but notice also that he leaves you with a rather heavy reliance on structural macroeconomic explanations of poverty. To balance this tendency, we should reflect on the problem of explanation as it relates to human behaviors. For this purpose, I have chosen a chapter from a text on explanation, "Human Freedom and Scientific Explanation".

The focal point of our concern with poverty in this course is a balancing and integration of factual information, explanatory information, moral reflection and experiential data of poverty. David Ellwood, in the introduction of his book, Poor Support offers about the best moral reflection on poverty I have seen in print. We'll use this as a basis for our discussion of poverty ethics. For an elaborately crafted statement of poverty ethics, read the excerpt from the U.S. Bishop's letter on Economic Justice. Finally, George Gilder offers a conservative moral theory of poverty and poverty policy in, "The Moral Hazards of Liberalism."

The War on Poverty and Its Aftermath. Since the 1964 War on Poverty represents the major effort in the 20th century to clarify the purposes and goals of relief work, we should take a closer look at it. Our analysis will require a more in depth history, especially a history of the theoretical underpinnings of the war. We also need an analysis of the U.S. economy in the seventies and early eighties in order to assess the relevance of the policies of the 60's to the present. Two chapters from Katz's book, The Undeserving Poor supply both needs. Our major study questions include: What were the political dynamics surrounding the policy of the war on poverty? What were the basic assumptions of Johnson's war? Was poverty policy in the sixties and seventies guided by the theory of the war on poverty or by political expediency? What were the major successes and failures of the 1960s commitment to alleviate poverty? What are the special characteristics of economic life in the 70's and 80's that affect our assessment of the war on poverty?

The Journalism and Literature of Poverty. Most of the philosophical reflection in the course up to this point has been guided by information from the social sciences and history. But I want to suggest that a unique (if hard to quantify) form of knowledge about poverty can be gleaned from journalism and literature. We will start with a vivid historical description of poverty conveyed by a story within Dickens' novel, The Pickwick Papers. Then we'll read two contemporary accounts of poverty by journalists in the 1950's and 1960's. Following these general accounts, we'll read two contemporary journalistic accounts of economic dislocation in the current recession. Another article describes black mobility and mentoring within black extended families in which some members have moved to the middle or upper middle class. Our major interest throughout this section is to contrast the sort of understanding of poverty gained from the social sciences with the sort gained by journalists and imaginative writers.

Poverty and the Family (Theory of the Underclass). The history of thought on poverty is frequently preoccupied by the question of whether the poor represent a distinct subculture in society, guided by different values than the mainstream of society or whether the poor are pretty much like you and I in their basic values and desires. We saw this theme in the earlier explanatory accounts of poverty by Holman. The question of the "culture of poverty" is both a volatile and interesting one; stirring as it does accusations of cultural chauvinism and naivete. A chapter from Katz's book provides a background while recent work by William Julius Wilson gives us both a commentary on the recent debate and refocuses the discussion of underclass culture on an analysis of poor family structure. The last assigned reading in the course, David Ellwood's book, Poor Support, gives an extended and comprehensive "culturist" argument on the causes and remedies of structural poverty in the U.S.

Texts

Required: What Causes Poverty in America? Ed. Dudley, William. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1988.

June Axinn and Herman Levin. Social Welfare: A History of The American Response to Need. 2nd edition. New York: Longman, 1982.

Michael Katz. In The Shadow of The Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare In America. New York: Basic Books, 1986. (Alternate to Axinn)

. The Undeserving Poor: From the War On Poverty to the War on Welfare. New York: Pantheon, 1989.

David Ellwood. Poor Support: Poverty in the American Family. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1988.

Important Dates

September 5 Classes Begin

September 9 Begin Reading: Poverty Economics and Demographics & Current State of Policy

September 18 Mass of Holy Spirit (no 11 & 12:00s)

September 24 Begin Reading: History of U.S. Social Welfare

October 15 Option #1: Mid-Term Exam

Begin Reading: Poverty Explanation and Poverty Ethics

October 28 Founder's Holiday

October 29 Critical Analysis Paper Due

Begin Reading: The War on Poverty

October 30 Mid-Semester grades due

November 12 Begin Reading: The Journalism and Literature of Poverty

November 18 Last Day to drop course

November 18 Last Day to request pass/fail option

November 19 Mid-Term Exam

November 26 Begin Reading: Poverty and the Family (Theory of the Underclass)

November 27-29 Thanksgiving Holiday

December 11-16 Prep Week

December 16 Last day of class

December 17-20 Exam Period

Reading List

Introduction to Poverty Economics, Demographics, & Policy Disputes

Poverty Economics & Demographics

Sheahan, "Poverty in America Is a Serious Problem," 17-24

Katz, Appendix, 241-244

Shuster, "Poverty in America Is Not a Serious Problem," 25-33

Burtless, "Public Spending for the Poor," 18-49

Danziger, "Antipoverty Policy: Effects on the Poor and the Nonpoor," 50-77

Ellwood, "Poverty in America: Is Welfare the Answer or the Problem?," 78-105

Current State of Policy

DeParle (series), "Missing Agenda"

Pear, "Administration Rejects...New Programs"

Butler, "No Truce in the War of Poverty"

Frum, "A Poorhouse Divided"

Katz, "Introduction," The Undeserving Poor, 3-8

Ellwood, "Beyond Welfare," Chapter 1, Poor Support, 31-14

Hedges, "Mainline Protestant Ministers Turning From Inner City"

Pear, "U.S. Report Poverty is Down but Inequality is Up"

Rosenbaum, "Unemployment Insurance Aiding Fewer Workers"

Hilts, "Life Expectancy for Blacks in U.S. Shows Sharp Drop"

Lee, "Banks are Ranked on Serving Poor"

Finder, "When Welfare Pays the Rent"

Haveman, "State Poverty rates (by race)"

History of U.S. Social Welfare

Axinn, Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need

Katz, In The Shadow of the Poorhouse (alternative text)

Poverty Explanation and Poverty Ethics

Explanations

Opposing Views, "What are the Causes of Poverty?"

Holman, "Individuals and Poverty" & "Cultural Explanations: Family Behaviour and Poverty" from Poverty

Bakker, "Human Freedom and Scientific Explanation" Chapter 10 173-192

Ethics

Ellwood, "Values and the Helping Conundrums," (14-44)

U.S. Bishops, excerpt, "Economic Justice for All"

The War of Poverty

Katz, "Intellectual Foundations of the War on Poverty" and "Interpretations of Poverty in the Postindustrial City" Chapters 3 and 4 of The Undeserving Poor

The Journalism and Literature of Poverty

Dickens, "The Old Man's Tale about the Queer Client," from The Pickwick Papers, 319-332

Harrington, excerpt, The Other America, 1-40

Lehman, excerpt, The Promised Land, 1-58

Schmidt, "Hard Work Can't Stop Hard Times"

Wilkerson, "Middle-Class Blacks Try to Grip a Ladder While Lending a Hand"

Holmes, "Many Learn Sting Of Welfare As Recession Tightens Grip"

Poverty and the Family

Theory of the Underclass

Katz, "The Underclass," Chapter 5 of The Undeserving Poor

Wilson, "Cycles of Deprivation and the Ghetto Underclass Debate" and "Poverty and Family Status," from The Truly Disadvantaged

Ellwood, Poor Support

Wilkerson, "Wisconsin Welfare Plan"

Smothers, "Public Housing and a College to Become Partners"

-basic facts

-basic facts

-basic facts

-spending trends

-effects of welfare

-effects of welfare

-public perceptions

-current administration thinking

-conserv. editorial on admin. thinking

-analysis of current policy gridlock

-public perceptions

-public perceptions

-trends in ministry

-figures on inequality

-UI squeeze

-mortality by race

-financial services for poor

-figures on rent subsidies

-state poverty rates by race

-basic history

-specialized history

-alternative causal explanations

-theoretical causal models

-background information on theory of explanation

-ethical paradoxes of welfare

-catholic liberal thought

-historical analysis of the theory of the War on Poverty

-fictional story about poverty in mid-19th cent. England

-Am. poverty: 1950's

-Black migration: 1940-1965

-econ. dislocation: 1990

-black mobility and mentoring: 1990

-experience of welfare: 1990

-analysis of theory of underclass

-analysis of theory of underclass

-poverty and family structure

-misc. article

-misc. article

I. Introduction to Poverty Ethics, Explanation, and Assessment

II. Demographics and Economics of Poverty & Income

III. The History of U.S. Social Welfare, Part 1

IV. The History of U.S. Social Welfare, Part 2

V. Ethical Paradoxes of Helping

VI. The War on Poverty, Part 1

VII. The War on Poverty, Part 2

VIII. The Journalism and Literature of Poverty, Part 1

IX. The Journalism and Literature of Poverty, Part 2

X. Poverty and Family Structure

XI. The Theory of the Underclass or Culture of Poverty

XII. Poverty Programs

Your project work will typically consist of a variety of research activities motivated by your curiosity about the topics and issues addressed in the course, as well as your interest in related topics not covered in the course. You may develop your interests into a focused research topic which eventually leads to the writing of a research paper, but that is by no means the only way to satisfy the assignment. Don't just think in terms of a traditional research paper and don't assume that your project work has to revolve around just one activity or topic. I encourage you to develop a variety of questions and then design a few small projects to satisfy the assignment. For example, you might identify two or three research questions and, in the process of answering them you might write a book review, abstract several articles, and write a short critical analysis paper. Many students find that this approach to the project gives them the flexibility to work on a variety of interests. The two general requirements for project work are: 1) that you pursue a set of research interests in poverty; and 2) that your work include both an information gathering and critical reflection component. To facilitate your research, I am making available some information from my research database on poverty. In many cases you may start with sources in the database, however, I strongly encourage to develop your own curiosities. Before thinking further about a particular project or set of small projects, read the descriptions of suggested topics below.

1. Literature Review

Objective - Identify a sub topic or specific issue in poverty studies, review the materials referenced in the poverty database, and use a variety of research methods to evaluate the collection and supplement it with additional resources.

The topic you chose and the condition of the collection on that topic will determine the direction your literature review will take. If you are breaking new ground (covering issues not referenced in database), most of your work will involve the retrieval and reading of new documents. The product of your work will probably take the form of recommending additions to the database and some analytic summary of your findings. You may also identify an issue of particular interest to you and write a critical analysis paper on that issue.

If there are a number of references in the database on your topic or issue, then you will have to review these materials with the following questions in mind: Do these resources represent the range of reasonable positions on this topic? Are the resources dated in any way? Are there recent cases or contemporary "twists" to the issue not represented here? Your answers to these questions will point you toward a variety of activities. You may identify new cases or articles and recommend their addition to the database. You might then identify a particular issue of interest to you and, using both new and old resources write a critical analysis paper on that issue.

2. Book or Article Research

Objective - Read a major book or article on a course topic or related issue and critically analyze its impact on the discussion of the topic it addresses.

This project allows you to focus on a primary document of some significance (either because it is new and has attracted a lot of attention or because it is already considered a major or central work on a given topic) and do an in-depth analysis of the work itself and its "position" in discourse on that topic. You might look at reviews of the work, compare it to other similar work, or assess its value by analyzing the quality of evidence and argumentation used in the work. Depending on your emphasis and interest you may produce either an evaluative review or a critical analysis or the work.

3. Field Work

Objective - To combine readings on specific programs or problems with an interview experience with practitioners concerned with the problem or other field experience with the problem or issue.

4. Traditional Research Paper

Write a traditional research paper on a topic or issue covered in the course. Typical steps in the project include: Preliminary topic definition, research, reformulation of issues in light of research, drafting, final revision. You should consult with me after at least the first three stages of your work.

5. Student-led Miniseminars

In a student-led seminar a group of students with related research interests pursue coordinated group study of a topic area or set of issues. They meet occasionally to share information and discuss findings. Student seminar groups should develop both clear divisions of labor and responsibility and a concern for the progress of group members. I recommend that group members submit individual products for grading. However, in a group project much more sharing of primary resources is permissible. Student led seminars typically include a seminar event, either during or outside of class time. My preference is that you try to design an event that might be useful and attractive to the general university community, which includes both your peers and many intellectually curious older persons.

Here are some suggestions for topic areas for project topics. The larger topic areas are good candidates for student led seminars.

1. More in depth study in any area covered by course, including:

a. Eisenhower era efforts to reduce public welfare rolls (see Axinn, p. 243-246).

b. The Black Migration north during the 1940's and 50's (read Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land).

c. Conservative thought on the War on Poverty (a variety of readings are identified in the database under "conservative"). An entire project could consist of reading Charles Murray's, Losing Ground, the critical reviews and defenses of Murray's work, and evaluating the work.

2. Religious thought on poverty relief. Perhaps focus on a comparison of Catholic and Protestant thinking on relief in U.S. or a comparison of religious and secular social scientific approaches.

3. How did the major theorists of capitalism (e.g. Adam Smith) envision the mechanisms by which poverty would be alleviated?

4. Study specific programs in the War on Poverty; especially novel programs.

5. Study poverty among migrant farm workers (see, and perhaps schedule a campus screening of one or two of the following famous videos: "Harvest of Shame" (1960, CBS) and "Another Harvest of Shame" 1990).

6. Read one or more works of imaginative literature on poverty. Perhaps accompanied with bibliographic research and/or an essay on the contribution that the literature of poverty can make to the understanding of poverty.

7. Focus on the effects of poverty on child development. In addition to literature from education and psychology, a recent book by a journalist, Alex Kotlowitz, There are No Children Here, has drawn well deserved critical praise.

8. Pose a variety of basic demographic and economic questions about poverty (Who are the poor? Where are the poor? What do we spend on various groups of poor persons?) and sift through the resources in the poverty database to find answers. Present a fully documented report and prepare the information for public consumption on campus (either write a long piece for the newspaper or create a public information display). As an alternative or supplement to this project, create and distribute a "poverty information questionnaire" to survey to state of campus awareness of poverty facts.

9. Study the demographics of the working poor and apply the ethical argumentation used in the course to U.S. poverty policy and its effect on this group. See Levitan 1987.

10. Make a cultural comparison of poverty policy in U.S. and some other country or culture. For a U.S./Canada comparison see Leman 1980.

11. Study workfare requirements, both philosophically, from a standpoint of policy, and practical application.

12. Study some of the philosophical and legal literature on "welfare rights."

The Poverty Database is the research database I use for my work in poverty research and poverty law research. I hope you will find it helpful in generating ideas or locating sources for your project work.