This is a revised edition of a seminal work on the nature of underdevelopment. It includes a new foreword and appendixes on the significance of plantations to Third World economies and the contribution that George Beckford made to Caribbean economic thought.

Gives voice to our most vulnerable neighbors—people marginalized by joblessness, disability, poverty level wages, and mental illness

Prior work has shown that there is a significant amount of turnover amongst the African poor as households exit and enter poverty. Some of this mobility can be attributed to regular movement back and forth in response to exogenous variability in climate, prices, health, etc. ('churning'). Other crossings of the poverty line reflect permanent shifts in long-term well-being associated with gains or losses of productive assets or permanent changes in asset productivity due, for example, to adoption of improved technologies or access to new, higher-value markets. Distinguishing true structural mobility from simple churning is important because it clarifies the factors that facilitate such important structural change. Conversely, it also helps identify the constraints that may leave other households caught in a trap of persistent, structural poverty. The papers in this book help to distinguish the types of poverty and to deepen understanding of the structural features and constraints that create poverty traps. Such an understanding allows communities, local governments and donors to take proactive, effective steps to combat persistent poverty in Africa. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Development Studies.

A team of anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, social workers, and sociologists examine the leading explanations for why poverty persists in rural America. Their findings discredit established theories such as the culture of poverty and suggest new explanations for rural poverty and new directions for antipoverty programs

A team of anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, social workers, and sociologists examine the leading explanations for why poverty persists in rural America. Their findings discredit established theories such as the "culture of poverty" and suggest new explanations for rural poverty and new directions for antipoverty programs and policies.

Once heralded as "the land of opportunity," America has become, for increasing numbers of her inhabitants, a nation of disappointment and hardship. In a land characterized by innumerable economic, environmental and social problems, poverty is escalating to the point where approximately one-third of the population is composed of the poor and the near poor. Persistent Poverty provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of one of America's most disturbing social problems.In a clear, uncompromising style, Richard H. Ropers, Ph.D., a noted authority on the plight of the poverty-stricken, unravels a skein of government inconsistencies in handling the mounting effects of poverty, homelessness, the welfare system, and the gradual polarization of our class system, resulting in the gradual erosion of the middle class. After examining various "blame-the-victim" and "blame the system" theories of inequality, Dr. Ropers asserts that such poverty results primarily from long-term economic, social, and political policies and is not necessarily derived from the supposed deviant behavior of the poor.With a staggering 70 million Americans living just above or below the poverty line, the author advises that urgent attention be paid to the structural roots of poverty in light of significant increases in the rate of crime, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, domestic violence, and unemployment. As an objective focus on the enormous scope of poverty, this groundbreaking work offers keen insights into the argument that despite substantial efforts to alleviate similar plights worldwide, the United States cannot provide sufficient care for her own impoverished citizens.Sociologists, educators, politicians, urbanologists, public officials, and concerned citizens will all benefit from this provocative and thoughtful appraisal.