THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES In the United States, the causes and even the meanings of poverty are disconnected from the causes and meanings of global poverty. The Routledge Handbook of Poverty in the United States provides an authoritative overview of the relationship of poverty with the rise of neoliberal capitalism in the context of globalization. Reorienting its national economy towards a global logic, United States domestic policies have promoted a market-based strategy of economic development and growth as the obvious solution to alleviating poverty, affecting approaches to the problem discursively, politically, economically, culturally, and experientially. However, the handbook explores how, rather than alleviating poverty, it has instead exacerbated poverty and pre-existing inequalities—pri- vatizing the services of social welfare and educational institutions, transforming the state from a benevolent to a punitive state, and criminalizing poor women, racial and ethnic minorities, and immigrants. Key issues examined by the international selection of leading scholars in this volume include: income distribution, employment, health, hunger, housing, and urbanization. With parts focus- ing on the lived experience of the poor, social justice and human rights frameworks—as opposed to welfare rights models—and the role of helping professions such as social work, health, and education, this comprehensive handbook is a vital reference for anyone working with those in poverty, whether directly or at a macro level. Stephen Nathan Haymes, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Program and the Department of International Studies at DePaul University, Chicago. Professor Haymes’ areas of research interest are Africana philosophy, postcolonial theory, forced migra- tion, and education, conflict, and development. Currently, he is working on a project related to place-based education and eco-justice with displaced Afro-descendent communities and a Colombian Human Rights NGO. He serves as the co-editor of The Journal of Poverty: Innovations on Social, Political and Economic Inequalities, a quarterly peer review publication of the Taylor & Francis Group. María Vidal de Haymes, Ph.D., is a Professor in the School of Social Work and Director of the Institute for Migration and International Social Work at Loyola University Chicago. She is the co-editor of The Journal of Poverty: Innovations on Social, Political and Economic Inequalities. She teaches courses in areas of social welfare policy and migration studies and her research addresses the economic and political incorporation of Latino immigrants in the United States; the impact of migration on family relationships, roles, and functioning; forced migration; the role of faith- based organizations in the pastoral and social accompaniment of migrants; child welfare; and social work education. Reuben Jonathan Miller, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. His research, writing, and advocacy work focus on the well-being of former prison- ers living in large urban settings and the ways in which criminal justice and social welfare policy is experienced daily by urban poor populations. THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES Edited by Stephen Nathan Haymes, María Vidal de Haymes, and Reuben Jonathan Miller First published 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Stephen Nathan Haymes, María Vidal de Haymes, and Reuben Jonathan Miller The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the contributors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Routledge Handbook of Poverty in the United States / edited by Stephen Haymes, Maria Vidal de Haymes and Reuben Miller. pages cm 1. Poverty—United States. 2. United States—Economic conditions. 3. United States—Social conditions. 4. United States—Economic policy. 5. United States— Social policy. I. Haymes, Stephen Nathan. II. De Haymes, Maria Vidal. III. Miller, Reuben Jonathan. HC110.P6R68 2014 362.50973—dc23 2014009636 ISBN: 978 0 41 567344 0 (hbk) ISBN: 978 1 31 575551 9 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by GreenGate Publishing Services, Tonbridge, Kent This book is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend and colleague, Alfred L. Joseph. ‘This Handbook is a treasure trove. Yes, it marshals the data on U.S. poverty, providing an indispensable reference guide. Even more valuably, it theorizes U.S. poverty anew, demon- strating how U.S. destitution and its “surplus populations” are shaped by neoliberalism’s global projects and logics, its economic mandates and powers of enforcement. The Handbook is thus also a compendium of knowledge for all who fight to end poverty. This is the book I want my students to have as they work in impoverished communities. It is also the book that all scholars of poverty and globalization will need to keep ready to hand.’ Mark Lewis Taylor, Religion and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary CONTENTS List of figures xiv List of tables xv List of appendices xvii Editor biographies xviii Notes on contributors xix General introduction Stephen Nathan Haymes, María Vidal de Haymes, and Reuben Jonathan Miller 1 PART I From the production of inequality to the production of destitution: the U.S. political economy of poverty in the era of globalization 5 Introduction 7 María Vidal de Haymes, Stephen Nathan Haymes, and Michael Lloyd 1 Beyond coincidence: how neoliberal policy initiatives in the IMF and World Bank affected United States poverty levels 11 Pamela Blackmon 2 The discursive axis of neoliberalism: debt, deficits, and austerity 19 Shawn Cassiman 3 Deindustrialized small cities and poverty: the view from Camden 26 Andrew Seligsohn and Joan Maya Mazelis 4 Transnational factors driving U.S. inequality and poverty 33 Rubin Patterson and Giselle Thompson Contents 5 Globalization and the trends in inequality of poverty in the United States in the last decade 43 Ashish Singh 6 The house always wins: how state lotteries displace American tax burdens by class and race 56 Kasey Henricks and Victoria Brockett 7 Predatory financial services: the high cost of being poor in America 75 Howard Karger 8 Consumer credits as a quasi-welfare system for failed neoliberals’ trickle-down policies between the 1980s and 2000s 83 Intae Yoon PART II Discourses of poverty: from the “culture of poverty” to “surplus population” 93 Introduction 95 Stephen Nathan Haymes and Eduardo Vargas 9 The problematic conceptualizations and constructions of poverty: select global analysis 101 Ali A. Abdi 10 Neoliberal economics and undergraduate poverty education 108 Kevin D. Blair and Gabriel A. Santos 11 The importance of context to the social processes around material hardship 120 Colleen M. Heflin 12 Welfare dependency and poverty: neoliberal rhetoric or evidence-informed choice? 130 Philip Young P. Hong and Brenda Crawley 13 Babies as barriers: welfare policy discourse in an era of neoliberalism 143 Linda Houser, Sanford F. Schram, Joe Soss, and Richard C. Fording 14 We are the 99 percent: the rise of poverty and the decline of poverty stigma 161 Joan Maya Mazelis and Brendan M. Gaughan viii Contents PART III From the welfare state to the neoliberal state: from regulating to imprisoning the poor 171 SECTION I Transformation of the welfare state: education 173 Introduction 175 Stephen Nathan Haymes and Emily Shayman 15 Neoliberalism and African Americans in higher education 179 Kimya Barden 16 How neoliberalism subverts equality and perpetuates poverty in our nation’s schools 190 T. Jameson Brewer and Paul S. Myers 17 Invisible students and the issues of online education 199 An Chih Cheng 18 Poverty reduction through education: an analytical framework for cash transfers for education 208 Elena Delavega and Monit Cheung 19 Students that lag or a system that fails? A contemporary look at the academic trajectory of Latino students 218 Jessica Martone 20 The new two-tiered education system in the United States: expanding and commodifying poverty and inequality 226 Kenneth J. Saltman SECTION II Transformation of the welfare state: cash transfers, housing, nutrition, and health 233 Introduction 235 María Vidal de Haymes, Erin Malcolm and Celeste Sánchez 21 Neoliberal globalization: social welfare policy and institutions 239 Michael J. Holosko and John R. Barner 22 The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) 249 Richard K. Caputo ix