Law and Poverty

Socio-legal research on the legal experiences of the poor reflects an understanding of the close connection between economic inequality and law. The first two parts of this volume illustrate general analytical approaches to law and poverty. The remaining parts include essays which examine more specific issues such as race and gender, access to law, legal consciousness and social change. Research on the relationships between poverty, inequality and governance still leaves many questions unanswered but the work presented here reflects the important contribution that sociolegal research makes to the ongoing debate. Contents: Series preface: Introduction. Part I Class, Poverty, and Law: A sociological analysis of the law of vagrancy, William Chambliss; Civil justice and the poor: issues for sociological research, Jerome E. Carlin, Jan Howard and Sheldon Messinger; Governing through crime, Jonathan Simon. Part II Legal Foundations for the Welfare State: A genealogy of dependency: tracing a keyword of the US welfare state, Nancy Fraser and Linda Gordon; Constructing the political spectacle: the interpretation of entitlements, legalization and obligations in social welfare history, Joel F. Handler; Subsidized lives and the ideology of efficiency, Martha M. McCluskey. Part III Poverty, Gender, and Race: Subordination, rhetorical survival skills, and Sunday shoes: notes on the hearing of Mrs G., Lucie E. White; 'An honest living': street vendors, municipal regulation and the black public sphere, Regina Austin; Spiritual and menial housework, Dorothy Roberts. Part IV Access to Law: The practice of law as a confidence game: organizational cooptation of a professional, Abraham S. Blumberg; Socializing the legal profession: can redistributing lawyers' services achieve social justice, Richard I. Abel. Part V Identity and Legal Consciousness: Community resource orientation among low income groups, Felice J. Levine and Elizabeth Preston; Conformity, contestation and resistance: an account of legal consciousness, Patricia Ewick and Susan S. Silbey. Part VI Law, Poverty and Social Change: Low income people and the political process, Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward; Community economic development as progressive politics: towards a grassroots movement for economic justice, Scott L. Cummings; Beyond welfare reform: can we build a local welfare state?, Frank Munger; Name index.