Time and Poverty in Western Welfare States
United Germany in Perspective

Time and Poverty in Western Welfare States suggests the need for a radical re-think of the theoretical and policy approaches to poverty.

Lutz Leisering (Author), Stephan Leibfried (Author), Ralf Dahrendorf (Foreword by), John Veit-Wilson (Translated by)

9780521003520, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 March 2001

396 pages, 17 b/w illus.
23 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm, 0.627 kg

'Will become a classic text in the literature of social policy research. It is backed with original theoretical insights and innovative proposals for policy reform. The authors open up a new era of scholarly enquiry into the complex relationships between poverty, social exclusion and class structures as they change over time.' Robert Pinker, London School of Economics and Political Science

Time and Poverty in Western Welfare States is the English-language adaptation of one of the most important contributions to welfare economics published in recent years. Professors Leibfried and Leisering offer a time-based (dynamic) analysis of the study of poverty, and suggest the need for a radical re-think of conventional theoretical and policy approaches. The core of this study is the empirical analysis of the life course of recipients of 'Social Assistance' in Germany, although the conclusions are put into a wider context of socio-economic and socio-political analysis and comparative observations are made with other countries, notably the USA. Time, Life and Poverty will be of interest to upper-level students, researchers and policy-makers in a wide range of social science disciplines, including: economics, social policy, sociology, psychology and European studies.

Preface R. Dahrendorf
Part I. The Welfare State and the Life Course Passages Through Poverty: 1. Poverty in the welfare state: the life-course approach
2. Life course as politics
Part II. Poverty in the Life Course: The Dynamics of Social Decline and Ascent: 3. Objective time: how long do people claim social assistance?
4. Subjective time: how social assistance is perceived and evaluated
5. Living time: poverty careers between exclusion and integration
6. Institutionalised time: does social assistance create dependency?
Part III. Poverty and Social Change Debates and Policies: 7. Between denial and dramatisation: images of poverty in postwar Germany
8. Disruption and continuity in life courses: poverty in unified Germany
9. Increasingly dynamic? The impact of social change on social assistance dynamics
Part IV. Poverty and Society: Towards a New Welfare State?: 10. Time and poverty: towards a new picture of poverty and social exclusion
11. Paths out of poverty: perspectives on active policy
12. Social inequality in transition
13. Individual lives and the welfare state - recasting the German welfare regime.

Subject Areas: Microeconomics [KCC], Welfare & benefit systems [JKSB], Poverty & unemployment [JFFA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]