Work, Consumerism and the New Poor

From one of today's most eminent thinkers—a piercing examination of poverty in the modern age

If "being poor" once derived its meaning from the condition of being unemployed, today it draws its meaning primarily from the plight of a flawed consumer. This distinction truly makes a difference in the way poverty is experienced and in the chances to redeem its misery.

This absorbing book traces this change, and makes an inventory of its social consequences. It also considers ways of fighting back advancing poverty and mitigating its hardships, and tackles the problems of poverty in its present form.

The new edition features:

• Up-to-date coverage of the progress made by key thinkers in the field
• A discussion of recent work on redundancy, disposability, and exclusion
• Explorations of new theories of workable solutions to poverty

Students of sociology, politics, and social policy will find this to be an invaluable text on the changing significance and implications of an enduring social problem.

Zygmunt Bauman is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Leeds. He is one of the foremost commentators on the postmodern condition. His latest books include Postmodernity and Its Discontents and The Globals and the Locals.

Booknews

Traces the change from poverty as a condition of being unemployed to poverty as the plight of being a flawed consumer and looks at social consequences of this change. Considers to what extent the tested means of fighting poverty and mitigating its hardships are fit or unfit to tackle the problems of poverty in its present form. Discussion encompasses the meaning of work, the aesthetic of consumption, the welfare state, the underclass, and prospects for the new poor. Of interest to students of sociology, politics, and social policy. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Zygmunt Bauman is an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Leeds. He is one of the foremost commentators on the postmodern condition. His latest books include Postmodernity and Its Discontents and The Globals and the Locals.