Poverty and Inequality: Critical and Radical Debates in Social Work

Many agree that neoliberal economic policies have led to growing class inequality and increasing levels of poverty. Investigating the challenges that the growing financial and class disparity poses for the engaged social work academic and practitioner, the contributors look at the current state of poverty and inequality in a number of countries and examine social work’s response to it. They argue that—especially for a profession committed to values based on equality, social justice, and the meeting of human needs—poverty imposes a special requirement on social workers and academics to speak out when policies don’t work and the plight of the impoverished is exacerbated.