Poverty and Income Inequality

Poverty is an ongoing concern for community and civic engagement. Research in this area is often divided into three areas. First, the nature, extent, and dynamics of poverty including the measurement of poverty may be examined. Second, reasons for (or root causes of) poverty may be examined and structural-level explanations offered. Third, strategies and solutions to poverty may be proposed and discussed. Find below Background Information on the related topics of Poverty and Income Inequality.

Subject Encyclopedias:

• Credo Topic Page on Income Inequality - Includes a 'mind-map', a summary article from the International Encyclopedia of Political Science, links to related articles, and bibliography.

• Poverty and Government in America: A Historical Encyclopedia - Provides definitions and an overview of economic inequality for a historical perspective. 

• Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health-  Provides an excellent overview of poverty from a public health perspective. Provides definitions, descriptions, discussion of causes and effects, and provides a useful bibliography of books, articles, websites, and organizations. 

• Encyclopedia of Race and Racism - Provides and overview with discussions of industrialization, race, racism, and colonialism. Includes bibliography.

• The Reader's Companion to US Women's History - An overview of the poverty from the perspective of US women's history. 

CQ Researcher:

• CQ Research Income Inequality - Provides background information, discussion of the problem, pros and cons, maps, graphs, possible solutions, chronology, and bibliography for income inequality.

• CQ Researcher - Short Report on Poverty and Homelessness - Brief discussion of contemporary debates on poverty and homelessness, chronology and bibliography. 

• CQ Researcher - Fighting Urban Poverty - Provides background information, discussion of the problem, pros and cons, maps, graphs, possible solutions, chronology, and bibliography about urban poverty. 

• CQ Researcher - Domestic Poverty - Provides background information, discussion of the problem, pros and cons, maps, graphs, possible solutions, chronology, and bibliography about domestic poverty.