poverty

Essays

Visible Minorities, Visible Risk: Toronto’s Unequal Eviction Burden

Prentiss Dantzler & Khalil Martin & Abigail Meza - 16 September 2025

In Toronto, who gets evicted isn’t random—it follows the city’s racial and economic divides. Canada’s data practices...

Reviews

(Re)Constructing Inequality: Community Development in Public and Private

Claire Dunning - 14 December 2021

Claire Dunning reviews Jeremy R. Levine’s new book, Constructing Community, an ethnographic study of community...

From the Field

Understanding Why Homeless People Refuse Emergency Accommodation

Édouard Gardella & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 March 2021

The refusal of emergency accommodation by many homeless people expresses the intensity of their attachment to the...

Essays

Poverty as a Social Stigma

Axelle Brodiez-Dolino & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 December 2019

The distinction between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor is deeply entrenched, and representations of poverty...

From the Field

Open-Air Auto Shops: Subsistence Jobs in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Collectif Rosa Bonheur & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 October 2019

The informal activities of street mechanics observed by Collectif Rosa Bonheur in northern France attest to a much...

From the Field

Insecure Lives Under Extreme Climate Conditions: Insights from a Fishing Hamlet in Tamil Nadu, India

Devendraraj Madhanagopal - 17 April 2018

In recent years, climate change–induced weather events have exacerbated poverty and insecurity in small fishing...

From the Field

Snowbirds’ Gift Economy in the Arizona Desert

David Frati - 7 November 2017

Each year, 200,000 retired people spend the winter in and around the small town of Quartzsite, Arizona, in the...

Reviews

Evictions and Poverty

Hilary Botein - 28 June 2016

Matthew Desmond’s Evicted has drawn much-needed attention to the under-studied problem of unsubsidized rental...

Reviews

On Being Black and Poor in a Small City

Peter Moskos - 24 May 2016

No Way Out, Waverly Duck’s recent examination of how African Americans in an impoverished small city construct a...

Essays

When Cities Fail, Babies Die

Monica J. Casper - 2 February 2016

Detroit, Michigan is often identified as the worst city in the United States, with excessive poverty, racism, and...

Reviews

Good neighbours? Homeless people as seen by those who live alongside them

Marine Maurin & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2015

Prejudices regarding the poorest in society die hard. Does living in proximity to some of these populations help...

From the Field

Food Deserts and Wage Deserts: The Importance of Metaphor in Policy and Activism

Laura Wolf-Powers - 28 April 2015

So-called “food deserts,” or neighborhoods deprived of businesses that sell healthy foods, are also poor...

From the Field

The Other Side of Austin, Texas

Caitlyn Collins & Katherine Jensen & Kristine Kilanski & Javier Auyero - 2 March 2015

Despite a booming economy, Austin, Texas, is a city where inequalities persist and grow in the shadow of neoliberal...

From the Field

When Predator Becomes Prey: Rental Housing in Low-Income Minority Neighborhoods

Clément Théry - 2 February 2015

In the growing low-income rental market, predator and prey roles can shift, as landlords and tenants alike can fall...

From the Field

Slumdog Non-Millionaires

Rémi de Bercegol & Shankare Gowda - 14 May 2014

In India, the dominant theme of megacities and their development has concealed the significance of small and...

Visible Minorities, Visible Risk: Toronto’s Unequal Eviction Burden

(Re)Constructing Inequality: Community Development in Public and Private

Understanding Why Homeless People Refuse Emergency Accommodation

Poverty as a Social Stigma

Open-Air Auto Shops: Subsistence Jobs in Working-Class Neighborhoods

Insecure Lives Under Extreme Climate Conditions: Insights from a Fishing Hamlet in Tamil Nadu, India

Snowbirds’ Gift Economy in the Arizona Desert

Evictions and Poverty

On Being Black and Poor in a Small City

When Cities Fail, Babies Die

Good neighbours? Homeless people as seen by those who live alongside them

Food Deserts and Wage Deserts: The Importance of Metaphor in Policy and Activism

The Other Side of Austin, Texas

When Predator Becomes Prey: Rental Housing in Low-Income Minority Neighborhoods

Slumdog Non-Millionaires

Series

Featured

Covid-19 Transformed New York’s Destination Food Markets

Moving Inside City Limits: The Urban Mobility of Undocumented Youth

Filming Ethnic Diversity in New York

Looking Inward, Across the Border

The Political Aesthetics of Drag

Disarm the Police

Other resources online

“Our hallway’s big enough to play football in!” The council housing...

Saudi Arabia: How is Mobility Being Transformed in the Oil Kingdom?

Transport for Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age (Paul Mees)

Geopolitics and Electric Vehicles: The Rise of Climate Protectionism

One Way to Fight Rising Food Prices: Public Grocery Stores

The Quiet Power of Car-Free Neighborhoods

Partners