Written in an invitingly accessible tone, Dr. Baran elucidates how social class, race, and gender influence the ways welfare recipients are negatively perceived by others and how these biased perceptions affect welfare recipients’ abilities to navigate their own social milieu. The principled consideration and civic engagement Dr. Baran provided her participants and their community serve as an exemplar for how sociologists should ethically conduct community-based field research. This apt critique of problems in our current welfare system encourages readers to reflect on our own social standing and recognize that the majority of us are in much more precarious positions than we may have previously thought.

Daniel Bartholomay, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi

This book involves a qualitative, ethnographic study of poverty and economic insecurity among residents of Milwaukee, WI. Baran is particularly interested in how social class, race, and gender impact the perceptions of welfare recipients and other aspects of their lives. The author shares valuable data particularly related to how contemporary issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement affected the lives of those living in poverty in American urban centers over the past few years. This book will be of most interest to scholars and students of sociology, urban studies, and urban anthropology with a possible secondary audience among scholars studying the delivery of human services. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews