Edited by Virginia Mantouvalou and Jonathan Wolff

In developing her conception of structural injustice, Iris Marion Young made a strict distinction between large-scale collective injustice that results from the normal functions of a society, and the more familiar concepts of individual wrong and deliberate state repression. Her ideas have attracted considerable attention in political philosophy, but legal theorists have been slower to consider the relation between structural injustice and legal analysis. While some forms of vulnerability to structural injustice can be the unintended consequences of legal rules, the law also has potential instruments to alleviate some forms of structural injustice. Structural Injustice and the Law presents theoretical approaches and concrete examples to show how the concept of structural injustice can aid legal analysis, and how legal reform can, in practice, reduce or even eliminate some forms of structural injustice. A group of outstanding law and political philosophy scholars discuss a comprehensive range of interdisciplinary topics, including the notion of domination, equality and human rights law, legal status, sweatshop labour, labour law, criminal justice, domestic homicide reviews, begging, homelessness, regulatory public bodies and the films of Ken Loach. Drawn together, they build an invaluable resource for legal theorists exploring how to make use of the concept of structural injustice, and for political philosophers looking for a nuanced account of the law’s role both in creating and mitigating structural injustice.

London: UCL Press, 2024. 334p.

By Irene Bucelli and Abigail McKnight

• Geographical concentration of disadvantage can lead to concentrated exclusion. Place-based policies have an important role to play, affecting a range of quality-of life dimensions and experiences of economic, social and civic participation. • These types of localised solutions are limited in relation to poverty reduction, suggesting they should not be considered in isolation of complementary national and regional policy around, for instance, housing, employment, education and social security. • To make sure those who are disadvantaged benefit from local regeneration policies, clear equity and social inclusion objectives need to be set, together with adequate forms of evaluation and monitoring – growth and prosperity cannot be expected to organically ‘trickle down’. • There are connections between neighbourhood environment and policy areas covered in other reviews, for instance: o Digital exclusion: Many strategies for urban regeneration have recently focused on leveraging the potential benefits of digitalisation. Strategies that support digital inclusion are required to reduce the risk of reinforcing existing inequalities. o Household debt; Food insecurity; Fuel poverty: Regeneration strategies can disrupt informal support networks (families, friends, neighbours) which play a critical role in mitigating vulnerability experienced by poor households. • We conclude the review with some promising actions identified in the international literature, namely: o Setting clear objectives in relation to poverty and social exclusion reduction is important for regeneration efforts to make sure benefits reach the most disadvantaged and to avoid gentrification. o This calls for evaluations to be planned alongside interventions which focus on distributional outcomes, not only processes and outputs. Realistic timeframes and estimates of ‘social value’ should also be included. o Community-led approaches can mitigate the risks of gentrification but require proactive engagement of disadvantaged citizens in the community.

Cardiff: The Wales Centre for Public Policy, 2022. 36p.

By Daniel Nettle

Nettle’s book presents the results of five years of comparative ethnographic fieldwork in two different neighbourhoods of the same British city, Newcastle upon Tyne. The neighbourhoods are only a few kilometres apart, yet whilst one is relatively affluent, the other is amongst the most economically deprived in the UK. Tyneside Neighbourhoods uses multiple research methods to explore social relationships and social behaviour, attempting to understand whether the experience of deprivation fosters social solidarity, or undermines it. … Tyneside Neighbourhoods is a must read for scholars, students, individual readers, charities and government departments seeking insight into the social consequences of deprivation and inequality in the West. Nettle’s book presents the results of five years of comparative ethnographic fieldwork in two different neighbourhoods of the same British city, Newcastle upon Tyne. The neighbourhoods are only a few kilometres apart, yet whilst one is relatively affluent, the other is amongst the most economically deprived in the UK. Tyneside Neighbourhoods uses multiple research methods to explore social relationships and social behaviour, attempting to understand whether the experience of deprivation fosters social solidarity, or undermines it.

Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2015. 148p.

By Anton Makarenko.

As one of the founders of Soviet pedagogy, Anton Makarenko elaborated the theory and methodology of upbringing in self-governing child collectives and introduced the concept of productive labor into the educational system. Encouraged by Gorky, Makarenko wrote The Pedagogical Poem (in the West The Road to Life) based on the true stories of his pupils from the orphanage for street children, which he started in 1925.

Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint. (1933) 441 pages.

By S. Giora Shoham.

This continuation of Shoham's unique psychoanalytic personality theory of deviance applies its principles and insights to understanding social deviance in a deeper cultural and religious sense. Mining the works of Rank, Ferenzi, Stack Sullivan and many other great personality theorists of the twentieth century, Shoham effortlessly blends them into a deep understanding of existentialist thought to explain the social deviance in others and in ourselves. Shoham's obvious adoration of the Judeo-Christian ethic, linking it directly to internal family relationships and the external cultural and physical world both reassures and threatens.This is a monumental work, as challenging as it is informative and will remain a classic for the ages.

NY. Harrow and Heston Publishers. 2012.

By Chas H. McCord.

Dependent, Defective and Delinquent. “The time has come when advancing civilization must break with its old methods and its motives of dealing with the submerged classes of society.”

Benson Nashville (1914) 343 pages.

By John Lewis Gillin

In "Poverty and Dependency," the author delves deep into the complex interplay of socioeconomic factors that perpetuate poverty and create systems of dependency. Through a meticulous analysis of historical and contemporary case studies, the book sheds light on the harsh realities faced by marginalized communities around the world.

The author challenges conventional wisdom and exposes the underlying structures that contribute to the persistence of poverty. By exploring the intricate web of political, economic, and social forces at play, "Poverty and Dependency" offers a thought-provoking examination of the root causes of inequality and injustice.

With a compelling narrative style and rigorous research, this book serves as a call to action for policymakers, activists, and individuals alike. "Poverty and Dependency" is a crucial addition to the discourse on poverty alleviation and social change, inviting readers to confront uncomfortable truths and work towards a more equitable future for all.

New York Century (1921) 346 pages.

By “Philanthropy.”

A Series of Letters published in the “Montreal Gazette” by “Philanthropy.”

Montreal Salter and Ross (1857) 35 pages.

By Catherine Robinson.

This book reveals the ways in which intense chains of disadvantage, incorporating homelessness, are triggered by very early experiences of violence. Drawing on biographic interviews with six men and six women, the book bears witness not only to horrendous repeated experiences of physical and sexual violence, but discusses what may be understood as related multi-dimensional vulnerability in areas such as physical and mental health, education, employment and social connectedness. A picture of the long-term cycles of violent victimisation and homelessness, and their compounding traumatising effects, are made clear and the importance of trauma-informed service delivery is outlined as a key way forward Sydney:

UTS ePress, 2010. 70p.

Edited by A.L. Beier and Paul Ocobock.

Throughout history, those arrested for vagrancy have generally been poor men and women, often young, able-bodied, unemployed, and homeless. Most histories of vagrancy have focused on the European and American experiences. This is the first book to consider global laws, homelessness, and the historical processes they accompanied. Vagrancy and homelessness are used to examine the migration of labor, social and governmental responses, poverty through charity, welfare, and prosecution. Cast Out includes discussions of the lives of the underclass, strategies for surviving and escaping poverty, the criminalization of poverty by the state, the rise of welfare and development programs, the relationship between imperial powers and colonized peoples, and the struggle to achieve independence after colonial rule.

Athens, OH : Ohio University Press, 2008 409p.

By Peter Squires.

The study of social policy, or social administration, is usually associated with the study of statutory, welfare-oriented, distributive mechanisms. Indeed, it is precisely these distributive and welfare-related characteristics that qualifies certain kinds of policy as 'social'. Yet, there is no real justification, save historical accident and tradition for continuing to accept this particular conception of social policy. A different kind of examination of the historical record - such as the analyses contained within this thesis - reveals a quite different legacy to the British social policy tradition. Thus, the work contained within this thesis consists of an attempt to take another look at the historical development and modern evolution of state social policy. The effort is made to show that there is an older and more entrenched social policy tradition in Britain; one as much concerned with discipline as with welfare,. more to do with division than with integration and more repressive than, liberating. It is important to acknowledge that the penal code is as old as the Poor Laws, that the mercantilist science of police preceded the science of political economy; and, later in the age of capitalism and industrialization, the Metropolitan Police Act predated the extension of the franchise and the reform of the Poor Laws. In short, a central preoccupation of the thesis is the attempt to elaborate Gareth Stedman-Jones' remark that, in the history of social administration, welfare and discipline, or care and control, were but two sides of the same coin. In order to develop this argument, theoretical perspectives deriving from the work of Marx and Foucault have been employed. The works of Marx have been used to help in the analysis of the state, class struggle and the changing modes of political domination, whilst Foucault's work - especially his emphasis upon the analysis of discipline - has been employed to help elaborate the ways in which objectives, techniques and practices are brought together in forms of socio-political 'intervention' - political strategies or social policies. Furthermore Foucault's work in the analysis of socio-political discourse was of major importance insofar as it offered a technique for isolating and examining the formation of knowledges, practices and policies in social interventions.

Bristol, UK: University of Bristol 1984. 2 vols.