Whenever possible the descriptions of the following resources have been taken directly from their source.  This list is by no means exhaustive.  Suggestions for additions are encouraged and can be emailed to the Social Justice and Peace Studies Website Administrator at sjpsweb@uwo.ca 
 

BOOKS:

Albelda, Randy and Ann Withorn, eds.  Lost Ground: Welfare reform, poverty and beyond.  Cambridge: South End, 2002.
Notes: This anthology analyses welfare issues in the context of broad political shifts, including globalization, the end of the family wage, the sexual revolution, and the rise of black liberation, feminism, and multiculturalism.


Capponi, Pat.  The War at Home: An intimate portrait of Canada’s poor.  Toronto: Viking, 1999.
Notes:  Outspoken social activist Pat Capponi travels from coast to coast to investigate the lives and communities of this country’s poor and to examine the changes that have beset the disadvantaged in this new era of reduced social programs.  Capponi illuminates how government policies such as the reduction of welfare payments, workfare, and government sponsored casinos and VLTs are changing the very nature of poverty and survival in this country.  Available at Kings Library.


Curtis, James, Edward Grabb and Neil Guppy, eds.  Social Inequality in Canada: Patterns, problems and policies.  3rd Ed.  Scarborough: Prentice-Hall, 1999.
Notes: This book has relevant articles about class, power, poverty, occupation, education, gender, race, age, religion and other causes of social inequality.
 

Ehrenreich, Barbara.  Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.  New York: Metropolitan, 2001.
Notes:  Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job -- any job -- can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour?  Available at Weldon.


Isbister, John.  Promises not kept: The betrayal of social change in the third world.  4th Ed. West Hartford: Kumarian Press, 1998.
Notes: Promises Not Kept describes the creation of poverty, third world debt, theories to understand development, the betrayal of the first world’s responsibilities to the poor and gives some hope for a just future.


Langdon, Steven. Global Poverty, Democracy and North South Change.  Toronto: Garamond, 1999.
Notes:  This book addresses major questions about global poverty, the political forces surrounding it, and the efforts to eliminate it. This is very much a book about democracy, based on the belief that empowerment is at the heart of democracy, and that such a dynamic is the crucial step in overcoming global poverty.  Available at Weldon.


Layton, Jack.  Homelessness: The making and unmaking of a crisis.  Penguin Canada, 2000.
Notes: A Canadian book on homelessness.  Jack Layton, one of this country’s leading experts and outspoken activists on housing issues, addresses the crisis from its roots, in order not only to understand the problem, but to find workable solutions.   Homelessness offers insight, perspective and proactive solutions to a seemingly intractable crisis.


Madeley, John. Hungry for Trade: How the poor pay for free trade.  London: Zed Books, 2000.
Notes:  Will free trade benefit transnational corporations or the millions who are currently malnourished? Will small farmers find new markets in the North? Or will they lose even their local markets to cheap, subsidized food from the North? Why should countries not protect their rural communities and ensure self-sufficiency in food production? Food security affects us all. There is no more important issue. This book is a clarion call to remove our ideological blinkers and think afresh. [From book jacket].  Available at Kings and Weldon.
 

Murphy, Barbara.  On the Street: How we created the homeless. Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford, 2000.
Notes:  On the Street examines the circumstances that have led to homelessness situation in Canada and explores possible remedies. Available at Weldon.


Yalnizyan, Armine.  The Growing Gap: A report on the growing inequality between the rich and the poor in Canada.  Toronto: Centre for Social Justice, 1998.
Notes:  The gap is growing between the rich and poor in Canada and in Ontario. A select group of wealthy Canadians are taking home fat paychecks sweetened with bonuses and stock options. Meanwhile, a growing number of working people are seeing their incomes drop. They're either working longer and harder for less pay or they're grasping at any kind of work -- increasingly part-time and temporary.  Available at Kings and Weldon.


VIDEOS:

Boom: The Sound of Eviction.  Dir. Cavanaugh, Francine, A. Mark Liiv, and Adams Wood.  Whispered Media, 2002.
Notes:  Boom delves into the ironies and contradictions of the "New Economy" and delivers a potent social critique that is ambitious in its scope while remaining close to the human scale. The viewer moves easily between dot-com party crashing at one end of the economic spectrum and painful moments with evicted families at the other. Boom features interviews with dot-com workers, real estate developers, and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, as well as those who challenged the new economic order through community organizing, electoral politics, and direct action.  Available at: www.boomthemovie.org/preview.html for preview or purchase, 96 min.

WEBSITES:

Development and Peace:  Development and Peace is the official international development agency of the Canadian Catholic Church. It is a membership-based organization founded in 1967 by Canada's bishops, laity and clergy to fight poverty in developing countries and to promote greater international justice. Inspired by Gospel values, particularly "the preferential option for the poor," the goals of Development and Peace are to support initiatives by Third World people to take control of their lives and to educate Canadians about North-South issues.  www.devp.org       Just Youth Development and Peace at:  http://youth.devp.org/

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty:  OCAP is a direct-action anti-poverty organization based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We mount campaigns against regressive governmental policies as they affect poor and working people. In addition, we provide direct-action advocacy for individuals against eviction, termination of welfare benefits, and deportation. We believe in the power of people to organize themselves. We believe in the power of resistance.  www.ocap.ca

World Revolution:  The World Revolution is an idea for a new, global grassroots social movement for progressive social change. It aims to resolve in a definitive and comprehensive manner the major social problems of our world and our era.  Major issue areas of the World Revolution include: peace, human rights, the environment, and world poverty.   www.worldrevolution.org