Using qualitative methods, the studies in this volume highlight certain aspects of the dynamics of poverty in eight countries of the former Soviet Union and the interactions of poverty with gender, age, and ethnicity. They deepen understanding of how poor people in these countries experience and cope with the shock of sudden poverty, worsening…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project, and Milwaukee's New Hope Project are three antipoverty programs that were undertaken in the 1990s to end dependency on welfare by "making work pay." The impacts of all three programs were reviewed and compared to those of the Seattle/Denver Income Maintenance…

The different perceptions of literacy that inform the work of various groups working with disadvantaged groups within society were explored in a case study in which individuals providing services to low-skilled, disadvantaged clients in an outer urban area of Brisbane, Australia, were interviewed regarding their perceptions of their clients'…