On understanding poverty: perspectives from the social sciences v.1

The present volume, and its companion, edited by James Sundquist of The Brookings Institution, include the main fruits of these meetings, papers presented to the seminar and revised after discussion within the group. The first volume deals with theoretical aspects of the nature of poverty; the second with the development of federal anti-poverty policy. The editors and contributors to the two volumes would be the last to claim that they have presented a solution to the problem of poverty. In fact, the reader will observe considerable differences of opinion among the various authors. They have, however, certainly contributed to the description and clarification, on an interdisciplinary basis, of some of the issues which are currently being and will continue to be faced in working toward not one, but the necessary variety of solutions. This represents a considerable step in the mobilization of the resources of social science to provide a solid basis in empirical knowledge and theoretical analysis so urgently required in this area of public policy.