Dear All:

No doubt we all have our favorite resources, but I think if you work in
Health Promotion and you want to "understand" poverty, and get some
idea of how deep the struggle is for HP, you should read at least the
following books which are very "readable":

The Hidden Injuries of Class by Sennett and Cobb

Families in Pain by L. Rubin

The Health Gap by J. Kitts and J. Roberts (an IDRC book on women and
health)

Case Critical by Ben Carniol (study of social work, with strong parallels
to HP)

Dispatches from the Poverty Line by Pat Capponi

Blaming the Victim by William Ryan

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere


Then, if you don't know already, you will learn what your values are, what
the interests are that keep poverty and income disparity alive, etc. We
have decades of research indicating that the rich are healthier than the
poor, that health improves with the income gradient and that as the gap
between the wealthy and the poor widens, the health of a population
declines.

You really want a healthier society; don't work on projects that don't
somehow address those issues. I agree with Blake that sometimes it may
not be such a good idea to state one's theory. Lots of good HP work has
been done by women who never said "I work within a socialist, feminist
perspective, I would like some grant money please.." The concept of
"safety"..that is, sometimes it is "safe" to disclose your theory and
sometimes it isn't, seems applicable here. Surely disclosing and
labelling one's theory is contingent upon the audience and an innumerable
number of other factors?

More specifically to hunger and children...that anyone goes hungry in this
world is criminal..what is happening in Ontario is just one small part of
a bigger picture of the "political economy of food"...very well discussed
in How the Other Half Dies by Susan George (correct author?) among man
other tomes on the subject. I know that doesn't fill anybody's tummy, but
it's a good place to start reading.

Ernest Hemingway (that well-known feminist writer..) said we all need good
"crap detectors." So, anytime someone tells you that kids are
hungry because their "mothers" don't feed them, you KNOW it's crap.
Just call it that (and get fired? or don't get the project money, or...?)

Rhonda