The Upper Limit: How Low-Wage Work Defines Punishment and Welfare

Author:   François Bonnet
Publisher:   University of California Press
ISBN:  

9780520305212


Pages:   200
Publication Date:   27 August 2019
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
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The Upper Limit: How Low-Wage Work Defines Punishment and Welfare


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Overview

Since 1993, crime in the United States has fallen to historic lows, seeming to legitimize the country’s mix of welfare reform and mass incarceration. The Upper Limit explains how this unusual mix came about, examining how, beginning in the 1970s, declining living standards for the poor have defined social and penal policy in the United States, making welfare more restrictive and punishment harsher. François Bonnet shows how low-wage work sets the upper limit of social and penal policy, where welfare must be less attractive than low-wage work and criminal life must be less attractive than welfare. In essence, the living standards of the lowest class of workers in a society determine the upper limit for the generosity of welfare and for the humanity of punishment in that society. The Upper Limit explores the local consequences of this punitive adjustment in East New York, a Brooklyn neighborhood where crime fell in the 1990s. Bonnet argues that no meaningful penal reform can happen unless living standards and the minimum wage rise again. Enlightening and provocative, The Upper Limit provides a comprehensive theory of the evolution of social and penal policy.  

Full Product Details

Author:   François Bonnet
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.408kg
ISBN:  

9780520305212


ISBN 10:   0520305213
Pages:   200
Publication Date:   27 August 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Illustrations Introduction 1 Upper Limit 2 Great Adjustment 3 Crime Drop and the East New York Renaissance 4 Necessity of Harsh Policing 5 Prisoner Reentry in Public Housing 6 Nonprofits: Welfare of the Cheap 7 Reengineering Less Eligibility: The New York Homeless Shelter Industry Conclusion Notes Acknowledgments References Index

Reviews

The book's analyses of punitive practices through multiple public and private organizations is worthy of the read in itself. * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books * The Upper Limit enriches a broad range of literatures, including poverty and inequality, social welfare, punishment studies, reentry, federal housing assistance, and political sociology. . . . Bonnet's work illuminates the social stakes and imperatives of that fight-the chance to create a more generous and less punitive society. * Contemporary Sociology * The Upper Limit will be of wide interest to sociologists and criminologists concerned with social order, inequality, and punishment. It makes important theoretical contributions to research on social policy and penal transformation . . . . In a contemporary moment defined by the human and economic devastation of the global covid-19 pandemic and ongoing violence, racism, and political turmoil in the US, this book lays out what it would take to move the American social order towards greater equality and humanity. * Labour/Le Travail *


The book's analyses of punitive practices through multiple public and private organizations is worthy of the read in itself. * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *


Author Information

François Bonnet is Research Fellow in Sociology and Political Science at CNRS, the French National Center for Scientific Research.  

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