Häftad, Engelska, 2022

Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequality

Av Lawrence M. Eppard, Mark Robert Rank, Heather E. Bullock

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Beskrivning

Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequalityexplores and critiques the widespread perception in the United States that one’s success or failure in life is largely the result of personal choices and individual characteristics. As the authors show, the distinctively individualist ideology of American politics and culture shapes attitudes toward poverty and economic inequality in profound ways, fostering social policies that de-emphasize structural remedies. Drawing on a variety of unique methodologies, the book synthesizes data from large-scale surveys of the American population, and it features both conversations with academic experts and interviews with American citizens intimately familiar with the consequences of economic disadvantage. This mixture of approaches gives readers a fuller understanding of “skeptical altruism,” a concept the authors use to describe the American public’s hesitancy to adopt a more robust and structurally-oriented approach to solving the persistent problem of economic disadvantage.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum: 2022-03-04
Mått: 155 x 219 x 16 mm
Vikt: 399 g
Format: Häftad
Språk: Engelska
Antal sidor: 302
Förlag: Associated University Presses
ISBN: 9781611462364

Utforska kategorier

Sociala grupper och identitet

Mer om författaren

Lawrence M. Eppard is assistant professor of sociology at Shippensburg University.Mark Robert Rank is the Herbert S. Hadley Endowed Professor of Social Welfare at Washington University in St. Louis.Heather E. Bullock is professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Recensioner i media

Despite this text's range of authors and contributors, including Henry Giroux and Noam Chomsky, the book's main thrust is social psychological. It surveys recent writing and research that outlines and seeks to explain why the US is an outlier among affluent (principally European) nations in its minimalist approach to social programs and policies to mitigate poverty. Though recognizing that racism, i.e., the popular view that “redistribution favors racial minorities,” has always infested policy choices and that the US “political system is geared towards preventing redistribution,” the authors emphasize individualism as the force that explains cross-national differences. This ideology is reinforced by an “underdeveloped non-individualistic vocabulary” and an unpopular sociological counter-narrative. System-justification research is cited to explain why “low-income and working-class people endorse hierarchy-enhancing beliefs that go against their own self-interest,” a concept also explored in Thomas Frank's What’s the Matter with Kansas? (2004). . . its many voices make this a useful text that raises fundamental questions about inequality beliefs. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students.

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