Poverty, Low-Wage Labor and Social Retrenchment

GIVING ETHNOGRAPHY A SAY IN POLICY

The lives of the low-skilled and low-paid have been buffeted by welfare reform, the dismantling of social programs, and the restructuring of labor markets. Qualitative research, drawing on sociology's rich ethnographic tradition, can tell us something about how these upheavals were experienced by the people directly affected by them. Frank Munger, of the State University of New York at Buffalo, argues that an ethnographic perspective has much to contribute to our understanding of life on the economic margins. He received a grant for a workshop on poverty, low-wage work, and welfare retrenchment, which will make the case that ethnographic research deserves a greater say in the formulation of social policies. The conference should lead to a book to be published by the Foundation.