Working and Living in the Shadow of Economic Fragility

Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has the United States faced such a prolonged period of high unemployment and underemployment. Recovery from the "Great Recession" that began in 2008 has been slow, and is projected to remain sluggish over the next several years, while another shock to the global economy could erase the meager gains of the past months. Economic conditions remain fragile and employment challenges show no sign of letting up. With persistently high unemployment and underemployment-and growing inequality in wages-an increasing number of American families are no longer adequately supported by employment income and basic benefits. Many older workers have "retired" before they are ready, and many young workers cannot find a foothold in the job market. A silent crisis is underway, with huge social and economic costs for the nation. Working and Living in the Shadow of Economic Fragility examines the current state of employment through historical, macroeconomic, cultural, sociological and policy lenses, in order to address fundamental questions about the role and value of work in America today. The book offers suggestions for how to address the short- and long-term challenges of rebuilding a society of opportunity with meaningful and sustaining jobs as the foundation of the American middle-class. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/socialwork/9780199988488/toc.html Contributors to this volume - Marion G. Crain is vice provost, Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law, and director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Work and Social Capital at Washington University School of Law. Prior to her appointment at Washington University, Crain served as director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her scholarship examines the relationships among gender, work, and class status with a particular emphasis on collective action and labor relations law. She is the author or coauthor of Labor Relations Law: Cases and Materials (with Theodore J. St. Antoine and Charles B Craver), Work Law: Cases and Materials (with Pauline T. Kim and Michael Selmi), Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream (with John Edwards and Arne L Kalleberg), numerous scholarly articles, and several book chapters. Professor Crain is chair of the Labor Law Group, an international collective of professors who work collaboratively to improve labor and employment law pedagogy through the production of course materials and other scholarly works. She also serves on the editorial board of the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal. Michael Sherraden, PhD, is Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and founder and director of the Center for Social Development (CSD), Washington University in St. Louis. Sherraden's research has received widespread recognition for testing innovations and impacts on public policy. He is a leading scholar in asset building by the poor, with books including Assets and the Poor (1991), Inclusion in the American Dream (2005), Can the Poor Save? (with Mark Schreiner, 2007), and Asset Building and Low-Income Families (edited with Signe-Mary McKernan, 2008). He is also engaged in research on civic service and engagement, with books including National Service (with Donald J. Eberly, 1982), The Moral Equivalent of War (with Donald J. Eberly, 1990), Productive Aging (with Nancy Morrow-Howell and James Hinterlong, 2001), and Civic Service Worldwide (with Amanda Moore-McBride, 2007). Sherraden has advised heads of state and other policy leaders in the United States and other many countries. In 2010, Time Magazine named him among the 100 most influential people in the world. He earned his AB at Harvard University, and his MSW and PhD at University of Michigan. Jared Bernstein, PhD, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He has served as executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, a member of President Barack Obama's economic team, chief economist and economic policy adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden. Heather Dahlen, MA, is pursuing her PhD in applied economics at the University of Minnesota. An adjunct instructor at the University of St. Thomas, she holds bachelor's degrees in international economics and business administration from St. Norbert College and a master's degree in applied economics from San Diego State University. Barry Z. Cynamon received his AB from Washington University in St. Louis and MBA from the University of Chicago. His early research on the Consumer Age was published just as the risks he identified therein struck the economy. Cynamon is visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. William R. Emmons, PhD, is an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and adjunct professor of finance in Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve, Emmons served on the faculty of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Steven M. Fazzari is professor of economics and associate director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Fazzari's research explores two main areas: the foundations of Keynesian macroeconomics and the financial determinants of spending on investment, research, and development. Ariel Fogel, a research assistant in the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center, holds a bachelor's degree in behavioral economics and music from Muhlenberg College. Thomas A. Hirschl is professor in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University. His research focuses on social class differentiation in contemporary society. In employing a life-course approach to identify the economic, social, and health correlates of social class, he is developing a new method for measuring social class. Mirya R. Holman is an assistant professor in Florida Atlantic University's Political Science Department. Her research focuses on the politics of gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as on local politics and policy implementation. Her work appears in numerous journals, including the Journal of Urban Affairs, Women, Politics, and Policy, and Social Science Quarterly. Melissa B. Jacoby is the Graham Kenan Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jacoby's research takes multidisciplinary approaches to exploring a range of bankruptcy, debtor-creditor, and commercial-law problems. She is co-principal investigator of the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a nationally representative data set on families in bankruptcy. Lawrence R. Jacobs is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. A recipient of numerous awards for his research, he has published extensively on elections, politics, policy, and public opinion. Susan J. Lambert, PhD, is associate professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Her fields of special interest include low-skilled jobs and low-wage workers, work-life issues, and organizational theory and management. Gillian Lester is Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law and Werner and Mimi Wolfen Research Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she teaches contracts, employment law, and seminars on social welfare and employment policy. Her research explores distributive justice and social welfare policy, tax policy, workplace intellectual property, and other topics. Michael Lind is a cofounder of the New America Foundation and policy director of its Economic Growth Program and Next Social Contract Initiative. He is author of numerous works, including Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (2012). Sharon K. Long, PhD, is a senior fellow in the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center and recipient of AcademyHealth's 2012 Health Services Research Impact Award. A professor at the University of Minnesota from 2010 to 2012, she worked on health reform issues at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center. Ken Matheny is an administrative appeals judge with the Social Security Administration. He holds degrees from West Virginia Wesleyan College and West Virginia University. He is the author or coauthor of several articles on labor law, social security disability, and Catholic social thought. Timothy D. McBride, PhD, is professor in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. McBride is an influential health-policy analyst and leading health economist shaping the national agenda on health reform, health insurance, rural health care, Medicare and Medicaid policy, and health economics. Mark R. Rank, Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare in the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, is a widely recognized expert on issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice. He is author of One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affect Us All (2004). Christina D. Romer is the Class of 1957-Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. She also serves as codirector of the Program in Monetary Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Business Cycle Dating Committee. Joe Soss, the Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service at the University of Minnesota, holds positions in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of Sociology. His research explores the interplay of democratic politics, socioeconomic inequalities, and public policy. Karen Stockley is pursuing her PhD in economics at Harvard University. Prior to returning to graduate school, she was a research associate in the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center, where her work focused on the population impacts of the Massachusetts health reforms.