Widening Inequality

Today, Americans are more economically segregated than ever before, limiting social contact between the affluent and the poor. Even among America's poor, social policy over the last quarter century has bifurcated fortunes. Changes in the economy have increased perilous work, while rising rents have increased the proportion of families who are homeless and precariously housed. This lecture will blend statistics with rich, ethnographic narratives to build a national portrait of widening inequality, its causes, and potential consequences for the next generation. Importantly, it will also focus on solutions. Kathy Edin is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. Prior to that she was Chair of the Department of Inequality and Social Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard, and Faculty Director, Sociology Department, at Johns Hopkins. Kathy is widely considered the foremost expert on, and voice of, people living in poverty in America. She has authored or co-authored eight books on the subject, including $2-a-day: The Art of Living on Virtually Nothing in America and Coming of Age in the Other America. After her lecture she will sign copies of these books.