News from January 2014
In Search of Integration: Beyond Black & White
Response: Rucker C. Johnson Rucker Johnson is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley.His work considers the role of poverty and inequality in affecting life chances. I appreciate the opportunity to join this blog platform and react to the thoughtful, provocative, and rich comments set forth by my colleague, Mary Pattillo. While my comments are not direct replies to her main tenets, my views are certainly aligned with her points and sentiments. I hope my response…
Closing loopholes or eroding rights?: The politics of food stamps and “heat and eat”
Read enough political journalism and you will likely be convinced of a simple truth: public policy exists to serve economic ends. We grant tax deductions to encourage home ownership; we extend unemployment insurance to spur economic growth during a crisis. But there is more to public policy than the search for economic outcomes. Policies often confer social rights—powerful markers of status in society, entrenched in law and defended by courts. As British sociologist T.H. Marshall put it…
I Believe in Human Rights: Defining and Protecting the Human Right to Housing
I often hear – and firmly believe – that “housing is a human right,” not a privilege. Many communities invest resources into shelters, transitional housing, and other services for their homeless populations. However, people experiencing homelessness need their fundamental right to housing to be respected and advanced. As Joel John Roberts, CEO of PATH (People Assisting the Homeless) in Los Angeles, told me recently, “The right to permanent housing should trump the right to sleep,…