International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Frances Fox Piven is recognized as one of several leading social and political scientists. She is best known for her books and articles on poverty in the United States and its remedies, as well as her political activism on behalf of workers and the poor, which has directly commented on and engaged the oppressed in the United States to act on their own behalf to improve their conditions. Piven was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but immigrated to the United States at a young age. She earned her BA from the University of Chicago in 1953 and her PhD from the same school in 1962. She moved to New York, where she joined Mobilization for Youth, one of the first anti-poverty agencies in the nation. At the same time she began her academic career with a 1965 paper called “Mobilizing the Poor: How It Can Be Done.” She co-authored the paper with Richard Cloward, a man she would later marry. Together they offered the theoretical basis for a group they would help to set in motion – the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO). The two would go on to write several books together, including two seminal works: Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail , which examines social movements of the poor throughout the twentieth century; and Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare , which demonstrates how social welfare has been used as both a means of providing minimal ... log in or subscribe to read full text