Dr.Courtney Cronley
Presented to The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries on the occasion of Promotion to Associate Professor, Dr. Courtney Cronley, Social Work, Fall 2017.
Item(s) added to the Libraries' collection:
The value of homelessness : managing surplus life in the United States
Willse, C. (2015). The value of homelessness : managing surplus life in the United States . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
My first “a ha” moment in my social-work education came when I realized that many social welfare programs in the U.S. are designed to control poverty rather than eliminate it. This book reveals the extent to which homeless services have adopted this model. The more I study homelessness, and the more I talk to individuals living on the street, as well as the workers on the front lines, the more I see the truth in Willse’s account, and the effects that controlling people without means, rather than dismantling structural inequality, has on individuals’ and communities’ abilities to thrive. I hope books like this will raise critical consciousness around social control in housing and lead to a renewed recognition that housing is a right, not a privilege.