Economic Justice - Further Learning Resources

The following resources have been recommended or shared by the AE community of providers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Multnomah County.

  • Why Do Poor People 'Waste' Money On Luxury Goods?: An essential piece by Tressie McMillan Cottom from 2013: "How do you put a price on the double-take of a clerk at the welfare office who decides you might not be like those other trifling women in the waiting room and provides an extra bit of information about completing a form that you would not have known to ask about? What is the retail value of a school principal who defers a bit more to your child because your mother's presentation of self signals that she might unleash the bureaucratic savvy of middle class parents to advocate for her child?"

  • How This Museum Supports Community Integration and Trauma Recovery: "Experiencing homelessness or extreme poverty in a rich nation is traumatic, noted Bennett. It doesn't make sense on the face of it. So working with the art of storytelling to formulate and share their stories, and hear those of others, could be a particularly important art-form for residents who have experienced the traumas that tend to come with poverty in this country."

  • Are You on Middle Class Standard Time?: An intriguing blog from Andrew Willis Garcés - "MST [Middle Class Standard Time] often results in rushed, over-packed workshops, conferences and meetings that leave participants little breathing room to digest concepts, to say nothing of social time. People who consciously operate on MST privilege their agenda (written or unwritten) over the wellbeing of the group. I believe most of this can be chocked-up to the influence of professional middle class meeting culture."

  • There's Good Besides the Bad and Ugly of Public Housing:  "Nimmons would like to see more emphasis on the resiliency of the people who put up with the condition of their housing while working to make their communities better. 'Even though we're having these struggles, the people that live in these houses are troopers. They are survivors. They are innovative,' Nimmons says."

  • Poverty is Not Just a Lack of Money: From The US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty, a creative approach to addressing poverty. "Economic success is foundational and entails many of the traditional measures of poverty, including income and assets. However, it is not enough. Equally important are power and autonomy, which speak to individual agency, having a sense of control and a say in the trajectory of one's life and one's community. And being valued in community speaks to dignity, belonging, social capital, and social inclusion."

  • "What's it like to have almost no money?": Back in February, Multnomah County Library hosted a poverty simulation as part of its "Everybody Reads" series to give participants an idea of what it's like to have few resources to get by. Reporter Lyndsey Hewitt participated in the event and reported on her experience.

  • Spent: In 2011, Urban Ministries of Durham created this web-based game to help people better understand what it is like to have a low-wage job, by challenging the player to live on $1,000/month. Five years later, the game is still reaching audiences across the globe as an educational resource.