One in six Australian kids live below the poverty line. Among the 25 leading industrialised countries, Australia has the fifth highest child poverty rate. This is a useful, if stark, indicator of the extent of long-term disadvantage in this country.
Creating unequal futures? brings together eight of Australia’s leading social scientists to introduce the reader to the processes that create and sustain persistent patterns of poverty and disadvantage. Although the contributors use different approaches, their research leads to a united call for a rethink away from the prevailing ‘gloom and doom’ presentations of Australian material life. They signal pathways out of the dilemmas that bind people to poverty and disadvantage. If followed, those pathways will guide us to a future characterised by less inequality. If ignored, we may further entrench patterns of disadvantage and risk creating unequal futures for all Australians.
‘This is an important and powerful book because of the rigour of the analysis, the good sense of the innovative strategies for action by government, business and civil society, and the concern throughout for social justice.’
John Langmore
Director
United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development
