Inventing the Needy

By Lynne Haney,

Book cover of Inventing the Needy: Gender and the Politics of Welfare in Hungary

Book description

Inventing the Needy offers a powerful, innovative analysis of welfare policies and practices in Hungary from 1948 to the last decade of the twentieth century. Using a compelling mix of archival, interview, and ethnographic data, Lynne Haney shows that three distinct welfare regimes succeeded one another during that period and…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Inventing the Needy as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a fantastic book to understand how welfare institutions work. Lynne Haney, a sociologist, looks at the state from the bottom up and analyzes the relationship between welfare recipients and caseworkers in Hungary. It is a book rich in stories that place people, especially women, at the center of debates about welfare and social rights.

From Ángela's list on the history of the welfare state.

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