On Grassroots Organizing, Poor Women’s Movements, and the Intellectual as Activist
Author(s)
Boris, Eileen
Abstract
Discusses the importance of the work of Frances Fox Piven for the study of women’s grassroots activism and the organizing of poor women, topics usually categorized under the social movement or maternalist paradigms. Piven’s theoretical and analytical investigations of welfare rights, the relation of the capitalist labor market to social provisions, the impact (and containment) of collective action and protest, and the effects of welfare policy from Nixon through Clinton are outlined.
