This paper uses in depth interviews with the directors of Departments of Human Service Agencies in 29 counties of Appalachian Ohio, a rural area of persistent poverty, to examine their perspectives on the effects of welfare reform on their agencies and communities. We compare these views from...

The study of stratification is a foremost concern of sociologists. Historical engagement with this topic creates a distinct conceptual lens on poverty and inequality and a voluminous body of empirical work that set sociology apart from economics and to some degree, geography. At the same time,...