The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America, Luke Shaefer

For their new book, The Injustice of Place, Edin, Shaefer and Nelson built a multidimensional Index of Deep Disadvantage (IDD) drawing on census and administrative data across the interconnected domains of income, health, and social mobility to rank all counties and the 500 largest U.S. cities on a continuum of disadvantage. Using an iterative mixed-methods approach, they and their research team embedded in four communities in major regions of deep disadvantage according to the IDD, immersing themselves in these communities, interviewing low-income residents as well as community leaders, poring over centuries of local history, and attending local events. Their analysis traces the legacies of the deepest poverty in the United States and the mechanisms through which is persists-including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility.