Reframing Poverty: New Thinking and Feeling About Humanity's Greatest Challenge

*Winner of FIVE awards, including a Silver Nautilus Book Award and an Independent Press Award.

"Engaging and engrossing ... avoids simple answers in favor of real insights into the roots of poverty."
--CLARION REVIEWS

"A provocative book that upends conventional thinking and forces the reader to think deeply about what poverty is."
--ERIC NEE, Editor-in-Chief, Stanford Social Innovation Review

We typically view poverty as a technical problem we can solve with more money, more technology, and more volunteers. But there is an adaptive side to the problem of poverty as well. Reframing Poverty directs our attention to the emotional and often unconscious mindsets we bring to this issue. Meade's approach is as unique as it is challenging. Rather than trite tips or tricks, he offers a series of nested insights from diverse fields like political science, physics, complexity theory, and psychology. Most importantly, he provides a path of self-exploration for those eager to become the kind of people who can successfully navigate the tensions of a world in need.

Praise for Reframing Poverty

"In this eloquently crafted and persuasively argued book, Meade makes the counter-intuitive claim that we can't address poverty mainly by using microscopes to examine ever more minutely the lives of people who are poor. Rather, we need to use mirrors to examine the hearts and minds of those of us who aren't. Interweaving compelling stories with incisive analysis, Meade makes a convincing and ultimately transformative case. Fair warning: if you are not poor, you will come away with a deep sense of humility toward your own good fortune, but also with a deep sense of responsibility for those who languish in poverty."
--Galen Guengerich, Senior Minister, All Souls Unitarian Church, New York City

"Why are people poor and what should be done about it? In this insightful book, Meade maps the four basic theories that scholars and activists cluster around and often go to war over. He goes on to show how each holds a partial truth, and how we can - and need to - construct a broader perspective that encompasses them all. Get ready to be challenged. This work could change the entire field."
--Frederic Laloux, Author, Reinventing Organizations

"Meade brings his broad perspective and genuine curiosity to this important exploration of poverty. He reminds us that we are all connected to poverty in some way. By validating the wide range of emotions poverty evokes in all of us, Meade breathes humanity into this discourse. A compelling treatise on a critical global issue."
--Sanjay Pradhan, CEO, Open Government Partnership

"A refreshing discourse on poverty ... As an expert in human-centered design, I was struck by Meade's emotional definition of poverty and by how he encourages the reader, through real-world examples, to explore how their personal experience influences their understanding of poverty."
--Michelle Risinger, Innovation Director, Pact