Howard J. Karger
Professor of Social Work
Email: hkarger@uh.edu
Room: 305 Social Work Building
Phone: 713-743-8135
Current Curriculum Vitae
Personal statement:
My teaching interests are in social welfare policy, community economic development, and social justice. Concurrently, my research interests lie in welfare reform, social policy and the study of alternative community economic institutions. As federal and state authorities have abandoned their historic welfare state functions, private sector economic institutions have filled the vacuum. Instead of the poor relying on governmental emergency assistance, they are increasingly turning to payday lenders, pawnshops, and auto title lenders. As such, much of the economic functions that were once the responsibility of federal and state governments have been surreptitiously turned over to the predatory economic sector. The result is that while greater numbers of the poor are working, they are almost as (if not more) impoverished than when they were on public welfare. A corollary research interest is welfare reform. In 1993, David Stoesz and myself wrote in Reconstructing the Welfare State that “The failure to find solutions to the welfare crisis has engendered an attitude of despair among many proponents of the welfare state, who wonder whether the idea of the welfare state is workable in American society after all.... In the absence of bold, imaginative, and coherent solutions, the welfare crisis will perpetuate itself, and policy proposals are likely to result in little more than an occasional tinkering with a problem that requires major solutions. It is obvious that imaginative and comprehensive solutions are required.” That statement is even more true now than when it was written 12 years ago. Yet, little new has been proposed regarding progressive welfare reform. The area of welfare reform continues to preoccupy my research interests.
Education:
BS, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (1973);
MS, University of Wisconsin-Superior (1974);
MSW, University of Minnesota-Duluth (1977);
Ph.D., University of Illinois-Urbana, Champaign (1984).
Specialization:
Social welfare policy, community development, poverty policy, public welfare, and welfare economics.
Courses taught:
SOCW 6351 Social Welfare Policy Analysis;
SOCW 8334 Social Welfare Policy Analysis
Research interests:
Community economic development, poverty policy, welfare reform, and comparative social welfare.
Selected Publications:
Books
Karger, H., Midgley, J., Kindle, P & Brown, B. (Eds.) (2006). Controversial issues in social policy (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Karger, H. (2005). Shortchanged: Life and debt in the fringe economy. Berett-Koehler. Winner of the 2006 Independent Publishers Award in Economics/Finance.
Karger, H.J. & Stoesz, D. (2006). American social welfare policy: A pluralist approach. (5 th ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Karger, H.J. & Levine, J. (1999). The Internet and technology for the human services. NY: Addison Wesley Longman.
Karger, H. Stoesz, D & Costin, L. (1995). The politics of child abuse in America. New York : Oxford University Press.
Articles:
Karger, H.J. (2005). Credit and financial services in America 's fringe economy. Social Development Issues (27)2, 10-21.
Karger, H.J & Hernandez, M.T. (2004). The decline of the public intellectual in social work. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare (31)3 (September), 51-68.
Karger, H.J. (2004). Scamming the poor: The modern fringe economy. Social Policy Journal. (3)1, 39-54
Karger, H.J. (2003). No deals on wheels: How and why the poor pay more for basic transportation. Journal of Poverty (7)4, 93-112.
Karger, H.J. & Stoesz, D. (2003). The growth of social work education programs, 1985-1999: Its impact on economic and educational factors related to the profession of social work. Journal of Social Work Education (39)2 (Spring/Summer), 279-295.
Karger, H.J. (2003). Ending public assistance: The transformation of US public assistance policy into labour policy. Journal of Social Policy (32)3 (July), 383-401.
Karger, H.J. & Stoesz, D. (2000). From an industrial to a post-industrial welfare state: Teaching the “new” social policy. Journal of Teaching in Social Work (19).
