The "cycle of poverty," a myth manufactured and sustained by the Parsonian pundits of social theory and welfare, has blamed the victims of oppression with impunity. Brij Mohan deconstructs Oscar Lewis' Cultureof Poverty theory and its applications in the fields of social welfare, policy, and development. Poverty, a global scourge, is defined as a political rather than an economic issue. The implications of this formulation paradigmatically shift the focus of discourse in the social sciences.Development, Poverty of Culture, and Social Policyoffers an interdisciplinary analysis of complex issues, constructs, and interventions that deal with human-social problems with global implications. "Poverty of Culture" posits social development theory and practice in a critically important context challenging the scientific orthodoxy of our times.

Brij Mohan is Dean Emeritus of the School of Social Work at Louisiana State University, where he formerly taught as a professor. He is, most recently, the author of Fallacies of Development Crises of Human and Social Development (2007), Reinventing Social Work: The Metaphysics of Social Practice (2005), The Practice of Hope (2003), Social Work Revisited (2002), Unification of Social Work (1999), and Eclipse of Freedom (1993). Dr. Mohan, credited by many as the Habermas of Social Work, is also the founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Comparative Social Welfare. The M.K. Gandhi Kashi University lately awarded him Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) for his outstanding Contributions to social sciences.