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Frances Fox Piven | |
|---|---|
 Piven in 2012 | |
| Born | Frances Fox (1932-10-10)October 10, 1932 (age 93) Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) |
| Spouses |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Political science,sociology |
| Institutions | Boston University,City University of New York |
| Doctoral advisor | Edward C. Banfield |
| Doctoral students | Jane McAlevey,Immanuel Ness |
Frances Fox Piven (born October 10, 1932)[1] is an American professor ofpolitical science andsociology at theGraduate Center of the City University of New York, where she has taught since 1982.[2]
Piven is known equally for her contributions to social theory and for her social activism. A public advocate of thewar on poverty and subsequent welfare-rights protests both in New York City and on the national stage, she has been instrumental in formulating the theoretical underpinnings of those movements. Over the course of her career, she has served on the boards of theACLU and theDemocratic Socialists of America, and has also held offices in several professional associations, including theAmerican Political Science Association and theSociety for the Study of Social Problems.[3] Previously, she had been a member of the political science faculty atBoston University.
Piven was born inCalgary, Alberta, Canada,[2] of Russian-Jewish parents,[4] Rachel (née Paperny) and Albert Fox, a storekeeper.[5][6] Both had emigrated fromUzlyany, ashtetl nearMinsk.[7] Piven's family moved to theUnited States when she was one. She would later become anaturalizedU.S. citizen in 1953.[2]
Piven's childhood was spent inJackson Heights, Queens, New York. She went to P.S. 148 and she exhibited rebelliousness at an early age:
In elementary school, she refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance, even after being forced to stand in a corner with her face to the wall. "I said I could only pledge allegiance to the Maple Leaf," Ms. Piven recalled. "I was a Canadian."[7]
Next, she attendedNewtown High School and then went away to college inChicago.[8] She received aB.A. inCity Planning in 1953, anM.A. in 1956, and aPh.D. in 1962, all from theUniversity of Chicago.[2] She attended on a scholarship and waitressed for living expenses.[8] Her dissertation was directed byEdward C. Banfield.[9]
Piven was married to her long-time collaboratorRichard Cloward until his death in 2001.[2] Together they wrote an article in the May 1966 issue ofThe Nation titled "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty". The article advocated increased enrollment in social welfare programs in order to collapse the system and force reforms, leading to aguaranteed annual income.[10][11] This political strategy has been referred to as the "Cloward–Piven strategy".[12] During 2006/07, Piven served as the President of theAmerican Sociological Association.[13]
While teaching at Boston University, she and four of her political science department colleagues, includingMurray Levin andHoward Zinn, refused to return to the workplace after the settlement of the1979 Boston University strike by theAAUP. The university's clerical and support staff had struck at the same time, but their strike was not resolved yet. Piven, Levin, Zinn, et al. refused to cross their picket line, instead holding classes elsewhere in solidarity with the unresolved strike. The "B.U. Five" were threatened with dismissal by Boston University PresidentJohn Silber.[14] Silber later backed down, and Piven and the others returned to the classroom.[15] Piven eventually left Boston University forCity University of New York (CUNY) at theGraduate Center.
Throughout her career, Piven has combined academic work with political action.[16] In 1968, she signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[17] In 1983 she co-founded Human SERVE (Service Employees Registration and Voter Education), an organization with the goal of increasing voter registration by linking voter registration offerings with the use of social services or stateDepartments of Motor Vehicles. Human SERVE's initiative was incorporated by theNational Voter Registration Act of 1993, colloquially known as the "Motor Voter Bill".[2]
She is a member of theDemocratic Socialists of America, and was one of its Honorary Chairs.[18]
In 1980, Piven tangled withMilton Friedman andThomas Sowell in a debate televised onPBS as part of its series,Free to Choose.[19]
Among Piven's major works are:[20]Regulating the Poor written withRichard Cloward, first published in 1972 and updated in 1993, it analyzes government welfare policy and how it has been used to exert power over the lower classes;[21]Poor People's Movements, published in 1977, a chronicle of rebellious social movements in the U.S. and how some were able to induce important reforms;[22]Why Americans Don't Vote, published in 1988 and a follow-up bookWhy Americans Still Don't Vote published in 2000, each of which look at U.S. electoral practices that tend to discourage poor and working-class Americans from exercising their right to vote;[23][24]The War at Home (2004), a critical examination of the domestic results of the wars initiated by theBush administration;[25] andChallenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (2006), a look at the interaction of disruptive social movements and electoral politics in generating the necessary political momentum fordemocratic reform in American history.[26]
with Richard Cloward:
with Lee Staples and Richard Cloward:
with Lorraine Minnite and Margaret Groarke:
The Frances Fox Piven Papers are held bySmith College.[2]
The Cloward-Piven Strategy, as it became known, had a simple radical appeal.
