Cameron Parsell is Professor of the Social Sciences at The University of Queensland, Australia. He is the author of The Homeless Person in Contemporary Society. His research focuses on understanding the experience of poverty and what societies do to address it. With an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, Cameron’s recent work examines charity and the Australian welfare state, with an aim of improving both. Andrew Clarke is an urban sociologist and Research Fellow at The University of Queensland, Australia. He researches urban governance, homelessness, and other forms of housing-related poverty. Andrew has written on the networks of agencies, interventions, and policies that are assembled around urban problems, such as homelessness or antisocial behaviour, and the ways in which these can be reconfigured to better support disadvantaged people. Francisco (Paco) Perales is Associate Professor of Sociology at The University of Queensland, Australia. His research uses longitudinal and life-course approaches and quantitative methods to enhance our understanding of social stratification in contemporary societies. Paco’s recent work has concentrated on identifying the drivers of socio-economic inequalities by socio-economic background, gender, and sexual orientation within Australian society.

• 1. The endurance of charity. 2. The practice of charity. 3. Neoliberalising charity. 4. Creating conditions for charity. 5. Cultivating charity. 6. Representing charity. 7. The meaning of helping. 8. The meaning of being helped. 9. Transforming charity.