Studying Inner-City Social Dislocations: The Challenge of Public Agenda Research: 1990 Presidential Address

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Sociological Review.Simplistic eitherlor notions of "culture versus social structure" have impeded the development of a broader theoretical contextfrom which to examine questions raised by the continuing debate on the "ghetto underclass." In this paper I present a framework that integrates social structural and cultural arguments. I hope elaboration of this framework can move social scientists beyond the narrow confines of the underclass debate in two ways: (1) by outlining empirical and theoretical issues that guide further research, and (2) by suggesting variables that have to be taken into account to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of one of the most important domestic problems in the last quarter of the twentieth century-the rise of social dislocations in inner-city ghettos.

Relations between Second-Language Proficiency and National Identification: The Case of Immigrants in Germany

“…Among some immigrant minorities, primarily in the US, a successful integration was achieved through maintenance of their cultural and social origin-based preferences (Portes and Rumbaut, 2001;Wilson and Portes, 1980;Zhou, 1997). Alternatively, immigrants in the US were also increasingly found to assimilate into the American underclass or inner-city ghettos (e.g., Wilson 1991).…”

Neighbourhood and family influences on the cognitive ability of children in the British National Child Development Study

“…A number of recent observers have pointed to socioeconomic status as a feature of the community that may influence adolescents behaviours through its relationship to both the opportunities for attainment that teenagers perceive as open to them, and to the normative patterns of behaviour that they observe in the adults around them. Wilson (1991) argued that the increasing concentrations of male joblessness, poverty and female-headed households in American cities in the 1970's and 1980's may have led to social isolation and a shift in neighbourhoods social and cultural norms.…”

The Poverty of Liberal Economics

“…Instead, Sen (1992Sen ( , 1999 argues that poverty should be conceptualized absolutely in terms of capability deprivation, and others connect this point to social exclusion (Atkinson 1987(Atkinson , 1998Brady 2003). This conceptualization is consistent with Wilson's (1991) concept of social dislocation, Harrington's (1981: 11) concern that "the poor are losing their links with the greater world," and Atkinson's (1998: 27) definition of "people being prevented from participation in the normal activities of the society in which they live or being incapable of functioning. "…”

“…While offering more complexity and contextualization than liberal economics, Wilson's (1987Wilson's ( , 1996 influential sociological model highlights the primacy of unemployment for the poverty of inner-city neighborhoods. In turn, sociologically oriented scholars often focus on unemployment and earnings as key determinants of poverty (see Jencks and Peterson 1991;McFate, Lawson and Wilson 1995;Marks 1991).…”

“…Importantly, this particular absolute measure of poverty has a number of limitations that problematize this research (see e.g. Brady 2003;Citro and Michael 1995;Betson and Warlick 1998;Foster 1998;Ruggles 1990;Wilson 1991). 16 Nevertheless, a comprehensive and optimal analysis of liberal economics must include future research with more sophisticated measures, while maintaining the focus on absolute poverty (e.g.…”