Do ominous reports of an emerging "underclass" reveal an
unprecedented crisis in American society? Or are social
commentators simply rediscovering the tragedy of recurring urban
poverty, as they seem to do every few decades? Although social
scientists and members of the public make frequent assumptions
about these questions, they have little information about the
crucial differences between past and present. By providing a badly
needed historical context, these essays reframe today's
"underclass" debate. Realizing that labels of "social pathology"
echo fruitless distinctions between the "deserving" and
"undeserving" poor, the contributors focus not on individual and
family behavior but on a complex set of processes that have been at
work over a long period, degrading the inner cities and,
inevitably, the nation as a whole.
How do individuals among the urban poor manage to survive? How
have they created a dissident "infrapolitics?" How have social
relations within the urban ghettos changed? What has been the
effect of industrial restructuring on poverty? Besides exploring
these questions, the contributors discuss the influence of African
traditions on the family patterns of African Americans, the origins
of institutions that serve the urban poor, the reasons for the
crisis in urban education, the achievements and limits of the War
on Poverty, and the role of income transfers, earnings, and the
contributions of family members in overcoming poverty. The message
of the essays is clear: Americans will flourish or fail
together.
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