The Ghetto Underclass: Social Science Perspectives

209 Pages·1993·17.098 MB·English

by  William Julius Wilson

THE
GHETTO
UNDERCLASS

Updated Edition
ITHE
GHETTO
UNDERCLASS
Social Science Perspectives
Edited by William Julius Wilson
An ANNALS publication, sponsored by the
American Academy of Political and Social Science
~~ SAGE PUBLICATIONS

International Educational andProfessional Publisher
~ Newbury Park London New Delhi
Copyright © 1993 by the American Academy of Political and Social Science
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
This is an updated and reprinted edition of the ANNALS (January 1989).
For information address:
SAGE Publications, Inc.
2455 Teller Road
Newbury Park, California 91320
SAGE Publications Ltd.
6 Bonhill Street
London EC2A4PU
United Kingdom
SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
M-32 Market
Greater Kailash I
New Delhi 110 048 India
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Main entry under title:
The ghetto underclass : social science perspectives / edited by
William Julius Wilson-Updated ed.
p. em.
"An ANNALS publication, sponsored by the American Academy of
Political and Social Science."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8039-5272-4 (pbk.)
1. Urban poor-United States. 2. Inner cities-United States.
3. Urban policy-United States. 4. Afro-Americans-Economic
conditions. 5. Afro-Americans-Social conditions. 6. United
States-Race relations. I. Wilson, William J., 1935-
HV4045.G54 1993
362.5'0973-dc20 93-25061
93 94 95 96 97 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Sage Production Editor: Astrid Virding
Contents
1. The Underclass: Issues,
Perspectives, and Public Policy 1
William Julius Wilson
2. The Cost of Racial and
Class Exclusion in the Inner City 25
Loic J. D. Wacquantand William Julius Wilson
3. Urban Industrial Transition and the Underclass 43
John D. Kasarda
4. Absent Fathers in the Inner City 65
Mercer L. Sullivan
5. Sex Codes and Family Life
among Poor Inner-City Youths 76
Elijah Anderson
6. Employment and Marriage
among Inner-City Fathers 96
Mark Testa, Nan Marie Astone, Marilyn Krogh,
and Kathryn M. Neckerman
7. Single Mothers, the Underclass, and Social Policy 109
Sara McLanahan and Irwin Garfinkel
8. Puerto Ricans and the Underclass Debate 122
Marta Tienda
9. Immigration and the Underclass 137
Robert D. Reischauer
10. The Urban Homeless:
A Portrait of Urban Dislocation 149
Peter H. Rossi and James D. Wright
11. Equal Opportunity and the Estranged Poor 160
Jennifer L. Hochschild
12. The Logic of Workfare:
The Underclass and Work Policy 173
Lawrence M. Mead
13. Institutional Change
and the Challenge of the Underclass 187
Richard P.Nathan
Index 199

1

The Underclass:
Issues, Perspectives, and Public Policy
By WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON
ABSTRACT: This chapter critically reviews the chapters in this book and
integrates some of their major issues. Attention is given to the substantive
arguments advanced by each author and how they relate to the points raised
by the other authors. In conclusion, the policy recommendations put forth
in several of the articles are assessed. The chapter then turns to a critical
discussion of the major studies on the underclass and the inner-city ghetto
since the publication of the original version of these papers in the Annals.
A MacArthur prize fellow. William Julius Wilson is the Lucy Flower University Professor of
Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Power, Racism, and
Privilege; The Declining Significance of Race; and The Truly Disadvantaged; the editor ofSociology
and the Public Agenda; and the coeditor ofThrough Different Eyes.
NOTE: Parts of this chapter appeared in somewhat different form in William Julius Wilson, "Public
Policy and the Truly Disadvantaged," in The Urban Underclass, eds. Christopher Jencks and Paul E.
Peterson (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1991), pp. 460-482. Used by permission.
2 THE GHETTO UNDERCLASS
DURING the decade ofthe 1970s, thoughtful theoretical arguments. The
significant changes occurred in work of some of the social scientists re-
ghetto neighborhoods of large central sponsible for this different perspective is
cities; however, they were not carefully included in this book.
monitored or researched by social scien-
tists during the 1970s and early 1980s. In ANALYSIS OF INNER-CITY
the aftermath of the controversy over SOCIAL DISLOCATIONS
Daniel Patrick Moynihan's report on the The chapter by Wacquant and Wilson
black family, scholars, particularly lib- sets the tone for most of the research con-
eral scholars, tended to shy away from tributions in this book. In contrast to dis-
researching any behavior that could be cussions of inner-city social dislocations
construed as stigmatizing or unflatter- that strongly emphasize the individual at-
ing to inner-city minority residents. The tributes of ghetto residents and a so-called
vitriolic attacks and acrimonious de- culture of ghetto poverty, Wacquant and
bate that characterized this contro- Wilson draw attention to the structural
versy proved to be too intimidating to cleavage separating ghetto residents from
liberal scholars. Accordingly, for a pe- other members of society and to the severe
riod of several years, and well after this constraints and limited opportunities that
controversy had subsided, the problems shape their daily lives. In highlighting a
of social dislocation in the inner-city new socio-spatial patterning of class and
ghetto did not attract serious research racial subjugation in the ghetto, Wacquant
attention. This left the study of ghetto and Wilson argue that the dramatic rise in
social dislocations to conservative ana- inner-cityjoblessness and economic exclu-
lysts who, without the benefit of actual sion is a product of continuous industrial
field research in the inner city, put their restructuring.
own peculiar stamp on the problem, so Lawrence Mead challenges this view in
much so that the dominant image of the an argument based on the selective use of
underclass became one of people with secondary sources. Mead maintains that
serious character flaws entrenched by a since opportunities for work are widely
welfare subculture and who have only available, the problem of inner-city job-
themselves to blame for their social po- lessness cannot be blamed on limited em-
sition in society. ployment opportunities; rather, it is
Since the mid-1980s, however, as the inconsistent work, not a lack of jobs, that
nation's awareness of the problems in the largely accounts for the high poverty and
ghetto has been heightened by a prolifera- jobless rates in the inner city. Mead spec-
tion of conservative studies and sensational ulates that there is a disinclination among
media reports, the problems of inner-city the ghetto underclass both to accept and to
ghettos have once again drawn the atten- retain available low-wage jobs because
tion of serious academic researchers, in­ they do not consider menial work fair or
cluding liberalsocial scientists.Accordingly, obligatory.
an alternative or competing view to that of This thesis is seriously undermined by the
the dominant image of the underclass is evidence Kasarda has amassed on urban in-
slowly emerging, a view more firmly an- dustrial transition. Carefully analyzing data
chored in serious empirical research and/or from the Census Public Use Microdata
ISSUES, PERSPECTIVES, AND PUBLIC POLICY 3
Sample Files, Kasarda demonstrates that erably longer commuting time in reaching
although employment increased in every suburbanjobs and are highly dependent on
occupational classification in the suburban private vehicles to reach such jobs. Like-
rings of all selected Northem metropolises, wise, Wacquant and Wilson point out that
blue-collar, clerical, and sales jobs declined "not owning a car severely curtails [the]
sharply between 1970 and 1980 in the cen- chances [of ghetto blacks when they com-
tral cities even though there was substantial pete] for availablejobs that are not located
growth in the number of managerial, pro- nearby or that are not readily accessible by
fessional, and higher-level technical and public transportation."
administrative support positions. These oc- The arguments put forth by Sullivan re-
cupational shifts have contributed to major inforce those of Wacquant and Wilson and
changes in the educational composition of of Kasarda on the impact of macro-
central-city jobholders: precipitous net de- economic changes on inner-city neighbor-
clines in slots filled by persons with poor hoods and on poor blacks. Sullivan, like
education and rapid increases in slots filled Wacquant and Wilson, is concerned that a
by those with at least some college training. heavy stress on individual causation neglects
These changes are particularly problem- the mounting evidence ofthe relationship be-
atic for the black urban labor force, which tween increasing joblessness and the dismal
remains overrepresented among those employment prospects in the inner city. He
with less than a high school education- notes that too great an emphasis on struc-
for whom city employment has rapidly tural causation leads one to ignore the sig-
expanded. Kasarda points out that from nificance ofculture and therefore leaves us
1950 to 1970 there were substantial in- unaware ofthe unique collectiveresponses
creasesinthe numberofblackshiredinthe or adaptations to economic disadvantage,
urban industrial sector who had not gradu- prejudice, and the problems of raising a
ated from high school, but after 1970 "the family and socializing children under such
bottom fell out in urban industrial demand conditions. Accordingly, Sullivan's article
for poorly educated" labor. As Wacquant relates data on cultural processes to the
and Wilson put it, "A high school degree is structural constraints of the political econ-
a condition sine qua non for blacks for omy and to the different individual choices
entering the world of work." and strategies within these neighborhoods.
Challenging the orthodox thesis put forth Sullivan attempts to analyze the collective
by economists that it is entirely race rather adaptations of different ethnic groups to
than space that determines the differential similar yet distinctive problems in obtain-
black employment rates, Kasarda's data ing an income and raising and supporting
show that not only have blacks with less children. Whereas he is able to show a
than a high school education in the subur- strong relationship between poor female-
ban ring experienced considerably lower headed households and an overall lack of
unemployment than their counterparts in decent jobs in the two minority neighbor-
the central city but that these city-suburban hoods under study, he does not clearly es-
differences have actually widened since tablish the linkage between culture and
1969. Finally, Kasarda's data reveal that macro-structural concerns. Nonetheless,
compared with lesser-educated whites, his analysis does strongly suggest that
less-educated blacks must endure consid- some of the effects of macro-structural