Ghetto Poverty Research Articles

Broken Glass: The Social Evil of Urban Poverty and a Critical Education

Ghettos are a social evil. They are social atrocities maintained by inexcusable racist laws and practices, structures of class domination, and institutionalized political marginalization. After Brown v. The Board of Education, educational reformers have increasingly (mis)framed the problem of “ghetto schools” as a failure to provide urban youth with the social and cultural capital to integrate into mainstream society. This integrationist approach is insufficient because it inadequately addresses the social evil of ghetto poverty. Instead, I argue, a critical education approach is morally more appropriate because it focuses on giving children the tools for transforming capitalism and racial domination.

Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform

Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform

De–Exoticizing Ghetto Poverty: On the Ethics of Representation in Urban Ethnography

To write an ethnography about poor urban people is to risk courting controversy. While all ethnographers face questions about how well they knew their site or how much their stories can be trusted, the tone and content of those questions typically remain within the bounds of collegial discourse. Ethnographers of poor minorities have incited distinct passion and at times acrimony, inspiring accusations of stereotyping, misrepresentation, sensationalism, and even cashing in on the problems of the poor (Fischer 2014; see Boelen 1992, Reed 1994; Wacquant 2002, Jones 2010, Betts 2014, Rios 2015).

On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. By Alice Goffman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Pp. xiv+277. $25.00.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsOn the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. By Alice Goffman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Pp. xiv+277. $25.00.Victor M. RiosVictor M. RiosUniversity of California, Santa Barbara Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 121, Number 1July 2015 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/681075 Views: 2280Total views on this site Citations: 15Citations are reported from Crossref For permission to reuse a book review printed in the American Journal of Sociology, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Mario L. Small Ethnography Upgraded, Qualitative Sociology 48 (Aug 2022).https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-022-09519-1Katherine Irwin Fighting for Theories of Racialized Gender: Pacific Islander Teens Confront Violence, (Mar 2022): 349–365.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83947-5_18Erynn E. Beaton Ethnography: Tales of the Nonprofit Field, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 39 (Aug 2021).https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-021-00394-yJosh Seim Participant Observation, Observant Participation, and Hybrid Ethnography, Sociological Methods & Research 36 (Feb 2021): 004912412098620.https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124120986209Randall F. Clemens, Yvonna S. Lincoln Ethnography and Public Scholarship: Ethical Obligations, Tensions, and Opportunities, Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 13 (Jul 2020): 153270862093699.https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708620936992Victoria Reyes Ethnographic toolkit: Strategic positionality and researchers’ visible and invisible tools in field research, Ethnography 21, no.22 (Oct 2018): 220–240.https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138118805121Anson Au Feminist methods in a “post-truth” political climate: objectives, strategies, and divisions, Sociological Spectrum 40, no.22 (Apr 2020): 99–115.https://doi.org/10.1080/02732173.2020.1748150Dilara Yarbrough “Nothing About Us Without Us”: Reading Protests against Oppressive Knowledge Production as Guidelines for Solidarity Research, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 49, no.11 (Jun 2019): 58–85.https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241619857134Gary Alan Fine Relational Distance and Epistemic Generosity: The Power of Detachment in Skeptical Ethnography, Sociological Methods & Research 48, no.44 (Mar 2017): 828–849.https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124117701481Bryan L Sykes, Anjuli Verma, Black Hawk Hancock Aligning sampling and case selection in quantitative-qualitative research designs: Establishing generalizability limits in mixed-method studies, Ethnography 19, no.22 (Aug 2017): 227–253.https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138117725341Black Hawk Hancock, Bryan L. Sykes, Anjuli Verma The Problem of “Cameo Appearances” in Mixed-methods Research: Implications for Twenty-first-century Ethnography, Sociological Perspectives 61, no.22 (Feb 2018): 314–334.https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121418756045Philip Manning, Sarah Jammal, Blake Shimola Ethnography on Trial, Society 53, no.44 (Jun 2016): 444–452.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-016-0040-6Forrest Stuart Becoming “Copwise”: Policing, Culture, and the Collateral Consequences of Street-Level Criminalization, Law & Society Review 50, no.22 (May 2016): 279–313.https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12201Ana Portilla On the Run : l’ethnographie en cavale ?, Genèses n° 102, no.11 (Feb 2016): 123–139.https://doi.org/10.3917/gen.102.0123Mario L. Small De–Exoticizing Ghetto Poverty: On the Ethics of Representation in Urban Ethnography, City & Community 14, no.44 (Nov 2020): 352–358.https://doi.org/10.1111/cico.12137

Xavier de Souza Briggs, Susan J. Popkin and Jon Goering 2010: Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Jim Silver 2011: Good Places to Live: Poverty and Public Housin

The article reviews the books Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty, by Xavier de Souza Briggs, Susan J. Popkin, and Jon Goering, and Good Places to Live: Poverty and Public Housing in Canada, by Jim Silver.

Suburbia’s “Crime Experts”: The Neo-Conservatism of Control Theory and the Ethos of Crime

This essay tackles the relationship between morality and crime by way of the debate surrounding Travis Hirschi’s double contribution to so-called “control theory,” first as “social bonding theory,” and subsequently as a “general theory” of crime. The assessment conducted herein construes the first version of “control” as an expression of patriotism, and its late formulation, on account of its emphasis on varying individual levels of self-mastery, as an implicit reaffirmation of the inevitability of class division. Over the years, the fixation with “self-control” has become a rubric for the suburban anxieties of an upper-middle class surrounded by expanding (ghetto) poverty and plagued by familial dysfunction and the alienation of its own offspring. In the final analysis, these reflections form the basis for a general reformulation, inspired by the sociology of Thorstein Veblen, of the relationship between class and crime and condign punishment by leveraging the notion of ethos (a common mindset peculiar to each class), and proving thereby that crime is systematically determined by this very mindset, which is the spiritual complement to class formation, rather than by the conventionally classless categories of rational self-interest or idiosyncratic proneness to violence.

Ghetto Poverty and Pollution in Egypt: A Deadly Threat for Western Countries Caused by New and Infectious Mutants. A Cultural, Social and Microbiological Synopsis

Egypt, whose soil germinated the first civilization, monotheism, refined ethics and culture of sharing the abundance of extracted natural resources among its populace became the crucible proliferating de-novo genotypes of organic and moral maladies. The enigma is these mutations are synchronized by several factors, namely; failing medical health, if there is any, abundant filth, cultural bankruptcy, over population, dogmatic militarism, societal deprivation and characterization, etc. These domineering ingredients fossilized Egypt as of 1952 coup in an irrevocable national apoptosis, together with the crippled social justice and imbalanced distribution of wealth among Egyptians, rates of bacterial and viral evolution to second generation resistant to known medical interventions are expected to exponentially accelerate. Therefore, it deemed essential to elaborate on pollution and psychosis-induced inflammations and grievous crimes evoked by dogmatic cults at the breeding source, e.g., ghettos and sporadic locations of the homeless in Cairo, Alexandria and Upper Egyptian villages. While this second generation of viral and bacterial diseases could labor plagues threatening the precariously maintained so-called social fabric of Middle Eastern countries, that are uniquely segregating its populace according to their dogmatic affiliations and soaked into intolerance, it would definitely compromise the integrity of the expensively managed medical care system of developed countries.

Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty. By Xavier de Souza Briggs, Susan J. Popkin, and John Goering. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 320p. $99.00 cloth, $19.95 paper. - Mobilizing Communities: Asset Building as a Community Development Strategy. Edited by Gary Paul Green and Ann Goetting. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010. 204p. $59.95.

Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty. By Xavier de Souza Briggs, Susan J. Popkin, and John Goering. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 320p. $24.95 paper. - Volume 10 Issue 3

Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

Xavier de Souza Briggs, Susan J. Popkin & John Goering, New York, Oxford University Press, 2010, 318 pp., £13 (pbk), ISBN 9780195392845 This book offers a compelling and insightful account of the M...

Book Review: Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

Book Review: Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

Book Review: Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

Book Review: Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

Book review: Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

Book review: Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty

Moving to opportunity: the story of an American experiment to fight ghetto poverty

PREFACE 1. Places and Lives 2. Ghetto Poverty Before and After Katrina 3. Great Expectations and Muddling Through: DESIGNING AND LAUNCHING THE EXPERIMENT 4. The Unequal Geography of Opportunity 5. Moving to Security 6. When Your Neighborhood is Not Your Community 7. Struggling to Stay out of High Poverty Neighborhoods: FINDING GOOD HOUSING 8. Finding Good Schools 9. Finding Work 10. Lessons APPENDIX. STUDYING MOVING TO OPPORTUNITY WORKS CITED

Xavier De Souza Briggs, Susan J. Popkin, and John Goering: Moving to opportunity: the story of an American experiment to fight ghetto poverty

Xavier De Souza Briggs, Susan J. Popkin, and John Goering: Moving to opportunity: the story of an American experiment to fight ghetto poverty

Why did the moving to opportunity experiment not get young people into better schools?

Educational failure is one of the costliest and most visible problems associated with ghetto poverty. We explore whether housing assistance that helps low‐income families move to better neighborhoods can also improve access to good schools. Research on the Gautreaux housing desegregation program indicated significant, long‐term educational benefits, yet results from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment showed no measurable impacts on school outcomes for the experimental group. We use interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to explore this puzzle. Most MTO families did not relocate to communities with substantially better schools, and those who did often moved again after a few years. Where parents had meaningful school choices, these were typically driven by poor information obtained from insular social networks or by cultural logic centered on avoiding ghetto‐type school insecurity and disorder, not garnering academic opportunity. Those factors may not shift if poor families with less educated parents are served by a relocation‐only strategy.

The “American Dream” in Poor Urban Neighborhoods: An Analysis of Home Ownership Attitudes and Behavior and Financial Saving Behavior

The desire for home ownership and saving to accumulate wealth are two hallmarks of the “American Dream” that are typically associated with middle class values. Much urban research has suggested that continual exposure to neighborhood poverty has produced attitudes and behavior that differ dramatically from these values. In this study, we examined whether residents in poor urban areas embraced these tenets of the American Dream. Based on the Urban Poverty and Family Life Survey of Chicago, logistic and multivariate analyses were used to assess the relationship of neighborhood poverty, race/ethnicity, household economics, and social variables to attitudes and behavior about home ownership and saving. The effects of “ghetto poverty” and neighborhood poverty “tipping points” were evaluated. Findings showed varying effects of race / ethnicity, neighborhood poverty, and social indicators depending on whether attitudes or behavior were under consideration. We also found that household economic status consistently was better in explaining participation in these tenets of the American Dream than variables that directly measure neighborhood poverty.

Scrutinizing the Street: Poverty, Morality, and the Pitfalls of Urban EthnographySidewalk. By Mitchell Duneier. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999. Pp. 383. $27.00 (cloth); $15.00 (paper).Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. By Elijah Anderson. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. Pp. 352. $14.95 (paper).No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor

Cet ensemble d'articles fait part de recherches ethnographiques concernant l'etat actuel des comportements sociaux des quartiers pauvres des Etats-Unis. Les AA. debattent et critiquent vivement le point de vue de L. Wacquant et defendent l'objectivite et la validite de leurs recherches respectives

Rapid Transit and Community Power: West Oakland Residents Confront BART

Regional transportation planning shaped minority activism in the mid‐1960s. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system encouraged West Oakland activists to create a strong local identity. BART supporters valued regional mobility and blamed ghetto poverty on the inaccessibility of suburban jobs. Minority activists blamed BART for harming the ghetto poor by encouraging job migration to the suburbs, and for displacing residents. As compensation, they demanded that BART hire minority workers and increase relocation payments. While West Oakland activists largely failed to influence BART, the newly unified community did gain local control of schools and urban poverty programs.

Low-Wage Employment and Ghetto Poverty: A Comparison of African-American and Cambodian Day-Haul Farm Workers in Philadelphia

For decades inner-city residents of Philadelphia participated in seasonal farm work in nearby rural areas of New Jersey. In the 1980s newly arrived Cambodian refugees became the dominant group, replacing African Americans in this workforce. Review of theories that address the relationship between ghetto poverty and labor markets raises key questions about the observed labor market transformation: I) Were African-American day-haul workers systematically replaced with workers from other racial or ethnic groups due to discriminatory hiring practices by employers? 2) Was the transformation of the day-haul farm workforce simply a reflection of the growth of better employment opportunities for African Americans? 3) Were African Americans unwilling to accept this type of low-wage employment? This research answers these questions. Little secondary data on this labor market are available, so a variety of sources are used to reconstruct this transformation. Data include those from participant observation field work, a community survey, and numerous interviews with informants. Census and other data are used to corroborate results based on original fieldwork. Analysis of these data indicates that the labor market transformation in question is the result of a complex set of factors, especially changes in family structure and the labor process, that combine to limit farm work opportunities. These findings provide negative answers to each of the key questions posed. The evidence does not support the conclusion that African Americans were systematically replaced due to the discriminatory hiring practices of employers. Many African Americans had left farm work before the influx of Cambodian refugees, and while there was recent evidence of employer discrimination, it was against Cambodians, not African Americans. Also, African American participation in farm work bore no relationship to the unemployment rate, indicating that African Americans did not leave farm work for more desirable employment. Finally, the findings indicate that the inelasticity of African-American participation in farm work was not the result of an unwillingness to accept low-wage employment, but was due to 1) a decline in the population of recent migrants with weak labor force attachments, and 2) a lack of access to social networks that link potential farm workers to crew leaders. This study demonstrates the importance of “social buffers” in linking the ghetto poor with low-wage employment opportunities. In the case of Philadelphia day-haul farm work, incentives to crew leaders to integrate the ghetto poor into the farm labor market have steadily declined for more than a decade. This study points to the need for more research on the role of social buffers in providing the ghetto poor with access to employment.

Low-Wage Employment and Ghetto Poverty: A Comparison of African-American and Cambodian Day-Haul Farm Workers in Philadelphia

Low-Wage Employment and Ghetto Poverty: A Comparison of African-American and Cambodian Day-Haul Farm Workers in Philadelphia