Wilson, William J.

Using first-person narratives and interviews throughout, There Goes the Neighborhood gives voice to attitudes and realities few Americans are willing to look at. Their findings lay bare a disturbing and incontrovertible truth: that the American dream of racial integration, forty-two years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, still eludes us and, in fact, may not happen in the foreseeable future. The authors examine the ways in which forces that contribute to strong neighborhoods work against the idea of integration. They explain why residents of neighborhoods with weak social organizations often choose to move rather than confront unwanted ethnic or racial change. Finally, the authors make clear that the racial and ethnic tensions that have become all but inherent to urban neighborhoods have urgent implications for Americans at every level of society.

This new paperback edition includes a major new essay in which William Julius Wilson not only reflects on the debate surrounding his book, but also presents a provocative discussion of race, class, and social policy. -- ‡c From back cover.

"This volume compares the circumstances of urban youth from a cross-national perspective, illustrating the formidable challenges faced by young people trying to define their place in a rapidly changing world. Using both comparative evidence and case studies, this volume illustrates the common needs of youth throughout the world, despite the highly varied sociocultural circumstances in which they develop, and makes a case for the role of youth as creative social assets and positive forces for social change."--Jacket.

Wilson explores how the current loss of blue-collar jobs has crucially affected American society. He discusses the effects of the "suburbanization" of employment, which has excluded the black urban poor who remain isolated in neighborhoods of concentrated unemployment, neighborhoods that once featured a sizable proportion of working families. He describes the lack of locally available training and education, and the dissolution of government and private support of local organizations that once supplied job information as well as employment opportunities. And he examines as well the attitudes of employers toward ghetto residents and the resulting effects on hiring policies. . Interweaving the voices of scores of inner-city men and women whom he interviewed during years of intensive study, Wilson dismantles the conservative argument that the people of the ghettos lack drive and aspiration. He demonstrates that, on the contrary, their desire and quest for success and a stable life are comparable to those of society at large, but they develop within a context of constraints and opportunity drastically different from those in middle-class society. Finally, Wilson outlines a series of programs that can help both the urban poor and the middle class, programs that are politically feasible at a time when government is battling to reform welfare. He defines a framework of long and short-term solutions to get America's jobless working again, including a twenty-first-century version of the WPA work program, available to all; transportation alternatives to get men and women to jobs in outlying areas; and crucial training and jobs for one of the groups with the highest unemployment rates - new high school graduates. In When Work Disappears, William Julius Wilson, one of the country's most highly praised and influential sociologists, makes a major contribution to the economic and social health of the nation - not only through his analysis of an almost overwhelming problem but through the practical steps he suggests toward a solution.

During the prosperous 1980s, increased unemployment and widening income inequality throughout the Western world raised the paradoxical specter of a new and acute form of poverty in advanced economies. Rapid technological advances, industrial globalization, loss of low-wage jobs, increased numbers of single-mother families, and new patterns of immigration all placed tremendous strain on social welfare programs designed for a more stable, homogeneous era. The essays in Poverty, Inequality, and the Future of Social Policy provide a comprehensive account of this economic and social turbulence and analyze the capacities of Western welfare systems to respond effectively to the growing crisis.