Race, Class, and the Postindustrial City: William Julius Wilson and the Promise of Sociology

by Frank Harold Wilson

Overview

Race, Class, and the Postindustrial City thoroughly explores the scholarship of William Julius Wilson, one of the nation's leading sociologists and public intellectuals, and the controversies surrounding his work. In addressing the connection between postindustrial cities and changing race relations, the author, who is not related to William Julius Wilson, shows how Wilson has synthesized competing theories of race relations, urban sociology, and public policy into a refocused liberal analysis of postindustrial America. Combining intellectual biography, the sociology of knowledge, and theoretical analyses of sociological debates relevant to African Americans, this book provides both appraisal and critique, ultimately assessing Wilson's contribution to the sociological canon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791485460
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series, The New Inequalities
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Frank Harold Wilson is Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. THE SHADOW BEHIND THE ACT

The Beginnings of a Black Scholar
The Washington State Years
The Amherst Years
The Sociology Department at the University of Chicago
William Julius Wilson at the University of Chicago: The Early Years
Refocusing Attention on the Urban Black Underclass and the Disappearance of Work
William Julius Wilson at Harvard University

2. INDUSTRIALIZATION, URBANIZATION, AND THE CHANGING CLASS STRUCTURE OF BLACKS

Background
E. Franklin Frazier's Legacy
Convergences of William Julius Wilson and E. Franklin Frazier
Race Relations in the City—A New Focus of Interest
Stages of Industrialization and Race Relations

3. CHANGING PATTERNS OF RACE AND CLASS: THE EMERGENCE OF THE NEW BLACK MIDDLE CLASS AND THE URBAN BLACK UNDERCLASS

Background
Modern Industrial Race Relations: The Emergence of the New Black Middle Class
William Julius Wilson Debates Charles Willie and Kenneth Clark
Theory and Research on the New Black Middle Class
Theoretical Discussions of the New Black Middle Class
Research on the Black Middle Class
Modern Industrial Race Relations: The Emergence and Growth of the Black Underclass
Theoretical Controversies on the Urban Black Underclass
Research on Wilson's Macrosociological Hypotheses of the Urban Underclass

4. DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF THE CHANGING URBAN BLACK POPULATION

Background
Black Migration, Population Growth, and Mobility
Racial Segregation and Ghettoization
Historic Segregation
Contemporary Segregation
An Appraisal of Wilson's Perspectives of Segregation and Ghettoization

5. THE SOCIAL AND MORAL ORDER OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY: SOCIAL ISOLATION, CONCENTRATION EFFECTS, AND DISORGANIZATION

Background
Bringing Culture into a Social Structural Theory
The Traditional and Current Ghetto
The Decline of Family among the Inner-City Black Poor
Human and Social Capital and the Ghetto Poor
Other Reflections on the Moral and Social Order of the Ghetto

6. THE WORLD OF THE NEW URBAN POOR: JOBLESS GHETTOS, FADING INNER-CITY FAMILIES, AND THE CHANGING SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE

Introduction
The Disappearance of Work and Jobless Ghettos
The Changing Meaning and Significance of Race among Employers
The American Belief System of Individualism
The American Belief System in Cross-National Contexts
Coalition Politics and The Bridge Over the Racial Divide
Other Reflections on When Work Disappears

7. WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON AND THE PROMISE OF SOCIOLOGY

Background
A Kaleidoscope of Images
The Sociologist and Public Policy
Refocusing Normative Social Theory on Social Problems
Refocusing the Liberal Perspective on Social Problems

8. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIOLOGICAL PRISMS AND CONTROVERSIES

Background
The Formal Approach
The Symbolic Language of Action
The Holistic Perspective Vision: Continuing Possibilities and Challenges

9. THE CONTINUING SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE AND RACIAL PRISMS IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON

Background
The Myrdal Problem and the Continuing American Dilemma
Intergroup Perspectives of Race Relations
Microsociological and Personal Perspectives

10. EPILOGUE

References

Author and Name Index

Subject Index

Editorial Reviews

"…Frank Harold Wilson has taken on the entirety of intellectual and public life of Bill Wilson … This is quite an undertaking … a somewhat bold endeavor that is to be commended." — Ethnic and Racial Studies

"The very existence of a book on William Julius Wilson is unexpected, as there is rarely a work on a living scholar. Yet, it is clear that such a book is needed: Wilson is the central figure in the area of race and has dominated the dialogue on race for nearly two decades. This is a must-read." — Hayward Derrick Horton, coeditor of Skin Deep: How Race and Complexion Matter in the "Color-Blind" Era

From the Publisher