This document is a summary of a doctoral thesis which was written to answer three questions. These are: (1) How important are personal characteristics of black workers in explaining the variance in their relative occupational standing among the private sectors of these cities? (2) How important are general characteristics of the cities and…

Proposes social structural view of poverty rates as a function of local opportunity instead of individual-level focus on who is poor. Defines poverty rates as a function of industrial structure and relative power of labor in a locality. Confirms theoretical model with data from 46 South Carolina counties. (LFL)