Nine essays, originally presented at an interdisciplinary conference sponsored by the University of Chicago, address problems of the changing inner cities of older, industrial metropolitan areas. An introduction reviews important theories of urban development, and the impact of changing technology and racial composition. Part one includes an essay…

The urban Black underclass can be traced to the sharecropper South of a generation ago. The propagation of underclass culture has been hastened by an exodus of working class Blacks from the ghettos. Interviews with urban and rural Blacks help identify the problems of the underclass. (Author)

It has been argued that social isolation is the mechanism linking neighborhood disadvantage to residents' reduced life chances. Analysis of Chicago data on inner-city African American families (each containing a mother and adolescent child) found that families in poorer neighborhoods belonged to social networks with fewer resources but,…

The Health Educator Program provides for indigenous personnel as communication links with residents of urban slums; they visit the homes and teach basic principles of cleanliness and health. Frequently their work involves relationships between landlord and tenant or cooperation with other city departments. A pioneer program in Chicago was so…

Among the various approaches used by the Inland Steel Company in training ghetto youth for jobs, greatest promise has been shown by the Work Experience and Training Program initiated in 1965 at the Joseph T. Ryerson and Son plant, an Inland subsidiary located in the Lawndale (West Side) area of Chicago near the scene of the 1966 riots. Results…

The findings of a 1973 study covering the performance of Sesame Street and The Electric Company in ghetto communities are reported briefly. The steps taken to repeat the methodology of earlier Sesame Street studies are described. Data are given on: penetration of Sesame Street among preschool children in Bedford Stuyvesant, East Harlem, Chicago,…

This book comprises 19 essays that attempt to tell the truth about urban poverty, social dislocation, and changes in American family life. They show that the rise in the percentage of children living in poverty is due to an increasing number of female-headed households and a decline in the earnings of young men. The following papers are included:…

Three major themes dominated the results of a 1973 survey conducted for the Children's Television Workshop in ghetto areas of New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. First, comparison of survey data with data from studies conducted in 1970 and 1971 showed that Sesame Street had become an institution with ghetto children, its penetration and…

As a follow-up to a 1970 study, interviews were conducted in 1971 in four ghetto communities (Bedford Stuyvesant, East Harlem, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) to determine the extent to which Sesame Street was reaching preschool age children as compared to the previous year. The program's success was demonstrated by continued growth in audience,…

War and violence are part of day-to-day life for many of the world's children. This book explores the lives of the children of Cambodia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and inner-city Chicago. Through research on the psychological and developmental effects of trauma in early life and interviews with children in war zones…