This article uses analysis of 72 syllabi to investigate portrayals of Black urban communities in undergraduate Urban and Community Sociology courses taught in colleges and universities in the United States. The authors conducted keyword analyses of the syllabi and content analyses of the assigned readings. Although professors' course descriptions…

In this article the authors call attention to the 1965 report, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," published by then Assistant Secretary to the Labor Department, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Fifty years later, these authors suggest that, in retrospect, Moynihan understood that the emerging pattern he noted was troubling above…

Based on analysis of interviews conducted during 2008-2009 in Oakland, California, this article examines how narratives of inner-city youth reinforce and destabilize mainstream conceptions of "ghetto." The article demonstrates that inner-city youth discourses regarding "ghetto" spaces, subjects and schools often exemplify a…

School shootings loom large in the collective imagination and young, White males commit a majority of these horrific crimes. Although many of the descriptions of school shooters in the media and scholarly studies attribute their actions to psychological problems and/or personal/social failings, these events are also often placed in a comparative…

The aim of the article is to contribute to existing research and debates on social change associated with the post-socialist transformation in Eastern and Central Europe. It does so by drawing attention to and examining the diversity of ways in which such change has been lived through and reflected upon by members of Roma (Gypsy) communities…

The Dialogic Inclusion Contract (DIC) consists in an agreement between the scientific community and social agents to define successful actions aimed at overcoming social exclusion in highly underprivileged areas. Taking the case of a Spanish neighborhood that is generating important transformations, this article explores the process of defining…

Past research has shown that racial inequality in urban areas--Black and White residential segregation and economic inequality--is associated with increased levels of homicide offending and that victimization among Blacks yet serves as a protection mechanism against such violence among Whites. However, few studies have considered alternative…

Through the second half of the 1990s and into the early years of the 21st century, public attention to the plight of poor black Americans seemed to wane. There was scant media attention to the problem of concentrated urban poverty (neighborhoods in which a high percentage of the residents fall beneath the federally designated poverty line), little…

This case is based on real-life experiences of community school members within Horner School--an inner-city public school. Specifically, the case explores challenges faced by Cathleen, a 1st-year, White, female principal, who was hired by central office to "revamp a charter school" to promote a quality education for all children. The case raises…

Over 40 years ago the historic Kerner Commission Report declared that America was undergoing an urban crisis whose effects were disproportionately felt by underclass populations. In "America's Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politics", Curtis Ivery and Joshua Bassett explore the persistence of this crisis today, despite public…

This article discusses a class project on residential segregation in Florida's metropolitan areas for which students analyzed trends regarding African Americans relative to white populations using data from 1980 to 2000. The project provided a means of teaching the importance of geographical perspectives to nongeography students in an…

Priorities should be ordered so that improving human life in the urban ghetto is more important than saving trees. (FF)

Version of the paper given at The Transportation and Poverty Conference of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Argues for revival of jitneys (12-14 capacity motor vehicles, operating on fixed routes, fares zone-rated) to serve ghetto residents and provide employment, too. Taxi company competition also discussed. (KG)

Unemployed blacks are trapped in job-scarce urban ghettos, unable to reach suburban plants where many good positions are waiting to be filled. (Authors)

A new statement of philosophy for the American public library which recognizes and commits the institution to helping to end social inequality and injustice through improved information access and by reconstituting the institution's structure and staffing so that it can become and remain genuinely socially responsive is called for. (Author/NH)