Chicago has long struggled with racial residential segregation, high rates of poverty, and deepening class stratification, and it can be a challenging place for adolescents to grow up. "Unequal City" examines the ways in which Chicago's most vulnerable residents navigate their neighborhoods, life opportunities, and encounters with the…

Students in special education programs can have widely divergent experiences. For some, special education amounts to a dumping ground where schools unload their problem students, while for others, it provides access to services and accommodations that drastically improve chances of succeeding in school and beyond. "Distinguishing…

"Social Class and Education: Global Perspectives" is the first empirically grounded volume to explore the intersections of class, social structure, opportunity, and education on a truly global scale. Fifteen essays from contributors representing the US, Europe, China, Latin America and other regions offer an unparralleled examination of…

This book examines the nature of persistent poverty in two impoverished towns in the coalfields of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta and a contrasting social milieu in a prosperous but remote rural mill town in northern New England. Drawing on 350 in-depth interviews and census data, the book analyzes the dynamics of poverty, politics, and…

The book examines the effect of class barriers on blue collar workers by mirroring occupational/ethnic backgrounds of the white manual-laboring population in the Boston area through urban anthropological observations as well as 150 in-depth interviews conducted in 1969-70. It mainly reflects the experience of middle-aged, third generation American…

This book attempts to overcome the limitations of previous large-scale studies by focusing on educational inequality in a systematic case study. This is the first study to describe the opportunity structure in a socially homogenous school; consequently this study is able to discover the pure effects of selection on socialization-quite apart from…

Canadian social life and public policy are increasingly influenced by Aboriginal people, their roles in Canadian society, and the issues that concern them. Drawing on a political economy perspective, this book provides a systematic analysis of how changing social dynamics, organized particularly around race, class, and gender relations, have…

"The Opportunity Gap" aims to shift attention from the current overwhelming emphasis on schools in discussions of the achievement gap to more fundamental questions about social and educational opportunity. The achievement gap looms large in the current era of high-stakes testing and accountability. Yet questions persist: Has the…

The issue addressed by this paper is the lack of empirical research on the class theories of Karl Marx and Ralf Dahrendorf. In order to bridge this gap, data are analyzed on the theoretical and statistical implications of Marx's theory (which focuses on ownership of the means of production) and Dahrendorf's theory (which focuses on authority in…

This book contains 15 chapters, some of which are based on papers presented at an international workshop in Africa that brought together a diverse group of participants who shared a commitment to adult education for social transformation. The papers are organized in six sections. Following the first section, "A Transformative Political…