ULF HANNERZ
Soulside (1969)
Chapter 9: Mainstream and Ghetto in Culture
There are a number of characteristics of ghetto life which are characteristic of this community in contrast to mainstream American society. Some of these characteristics are: female household dominance; a ghetto-specific male role emphasizing toughness, sexual activity, and a fair amount of liquor consumption; a relatively conflict-ridden relationship between the sexes; intensive participation in informal social life outside the domestic domain; flexible household composition; fear of trouble in the environment; a certain amount of suspiciousness toward other persons' motives; relative closeness to religion; particular food habits; a great interest in the music of the group; and a relatively hostile view of much of white America and its representatives. these features constitute a ghetto culture, or subculture (Hannerz seems to argue that this is really a subculture, but he isn't overly concerned with distinguishing between the two). To act according to one's culture is to follow one's inclinations as these have been developed by learning from other members of one's community.
Culture of Poverty:
Perhaps the most popular account of ghetto culture is found in Oscar Lewis' notion of a culture of poverty. This is a design for living within the constraints of poverty, passed down from generation to generation, thereby achieving stability and persistence. The problem with this idea is that it portrays this culture as ''a whole way of life,'' with no clear distinction between the culture and its environment, between causes and consequences. The holistic culture concept has very limited utility as a tool of dynamic analysis. In addition, the heavy emphasis on learning and transmission does not allow for many adaptive elements and implies that this culture causes poverty and there is no way of escaping it. Lastly, this idea implies the total absence of mainstream culture - the poverty of culture.
As a response to the implication that the way of life of the poor is self-perpetuating, other researchers have tried to show how opportunities taken for granted by the majority are blocked to the poor and how the modes of action of the poor in many cases are realistic adaptations or at least understandable reactions to the particular situations they are in. These authors (e.g., Charles Valentine, Louis Kriesberg) emphasize situational constraints and look at adaptive behaviors of the poor. However, there has been a tendency to argue against the stereotyped and extreme notion of a culture of poverty in such a way as to lose sight of the merits of a more subtle kind of cultural analysis of life in poverty.
The Sharing of Culture:
Hannerz thus decides that the culture of poverty framework simply need to be refined to account for its weaknesses. Lewis' ideas of the modes of action as both macrostructurally influenced and culturally transmitted are more useful than the simplistic notions of the critics of the culture of poverty. Hannerz proposes a minimal definition of culturalness as the social processes of sharing of modes of behavior and outlook within the community. There is the usual emphasis on learning through such processes, but it is also important to note the continuous community-based maintenance of such cultural features in interaction idioms. The degree of culturalness of ghetto-specific behavior varies so that the emphasis is on particular modes of behavior rather than culture as ''a whole way of life.'' Other features of Hannerz' concept of culture are:
not all modes of behavior arise from explicit instruction, some are accidental
ghetto-specific modes of action are those behaviors that are recurrent
these modes of behavior are more or less public
the repertoire of behaviors constitutes adaptive potential
the modes of behavior are subject to normative responses by the community as to their acceptability
In sum, Hannerz wants to emphasize that ghetto culture consists of a range of alternatives. He adopts Rodman's (1963) conceptualization of a lower-class value-stretch, a range of acceptable modes of behavior which can be said to include mainstream ideas as well as ghetto-specific adaptations and reactions. It is important to recognize the importance of mainstream ideas in ghetto life. Often mainstream norms are upheld in principle, but the circumstances provide some release for behavior which itself is not valued. Both mainstream and ghetto values comprise the individual's cultural repertoire. Ghetto-dwellers usually agree with mainstream norms and aspirations, but have less familiarity with mainstream modes of action.
Culture provides adaptations and reactions to a given situation rather than as a completely autonomous determinant of behavior.
What blacks in America need is a body of culture which can serve as a symbolic basis for group cohesion while the groups is in strenuous economic and political movement.
MILTON GORDON
''Toward a General Theory of Racial and Intergroup relations''
-the relation of assimilation to the concepts of power and conflict
I. p71 4 Subvariables of the DV=assimilation
A. Type of assimilation
1. cultural
2. structural
B. Degree of total assimilation
(index combining scores for each type of assimilation)
C. Degree of conflict existing in the society b/w the minority group(s) in the society
and the majority groups and amomg each other
D. Degree of access to societal rewards
(economic, polit, institutional) for the minority group in comparison with the
majority group)
p72 (diff combination of outcomes 1-4/ea. minority group.
II. IV's
A.p73 Bio-social development (how a human develops a sense of self in the process
of interacting with society)
1. ethnicity
a. because it cannot be shed by social mobility (as class bg can), it becomes incorporated into the self
b. injury to ethnic group is seen as injury to the self
2. man is aggressive, defensive, self interested -- add this to ascriptive ethnicity
result: an actor who is sometimes part of the cause and other times part of the
effect of intergroup relations
B.p79 Interaction process variables
1. stereoty
2. frustration-aggression toward perceived source/scape
3. felt dissastis based on RD and cog
4. calculation of successchances in goal attainment based on conf
5. conflict escalatio, unless chacked by an overwhelming p
6. p81? transmuting of felt dissatisfaction depends on three fac
a. value sy
b. attendant ideolo
c. system of perceived sanctions based on force/pwr aimed at
suppressing re
(parliament v. suppression --] revolt)
C.p85 Societal variables
1. demographic phenomena
(absolute size of majority and minority groups, relative size, territorial dispersion/
concentration of min groups)
2. value consensus/dissensus
3. cult diffs b/w maj and min groups
4. nature of ideologies about racial religions, and ethnic groups present in the general pop
(degree of humanitarianism, and degree/type of assim/pluralism desired
5. distrib of power b/w maj and min groups
(competitive, political, disruptive)
6.p86 degree of access to societal rewards --] felt dissatis for min
This affects the dynamics for social change (this is an IV and a DV)
7. Democratic -- totalit. polit nature of soc (interacts w/ pwr in #5)
8. Pwr of groupd come from w/in minority soc or outside the soc?
(''inside'' v. ''outside'' pwr)
9. Ideologies held respectively by the maj and min groups
a. goal: complete assimilation
b. p88 (guessed to be best by Gordon) liberal pluralism
1. competitive absence of ethnic criteria in discr
2. equal of indivs on basis of universal standards of perf
c. p89 corporate pluralism
1. racial/ethnic groups formally recognized as entities
2. quota - reward system
3.equality of condition, not equality of opportunity
d. racist
-Optimal situation in a dem-egal. plur. soc: min group has intermediate degree of power (can't disrupt society completely, but can levy strategic influence to protect its rights). Also, good to have an outsid epower b/w both conflicting groups.
addendum to MILTON GORDON: Theory of Racial and Ethnic Group Relations
The foregoing summary is very good and assimilates the main points of the article very well. When you read it, if you feel like you just walked in on a conversation that had been going on for a while - that's o.k. The article is that way. Gordon refers to an ongoing debate/project of his and doesn't go into a whole lot of detail. The bulk of this article deals with cataloging the variables he proposes be used in constructing a model of racial/ethnic group relations. He doesn't go into much depth on any of them. I would like to add two points not included in the summary that I think might be useful:
First, whether or not there is an actual transmuting of dissatisfaction into conflict depends on the level of actual dissatisfaction - which is produced by the interrelation between the value and reward systems of the society (strain hypothesis, sound familiar) - and also on a calculation of the chances of success for potential conflict taking into account the system of perceived sanctions.
Second, in the context of addressing the political nature of the society Gordon slips in a little blurb about an additional dimension of power. Specifically, he distinguishes between inside power (derived form the minority's own power position plus that of any internal allies) and outside power (augmentation of power stemming from the friendly interest in the minority's welfare on the part of another sovereign state or international body). In other words, ethnic group relations in the modern interconnected world operate within an international as well as internal context. This influence of an external power can work either for or against a minority in the case of an international conflict - ie. ''the friend of my enemy is my enemy.''
STANLEY LIEBERSON
A Piece of the Pie, (chaps. 1 and 7)
Chap. 1: The Problem: Black- New European Differences
This study begins in 1880, when the tide of immigrants from Europe to the US. was shifting from those of Northwest Europe to those from Southern, Central, and Eastern (SCE or new Europeans) Europe. This shift was radical and overwhelmed the European immigration stream, until much of it was cut off in the 1920s. These new European groups piled up in the slums of the great urban centers of the Northeast and the Midwest, as well as in the factory towns of those regions, and in the coal-mining towns of Penn. and elsewhere. They were largely unskilled, minimally educated, poor, relegated to undesirable jobs and residences, and life was harsh. Over the years, the descendants of these groups have done well. By all accounts, their achievements rival or surpass those of the descendants of earlier white European immigrants from Northwest Europe. There are still some areas where they have not made it, such as high positions in government and business, but overall, they have done better than that which would have been predicted at their time of arrival. Overall, they have made it, and it is overwhelmingly apparent that blacks have not. On almost all aggregate measures, be they income , education, occupation, etc. the average black is distinctly lower than the SCE descendant.
Lieberson defines black immigrants as blacks who migrated from the south to the northern parts of the US.. The end of slavery in the US. came 20 years before the SCE immigration wave. Why have these two groups experienced such different outcomes? There are numerous speculations, and they fall roughly into 2 camps. One camp holds that blacks were placed under greater disadvantages by society and other external forces beyond their control. The other camp holds that the new Europeans had more going for them in terms of ability and their basic characteristics. It is theoretically possible that both types of forces could be at work. The answer to this issue is also key to current policy. Depending on which camp one is in will determine the types of programs and policies which one advocates.
Lieberson acknowledges that many scholars before his have wrestled with this topic, but he claims that the previous work has been highly speculative, and overwhelmingly undocumented. Their main value is in their stimulus of further work. What is needed, and what this study intends to do, is rigorously examine many of the long-standing claims and theories about this question. In doing so, one must recognize that it is not simply a question of whether the assertions are true empirically, but whether they are causally linked to the differences under consideration. Possible causes of difference include:
Race
The Legacy of Slavery - particularly effects on the black family
Cultural and Normative Differences
Timing - much of the black migration to the north has occurred in recent decades, after the SCE influx
Residential Segregation - this also includes domino forms of isolation and segregation, e.g. education,
segregation was an issue for both groups, but it was more pervasive among Blacks
Occupational Opportunities
Important to remember that among the many different competing explanations, these interpretations are not mutually exclusive. First and foremost, this book focuses on historical past events and questions of causation.
Chap. 7: Education in the North
Lieberson here explores the differences in education and possible causal factors. The educational attainment of northern blacks in this century is of great theoretical importance, even if most blacks were then residing in the south. This is so b/c some of the gross institutional forms of educational discrimination found in the South were largely absent in the north, though not entirely. A comparison of SCE Europeans and northern blacks is of considerable interest, because each group was subject to similar pressures and opportunities.
Lieberson chooses to compare second generation new Europeans and northern blacks. He argues that these individuals will have been subject to similar forces throughout their lives in the north, and were not subject to possible contaminating (to the data, that is) forces of their respective parental homelands. This generational distinction is generally not drawn between blacks residing in the north. However, if one considers southern blacks to be migrants, it is only a logical extension. Both immigrant groups are compared to a baseline group, taken here to be 'native' whites - those persons of at least 3 generations in the US, generally descendants of Northwest European immigrants. Data concerning educational attainment, family characteristics, and the like, were drawn retrospectively from 1960 census data. They were then used to infer educational achievement for different cohorts whose birth years ranged from 1885-1935. Obvious limitations to the data include mortality effects (includes only those who survived to 1960), and remembrance errors.
Lieberson found that for second-generation whites, the attainment of general educational parity with native whites does not occur until immediately after WW II among the youngest cohorts (born 1925-1935). Patterns are similar for men and women. Lieberson considers 7 different SCE groups, and each has slightly varying results. In some cases women have higher ed. attainment than do men, in other cases, men have the upper hand. This contrasts with both northern blacks and native whites, where women generally have higher average ed. attainment.
The median educational levels in all of the northern born black cohorts are below those attained by the comparable age and sex groups of native whites. The black patterns are more complex thought then are those of the SCE. In the earlier decades, succeeding cohorts of blacks were in the process of catching up to white groups, but then they suddenly fell back around the Depression. This is not because blacks lost educational ground per se, but because their rates of increase in educational attainment could not keep pace with the white rates of increase. (see p. 166) In more recent years, blacks have again begun to close the gap. Not only did blacks come close to the educational attainment levels of native whites, but in many instances, they surpasses the levels of the SCE groups, particularly among women. However, at later dates, blacks began to lose educational ground relative to SCE groups. What caused the reversal?
Doubts about a cultural interpretation
These finding refute the idea that some new European groups were more inclined to education, and they subsequently translated that cultural characteristic into greater success in American society. A cultural interpretation is further refuted by historical data which indicates that SCE migrants to the US enjoyed no educational advantage over blacks migrating from the South at the time. Army data suggest that SCE countries had much higher rates of illiteracy than did US blacks. Differences would be even more dramatic if one could separate the more educated northern blacks from southern blacks in the US data pool, and the less educated SCE migrants from the better educated SCE who remained in the homeland. These conclusions are further buttressed by data which suggests that school enrollment among blacks in their late teens exceeded both foreign-born and second-generation white rates in the northern cites. There is no evidence to support an assertion that SCE had some previous inclination towards education which exceeded that of blacks.
Family stability and educational attainment
Could educational differences be attributed to differences in family structure? It is widely known that black children are far more likely than whites to be raised in a family in which one of the parents, frequently the father, is absent. Causes of these differences in family structure are not explored, only the repercussion s of such differences on educational attainment. Lieberson takes a step back before beginning by asking: did SCE European groups differ from blacks in the frequency of incomplete? If so, what is the impact of these differences on educational attainment?
While crude, historical data indicate that the proportion widowed or divorced among ever married women is consistently higher for blacks than among foreign born white women. Indeed, the latter have dissolution rates similar, if not lower than, those of native born whites. Also favorable for SCE is their apparent low rate of illegitimacy, 25X less than that of blacks, and 3.5X less than native whites. Such an extreme difference suggests misreporting, either intentional or unintentional. Nevertheless, the reported differences between SCE and blacks are so large, that one may reasonably conclude that they reflect true differences between the populations. It is clear that family instability was much more common among blacks then SCE. Regarding achievement scores, the evidence consistently indicates that a broken family is of little consequence.
Another piece in the puzzle is that of working mothers. There is every indication that black women were more likely to work outside the home than were SCE women, but what were the effects of this employment? The impact of working mothers on children's educational attainment is less clear, there are many intervening variables and correlated effects.
Using the 1960 census, which asked appropriate questions, Lieberson explores the combined educational consequences of family stability and employment. Again, data is retrospective. Lieberson has data both for enrollment, and for age-appropriate grade status (grade retardation). White children of all ages and in both sexes enjoy an advantage over blacks in both percentage enrolled in school and in the percentage in at least the modal grade associated with their age. Using a method proposed by Kitigawa, Lieberson breaks these differences down into two separate components: a compositional effect and a residual effect. Compositional effect indicates how much of the difference between blacks and whites can be attributed to the fact that their family structure and employment patterns are not the same. Residual effect indicates that part of the variance which cannot be accounted for by the above factors. these two components sum to 100%.
The racial gaps in grade retardation (what a ghastly term) are substantial, but compositional effects account for only a small part of the difference. Family patterns among blacks and whites were probably not a major explanation of black - immigrant differences in school performance. Racial differences in enrollment rates are not substantial in 1960, although they do favor whites. However, a fair part of the racial gap can generally be explained through compositional effects. One must be careful about the conclusions drawn from this analysis. To find that family-structure and employment patterns affect educational attainment is different from concluding that the cause necessarily lies in the loser frequency of two-parent black families where the father works and the mother remains in the home. If all whites and blacks were in such families, most of the present difference would still remain. Lieberson does a comparison by family type to further clarify this point. What happens is that the relative differences between the races tend to be exceptionally large in the ideal family situation. the advantage white children in such families hold over white children in other family situations is greater in absolute magnitude than the advantage black children in the ideal situation have over other black children. In other words, there is less variation by family types in enrollment rates among blacks than whites.
Because blacks have higher fertility and illegitimacy rates than new Europeans, it is tempting to peg this as a cause of differences. However, while blacks have had higher fertility rates since post-W.W.II, SCE generally had much higher fertility rates than did northern blacks earlier in the century. Differences in fertility rats at that time were so dramatic, that one would expect blacks, if anything, to have higher rates of educational attainment. Even when one looks deeper, at family size, infant mortality, maternal survivorship to 1960, etc. , the data still offer no evidence that differences in fertility rates adversely affected black educational attainment.
Data limitations notwithstanding, the results consistently indicate that educational differences between blacks and SCE Europeans cannot be explained in terms of their different family structures. What is it then? Lieberson does not say at this point in the book, but he later (conclusion) attributes it to purely economic forces.
LIEBERSON AND WATERS
From Many Strands: Ethnic and Racial Groups in Contemporary America
Main Theme:
In the US, the white ethnics, while different from one another on a variety of measures (such as education, occupation, income, and intermarriage), are still much more similar to each other than they are to blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and Asians. The distinctions between the old immigrant groups, primarily from northern and western Europe, and the newer European immigrant groups, primarily from southern-central-eastern Europe, have thinned down over the years, though some of them still persist.
Ethnic and Racial Composition:
The ethnic and racial makeup of the US in 1980 is only one point in a long and continuously changing history of race and ethnic relations in the nation, which have been affected mainly by the following factors:
-government policy toward the number of immigrants accepted, the enforcement of these policies, and the tilt of policies in favor of some ethnic/racial groups as opposed to other groups
-economic opportunities in the US, and the differentials between potential sending countries in the relative attractiveness of the US as a destination compared with the homeland.
-greater impact on the ethnic makeup by earlier immigrant groups than by latter immigrant groups of comparable size
-differences between groups in their intrinsic rates of natural increase in the US, their age and sex composition and their rates of outmarriage
-ethnic/racial composition of groups living in the conquered territories incorporated by the Us
In 1980, English and Germans formed the largest ethnic groups in the US - each reporting nearly 50 millions persons (about 20% of the pop), followed by Irish (40 million), blacks (27 million), French (13 million), the people who gave their ancestry as ''American,'' ''White/Caucasian,'' or ''United States'' (13 million), and Italians (12 million). In 1790, wile the proportion of the English was more than 60% of American pop, that of Germans was less than 10%.
In 1979, 57% of the pop was of at least four generations' residence in the US; 81% were born in the US of parents who were themselves both born in the nation; only 11% were second-generation residents; and 5% were foreign-born. Among the white ethnic groups, those who arrived later had more different population settlement patterns than earlier arrivals when compared with the English population. Also, the 1979 populations from earlier arrived white ethnic groups had greater proportion of people of mixed origins.
Intermarriage:
Since intermarriage means a marriage across specified groups, the statistical results of intermarriage are affected by how the groups are classified and delineated (mixed origins). Intermarriage can be understood as both an indicator of the degree of assimilation of ethnic and racial groups and an agent itself of further assimilation of the couple who intermarry and for the next generation. Whether or not intermarriage takes place depends mainly on the following factors:
-the existence of formal legal prescriptions against intermarriage or the existence of strongly held ethnic taboo lines
-The relative availability of partners from within and without the group, most importantly influenced by: a.) group size; b.) the distributions of these groups geographically throughout the country; c.) the degree of segregation or contact these groups have with one another in a particular location.
-Informal attitudes and opinions about intermarriage
-The degree of overlap between ethnic membership and nonethnic characteristics.
In the US, the overall trend is toward declining in-group marriage for white groups. This decline in younger cohorts is largest for SCE European groups whose older cohorts had high rates of inmarriage. Blacks still experience extraordinarily high rates of inmarriage, and the rates of Hispanics and Asians are still much higher than those of European-origin groups. However, rates for all groups are well in excess of what one would expect if inmarriage was a random process. Mixed-ancestry individuals too are still influenced by their ancestral origins in their choice of mate - though to a lesser degree than are their single-ancestry compatriots. For those of unmixed ancestry, intermarriage tends to occur most often with mates who are also of single ancestry and when mixed-ancestry women intermarry they are likely to marry men who are also of mixed ancestry; an so is the case with inmarriages.
Melting Pot versus Cultural Pluralism:
Among the white ethnic groups in the US, the wide gaps found between the old immigrant groups, primarily from northern and western Europe, and the newer European immigrant groups, primarily from SCE Europe, have largely disappeared, especially on measures such as education, occupation, and income. the majority of members of each of these groups are intermarrying. Also, there has been the rise of a new ethnic group, the ''unhyphenated whites,'' who report their ethnicity as ''American,'' ''White/Caucasian,'' or ''US'' because they lack any clear-cut identification with an/or knowledge of a specific European origin. This group competes with French and Italians for the fourth position in the US in population size. In addition to different groups acting increasingly alike, it seems that a new pop is in the process of forming. All this gives the impression that the American society is turning into a proverbial melting pot.
But old-new differences are still found in intermarriage levels; the ethnic groups from SCE Europe have much higher inmarriage ratios than those of old immigrant groups. Further, white ethnic gropes still differ a lot on other factors, many of which can be traced to their immigrant beginnings, such as residence, ethnic values for family behavior and inheritance, ad type of farming operation. Moreover, wide differences persist between European-origin groups and blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Hence, in the American society, the element of cultural pluralism too is very strong.
Ethnic Flux:
Also, 3 central types of ethnic flux are occurring among whites:
-Development of new ethnic categories soon after immigration. Generally, it is a broadening, such as from regional to national identification. This process can also be expected to occur among other groups - Asians, Hispanics, as length of residence increases.
-Increasing distortion in he true origins of the population, compounded by intermarriage.
-Outcome of 1 and 2 above, there will be an expansion of the segment of the pop whose members are unable or no longer willing to provide any picture of their ethnic origins, but simply know that they are unhyphenated whites. Formation of a distinctly American ethnic group.
DOUG MASSEY
Ethnic Residential Segregation: A Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Review
Doug examines data from the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Western Europe and Israel to look for support for segregation hypotheses drawn from ecological models. He excludes Black-White segregation from the analysis, since research suggests that black segregation stems more from white prejudice than from the socioeconomic processes specified by the ecological model.
Massey's model focuses on the interplay between residential succession and spatial assimilation. Residential succession is the process of neighborhood change that occurs when a new ethnic group enters a residential area and displaces the original inhabitants. The driving force behind it is immigration, and an important enabling condition is social distance. The prevalence and pace of succession are shaped by the structural context in which it occurs.
Ethnic segregation is generated through the interplay of two opposing spatial forces: concentration and dispersion. The concentration of ethnic groups is rooted in the spatial differentiation of the urban economy (eg, low cost housing ringing city industrial centers, close to jobs and not requiring payment for public transport) and reinforced by the nature of immigrants and immigration. Dispersion is driven by socioeconomic mobility and acculturation, and is based on the fact that a differentiated urban economy distributes resources and opportunities unevenly in space, encouraging immigrants to move in order to improve their position in society.
Over the years, there has been a steady separation of employment and residence that has had important consequences for patterns of segregation. Earlier immigrants were poor and could not afford public transport; they required cheap housing near their jobs, and therefore tended to settle in the ''transition zone'' of housing just outside the central business district, which was being vacated by the middle classes in their flight to the growing suburbs. That is, early industrialization generated structural conditions conducive to high levels of residential segregation among ''new'' immigrant groups. The pronounced centralization of employment has given way to a more disperse spatial organization. As structural pressures for segregation have decreased, so has segregation (eg, Hispanics, who've mostly entered the US since WWII are not so highly segregated as were the ''new'' European immigrants who preceded them). Nonetheless, many older cities retain structures conducive to segregation (eg, Chicago).
When a migrant group first arrives, its members enter neighborhoods inhabited by native born folks or earlier migrants. The greater the economic and cultural dissimilarity between migrants and natives, the more likely natives are to avoid settling in an area after immigrants have entered it. In the normal course of residential turnover, natives are replaced predominantly by migrants, who are guided to the neighborhood by social networks anchored among friends and relatives who live there (chain migration). A second mechanism fostering segregation is institutionalization, which occurs in a neighborhood once it achieves a critical mass of people: ethnic stores spring up, specialized service establishments are formed, churches are founded, social clubs are organized, etc., giving rise to a clearly identifiable enclave of ethnic institutions. This increases the area's attractiveness to immigrants, as well as contributing to the maintenance of ethnic solidarity and community involvement, so that neighborhoods are more likely to retain their ethnic residents and remain segregated. If migration continues after an area has become predominantly migrant, succession spills over into adjacent areas, expanding the ethnic enclave. Over time, this process of succession and concentration gives rise to a residential distribution segregated by ethnicity.
While succession is driven by immigration, it is strongly influenced by conditions in the larger urban economy. If immigration coincides with a period of metropolitan expansion, then residential changeover is very rapid, as socially mobile classes vacate neighborhoods to arriving immigrants. If immigration occurs during a time of economic stagnation, migrants pile up in established enclave areas because succession is slow. Succession is also dependent on the relative amount of capital employed in economic production and the extent to which it is spatially concentrated, in addition to the cost and availability of urban transportation. Succussion is encouraged when transportation is limited and costly, forcing poor ethnics to live near their work.
Counteracting succussion is the process of spatial dispersion. The same structural differentiation of society that makes segregation possible also leads to its demise through spatial assimilation. The driving forces behind spatial assimilation are acculturation and socioeconomic mobility. Acculturation is the gradual acquisition of the language, values and manners of the host society. In Western societies, acculturation implies an achievement-oriented outlook that reinforces the link between social and spatial mobility. Upwardly mobile migrants seek out ''better'' neighborhoods (w/ better schools, etc.), places where natives tend to predominate. Because mobility and acculturation reduce the social distance between ethnics and natives, entry into these neighborhoods does not spark residential succession.
To sum, these are Doug's hypotheses:
Succession model:
1) Enclave and succession areas are located in older, central city neighborhoods.
2) Succession is fed through chain migration and reinforced through enclave institutionalization.
3) The likelihood of residential succession taking place is a function of the social distance between competing groups, and the physical distance between the area and the enclave.
Spatial Assim. Model:
1) Spatial assimilation is a direct function of acculturation.
2) Spatial assimilation is a direct function of socioeconomic mobility.
3) The degree of segregation between any two groups at a point in time is a function of social, economic and cultural distance between them.
In addition, process of succession and assimilation are affected by structural conditions that determine the relative balance between them:
1) The state of the housing market (expanding or static).
2) The state of the urban economy (growing or shrinking).
3) The history and scale of immigration (recent or distant, large or small).
4) The physical stock of the city (pre-industrial, industrial or post-industrial).
Basically, Massey finds that, to the extent data are available, segregation patterns are consistent with this model in all six of his chosen places. However, so you can wow the person reading your exam, let's include an example.
For recent Hispanic immigrants to the US, different physical stocks and immigration histories have produced a great deal of inter-urban variation in the degree of segregation. High levels of segregation characterized older metropolitan areas with substantial housing stocks erected during the industrial era (such as Chicago), and areas that received a large influx of recent immigrants, such as Miami. New York has the highest level of hispanic segregation, since it is concentrated in industrial housing as well as recently arrived. Among specific Hispanic groups, Puerto Ricans tend to be most segregated, followed by Cubans, and then Mexicans. Why are Puerto Ricans so segregated? Because many of them have African origins, which makes them less reluctant to live near Blacks, who, as we know, are highly segregated from Whites.
There is a decline in segregation between the first and second generations of all immigrant groups to the US, suggesting workings of acculturation. In addition, there are strong inverse relationships between other indicators of acculturation (time since arrival, English language ability, naturalization) and degree of segregation from native whites. In addition, the degree of segregation between ethnic groups is highly correlated with the extent of socioeconomic and cultural dissimilarity between them.
Conclusions.
Ethnic groups cluster and disperse in a manner closely predicted by ecological theory, in a way quite robust to variations in societal context. Results are not consistent with a theory proposed by Gordon, which posits a high degree of segregation among ''ethclasses,'' or groups formed by the intersection of ethnicity and social class. According to Gordo, segregation between ethnic groups should persist even when controlling for social class. However, this does not appear to be true: there are nearly monotonic declines in segregation as socioeconomic status rises.
Findings are also inconsistent with the hypothesis of resurgent or persistent ethnicity. Over time and across generations, ethnic segregation has clearly fallen in countries with substantial history of immigration.
Ethnic groups do not exist a priori. They are not effaced or resurgent by themselves (thus both assimilationists (most crudely, the melting pot people) and those who posit a resurgence of ethnicity as an organizing principle of the modern world are both dodoheads). Ethnic groups in a very real way are created by structural conditions in society. Ethnicity is an emergent phenomenon that results when people with similar characteristics share a common structural position, one defined by the intersection of basic dimensions of social and economic organization. A common structural position generates an identity of interests and reinforces values and behaviors among its incumbents. As the structure of society is transformed, or as a group moves between structural locations, ethnicity itself changes. Residential structure is one very important component in the generation and maintenance of ethnicity. It determines patterns of interaction and association between groups, and constrains the kinds of social and economic relations that can take place.
DANIEL ELAZAR
''The American Cultural Matrix''
The US as a whole shares a general political culture that is rooted in two contrasting conceptions f the American political order. First, the political order is conceived as a marketplace in which the primary pubic relationships are products of bargaining among individuals and groups acting out of self-interest. Second, the political order is conceived to be a commonwealth - a state in which the whole people have an undivided interest - in which the citizens cooperate in an effort to create and maintain the best government in order to implement certain shared moral principles.
These two conceptions are reflected in the matrix of value concepts that forms the larger cultural basis of American civilization. The matrix contains four elements, which are located between the two poles of power and justice. The elements are:
efficiency: the achievement of goals in a manner that involves the least wasteful or minimal expenditure of resources
legitimacy: those aspects of a polity that are believed to be supported by the underlying values of its citizenry
commerce: the exchange of goods, services, and ideas
agrarianism: the ideal of a commonwealth of self-governing freeholders, each with a tangible stake in the community, raised to new heights of human decency through the general diffusion of knowledge, religion, and morality
Each of the four elements is pulled in the direction of power or justice and is also modified by every other element.
The national political culture is actually a synthesis of three major political subcultures: individualistic, moralistic, and traditional. Their characteristics are summarized in the chart on the following page (pp. 24-25).
In relation to the matrix of American value concepts, the political subcultural variations manifest themselves in two ways:
in the differences in the shades of meaning attached to each of the four elements
in the degree of emphasis placed on each of the four elements
More generally, individualistic political culture draws most heavily from the value orientations of commerce, the moralistic culture from those of agrarianism, and the traditional culture emphasizes those of legitimacy.
The Geology of Political Culture:
The three political subcultures arose out of very real sociocultural differences found among those who immigrated to America. In addition, different streams of migration have passed over America in respond to various frontiers of national developments and those streams have left residues of populations in various places to become the equivalent of geological strata.
The American frontier passed through three stages: rural-land, urban-industrial, and metropolitan-technological. Each frontier opened new areas of opportunity by developing new economic activities, creating new settlement patterns, and mastering new social problems. Consequently, each frontier has generated new political concerns revolving around the accommodation of the challenges and opportunities in civil society.
[This next section is an outline of a chart from the original summary. Use you imagination and think of it as a 3x5 table}
GOVERNMENT
Individualistic
--Viewed as a market place; a means to respond efficiently to demand.
--Will not initiate new programs unless demanded by public opinion.
Moralistic
--Viewed as a commonwealth; a means to achieve the "good community" through positive action.
--Will initiate new programs without public pressure if believed to be in public interest.
Traditionalistic
--Viewed as a means of maintaining the existing order.
--Will initiate new programs if they serve the interest of the governing elite.
BUREAUCRACY
Individualistic
--Viewed ambivalently: undesirable because it limits favors and patronage, but good because it enhances efficiency.
--Belief in loosely implemented merit system.
Moralistic
--Viewed positively because it brings desirable political neutral
--Strong belief in merit system.
Traditionalistic
--Viewed negatively because it depersonalizes government.
--There should be no merit system. Everything is controlled by the political elite.
POLITICS
Individualistic
--Dirty - left to those who soil themselves engaging in it.
Moralistic
--Healthy - every citizen's responsibility
Traditionalistic
--A privilege - only those with legitimate claim to office should participate.
PATTERNS OF PARTICIPATION
Individualistic
--Professionals participate.
--Strong party cohesiveness.
--Parties act as business organizations.
Moralisticr> --Everyone should participate.r> --Parties are vehicles to attain goals believed to be in the public interest. They subordinate to principles and issues.
Traditionalistic,br> --Only the appropriate elite participate. Parties are highly personal. They are vehicles of recruitment of people to offices not desired by established powerholders.
PATTERNS OF COMPETITION
Individualistic
--Between parties, not over issues.
Moralistic
--Over issues.
Traditionalistic
--Between elite-dominated factions within a dominant party.
The basic patterns of political culture were set during the period of rural-land frontier by three great streams of American migration that began on the east coast and moved westward, following the lines of least resistance. The first stream was comprised of Puritans and their Yankee descendants. They settled first in the northern part of the US and eventually migrated westward, carrying their moralistic political culture with them. The second group came primarily from non-Puritan England and the interior Germanic states and had individualistic values. They started settling in the Mid-Atlantic states before heading west. The third stream of mainly Anglo-Saxons (Elazar is really vague about their ethnic origins) settled in the Southern states and developed the traditional culture.
While these first streams established distinct patterns of migration and political cultures, continued migration has helped to keep these cultural patterns fluid. Political culture is dynamic. Changes occur internally within particular cultural groups, movement occurs from group to group, cultures ''borrow'' from one another, and both cultural erosion and cultural syntheses take place over time. Nonetheless, in general the states of the greater south are dominated by the traditional culture; the states stretching across the mid sections of the US in a southwesterly direction are dominated by individualistic political culture; and the states of the far North, Northwest, and Pacific Coast are dominated by the moralistic political culture.
Note: Elazar is more interested in mapping these patterns than exploring their origins, and therefore is rather vague on this second point. He hints at ethnicity and possibly religion as important sources of culture, but is inconsistent in his applications of these ideas. In addition, at one point he notes that moralistic culture is a middle-class phenomenon --- but no where else does he discuss the relationship between class and political culture or class and ethnicity.
ALEJANDRO PORTES and RUBEN RUMBAUT
Immigrant America: A Portrait
CHAPTER 1: Who Are They and Why Do They Come
The book has largely been spurred by interest in the immigration boom of the last several decades. Two reasons are cited for this new wave of immigration: a booming American economy and the liberalization provisions of the 1965 immigration act. It has been common in investigations of this new phenomena to compare the new immigrants to those who arrived around the turn of the century. Much of this book is concerned with setting things straight about the new wave, especially as regards various stereotypes and misconceptions. Broadly similarities between the new and old immigrants include the predominantly urban destinations of newcomers, their concentration in a few port cities, and their willingness to accept the lowest paid jobs. One striking difference would be that old immigration was overwhelming European and white, while the recent inflow is largely nonwhite and comes from the Third World (this is a commonly emphasized fact. What the authors wish to stress, however, is the extraordinary variety of the new immigrants with regards to origins, return patterns, modes of adaptation, social and economic background, and reasons for immigrating.
The Origins of Immigration
Although the common popular explanation is that since the 1965 change in immigration law, today's immigrants come because they can, whereas they were prevented from doing so before. The authors, however, take a more critical view. Moving to a foreign country is not easy, even under the most favorable circumstances. It requires elaborate preparations, much expense, giving up personal relations at home, and often learning a new language and culture. Therefore higher American wages is likely not a sufficient explanation. The most common reason seems to be desperate poverty, squalor, and unemployment in many foreign lands. Due to the often considerable capital outlay involved, the new legal immigration exhibits a high proportion of professionals and skilled workers who can afford the trip. Information available on illegals coincide on two points: 1) the very poor and unemployed seldom migrate, either legally or illegally, and 2) unauthorized immigrant tend to have above-average levels of education and occupational skills compared with their homeland populations - they are positively self-selected in terms of ambition and willingness to work.
The authors further stress a relative deprivation type of hypothesis, which accounts for part of the reason why developed/industrialized countries (read U.S.) are such magnets for immigration. They are the source of much of the modern culture of consumption and of the new associated expectations of standard of life diffused worldwide. This same process of global diffusion has taught an increasing large number of people around the world about economic opportunities that are available in the developed world that are absent in their own countries. Since the influence of this dominant Western culture are more likely to reach urban dwellers and those with at least some education, these groups tend to be over represented among the new immigrants - e.g. city-dwellers, educated and skilled workers, and small farmers.
Immigrants and Their Types
Labor Immigrants
The movement of foreign workers in search of menial and generally low pay jobs has represented the bulk of immigration, documented and undocumented, in recent years. There are several ways in which manual labor immigration has occurred:
1) Immigrants can cross the border on foot or with the help of a smuggler, or they can overstay a U.S. tourist visa.
2) They can come legally by using one of the family reunification preferences of the immigration law (largely untouched by 1986 immigration reforms) or they may marry an American (just like on TV).
3) Some immigrants also come as contract laborers - a provision under the 1965 act for importation of temporary foreign laborers when a supply of ''willing and able'' domestic workers was not available.
Generally, the principle magnet for drawing foreign manual workers is the relatively higher U.S. wages. The authors are quick to stress, though, that immigrants could not come if there was not a demand for their labor in the States. The match between the goals and aspirations of the foreign workers and the interests of the firms that hire them - especially for menial urban and agricultural jobs for which employers say American workers are either unavailable or unwilling to perform - is the key factor sustaining the movement from year to year. One final factor to consider is that although U.S. wages are higher, the ''yield'' of these wages in terms of consumption, investments, and social status is often greater back home - so many immigrants return to their native countries after accumulating some savings working in the U.S.
Professional Immigrants
Under the U.S. vise allocation system, ''members of the professions of exceptional ability and their spouses and children'' may enter this country legally. This is often labeled ''brain drain'' in the countries of origin. The authors believe that primary motivation for this group to enter the US is not the wage differential between the native country and America, but rather the disparity in the actual wages and working conditions for persons of their education, training and status in their native country and what is regarded as acceptable by these groups. Therefore, many with university educations and trained in advanced Western-style professional practices who find the prospects and mean s to implement their training blocked because of poor employment opportunities or lack of equipment seek to emigrate as a means of improving their careers. The authors call this form of immigration ''inconspicuous'' since these processionals and technicians seldom form tightly knit ethnic communities, and are therefore less noticeable as a group.
Entrepreneurial Immigrants
Emergence of this group in ethnic enclaves (areas of concentrated immigrant entrepreneurship) depends on three conditions: 1) presence of a number of immigrants with substantial business expertise acquired in their home countries; 2) access to sources of capital; and 3) access to labor. The significance of these immigrants is that they create an avenue for economic mobility unavailable to other groups - e.g. many ethnic business owners hire members of their own group.
Another kind entrepreneurial immigrant is the ''middleman minority.'' In cities where the concentration of these immigrants is less dense, they tend to take over businesses catering to low-income groups, often in the inner city.
Generally entrepreneurial minorities come to this country under immigration provisions designated for other purposes - professional/skilled workers or family reunification are the most common.
Refugees and Asylees
CHAPTER 3: Making It in America - Occupational and Economic Adaptation
Stereotypical statements about an overwhelming low-skill flow and its decreasing quality over time may be applicable to undocumented immigration, but generally neglect the sizable recorded immigration of recent years.
Immigrants in the American Economy
Some attempt has been made to examine the individual background factors that effect the immigration process. Not surprising to anyone who has heard of educational attainment, parental schooling, followed by father's occupational characteristics are the most important individual factors accounting for educational differences across groups. Immigrant generation and time in the U.S. both are found to have little or no influence on education. When this individual-level analysis is said and done, there do seem to be persistent differences that suggest the existence of broader cultural or social factors that affect the collective performance of each group.
Occupation and Entrepreneurship
Evidence shows that immigrant minorities are more likely to be self-employed (even the least entrepreneurial of foreign minorities displays a higher rate of business ownership than American blacks, the largest domestic minority). This could include owners of both push-carts and MNCs; however data shows that minorities with highest rates of self-employment are also the ones with the highest rates of ownership of firms with paid employees. The rate of self-employment is important as an indicator of economic self-reliance and also as a potential means for upward mobility.
Several theories have been forwarded to explain this phenomenon:
Income
An emphasis on the different modes in which immigrants can become incorporated into the host society is a way to overcome the limitations of exclusively individualistic models of immigrant achievement. The basic idea is that individuals with similar background skills may be channeled toward very different positions in the stratification system, depending on the type of community and labor market in which they become incorporated.
Contexts of Reception
Labor markets represent the second dimension in contexts of reception - of sociological relevance here is the manner in which particular immigrant groups are typified. The main difference between groups lies in their ability to neutralize labor market discrimination. Lack of resources and information makes discrimination most serious for immigrant laborers who are generally trapped in positions held to be ''appropriate'' for their group.
The ethnic community itself is the their and most immediate dimension of context of reception. For immigrants who arrive in places where an ethnic community exists (which is the pattern for most newcomers), this community can cushion the impact of cultural change and protect immigrants against outside prejudice and initial economic difficulties. This process of socioeconomic attainment is entirely network driven. This ethnic community could take one of two forms, each with different implications for the newly-arrived:
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION - The Undocumented, Immigration Policy, and the Future
The future of immigration to the U.S. was significantly altered with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 - the chief reason for its enactment was the perceived rise in the number of illegal or unauthorized immigrants into the country.
Determinants of Unauthorized Immigration:
The push-pull model
Macrostructures of labor migration
Microstructures of labor migration
A promigration cycle is the result of forces that could ideally proceed as follows:
Immigration Typed and the Law
Manual Labor
The message: immigrant labor - good. However, measures should be taken to regulate the rate - you can, it seems, have too much of a good thing. The authors propose that the U.S. enter into cooperative relationships with sending countries (esp. Mexico) to promote grass roots employment in small enterprises in those countries in the hopes of reducing excess labor and stemming immigration (maybe we should try reducing unemployment in the U.S. before we start worrying about other countries. The suggestions made by the authors in this section make sense theoretically, but are generally extremely idealistic and unrealistic.)
Professionals and Entrepreneurs
Refugees and Asylees
GERALD JAYNES
There are relatively few surveys of black opinion, but in this chapter, Jaynes attempts to assimilate what is not about racial attitudes for both blacks and whites. Myrdal's ''American dilemma'' is quite evident in the research that is available; There is a great contradiction between American democratic values and the actual discriminatory treatment of blacks.
1940-86 Data
*blacks have always shown support for integration as far back as there have been records
White attitudes : the Scientific American reports
*positive change in white attitudes occurs following new policy implementation.
Social distance
Whites support the desegregation of schools except when most of the children in the school would be black. This also goes for the desegregation of neighborhoods. The social distance questions that pertain to smaller numbers of blacks undergo change and relate to housing and education in much the same ways as the ''equality principles'' questions. Yet if blacks are stated to be a clear majority, the reaction is the same as that toward the questions on the actual implementation of policy.
Social policy, social context
Black Attitudes
Support for principles and implementation policies
Principle implementation gap also holds for blacks
Blacks believe in general principles of equality but are skeptical about policy implementation, largely because they are distrustful and believe that somehow blacks will have to bear the costs of actual integration. fewer and fewer blacks believe that racial progress is being made, as opposed to increasing optimism among whites.
Black alienation from white society
Blacks showed a positive trend in their assessment of discrimination patterns in the late seventies but overall their distrust and feelings of unfair treatment were still high (30-58%). Even in the late '80's only 7% said that most white people could be trusted. There was a great feeling of threat under the Reagan administration. (Gee, why?!!)
Black and white preferences for black-white relations
Myrdal's anti-amalgamation concept developed in the 1940's still holds today. Whereas whites are more likely to oppose situations of close, interpersonal relations with blacks (marriage, sex, etc.), blacks tend to support them. On the other end of the spectrum, whites are more likely to prioritize very broad, basic concepts of integration .
Contemporary black-white relations
Public accommodations and retail establishments
Racial attitudes and discrimination in housing
Surveys show that whites believe that blacks should be able to live wherever they want. Yet they also fear that if a few blacks move in ''the whole neighborhood will become black,'' residential property values will be lowered by the presence of blacks, and that crime rates in the neighborhood will be higher and that they will be victimized by blacks.
Two thirds to three fourths of blacks prefer racially mixed neighborhoods. But whites fear of living near blacks give real estate dealers financial incentives to steer blacks and whites to distinct areas. It is clear that the preferences of whites play a major role in the isolation of blacks.
Housing and socio-economic status
Discrimination in the workplace
Explanations of black and white attitudes toward race
Competing values
Group status
Conclusions
1) there is still widespread racism in the US (a considerable amount of black-white inequality is due to continuing disc. treatment of blacks. Systematic evidence of this is difficult to obtain except in residential housing.)
**the principles of equality are endorsed, but not the actual implementation of policy to increase black social participation.
RICHARD SHERMERHORN
Introduction
Elaborations:
(2) Victimology disregards the experiences of numerous other societies. American sociologists overlook cases in which ethnic groups have posed a threat to very existence of some states. This is an important consideration for an international perspective.
(3) We need to rethink inter group relations, not simply update them. Purpose of this volume is prospective rather than retrospective.
Schermerhorn advocates a cross-cultural study of ethnic relations which aims for macro-sociological generalizations. What Marsh calls, '' a systematic specification of which theories and propositions hold for all societies, which for only certain types of societies, and which for only individual societies. '' He calls this framework 'inductive typology.' Aims at redirecting earlier methods for greater productivity in the future.
Before we start, we need to lay out some basic terms.
- Society - a nation-state having some form of governance or political control over its members, able to represent the people in external maters.
- Integration - Not an end-state, but a process whereby units or elements of a society are brought into an active and coordinated compliance with the ongoing activities and objectives of the dominant group in that society.
The central question in comparative research on ethnic relations is : What are the conditions that foster or prevent the integration of ethnic groups into their environing societies? the task of inter-group research is to account for the modes of integration and conflict as dependents variables in the relation between dominant groups and subordinate ethnic groups in different societies. Schermerhorn's fundamental proposition is that when the territory of a contemporary nation-state is occupied by peoples of diverse cultures and origins, the integration, as measured by dependent variables, of such plural groups into each environing society will be a composite function of both independent and intervening/contextual variables. Variables center around participation, group boundaries, and cultural factors. This treatise is an appeal to view inter group relations as a special case of societal relations in their broadest and most generic sense, rather than as a separate and unrelated field of inquiry.
Chap. 1, Dual Perspectives on Society and Ethnic Relations
Schermerhorn claims that two macroscopic theories of society have the greatest relevance for ethnic relations: ''systems theory'' and power-conflict theory. The first perspective is essentially the Parsonian brand of functionalism. Systems analysis is concerned with wholes, needs, requisite structures and routine action (AGIL strikes again!!). The total system is always more than the sum of its parts. The second perspective, power-conflict theory, or simply conflict theory, sees society as a stage of competition, rather than an integrated system. Members are always competing for resources, power, etc.
Applying system analysis to comparative ethnic relations actually canters attention on the functions the ethnic group performs for the entire system, viewing the ethnic itself as a subsystem gradually fitted into the entire society by a series of adaptive adjustments regulated by the norms and values of its institutions that eventually become internalized by the members of the ethnic group involved. On the other hand, form the standpoint of conflict theory one can view each ethnic group as being in an embattled position, fighting for its life its identity and prestige, subject to perpetual constraints that threaten its survival or its freedom in a precarious world. Each perspective is relevant to comparative ethnic studies, but they are only of limited use on their own. They must be combined.
System unities bind people together in functional bonds even when the permanent rule is harsh and oppressive. With the passage of time, institutional links then brings a web of interdependence that even the most unprivileged hesitate to break. The upshot of these arrangements is that their instrumental ties linking members of both ethnic groups together at many status levels are informal bonds that hold an over-arching system together by exploiting the very conflict that would otherwise be highly explosive.
There is a dialectical linkage then between integration and conflict. There are times when integration can only occur in and through conflict, and conversely, other times when conflict is necessary to reach a new order of integration.
Shaw and McKay
This book is a basically an exploration of the social origin of juvenile delinquency. ''The high degree of consistency in the association between delinquency and other characteristics of community not only sustains the conclusion that delinquent behavior is related dynamically to the community, but also appears to establish that all community characteristics, including delinquency, are products of the operation of general processes more or less common to American cities.'' This can be regarded as the central theme of the book.
Comparing the communities with low and high juvenile delinquency rates, they conclude: communities with higher average income, higher economic status and better opportunities have lower juvenile delinquency rates; they also have strong conventional values, norms and attitudes. Communities with higher juvenile delinquency rates are in lower income areas, lack economic opportunities, have weak social and community organizations, and competing values, norms and attitudes which tend to support the delinquent behaviors are present. Communities with high juvenile delinquency rates often have a long history of living in such conditions. Delinquent behaviors can therefore be understood as alternative routes to attaining wealth, prestige and companionship.
Juvenile delinquency should be understood not as individual behavior, but as group delinquency. A delinquent is not necessarily disorganized, maladjusted or antisocial; s/he has intimate associations with predatory gangs or other forms of criminal organizations. These kids affect the values, attitudes, and norms that they are exposed to, and learn the techniques of crime (eg, how to steal cars). They have contact with concrete individuals who become wealthy and gain high prestige through ''unconventional'' means (the clothes, cars and other possessions of these successful criminals are unmistakable evidence of their 'success').
How is this related to the general processes of the city? In the city, relationships are largely impersonal. Because of the anonymity of urban life, the individual is freed from much of the scrutiny and control which characterize life in small towns and rural communities. Personal status and the status of one's community are, to a very great extent, determined by economic achievement, and further are signaled in this impersonal setting by possessions. The urban world, with its anonymity, its greater freedom, the more impersonal character of its relationships, and the varied assortment of economic, social and cultural background in its communities, provides a general setting particularly conducive to the development of deviations in moral norms and behavior practices.
Policy implications: since juvenile delinquency is not an individual pathology, but rather has systemic origins (or, as S and M say, arises from general socioeconomic conditions) and is mostly group delinquency, individual-based approaches won't work. To prevent juvenile delinquency, we need to improve the socioeconomic situations of these folks, and implement community action programs.
JAMES F. SHORT, ed. ----The Social Fabric of the Metropolis
HARVEY W. ZORBAUGH
This article is a brief description of the growth of Chicago, and the diversity of one of its areas, the Near North Side (NNS). Though Zorbaugh doesn't make any earth-shattering revelations or expound on any theory, his description of the composition and ecology of the NNS captures the spirit of the Chicago School.
The Loop is characterized by the skyscrapers which occupy the Central Business District (CBD). The skyscraper has made possible an extraordinary centralization and articulation of the CBD of the modern city. Drawing thousands daily into the heart of the city, where the older, shorter buildings drew only hundreds, the cluster of skyscrapers within the Loop has become the city's vortex. Within the looming shadow of the skyscraper is found a zone of instability and change - the tidelands of city life.
The NNS is one of these areas of contrast and extremes. It is occupied by contrasting ethnic groups, yuppies and the unemployed, artists and bohemians. One of the most noticeable of the ''extremes'' is the juxtaposition of the Gold Coast and ''Little Hell,'' a slum area. There is a great distance between these areas that is social and not geographical; such as distances of language, custom, and wealth. The isolation of the populations crowded together in the slum, the superficiality and externality of their contacts, the social distances that separate them, and their absorption in the affairs of their own little worlds, constitute the social problem of the inner city. The community, represented by the town or village where everyone knows everyone else, is gone. The inevitable result is cultural disorganization.
RODERICK D. McKENZIE
Plat and animal ecology is ''that phase of biology that considers plants and animals as they exist in nature, and studies their interdependence, and the relationship of each kind and individual to its environment.'' Human ecology is the study of the spatial and temporal relations of human beings as affected by the selective, distributive, and accommodative forces of the environment. It is fundamentally interested in position, in both time and space, upon human institutions and human behavior. As spatial relationships change, the physical basis of social relations is altered, thereby producing social and political problems. the human community differs from the plant community in the two dominant characteristics of mobility and purpose: the power to select a habitat and the ability to control or modify the conditions of the habitat.
Community can be classified into four types:
The human community tends to develop in cyclic fashion. A community grown until it reaches the point of maximum development (culmination or climax), then it remains in this condition of balance between population and resources until some new element disturbs the status quo. Then there is a new cycle of adjustment. Factors which affect the growth or decline of a community include new communication, transportation, industry, and migration. Ecological changes such as these can sometimes lead to disorganization, stagnation, or social unrest.
In the process of community growth there is a development from the simple to the complex, from the general to the specialized; first to increasing centralization and later to a decentralized process. The axial or skeletal structure of a community is determined by the course of the first routes of travel and traffic. Residences and institutions spread out in centrifugal fashion from he center point of the community, while business concentrates more and more around the spot of the highest land values. The structural growth of the community takes place in successional sequence so that the formation, segregating, and associations that appear constitute the outcome of a series of invasions. There are two kinds of intra-community invasions: those resulting in change in use of land, and those which introduce merely change in type of occupant. There are numerous causes of invasions, such as changes in transport, new buildings or other structures, new industry, changes in the economic base, or real estate promotion.
There are three stages of development which characterize invasions:
The general effect of the continual process of invasions and accommodations is to give to the developed community well-defined areas, each having its own peculiar selective and cultural characteristics. These are what Zorbaugh calls ''natural areas.''
EVERETT C. HUGHES
Institutions are the social structures within which people take their various places to do collectively the things that are right and proper with respect to some particular aspect of life. The institution, as a thing both past and present, can best be defined and studied through the roles which it has played and which it now plays.
The inevitable changes which occur in the course of an institution's life constitute it life cycle. the most important of these changes is the building up of a body of tradition and preceden
There are two types of institutions: those which begin in a sect, such as the Methodist Episcopal church, and those that arise from the conscious cooperation of competitors in a given occupation, such as the Chicago Real Estate Board (CREB).
The CREB is a story of how a group of men engaged in an occupation acted together to gain control over their occupation and its commodity (land). The control they wished to develop had as its aim the development of a true market. The natural history of an institution is best conceived by tracing the series of situations through which it passes, especially crises. Four types of crises were particularly important for the development of the CREB: membership and functionary crises, policy crises, position crises, and the distribution of institutions in relation to the ecology of the city.
SAMUEL C. KINCHELOE
This is a case study of Monroe Park Church, a dying church, that is presented for the purpose of describing the processes which go on as a church fails in its effort to survive. The behavior sequence may be summarized as follows: (pp. 199-189)
The church began as a mission. It came to have a thriving Sunday school and crowded services. Movements of population and death finally took the leaders of the church. New leader were sought from incoming immigrants. Various programs of clubs, forums, and other activities were attempted.
As the church declined, the members assessed the blame for their failure first upon the pastor, then upon the unfaithful members, the incoming groups, and the home missionary society. They quarreled among themselves and with outside groups.
There were periods of optimism and enthusiasm, and periods of despondency. A small group of people came to bear the burden of service for the church. When their workers left, they accepted volunteers from outside the congregation. These volunteers changed the character of the church, implementing informal activities lacking in ritual.
The old church was eventually sold and the congregation moved to a rented hall. The activities here were diversified and included more and more people from outside the congregation.
The church finally dissolved and a community center program was financed by the home missionary society. The staff is now seeking to meet specific community problems and needs by means of a social service program.
Transformation after transformation has taken place until the character of the institution is now completely changed.
Education
Variation in the educational background highlights again the central theme of great heterogeneity among the foreign born. Data shows higher proportions of college and high school graduates among immigrants arriving during the last five years (this book was written in 1990) than among the entire foreign born population. Immigration under family reunification and occupational qualifications helps to account for the high average levels of education among many immigrant groups (especially Asians and Africans, for whom until recently this was the only avenue of entry). The fifteen countries contributing the highest proportions of college graduates to the U.S. share the following characteristics: 1) they are all distant (all located in Asia and Africa); 2) they are immigrants of recent origin; and 3) they are all less developed countries.
The employment/unemployment of immigrant populations is generally fairly comparable to the native born population. The wide occupational diversity among immigrants, however, conceals a bimodal pattern in which certain groups concentrate at the top of the occupational distribution while others are found at the bottom. The immigration and refugee policies of the U.S., the demand for labor by American employers, and the differential impact of these forces in countries at various levels of development are major factors explaining this broad occupational diversity among immigrants.
1) Distinct cultural endowment of certain nationalities leads them to seek avenues for profitable enterprise while others enter wage employment. Culturistic theories, however, have several problems: 1) they are post-factum - non-predictive; and 2) they fail to account for the great diversity of national and religious backgrounds among entrepreneurially-oriented groups.
2) Situational Characteristics of various groups determine their economic behavior. Some analysts believe that groups that consider themselves and are regarded as others as temporary residents have every incentive to engage in business and accumulate profit (and return home rich). It should be noted that other authors have proposed just the opposite - that temporaries are more willing to engage in low-wage labor than long-term business planning.
3) Social Disadvantage: Self-employment is not, at least initially, an avenue for economic mobility but a means for survival for those minorities discriminated against in the labor market, excluded from employment, or relegated to the least attractive jobs.
Average income level of immigrant groups, like everything else, shows a great deal of variation. However, income levels of these groups were (almost without exception) lower than those for the total U.S. population. There is a good deal of regional variation to be seen among different immigrant nationalities. Data shows that education had a positive effect on earnings among immigrants, but that the effect was not as high as among the native born. In additional, the effect of work experience also seems to be greater for native borns than it is for immigrants.
Contexts of reception are defined by the policies of the receiving government (which can be summarized as exclusionary, passive acceptance, or active encouragement) toward foreign groups. These policies represent the first stage of the process of incorporation since they affect the probability of successful immigration and the legal framework in which it is to take place. Government support is important because it may give certain newcomers access to an array of resources that don't exist for there immigrants.
1) Working-class communities: composes largely of manual laborers; ethnic-network assistance comes at the cost of ethnic pressures for conformity - which may, in turn, reinforce employers' expectations about the ''natural'' position of the minority in the labor market. This helps explain the self-perpetuating character of the working-class immigrant community and the frequent tendency among members to receive lower than average reward for past human capital.
2) Communities with a significant business or professional element: support of ethnic network not contingent on acceptance of a working-class lifestyle or outlook. Newcomers may be exposed from the start to the whole range of opportunities available in the host labor market. Studies show that education brought from the home country can have a greater economic return in ethnic firms than in outside ones.
Above all, unauthorized immigration is the major component of manual labor immigration in recent years, consisting of a displacement of workers from poorer to wealthier regions separated by a political border. The push-pull model is constructed around the ''factors of expulsion'' (economic, social, political hardships of the poorest regions) and ''factors of attraction'' (comparative economic advantages in wealthier ones) as causal variables determining the size and direction of migrant flows. There are two assumptions here: 1) the most disadvantaged members of poorer societies are most likely to participate in labor migration, and 2) such flows arise spontaneously out of the sheer existence of economic inequalities worldwide.
At the collective level, differences between countries in the propensity to export labor are explained only imperfectly by conventional views about the wage differentials and economic gaps. Mass labor displacements require the prior presence and initiative of the country to which these flows are eventually directed. Active recruitment of Mexicans (southwestern agriculture and railroad labor) and Puerto Ricans (northeastern urban labor) on the part of American industrial and agricultural business interests lend support to this theory of immigration, and further dispel the myth of one-sided interests in unauthorized immigration.
The argument here is that networks developed by the movement of people back and forth in space are at the core of the microstructures that sustain migration over time. Insertion of people into such networks helps explain differential proclivities to move and the enduring character of migration flows. Over time, the size and direction of migrant labor flows become relatively autonomous from fluctuations in the economic cycle.
1) There is a history of prior external intervention and internal restructuring of the sending society and culture. The process culminates with the reorientation of the economy to play a complementary role vis-à-vis that of the dominant country and the diffusion of consumption patterns from the latter.
2) Once the process of internal restructuring is under way, it becomes easier to activate the potential for labor migration through deliberate recruitment. E.g. the shift from subsistence peasantry to a money economy would give the higher wages abroad more significance. Successful ''pioneer'' migrants encourage others to follow, and supportive social networks begin to emerge connecting places of origin and destination.
3) At the individual level, consequences of these macro-structural forces are felt as an increasing disruption of traditional life-styles and a growing gap between new consumption aspirations and the material means to satisfy them. Long-distance migration is only one of the possible means of adapting to more prevalent modern life patterns.
4) At this point, the presence of microstructural forces becomes decisive. The probability of individual and household decisions to migrate are greatly increased when labor recruiters encourage the process through various incentives and friends do likewise.
Despite the impression promoted by many that (illegal) labor immigration is intrinsically undesirable and ought to be eliminated, the authors propose the follow
1) Studies indicate that undocumented inflow does not affect the earnings or employment of the native born, including domestic minorit
2) The presence of foreign laborers is credited with helping sustain the pace of economic growth and reviving declining sectors such as manufactur
3) Immigrant laborers can push domestic workers up to better paid supervisory and administrative positions in the industries that they help preserve or expan
These groups are good because they can bring capital, business and technical expertise, and help fill commercial and professional niches neglected by mainstream firms. And they are legal to boot. The problem here is not really the U.S.'s but the brain drain going on in the sending countries. The U.S. should support programs of less-developed countries designed to repatriate some of their professionals and retain those trained domestically.
They don't really say what the really good thing about this group is, but we can assume that their being legal is good and that the benefits gained from immigrant labor of various flavours applies here as above. The authors would like to see a more even-handed treatment of refugees from Communist and Rightist regimes. Since refugeeism is not likely to be a temporary phenomenon, the U.S. should take some steps here. First, the U.S. should eliminate or at least ameliorate the political conflicts that give rise to refugee outflows in the first place (ie. we should create world peace - this suggestion makes me want to clap my hands and say ''I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies!''). If this doesn't work what is called for is collaboration with international organizations to resettle refugees close to their social and cultural milieu and promote political settlements to encourage their return. If all else fails and long-term settlement is necessary, the U.S. and other developed countries should absorb their ''fair share'' of the displaced.
A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. --- ''Racial Attitudes and Behavior.''
In this chapter Jaynes shows that though there is growth in white acceptance of the goals of integration and equal treatment, whites are still reluctant to accept the implementation of policies intended to change black-white relations. Whites are reluctant to enter social settings in which blacks are a majority and show continuing discrimination in areas involving personal contact with blacks. Whites' broad values of equality conflict with their reactions toward blacks as individuals. On the other hand, blacks for the most part show high levels of support for integration and equal treatment.
Blacks and whites share a substantial consensus in the abstract, on the broad goal of achieving an integrated and equalitarian society. However, their images of what constitute integrated, equalitarian, and racially homogenous conditions are often different and contradictory. In addition, blacks and whites' perceptions of the genus and reproduction of group inequality are sharply divergent. The outcome of all of this is a dynamic tension in which blacks are a self-aware and politically conscious group that resists a view of integration as complete assimilation, while many whites advocate equalitarian ideas but often express ambivalence and discrimination toward blacks.
*both blacks and whites have more often supported principles over implementation.
*where blacks are a clear minority, data indicate growing white acceptance of racial equality.
*whites in the north and patterns of change there are more pro-equal toward blacks than those in the south
*there has been an increase in black alienation from the late'60's into the '80's
*the process of change during the '60's and early '70's appeared to involve generational changes (cohort replacement) and individual change. For the late '70's and into the '80's, the change which has occurred has almost entirely been a product of cohort replacement (yet this has weakened over time.)
*from 1940's -70's there were important shifts in white attitudes toward the idea that blacks were of equal intelligence and deserved equal treatment.
In the 1970-s there was a great shift in emphasis from matters of principle to matters of practical social policy. Support for general principles of equality was higher than principles for black-white integration and higher than support for actual policies, such as jobs and bussing.
*support for integration and even interracial marriage
*yet like whites, decline in support for federal involvement in desegregation
There is remarkable discrimination against blacks in housing, stores, and restaurants in predominantly white, affluent suburbs.
3 hypotheses:
1) discrimination
2) black and white preferences for ethnically homogenous neighborhoods
3) socioeconomic differences between the two groups
Blacks of every economic level are highly segregated from whites of similar economic status. In contrast to this, the residential segregation of Asian Americans and whites declines as income and education increases.
Four major conclusions:
1) disc. against blacks in the workplace continues
2) effects of disc. on the earnings and occupations of blacks have declined.
3) based on statistical estimates, there is no more disc. against black women in comparison with white women, but both suffer considerable disc. in comparison with men and many individual cases of disc. against black women continue to occur.
4) current forms of disc. in the work place are less blatant than disc. during past decades.
The gap between endorsement of principles and implementation of those principles occurs especially when the means of implementation involves governmental intervention.
In looking at race relations, we need to consider competing value systems and situational realities such as resource costs. We should consider the context of assumptions, beliefs, and justifications. How does concrete policy implementation entail contradictory or competing values?
Many Americans have a principled objection to the use of federal power. Also, the culture of rugged individualism leads to an opposition to ''welfare-state'' policies and affirmative action. Disadvantaged status is typically regarded as one's own fault (blame the victim).
Whites tend to deny that race is a social problem in the US. Many believe that blacks themselves are responsible for the remaining socio-economic differences. On the other hand, blacks believe that race is still very much a social problem in America and fell that systematic barriers limit their chances in life. This is possibly why blacks and whites differ so sharply in their levels of support for equal opportunity policies such as affirmative action.
The competing values hypothesis is only one part of the resolution of the problem of the principle-implementation gap, however. It is also true that whites want considerable social distance from blacks.
Some intergroup behavior in black-white contacts, especially in public confrontations, is due to real or perceived advances in blacks' status and fears among whites of losing an established superior group position. Black activism to advance their group position may have played an important role in raising group consciousness among many whites. Also, white attitudes toward affirmative action policies tend to be more highly correlated with attitudes toward equalitarian values than with individualistic values. Low support for aff. action comes from a low commitment to equality and a lack of awareness of the structural cases of inequality, rather than strong support of ''rugged individualism.''
The views of both whites and blacks may reflect what has been termed ''the fundamental attribution error.'' Experimentally controlled studies of the attribution process routinely find that observers systematically overestimate the extent to which an actor's behavior is attributable to internal causes and systematically underestimate the importance of external causes (especially when judging an outgroup).
This general psychological bias toward dispositional attributions when combined with possible self-interest motivations to protect a historically privileged group status may reflect a reasoned opposition of some whites to black advancement. Long standing beliefs about how society should allocate social rewards affect how racial inequality is perceived and explained.
2)yet there is also a record of genuine progress
3)yet in the midst of progress there remain significant forms of resistance to a variety of proposals for racial change
4) a number of value-based concerns affect the observed patterns of racial progress and resistance
Comparative Ethnic Relations, ( Intro., Chap. )
The end of World War II brought about many changes through decolonization, with more than 50 new sovereign states. We must re-evaluate our approach to race and ethnicity and reassess how and hat we study in regards to issues of race and ethnicity. Schermerhorn argues that 3 traditional thought patterns appear consistently in the writings of American specialists on ethnic relations which restrict their work within the limits that seem to inhibit the search for comprehensive principles of race and ethnic relations.
They are
(1) preoccupation with problems of prejudice and consideration ;
(2) the depiction of minorities and ethnic groups solely in the role of victims (victimology); and
(3) interpreting progress in ethnic research as primarily a problem of ''updating'' prior work.
(1) According to Schermerhorn, the preoccupation with prejudice and discrimination monopolizes attention to the neglect of structural and societal conditions which influence race and ethnic relations. This may mislead readers into perceiving prejudice as the primary mover in the current racial/ethnic problems, when it is really that prejudice is a result of previous situations (economic, political, historical). Prejudice and discrimination should be viewed as dependent and intervening variables.
- ethnic group: a collectivity within a larger society having real or putative common ancestry, memories of shared history, and a cultural focus on one or more symbolic elements defined as the epitome of their peoplehood.
- Dominant ethnic group - that colletivity within a society which has preeminent authority to function both as guardians and sustainers of the controlling value system, and as prime allocators of rewards.
-Minority ethnic group - collectivity subordinate to the dominant ethnic group in size, power, and access to opportunity structures. Groups can be subordinate in one respect but not all, this makes them simply a subordinate group.
Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas
''The Shadow of the Skyscraper''
''The Ecological Approach to the Study of the Human Community''
The primary service community, which serves as the first step in the distributive process of the outgoing basic commodity and as the last stage in the distributive process of the product finished for consumption.
The commercial community fulfills the secondary function in the distributive process. It distributes basic materials from primary communities to the rest of the world and redistributes products from other parts of the world to the primary communities.
The industrial town serves as the locus for the manufacturing of commodities.
The fourth type of community lacks a specific economic base; it draws its economic sustenance from other parts of the world and may serve no function in the production or distribution of commodities (e.g., resorts, prisons, etc.)
The initial stage is the point of entry, resistance or inducement of prior inhabitants, and the effect upon land values and rentals.
Development is a process of displacement and selection determined by the character of the invader and the area invaded.
The climax stage occurs when the dominant type of ecological organization emerges which is able to withstand the intrusions of other forms of invasion.
''The Growth of an Institution: The Chicago Real Estate Board''
''The Behavior Sequence of a Dying Church''