Synopses & Reviews
In the 1960s, many believed that the civil rights movementand#8217;s successes would foster a new era of racial equality in America. Four decades later, the degree of racial inequality has barely changed. To understand what went wrong, Patrick Sharkey argues that we have to understand what has happened to African American communities over the last several decades. In Stuck in Place, Sharkey describes how political decisions and social policies have led to severe disinvestment from black neighborhoods, persistent segregation, declining economic opportunities, and a growing link between African American communities and the criminal justice system.As a result, neighborhood inequality that existed in the 1970s has been passed down to the current generation of African Americans. Some of the most persistent forms of racial inequality, such as gaps in income and test scores, can only be explained by considering the neighborhoods in which black and white families have lived over multiple generations. This multigenerational nature of neighborhood inequality also means that a new kind of urban policy is necessary for our nationand#8217;s cities. Sharkey argues for urban policies that have the potential to create transformative and sustained changes in urban communities and the families that live within them, and he outlines a durable urban policy agenda to move in that direction.
Review
andquot;Patrickand#160;Sharkey's
Stuck in Place is one of those rare books that will become a standard reference for students and scholars of inequality.and#160;Examining longitudinal data over a period of four decades, Sharkey provides compelling arguments on how inequality clustered in a social setting can be addressed with a durable urban policy agenda. This important and incredibly perceptive book is a must-read.andquot;
Review
andquot;
Stuck in Place is a powerful analysis of how neighborhoods are implicated in perpetuating severe stratification between blacks and whites across generations. Patrick Sharkeyandrsquo;s robust findings are sobering and disturbingandmdash;even for experts in the fieldandmdash;and leave no room for debate about the need for massive investment in Americaandrsquo;s poorest neighborhoods. Like
The Truly Disadvantaged and
American Apartheid before it, this book will be impossible to ignore and will set the agenda for decades to come.andquot;
Review
"Patrick Sharkeyand#8217;s comprehensive and compelling analysis clearly explains how segregation, by concentrating disadvantage in black neighborhoods, continues to divide US society into divergent black and white social worlds that remain truly separate and unequal, decades after the Civil Rights Era. His work eloquently reminds us that a segregated society can never be a just society, and that segregation remains at the core the American dilemma, even in the Age of Obama."
Review
"Sharkeys book is magnificent scholarship." American Prospect
Review
"Sharkeyand#8217;s book is magnificent scholarship."
About the Author
Patrick Sharkey is associate professor of sociology at New York University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
2 The Inheritance of the Ghetto
3 A Forty-Year Detour on the Path toward Racial Equality
4 Neighborhoods and the Transmission of Racial Inequality
5 The Cross-Generational Legacy of Urban Disadvantage
6 Confronting the Inherited Ghetto: An Empirical Perspective
7 Toward a Durable Urban Policy Agenda
Notes
References
Index