Synopses & Reviews
Despite strongly contested meanings, the term “ghetto” continues to be used as descriptor (of physical space) and as an analytical concept (to explain observed outcomes). Too often it is assumed that African American or inner city communities are ghettos. But what is a ghetto? Does it arise organically from cities, or is it a consequence of social conflict and government policy? Is the term an offensive oversimplification of social exclusion? Are the favelas, shantytowns, and slums of Europe, South America, and other continents similar to the American ghetto? The Ghetto invites us to reexamine our assumptions by addressing these and other critical questions. This book brings together top scholars of ghetto-like communities in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas to tackle the most salient topics in the field today. Concise, original essays describe essential arguments and discoveries, making this important scholarship accessible for all readers and students of urban studies and sociology.
Review
Unique in its field, this edited volume reconsiders the Chicago Schools iconic ghetto against other marginalized, stigmatized spaces worldwide, such as Pariss
banlieues, Rios
favelas, and Kenyas refugee camps
Consisting of 12 generally richly analytical
presentations, this volume should be enticing for senior and graduate-level seminars in sociology or urban studies. Highly recommended.”
—Choice
Synopsis
A cutting-edge collection of original essays from leading scholars examining the contemporary state of the ghetto in all its forms
Synopsis
This book discusses more general consideration of marginalized urban spaces and peoples around the globe. It considers the question: Is the formation and later dissolution of the Jewish ghetto an appropriate model for understanding the experience of other ethnic or racial populations?
Synopsis
Too often the term ghetto” is simply applied to any African American community, to the inner city as a whole, or recently to anything that is degraded or unrefined. But what is a ghetto? Does it arise organically from cities, or is it a consequence of social conflict and government policy? Are the banlieues, barrios, favelas, shantytowns, and slums of Europe, South America, and other continents similar to the American ghetto?
The Ghetto invites us to reexamine our assumptions by addressing these and other critical questions. Concise, original essays from top scholars around the world clearly describe essential arguments and discoveries, making the current discussion of marginalized urban spaces accessible for all readers and students of urban studies and sociology.
About the Author
Ray Hutchison is professor of sociology and chair of urban and regional studies at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. He is senior editor of
The Encyclopedia of Urban Studies and coauthor (with Mark Gottdiener) of
The New Urban Sociology (Westview Press).
Bruce D. Haynes is associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis. His publications include Red Lines, Black Spaces: The Politics of Race and Space in a Black Middle-Class Suburb.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Bruce D. Haynes and Ray Hutchison
1. A Janus-Faced Institution of Ethnoracial Closure: A Sociological Specification of the Ghetto
Loic Wacquant
2. De-spatialization and Dilution of the Ghetto: Current Trends in the United States
Peter Marcuse
3. Toward Knowing the Iconic Ghetto
Elijah Anderson
4. You Just Dont Go Down There”: Learning to Avoid the Ghetto in San Francisco
Nikki Jones and Christina Jackson
5. In Terms of Harlem
Bruce D. Haynes
6. The Spike Lee Effect: Reimagining the Ghetto for Cultural Consumption
Sharon Zukin
7. Places of Stigma: Ghettos, Barrios, and Banlieues
Ernesto Castaneda
8. On the Absence of Ghettos in Latin American Cities
Alan Gilbert
9. Divided Cities: Rethinking the Ghetto in Light of the Brazilian Favela
Brasilmar Ferreira Nunes and Leticia Veloso
10. Demonstrations at Work: Some Notes from Urban Africa
AbdouMaliq Simone
11. From Refuge the Ghetto Is Born: Contemporary Figures of Heterotopias
Michel Agier
12. Where Is the Chicago Ghetto?
Ray Hutchison
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX