The Roots of Poverty Stricken Neighborhoods

           

Neighborhoods in the city are built with goals of longevity and improvement.  There are certain regions seen in Chicago that have flourished and continue to prosper, such as Lincoln Park.  But with these flourishing areas come the disadvantaged portions of the city, which can be found easily in portions of the West or South side of the city.  This week’s chapters highlight the pattern of ongoing poverty in impoverished neighborhoods.  William Julius Wilson introduces the concepts of social isolation and concentration effects, which helps gain a perspective on how poverty makes its way into certain neighborhoods and not others. 

            Some would say that the poor’s lack of motivation to progress out of poverty is the reason why they continue to dwell in it.  Though that may be true in some cases, it does not account for the rest.  Wilson draws on the term “social isolation” to help give perspective on why people in poor neighborhoods in the city continue to stay there.  In reference to the book, The Truly Disadvantaged, Wilson describes social isolation as the lack of contact to people and institutions that are part of the mainstream community.  Because of social isolation, even if residents living in poverty stricken areas want to get out of that type of environment, they would have a hard time finding the right network of people to help them reach out to certain occupations that are looking to hire.  Social isolation creates a domino effect with families and children in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city.  For example, because of the growing poverty in a certain neighborhood, that area becomes unattractive to businesses that are looking to establish themselves in flourishing areas.  As businesses look elsewhere, folks living in that neighborhood are left to find work in the little amount of businesses left nearby.  With a slow change of pace in economy, residents become immersed in the laid off lifestyle that is apparent in most of the households that they see.  Not only does this have adverse affects to family members that are supposed to be the breadwinners, it also negatively affects the children who view the older generation as their role models.  For young kids, seeing the attitudes of others can shape the way that they view the world.  So seeing older family members display a lack of work ethic can hinder their own ability to have a better work ethic themselves.  Seeing family members’ instability with work may also increase a child’s involvement in unconventional forms of attaining money.  Neighborhoods that have no diversity in its residents, that is having networks of people in different classes, only enhances the practices that keeps that neighborhood in its state of poverty, especially if that neighborhood is socially isolated from the resources that are intended to help it progress. 

           

Among the other concepts that Wilson provides in this week’s chapters is the term concentration effects.  He explains this concept as the out-migration of middle class, non poor blacks from underclass neighborhoods, leaving behind a concentration of the most disadvantaged group.  These sections of the inner city may have increased its poverty level because of the increase in underclass families moving in, taking the place of middle class families that were able to move into better neighborhoods.  The removal of families of working to middle class standing from these neighborhoods lessens the amount of active, working individuals that are occupied with making money through conventional occupations.  Having a concentrated amount of poor families in one area means that violence is more likely to ensue when people become engrossed in delinquent behavior.  Places that are considered as “ghettos” in the inner city have jobless individuals that may engage in delinquent behavior only for not being busy with meaningful responsibilities. 

            Wilson’s idea of social isolation and concentration effects are seen in what would be considered as today’s underclass neighborhoods in Chicago.  The continuance of the poverty found in these sections of the inner city are through the lack of opportunities surrounding these areas.  The lifestyle that comes with joblessness is seen throughout the households in these neighborhoods, and this sort of attitude may be seen as laziness to outsiders.  But what is truly the problem in poor areas in the city is that there is a constant flow of joblessness that has become a way of life to those living in these disadvantaged neighborhoods.  Being jobless and poor becomes the standard of living, and for many young generations, this is all that they know because this is all they are able to see living in a neighborhood that is socially isolated from mainstream society, concentrated mainly with the poorest of the poor.                 

       

Article related to this post: Revisiting the 'truly disadvantaged' 25 years later

References: Gottdiener, Mark, Ray Hutchison, and Michael T. Ryan. 2015. The New Urban Sociology. 5th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.