( SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL)

Volume 431Number 41December 1989 • 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

Space and Social Processes Two new projects of the Committee on ew York City and the Joint Committee on the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies

by David L. Szanton*

Specifying the relation hip of patial form to ocial proce e ha long been a challenge to hi torian , planner, vi ionarie ,and ocial cienti ts. Social proce e inevitably "take place" within defined patial arena , and they often give hape to tho e

arenas-whether at the level of hou ehold, neighbor­hood, city, or nation. But given pace al 0 con­train, hape, and in variou way repre ent ocial

relation , both phy ically and ymbolically. Indeed, pace , place , and phy ical tructure are regularly

de igned in order to have pecific ocial effect , e.g., to fo ter or create hierarchy, community, control, or freedom of action. The arrow of influence can go in all direction .

The problem of understanding the relation of patial form to ocial proce e become particularly

complicated when one move to other cultural tradition -or imply through hi tory in our own-to ocietie in which the meaning of pace and phy ical

form may be di tinctly different. For the Bedouin herder, the meaning of the de ert, it con traint and opportunitie , are utterly different than for the urbane Cairene, and nearly impo ible for an urban New Yorker to even imagine. But it i almo t as difficult for a New Yorker today to recon truct the meaning and value of Jefferson' vi ion of an llgrarian America.

Yet de pite the ob tade to easy interpretation of patial or built form in term of ocial proce e

(and vice versa), efforts along the e line continue to fa cinate and motivate thinker , analy t , architect , and planners. If only intuitively, many people en e that the way pace and built form are u ed and organized both reveal and hape ocial proce e or relation hip otherwi e hard to di cern. Likewi e, changing ocial form and cultural understanding can help to account for exi ting patial form and their reu e or tran formation over time.

At pre ent, two different Council committee are organizing new project which attempt to pecify the interaction of patial form and ocial proce e as a mean of gaining greater in ight into both.

The Committee on the Comparative Study of Mu lim Societie , jointly with the National Humani­tie Center, i planning a conference, organized by Barbara D. Metcalf, University of California, Davi , on the changing patial expre ion of identity among Mu lim re iding in the We t. Small but diver e and rapidly growing communitie of Mu lim now re ide in We tern Europe, North America, and Au tralia. In contra t to many other immigrant group ,a imilation

• David L. Szanton, an anthropologi t, serve taff to the Joint Committee on the Comparative Study of Mu lim Societie and the Committee on New York City.

CONTENTS OF TIllS ISSUE Space and Social Proce

David L. Sum/on 81 Neighborhoods and Communi-

tie in Concentrated Poverty, Marthn A. G~phnrt 84

Current Activities at the Council 93 Board Honors

Frederic E. W cman, Jr. 93 Instructional Seminars in

Sociology, Moscow 93

Summer Workshop on Soviet and East European Economic 94

Staff Te tifies before Congre ional Committee 94

Working Groups of the Urban Undercl Committee 9S

Recent Council Publicahon 97 Publication Guideline A~d 100

Note 101

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into the surrounding society is frequently not a primary concern. Indeed, some of tho e who are migrants ee their role as transfonning the majority culture by conversion. Still others are themselves converts from the local society, who, by the very act of converting, are as erting their di covery of new truths while elf-consciously differentiating them­selves from the local community.

Creating a Muslim Identity

For both the immigrants and the convert , the e efforts at di tancing them elve are often rooted in a view of We tern ocietie a epitomized by a collap e of the family and other valued ocial relation hip ba ed on age, gender, and statu , and a decadent empha i on con umer materiali m. In thi context, Muslim home may be marked with a pecific decor, a required decorum, and a patial organization that make them ba tion against an out ide culture een as deplorable. Similarly, new and in ecure Mu lim communitie at first often con tructed mo que which were architecturally anonymou . Today, as the e communities are becoming more elf-confident, their mo que are drawing on traditional I lamic architec­tural fonn that are intended to convey public expre ion of cultural pride and uperiority . At a more subtle level, thi mayal 0 be an expre ion of a wide pread I lamic concept that the patial arrange­ments in which one live directly affect the piritual quality of one' life.

In France, ocial and economic pre ure to label previou ly ecular migrant workers from the Maghreb a Mu lim (rather than a Algerian , Tuni ian , or Moroccan ), and to egregate them in pecial donnitorie (foyers), are having the effect of thru ting new I lamic identitie upon them, exacerbated by the fact that the donnitorie quickly become center for defen ive community building and Mu lim mi ionary activity.

But preci ely what kind of boundarie and identitie do the e tructured pace establi h? To what extent, and in what ocial and political contexts do they inten ify elf-identification a "Mu lim," as oppo ed to the many possible alternative or imulta­neous identitie ? How are pecific tructure and ites understood to be related to urrounding pace? Are they recreations of, or considered in orne en e identical to, other piritually potent location el ewhere in the Mu lim world? And how can the

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changing meanings invested in the e tructures over time be u ed as clues to the internal dynamics of Muslim communities in the West and their relation­ship to the larger ocieties in which they are embedded? Indeed, by contra t or as elements in their compo ition, what do they uggest about the tructure and values of tho e larger societie ?

The "Built Environment" project of the Committee on New York City, organized by David Ward, Univer ity of Wi consin, and Olivier Zunz, Univer­sity of Virginia, is rai ing a different but related et of i ue. Much of the committee' recent work ha focu ed on the current economic, ocial, and political "re tructuring" which has characterized New York City in recent years. But the city has been "re truc­tured" before, and perhap much more fundamentally so, roughly 100 year ago. It was at that time that the basic outlines of its current organization took shape. The period, 1890-1910 aw the incorporation of Brooklyn into the city, its economic and political con olidation around the port, the mas ive con truc­tion of sky crapers to hou e rapidly expanding corporate capitali m, increa ingly harp differentiation of working-cla ,middle-class, and upper-cla re idential neighborhood , the demarcation of di tinct financial, warehou e, and retailing di tricts, all linked by a rapidly expanding public tran it sy tern.

The Landscape of Modernity

If a et of phy ical tran fonnations at the tum of the century et the ba ic morphology of the contem­porary city, they aloe tabli hed for u today a kind of ba eline again t which to examine ub equent change . Those earlier change al 0 provide u now with a u eful per pective on the proce e and outcome of the current re tructuring. With this background in mind, project participant are being asked what we can learn about ongoing ocial, economic, political, and cultural proce e and tran fonnation by carefully examining the city' changing physical fonn : it home and office , treet and urban and uburban neighborhood , its

public paces and functional zones uch a the port, financial, and manufacturing district. Who are the actors and what are the proce e which have haped or re haped the city' pace for new purpo e ? The intere t and logic of corporate capitali m and the free market are evident. But thi has al 0 been a period of "progre ive" ocial refonn, and orne of

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J

the earliest American efforts at urban planning, zoning, and new housing and educational policies. What can the physical record teU us about the extent to which the e various forces overwhelmed, can­celled, or reinforced each other? And to what extent did the physical environment, once built, shape social behavior or foster certain characteristics of life in the city?

The projects of the two committees are very different in approach and in the specific questions they are attempting to answer. But they might intersect, for example, in a common intere t in the rise and fall of storefront mosques and churches as distinctive markers of particular kinds of communi­ties, in contrast to the city' professionally de igned churches and mo ques which repre ent the economic power and ocial ties of very different communities. Parades, as expressive uses of public space, also provide an overlapping domain. Today, ethnic groups march in New York. At the tum of the century, parade were dominated by the uniformed ervices, with the public as sidewalk spectators. Still earlier,

DECEMBER 1989

prior to the Civil War, it was artisans and tradesmen who marched in the city streets, celebrating them­selves. The e distinctly different uses of public space suggest changing relationship of the citizenry to the state. But where people are permitted to march in the city is also politically significant. Today, the specific route they are allowed to take, from prestigious central locations like Fifth A venue, to more periph­eral commercial or re idential streets, depends upon the relative political status of the marchers. The new Muslim Day parade is still marginalized on 14th Street; how rapidly it moves to higher status locales may tell us much about the interactive evolution of the Muslim community and the surrounding society in New York.

Both of the e projects are trying to read the physical organization of space for new clues to understanding complex social change . In the process they may also shed new light on the meanings that individuals and societies invest in the spaces they construct. •

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Neighborhoods and Communities in Concentrated Poverty by Martha A. Gephart*

Recent di cu ion of the urban undercla have begun to focus attention on the con equence that living in particular neighborhood may have for their re ident . Some have argued that the increa ing concentration of minority poor in urban area may relegate the re ident to per i tent poverty and " ocial pathologie ." In hi 1987 book, The Truly Disadvan­taged, William Juliu Wil on empha ize the role of neighborhood in haping the live of the poor. He argue that the decline of central-city manufacturing, the uburbanization of employment, and the out­migration of middle-clas black families from ghetto area have left behind de titute communitie lacking the in titution , re ource , and role model nece ary for ucce in po t-indu trial ociety. Regardle of the particular definition of the underclas that one accept , there i evidence that the ize of the urban undercla grew ub tantially after 1970, that it became more spatially concentrated, and that the population is predominately black and Hi panic (Bane and Jargow ky 1988; Mincy 1988; Rickett and Sawhill 1988; Hughe 1988).1 The conjunction of Wil on' argument and evidence for the growth and concentration of an urban underclas ha led to renewed intere t in the role of neighborhood and communitie in the proce e that create, maintain, or help to ameliorate the condition that are typically sub umed under the urban undercla concept.

During the pa t two decade, cholar largely ignored the role of neighborhood and communitie in shaping the live of the poor. Re earch on poverty focu ed on income, and policy focu ed on bringing

• Martha A. Gephart, a psychologi t and political ienti t, i tarf associate at the Council. With Raquel Ovryn Rivera and Robert W. Pearson, he serve taff to the Committee for Re arch on the Urban Underclas .

I Many current conceptualization of the urban undercl center around the conjunction of three factors: ( 1) the patial concentration of disadv~tage (e.g., income poverty, low labor-force participation rate ); (2) persl tent poverty- often sociated with extended welfare dependency and the intergenerational tran mi ion of poverty; and/or (3) non­normative behaviors (e.g., crime, drug abuse, out-of-wedlock birth, participation in an "unrecorded" or " illicit economy").

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ca h and in-kind benefits to individual and familie . Current intere t in the importance of neighborhood build upon older tradition of cholarship, including work of the Chicago chool in the 1920 and 1930 and ethnographie of inner-city neighborhood in the 1950 and 1960s.

Since the Council's Committee for Re earch on the Urban Underclas wa frr t appointed in June of 1988, it has given con iderable attention to the role of neighborhood and communities in the proce e that help create, maintain, or ameliorate the condi­tion of an urban undercla . Communitie and neighborhood have been conceptualized initially as an intennediate level of analy i between the macro level of citie, tate, region , and nation and the micro level of familie and individual . A uch, communi tie and neighborhood provide an intellec­tual and trategic fulcrum for the multilevel analy i which the program eeks to facilitate (Gephart and Pear on 1988). It i at thi level that re earch can analyze the effect of changing labor market , the role of other in titution in con tructing the ocial reality that people experience, and the impact of public policy and private philanthropy in creating re ource and upporting in titution .

The committee began it con ideration of the role of communitie and neighborhood by convening two planning mc:eting . On October 19-21, 1988, a group met to con tder re earch on the relation hip between acutely impoveri hed urban communitie and neighborhood ,family y tern , and individual development. 2 On January 29-30, 1989, a econd group wa convened to con ider what i known about: (I) the way in which in titution in neighbor­hood and communitie shape and mediate the effects of broader change in ociety, the economy, and

2 Participants included: Paul E. Peterson . Harvard University. chair; J. Lawrence Aber, Barnard College and Columbia University; Geraldine Brookins, Jackson State University; Jeanne Broo -Gunn, Educational Te ting Service; Jame Connell, University of Roche ter; Thomas D. Cook, Northwe tern University; Felton Earl , Harvard University; Frank F .. Furstenberg, Jr., University of Penn ylvania; Martha A. Gephart , Social Scl~nce Research Council: Cheryl Haye , National Academy of Science ; Chri topher Jen~k , Northwe tern University; Richard Je r, University of Colorado; Michael Katz, University of Penn ylvania: Robert Michael , N tional Opinion Research Center; John Modell, Carnegie Mellon University; Raquel Ovryn Rivera, Social Science Research Council; Robert W. Pearson, Social Science Research Council; Lee Rainwater, Harvard University: Erol Ricketts, Rockefeller Found tion; Edward Seidman, New York University; Mari Vinov ki , University of Michi­gan; .Lo.ic. Wacquant,. ~niversity of Chicago; Melvin Wil n. University of Virginia; and Patncla Zavella, University of California, Santa Cruz.

VOLUME 43, NUMBER 4

culture; and (2) the way in which neighborhoods and communities shape individual outcome (tatu e and behaviors), and interaction within and among families and group , in way that amplify, maintain, or help to overcome the e condition .3 Both group were asked to consider what unan wered que tion , debates, and controversie exi t, for which further research would be helpful.

Discussions at the e two planning meeting , and subsequent deliberation of the committee and its working groups have focused on five interrelated themes: (1) the effects of neighborhood on individual outcomes; (2) the units and characteri tic of neighborhoods and communitie that mediate broader changes and shape individual outcomes; (3) models of neighborhood change; (4) the intersection of neigh­borhoods and more macro tructure and proce e; and (5) relationships between communitie and neighborhoods, family proce s, and individual development. This article con ider orne of the unanswered que tion and challenge for re earch that have emerged from the e di cu ions.

Effects of Neighborhoods on Individual Outcomes

Mo t quantitative re earch on neighborhood has inve tigated the effect of neighborhood compo ition on individual statuse and behaviors . In their review of the consequence of growing up in a poor neighborhood, Jencks and Mayer (1989) review correlational research which examine the effect of the socioeconomic compo ition and racial mix of schools and neighborhood on a range of outcomes for adults and children. Most of the re earch re­viewed asks simply whether there i an effect; few studies focus on the magnitude or mechani m of effect. Jencks and Mayer report weak and incon i -tent results, and they emphasize the limitation of the research literature that they review, noting a con ider­able number of shared methodological flaw . The

3 Participants included: Paul E. Peterson, Harvard Umversity, chair; Jeffrey Berry, Tufts University; Anthony 8ryk, University of Chicago; Tho D. Cook, Nonhwe tern University; Michelle Fine, University of Pennsylvania; Martha A Gephan, Social SCience Research Council, Rob Holli ter, Swarthmore College; Michael Katz, University of Penn ylvania; Malcolm Klein, University of Southern California; Henry Levin, StanfOTd University; Douglas M y, University of Chica 0; John U. Ogbu, UDlverslty of California, Berkeley; Raben W. Pearson, Social Science Research Council; Erol Ricketts, the Rockefeller Foundation; Allen Scott, University of California, Los Angele ; Mana Tienda, University of Chicago; Loic Wacquant, University of Chicago.

DECEMBER 1989

outcome included in Jencks and Mayer's review were: educational attainment, cognitive kills, teenage crime, exual behavior, and eventual labor market ucce for children; and economic effect , law

abidingne s, and life ati faction for adult. Re earch ha also inve tigated the effect of neighborhood on chool dropout and teen pregnancy. Crane (1989b),

for example, u ing data from the Neighborhood Characteri tics File of the 1970 Cen u , found that neighborhood quality had very large effects on chool dropout and teen pregnancy "in the very wor t neighborhood ."

Scholars have given renewed attention to the effect of neighborhood on re ident 'chance of finding a good job-frequently referred to a the spatial mi match hypothe i . The hypothe i i one of everal that have been propo ed to account for the

ri ing unemployment of inner-city black male . Moreover, the re earch which has attempted to examine this hypothe i illu trate orne of the difficultie and challenge of re earch on the effects of neighborhood on individual outcome . The central i ue is the extent to which a mi match between the location of job and the location of worker explain the lower employment of black male relative to white males. Studie ba ed on data from 1970 or earlier failed to provide convincing evidence for a spatial mi match explanation. Since 1970, joble nes ha ri en fa ter among central-city black than among uburban black , however, and black with low level

of education have obtained higher wage in the uburb (Jenck and Mayer 1988, 1989; Holzer 1989;

Ka arda 1989). Ka arda argue that growth in low-skill job opportunitie in clo er proximity to poorly educated black uburban re ident i the mo t piau ible explanation for the e facts. However, it i unclear to what extent the e fact reflect change in the characteri tic of the people who re ide in each place (i.e., the effect of elective migration), in the labor markets that they face (e.g., tight labor market in the uburb), and/or the extent to which they reflect problem created by location per e for tho e in central cities.

In their di cu ion of direction for future re earch on the patial mi match hypothe i ,Jenck and Mayer (1989) argue that we need to: (1) a emble time erie data that will compare different racial and ethnic group and ubgroup within them; (2) obtain more fine-grained description of pecific citie , including map which depict neighborhood in term

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of earnings, type of employment, and rates of labor­force participation; (3) examine the effects of changes in cities' residential and employment patterns; and mo t important, (4) inve tigate the determinants of residential movements between central citie and suburb . Scholars al 0 need to clarify and measure what is thought to make a difference in the mi match between job and workers-for example, inadequate acce s to job network . Moreover, such mechani m need to be considered in relation to other barriers to acce s to employment.

Tienda (1989) identifies everal major problems that have clouded re earch on the effect of neighbor­hoods on individual behavioral outcome . Her criticisms imply a number of challenge for future work. Re earchers need to include the dimension of social interaction in their definition and measurement of neighborhoods, ince such interaction is often the implied mechanism through which neighborhood are thought to affect individuals. Thus, poor people do not nece sarily interact with their affluent neighbors simply becau e they live in the ame censu tract. More generally, re earch needs to specify and measure the mechanisms through which neighborhood effects are thought to operate. Only then will it be possible to distingui h among alternative proces es such as contagion proce ses, ocialization, or social comparison proce es. Studies al 0 need to mea ure exposure to the social environments that allegedly influence individual behavior. This is especially important in the light of evidence that chronically poor people change their re idence frequently. For individuals who have changed residence , research could include either information about residential mobility, or preferably, information about changes in the characteristics of neighborhoods and neighbors themselves. Finally, it is crucial that research begin to assess and model the nonrandom election processes that bring together individuals with particular ocioeconomic characteristics and behav­ioral dispo itions within spatially defined arenas. This

I is e ential if one is to demonstrate that the character­istics of a neighborhood, rather than elective migration, account for ob erved as ociations between neighborhoods and individual outcome .

For some time, ethnographic re earch has argued for the importance of neighborhood in understanding poverty. Several recent studie have identified distinctive patterns of crime, employment, marriage, resources, and institutions in different urban poor

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neighborhoods (Anderson 1978; Sullivan 1983; Williams and Kornblum 1985). Mo t ethnographic accounts al 0 suggest con iderable diversity within neighborhoods, with the implication that there are varying social networks in a neighborhood within which a person can embed him elf or herself with dramatically different con equence . Anderson (1989) and Williams and Kornblum (1985) emphasize the difference in outcomes between adole cents who are "on the street" and tho e who e behavior i moni­tored and supervised by parents and other adult . The e accounts sugge t that one cannot rely on compo itional statistics to understand the way in which neighborhoods affect individual statuse and behaviors. What is lacking in the more qualitative re earch, however, are sy tematic analy es of the fmdings of different studies or any evidence concerning the incidence of patterns identified. Comparative studies are needed of different neighbor­hood , and such research needs to be linked to more quantitative analyses.

Neighborhoods and Communities: Units and Characteristics

What are the agents and units that need to be studied? A key is ue for research on neighborhood is the geographic and/or ocial unit that is u ed to defme and circum cribe them. Research often measures a neighborhood as a census tract, a block, or even a hou ing unit, depending on the availability of data. But a neighborhood selected and measured in this way may not correspond with the neighborhood of interaction or of self-location by its residents. Moreover, insofar as neighborhood has a geographi­cal referent, its meaning depends upon context and function. Shifts in technology and in the spatial organization of cities have altered definitions profoundly (Katz 1989). Even today, both the objective and subjective definition of neighborhood may vary across classes.

A number of characteristics of neighborhoods and communities seem important for understanding how neighborhoods and communities mediate broader change in society, the economy, and culture in way that hape outcomes of individual , familie , and other groups. Among them are: the concentration and persistence of poverty; the extent of residential segregation; the extent of social isolation; the quality of the housing stock; the extent of crime and drug

VOLUME 43, NUMBER 4

use; the nature and effectiveness of formal and informal re ources; also, the number and functioning of institutions, especially schools, social welfare and child care organizations, bu inesses, community­based organizations, and recreational facilitie ; the number of available jobs; and the hiring preferences and criteria of employers. Less tangible characteris­tic of neighborhoods such as their competence, ocial accountability, and collective empowerment

seem no Ie s important. Clearly, the relevant unit vary by behavior and

domain, and they depend upon the outcome or process of interest. Of particular importance are relationship among neighborhood characteristics over time, the overall climate of a neighborhood, and the dynamics of neighborhood change. Some have argued, for example, that the deteriorating tructure of economic opportunity and the decline in re ource stocks in inner-city neighborhoods have led to the spread of crime, drug use, and other ocial problems. These in tum may have diminished the den ity of social ties and undermined the effectiveness of institutions, social networks, household economies, and family functioning.

Beyond determining the size, boundaries, and characteristics of neighborhoods, an even more difficult is ue is how to characterize them in ways that be t link their propertie to social and per onal variation. The measures typically available in studies of census tracts, for example, are relatively remote from perception and action, and therefore make trong linkages unlikely between neighborhood

characteristics and outcomes for inner-city poor. More proximal characteristics of the neighborhood, at the level of its social organization and institutional functioning, are more difficult to obtain and often require community study or ethnographic observation, but they are likely to yield more powerful linkages. Some argue that the strongest linkages between neighborhoods and individual outcomes should emerge-logically-from characterizations of the perceived neighborhood-its norm, opportunities, barriers, dangers, models, controls, pressure, and supports as seen by its residents (lessor 1968).

More conceptual work is needed to identify the units for study in a longer-term research agenda. Special attention is needed to understand the ocial cohesion of units and the mechanisms through which characteristics of neighborhoods affect families and individual . Perhaps the greatest theoretical challenge

DECEMBEIt 1989

is to formulate concepts at the different levels of analy is and to identify the linkages among these level . Such formulation should help u to specify the logical connections between macro processes, mediating proce ses, and outcome (status, behavior) at the level of persons or group .

Models of Neighborhood Change

Most of the people who have worked on neighbor­hood effects have not studied the mechanisms by which neighborhoods get to be the way they are. Yet, understanding the paths and processes of neighbor­hood change may be quite important for predicting the pattern of neighborhood effects. Crane, for example, proposes an epidemic model of neighbor­hood change, u ing a mathematical model of the spread of infectious di eases to suggest how ocial problems may increase exponentially within the mo t disadvantaged neighborhoods (Crane, 1989a). The key implication of the model is that there may be critical points in the incidence of social problems in neighborhoods. If the incidence tays below a critical point, it will tend to remain at ome relatively low-level equilibrium. But if it reaches a critical point-"a tipping point" (Schelling 1971), ocial problems will explode. Another implication of this model is that the pattern of neighborhood effects should take a very specific form. That is, neighbor­hood effects should be much stronger in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods than anywhere else. Using data from the Neighborhood Characteristics Files of the 1970 Census, Crane recently documented that in neighborhoods with a small proportion of professional jobs the effects of neighborhood characteristics on dropping out of school and teenage childbearing are quite different (and much greater) than when we look at the entire distribution of neighborhoods (Crane 1989b).

Most models of neighborhood change po it a general sequence, or a set of stages through which neighborhoods typically pass (White 1987). Some argue that there are points at which local institutions (e.g., schools, social service systems) actually contribute to the reproduction of social pathologie (Fine 1983). Other models suggest that a community or neighborhood deteriorates because a protective or a corrective mechanism (middle-class role models, recreational facilities) is not pre ent or is inoperative. The ab ence of such mechanisms, it is proposed,

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reduces the immunity of neighborhoods to deleterious effects of larger social, economic, or cultural changes. Conversely, communities or population groups which po sess these protective capacities may actually benefit from these larger social, economic, or cultural changes. Jencks suggests, for example, that changes in norms toward marriage, divorce, sex, and out-of-wedlock births have further di advantaged the poor while benefiting the upper middle class (Jencks 1988).

From the tandpoint of understanding whether neighborhoods become physically and spatially i olated, or whether they experience renewal, the minimum and neces ary conditions that can reverse or halt the process of neighborhood decline need to be ascertained. Specification is needed of the conditions under which neighborhoods experiencing change in the racial and ethnic composition of the population, declining economic bases, or aging housing stocks are destined to become underclass neightx>rhoods, and under what conditions they are likely to remain viable working-class neighborhoods, even if with lower re ource stocks. Such analysis will require multidimen ional models of neighborhood change, and a better understanding of the intersection between neighborhood and broader economic, ocial, and political structures and processes.

Intersection of Neighborhoods with Broader Structural Forces

Broader economic, social, and political forces affect the pattern and processes of neighborhood change in ways that may lead to beneficial or deleterious outcomes for individuals. (For a di cu ion of re earch on macro level structures and proces es, see Pearson 1989.) The e broader forces are also mediated by local in titution in ways that may attenuate or exacerbate their effects. Understanding each of the e proce ses is important for developing models of neighborhood change, and for specifying the role of neighborhoods and communities in a fuller theoretical treatment of the structures and proce es which generate, maintain, or help to overcome the conditions of the urban underclass.

• Effects on neighborhood change. Scholars have uggested everal ways in which broader economic, ocial, and political change may have affected

neighborhood change in inner cities. The interaction between structural shifts in the distribution of income

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and patterns of racial egregation has led to increas­ingly geographically concentrated urban poverty for blacks outside of the West and for Hi panic in the Northeast (Mas ey and Eggers 1989). An economic restructuring in which jobs requiring lower education have been replaced by knowledge-intensive white­collar jobs may have led to increasing rate of joble sne s for inner-city blacks (Kasarda 1989). The out-migration of both white middle-income re idents (Kasarda 1978) and of black middle- and working­class families (Wit on 1987) may have led to economic and in titutional decline in inner-city neighborhood .

There are several way in which these changes may have contributed to the decline of inner-city neighbor­hood . Ka arda ague that the 10 s of blue-collar employment and the exodus of white middle-income residents drained the city tax base and further dimini hed the number of blue-collar service job such as dome tic workers, gas stations attendants, and local delivery personnel. Concurrently, many secondary commercial areas of citie withered as lower income levels of minority re idential group that replaced the uburbanizing whites could not economically u tain them (Kasarda 1978). Wit on argue that the out-migration of working- and middle-class blacks from the ghetto left behind concentrations of the mo t disadvantaged with the least to offer in terms of marketable skills, role models, and economic and familial tability. Under such conditions, ghetto problem magnified. Kasarda sugge ts that the flight of working- and middle-cla black from the ghettos may also have led to the closing of black-owned store and hop, and to the flow of income from black earning out of the black community The economic decline of inner cities may have been exacerbated by redlining (Bradbury, Ca e, and Dunham 1989), and by the sub equent decline of school and other local institution .

• The mediating role of local institutions. A variety of in titutions at the local level have been shown to attenuate or exacerbate the effects of broader structural force . Among them are communi­ty-based organizations, local labor markets, and school . Storie can be told in many communities about the dramatic change effected by the leadership of gras -roots community organization . Some have sugge ted, however, that dramatic instance of neighborhood renewal may depend upon the dyna­mism of the local economy. Some evidence concern-

VOLUME 43, NUMBER 4

ing the effects of tight vs. slack local labor markets is provided by recent analyses of data on Bo ton. Freeman and 0 tennan report that local labor market hortage conditions in Bo ton have improved the

employment of disadvantaged youths, increased their earnings, and reduced their poverty during a period when each of the e measures of economic well-being deteriorated nationally for di advantaged youths (Freeman 1989; 0 tennan 1989). 0 tennan notes, however, that conditions for Hi panics have barely changed. Unfortunately, we do not know to what extent the e economic effects may have ameliorated other social ills.

Schools are particularly important institutions that mediate the effects of broader structural forces. In tenns of the number of dollars spent, schools use more ocietal resources than other institutions at the neighborhood and community level. Moreover, when one ask what the likelihood i of a child' tran ition out of the underclass, the potential role of schools come immediately to mind. Fonnal chooling increasingly sorts individuals into classes of service workers and profe sional employees, and the changing nature of the economy suggests that the power of chools as orting mechani m in our ociety is likely to increase.

Existing re earch sugge ts that the mo t succe ful program , the mo t effective in tructional approache , and the family and community upports that have been demon trated to improve educational outcomes, are least likely to be found in large urban public schools with high proportion of di advantaged students. Moreover, there is an unarticulated, implicit school-family partnership, for which the intersection of clas and ethnicity eem to produce sub tantial inequitie . Ogbu emphasize the importance of cultural model which children and farnilie of different class and ethnic backgrounds bring to the experience of chooling (Ogbu 1988). Clark argues that poor black families vary ignificantly in ways that affect chool succe (Clark 1983). Some have ugge ted that poor familie are more ensitive than

affluent families to neighborhood and chool charac­teri tic . Yet, tudies evaluating experimental intervention in chool typically fail to con ider how the ocial structures of neighborhood and communi­tie and the dynamic of their change may reinforce, mediate, condition, or work at cro s purpo e to such intervention . Succe ful programs of chool re truc­turing have often focu ed on ocial relation hip , on

DECEMBER 1989

building self-esteem, and on improving relationship between families, chools, and communities (Comer 1988).

Increasingly, re earchers are examining schools as organizations, schooling as a process, and schools as differentiating environments. Such research offers prorni e for beginning to an wer the key question of why ome schools are much less likely than others to produce disadvantaged students, even in the face of deprived family and community settings (Boyd 1989). Future research needs to focus on differences between schools in the context of their relationships to families and communities.

Communities and Neighborhoods, Family Process, and Individual Development

Understanding the processe by which neighbor­hood characteristics affect individual outcomes is complicated. The effects are likely to be indirect, with their impact depending upon the interaction of neighborhood characteri tic with tho e of families, hou eholds, social networks, and individuals. Moreover, understanding the nature of effects on individuals, and their consequences, often require a focus on development and developmental trajectories. Current discussions of neighborhood effects often imply that incentives operate on a person at the time of an outcome. Yet there is considerable evidence that ome outcome of interest-such as dropping out of school-are accurately predicted by events in childhood (Le., early grade failure). In addition, re earch has "demonstrated that fundamental develop­mental constructs such as efficacy, competence, and self-e teem, mediate individual outcomes. Develop­mental issues may also be critical in relation to the early age of expo ure to things "on the street" in inner-city neighborhoods.

Oi cussions in the planning meetings empha ized the need to think about the expectable equence and fonn of influence between communities and neigh­borhood , parents and familie , and developmental trajectories. Little is known about the basic family functioning that may be affected by neighborhood and communities. Do farnilie function differently in re ource-rich neighborhoods? What are the effects of danger in the environment, of the comparative oppor­tunities and constraints that crime and drug or low wage job provide to inner-city re idents, of the role of gangs, of the quality of chool ?

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Much of the work on di advantaged families has focused on family structure, as measurable by census categories. But the e may not be the mo t important distinctions. By relying on marriage rates in the censu , researchers may have mis tated the "single parent family" problem. Moreover, because so much of the knowledge base about families derives from white middle-clas populations, its relevance to minority and poverty populations is in question. Current theory and research on family process illu trate thi point. Traditional tudies of family proce s have been restricted to intra-familial interac­tions and exchanges. Parenting style in relation to the extra-familial context may be equally consequential for child behavior and development. This suggests that the extra-familial environment has not been taken to be particularly problematic, but for families in poverty the external environment is by no means benign and supportive. How families have managed such environment -dangerous neighborhood , inadequate and demoralizing schools, problem-prone peer group , scarce resources for creative self­enhancement for children-are certainly critical aspects of any as e sment of parenting style (Je sor 1988). Moreover, even within the family, existing research has not engaged those aspects that would more directly reflect the social context of poverty such as the unemployment of parents, the perception of blocked opportunity, socialization into ethnic and class identities, feelings of inefficacy, and so on. There is a need to reconceptualize the concepts of hou ehold, kin hip, social network and family-to get beneath the labels, and to investigate the roles and functioning of kin and non-kin in relation to the political economy of households and the rearing of children.

A growing number of re earchers have been exploring how di advantaged youth in high-risk neighborhood navigate their way out of poverty. Williams and Kornblum, in their account of the diverse ways of managing disadvantage, sugge t that the successful youth find and use the meager re ource available in di advantaged neighborhoods (William and Kornblum 1985). The intriguing question rai ed by their study is how and why certain youth gravitate to afe niches. Part of the explanation for successful youth lies in the individual characteris­tics of youth or the "resiliency" of certain children (Garmezy and Rutter 1983). However, it i clear that resourcefulnes or intelligence may equip youths for

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success on the streets as well as in the clas room. Other scholars have pointed to the importance of family influence. Clark (1983), for example, spells out the particular qualities of family interaction required to spon or independence in the ghetto.

Some children are hielded by protective parents and mentors from the despair, alienation, and rejec­tion which generally characterize areas of concen­trated poverty. Of special interest is how parents and other adults locate safe niches within dangerous envi­ronments and how they use community re ource to fo ter the acquisition of positive social roles (Fursten­berg 1988). It seems likely that poor neighborhood are heterogeneous in the extent of institutional re­sources available to create " afe niches" for adoles­cents. Youth clubs, recreational centers, health agen­cies, public libraries, family planning clinics, and social services are unevenly distributed within disad­vantaged districts. It might be hypothesized that the greater the density of these institutions de igned to shield youth from the diversions of "street life," the pull of unconventional peer relations, and the allure of the underground economy, the more likely it is that youth will find mentors or guides to conventional careers. Needed are tudies of how community in ti­tutions help support the family's efforts to instill pro ocial values and behavior.

Discus ion of developmental trajectorie imply a concern with how well children, adolescents, and their parents are doing, how this change over time, and how being raised in communities of varying degree of economic and ocial di advantage influences development (Brooks-Gunn et al. 1989). Developmental trajectories need to be examined in specific domain , including cognitive and academic well-being, physical and mental health, and ocio­emotional well-being. Increasingly, developmentalists have emphasized a more process-oriented conceptual­ization of child functioning, which focu e on competence, autonomy, relatednes, elf-regulation, identity, and engagement/disengagement. All of the e are believed to underlie successful adaptation. Moreover, all may be influenced by growing up in poor neighborhoods, attending low-quality school, being labeled a poor and minority, and growing up in families with limited resources.

Conclusions: Committee Projects and Working Groups

To addre s the unanswered questions and contro-

VOLUME 43. NUMBER 4

versies that have been identified will require consider­able conceptual and empirical work. The task is likely to be aided by the augmentation and reanalysis of existing data. But it will also require the design of new research and the collection of new data. Multilevel data sets-for example, those which include characteristics of neighborhoods, schools, families, and individuals-will be needed. Ethno­graphic work in different neighborhoods must be combined with census- and survey-based data, and with micro-observational studies of development and family process.

The Committee for Research on the Urban Undercla s has initiated a series of projects and working groups to begin to address some of these needs.4 It has commissioned conceptual and empirical papers, and reviews of existing re earch. It has also cosponsored a conference to examine the evidence for the arguments which Wilson advances in The Truly Disadvantaged. The committee is planning a workshop on research on neighborhood compositional effects; it also expects to establish focal groups on the economic and social ecology of drugs and crime in American inner cities, on differences between chools in the context of their relationships to families and communities, and on housing. •

References

Anderson, Elijah. A Piau on tM COrMr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.

__ . "Neighborhood Influences on Teenage Pregnancy." Paper prepared for the Conference on 'I'M Truly Disadvantaged, Nonhwe tern University, Evanston, lL, October 19-21, 1989.

Bane, Mary Jo and Paul A. Jargow kyo "Urban Poverty Areas: Basic Que tions Concerning Prevalence, Growth, and Dynamics." In Michael G. H. McGeary and Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., editors, Concentrated Urban Poverty in America. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Pre ,1988.

Boyd, William Lowe, "What Makes Ghetto Schools Work or Not Work." Paper prepared for the Conference on 'I'M Truly Disadvan· taged, Nonhwe tern University, Evanston, lL, October 19-21, 1989.

Bradbury, Katharine L., Karl E. Case, and Con lance R. Dunham. "Geographic Pattern of Mortgage Lending in Boston, 1982-1987." Unpubli bed manuscript, Augu t 1989.

Brooks.Qunn, Jeanne, Margaret Spencer, and James Connell. "Mapping Developmental Trajectories." Memorandum prepared for a meeting of a Working Group on Communitie and Neighborhoods, Family Pro-cesse ,and Individual Development, New York, June 2~27, 1989.

Center for Social Organization of Schools, The Johns Hopkin University. "Technical Application, Center for Research on the Education of Disadvantaged Students," September 16, 1988.

• See page 95 of thi ue for a description of two of these working groups.

DECEMBER 1989

Clark, Reginald. Family Life and School Improvement: Why Poor Black Children Succeed or Fail. Chicago: University of Chicago Pre ,1983.

Comer, Jame P. "Educating Poor Minority Children." Scientific American, 259(5):42-48, 1988.

Crane, Jon than. "The Epidemic Theory of Ghettos." Cambridge, MA: Center for Health and Human Resources Policy Discu ion Paper Serie , 1989a.

-_. "The Pattern of Neighborhood Effects on Dropping Out and Teenage Childbearing." Paper prepared for the Conference on 'I'M Truly Disadvantaged, Northwe tern University, Evanston, lL, October 19-21, 1989b.

FIDe, Michelle. "Perspective on inequity: Voices from Urban Schools." In L. Bickman, editor, Applied Social Psychology Annual IV. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. 1983.

Freeman, Richard B. "Help Wanted: Disadvantaged Youths in a Labor Shortage Economy." Paper prepared for the Conference on The Truly Disadvantaged, Nonhwe tern University, Evan ton, lL, October 19-21, 1989.

Furstenberg, Jr., Frank F. "Protective Parents in Dangerous Neighbor­hoods." Memorandum prepared for a planning meeting on Communi-tie and Neighborhoods, Family Proce , and Individual Develop-ment, October 20, 1988.

Garmezy, Norman, and Michael Rutter. Stress, Coping and Development in Children. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983.

Gephart, Martha A., and Robert W. Pearson. "Contemporary Research on the Urban Underclass." Items, 42(112):1-10, June 1988.

Holzer, Harry. "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: What Has the Evidence Shown?" Paper prepared for the Conference on The Truly Disadvantaged, Nonhwe tern University, Evan ton, lL, October 19-21, 1989.

Hughes, Mark Alan. "The 'Underclass' Fallacy." Unpubli bed manu­script. Princeton, N.J.: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, June 1988.

Jencks, Chri topher. "Deadly Neighborhood." 'I'M New Republic, June 13,1988.

Jencks, Chri topher, and Su an E. Mayer. "The Social Consequence of Growing Up In a Poor Neighborhood: A Review." In Michael G. H. McGeary and Laurence E. LYM, Jr., editors, Urban Change and Poverty. W hington, D.C.: National Academy Pre ,1988.

-_. "Residential Segregation, Job Proximity, and Black Job Opportu­nitie : The Empirical Statu of the Spatial Mi match Hypothesis." To appear in Michael G. H. McGeary and Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., editors, Concentrated Urban Poverty in America. W hington, D.C.: National Academy Pre ,fonhcoming, 1989.

Jessor, Richard. Memorandum prepared for a Planning Meeting on Communitie and Neighborhoods, Family Proce , and Individual Development, New York, October 20, 1988.

Kasarda, John D. "Urbanization, Community, and the Metropolitan Problem." In David Street and Associates, Handboolc of Contemporary Urban Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bas , 1978, pp. 27-57.

__ . "Structural Factors Affecting the Location and Timing of Urban Underclas Growth." Unpubli bed manuscript. Augu t, 1989.

Katz, Michael B. Memorandum prepared for a Planning Meeting on Communitie and Neighborhoods, Santa Fe, January 29-30, 1989.

Massey, Dougl S., and Mitchell L. Eggers. "The Ecology of Inequal­ity: Minorities and the Concentration of Poverty 1970-1980." American Journal of Sociology, fonhcoming, 1989.

Mincy, Ronald B. "Indu trial Re tructuring, Dynamic Events and the Racial Composition of Concentrated Poverty." Paper prepared for Planning Meeting of Social Science Research Council on Industrial Re tructuring, LocaJ Political Economies, and Communities and Neighborhoods, New York, September 21-23, 1988.

Ogbu, John U. "Community Force and Minority Educational Strategies:

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A Comparative Study." Proposal ummary prepared for Ru II S ge Foundation, August 1988.

Osterman, Paul. "The Underside of Full Employment: Poverty in B ton ." Paper prepared for the Conference on TM Truly Disadvan­taged, Nonhwe tern University , Evanston, rL, October 19-21, 1989.

Pearson, Robert W. "Economy, Culture, Public Policy, and the Urban Undercl ." Items. 43(2):23-29. June 1989.

Ricket ,Erol R. and Isabel V. Sawhill. "Definmg and Measuring the Undercl ." Journal of Policy Anal),sis and Manage~nl, October, 1988.

Schelling, Thomas C. "Dynamic Model of Segregation." Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 1:143-186, 1971.

Sullivan, Mercer L. "Youth Crime: New York's Two Varietie ." Ntw York Affairs, Vol. 8, November I, 1983.

Tienda, Marta. "Poor People and Poor Place: Deciphering Neighborhood Effects on Behavioral Outcome ." P per prepared for the 1989 Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, Augu t 9-13, 1989.

Waquant, Loic J. D. , and William Juliu Wilson. "The Cost of Racial and CI Exclu ion in the Inner City." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , 501 :8-25, January, 1988.

White, Michael J. American Neighborhoods and Residential Differentia­tion . New York: Ru sell Sage Foundati n, 1987.

Williams, Terry, and William Kornblum. Growing Up Poor. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1985.

Wil n. William Juliu . The Truly Disadvantaged: the Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Pre , 1987.

Area Studies Awards-l990

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Oi ertation re earch fellow hip are available for the following area : Africa, China, Ea tern Europe, Korea, Soviet Union, and We tern Europe.

Po tdoctoral re earch grant are available for Africa, China, Ea tern Europe, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Near and Middle East, Soviet Union, South A ia, and Southeast A ia. Contact the Council for further information.

VOLUME 43, NUMBER 4

Current Activities at the Council

Council's Board Honors Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr.

The Board of Directors passed the following resolution honoring Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr., who served as the Council's president from July 1986 to August 1989:

Since the day of its founding fathers-Charle Merriam, We ley Mitchell and the re t-the Social Science Research Council has had to live by its wits. It has alway had a difficult mis ion leading wayward flocks of scholars, ju tifying their ways to the world, and trying to extract orne of the world' wealth from its exacting stewards. Only the be t of leadership could uffice and the Council' di tingui hed hi tory has depended above all on its presidents. They have been con titu­tional monarch with vast preroga­tive and worri orne burden .

In 1986, FREDERIC E. W AKE­MAN, JR. assumed thi office. A the first outstanding area scholar to lead the Council, his coming faith­fully reflected a major feature of the Council's re ponsibilitie and achievements. The worldwide pread of the Council' work is one of its proude t attainments. Fred Wakeman came to us at a time when maintain­ing thi role was anything but easy and the Council was aI 0 beset by a dearth of enthu iastic upport of the social science within the public and private sectors. With characteri tic vigor and livelines , he ha labored to keep u strong through these diffi­cult times. We have been grateful for hi efforts and leadership over three years and we tru t we will continue to have the benefit of his help and counsel. We wi h him the best of years after hi return to Berkeley.

Instructional Seminars in Sociology, Moscow

From June 18-28, 1989, under

DECEMBER 1989

the auspices of the US-USSR Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Council of Learned Societies and the USSR Academy of Sciences, five American ociol<!gists toured the Soviet

Union, giving "in tructional seminars" in four to five cities each. This event was coordinated and funded jointly by the International Research and Exchanges Board (!REX) and the Council's Joint Committee on Soviet Studies (JCSS).

Earlier, in November of 1988, Soviet ociologists Mikk Titma and Vladimir Yadov met with the Subcommittee on Sociology of the JCSS and outlined six topics on which instructional seminars niight be given in the Soviet Union by American sociologists. Sub equently it was agreed that the following cholars would lecture on the e topics: Neil J. Smelser, University of California, Berkeley, on general ociology; Paul Allison, University of Penn ylvania, on statistical methods; Barbara Heyns, New York University, on evaluation of re earch and applied sociology; Harvey Molotch, University of California, Santa Barbara, on qualitative methods; Howard Schuman, University of Michi­gan, on survey methods; and Melvin Kohn, The Johns Hopkins University, on social structure and personality. (Mr. Kohn deferred his trip to the fall of 1989.)

The Soviets treated the in tructional seminar series as the frrst important element of a multifaceted process of revitaliz­ing the field of ociology in the

Soviet Union. Until this year, there have been no sociology departments in Soviet universities. As part of the systematic changes in Soviet social science, develop­ing as a result of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev' s policy of glasnost, sixteen such departments have been hastily created. However, there is presently a severe shortage of trained sociologists to fill these academic positions. Consequently, the Soviets are looking to Western sociologists for training and guidance.

The impressions of the American sociologists who returned from the Soviet Union give reason to be optimistic about the discipline's development there. The Soviets, reports Mr. Molotch, "are bursting with sociological energy." He attributes this to the fact that they view the discipline of sociology as somehow related to change in their own society. Thus, not only are Soviet cholars seeking Western guidance in stimulating an academic field, but they are also looking to Western sociology and sociologists for clues as to how change can be effected in Soviet society. Following Mr. Molotch's lectures, he was asked what Western sociology could contribute to making social change possible. What could it teach about influencing elites to relinquish power, creating justice, and instilling norms of decency and high ethical standards?

Mr. Schuman observed that, in the Soviet Union, "sociology is seen as very much part of the overall movement toward reform

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and liberalization, and the study of public opinion is regarded as a fonn of democratization ... Gorbachev' glasno t is making sociology po ible in the Soviet Union, since sociologists cannot function as scholars without a political and ocial environment that allows a free flow of infonna­tion and encourages systematic examination of how Soviet people conduct their live and how Soviet ociety is organized. Yet sociology

may well become a cholarly fonn of criticizing Soviet society, which could be more powerful than tandard critici m not backed by

research data. The Subcommittee on Sociol­

ogy of the JCSS is actively involved in promoting the discipline of ociology in the Soviet Union, as well a in attracting American students to the di cipline and the Soviet pecialization. The in tructional eminars were part of thi larger

effort, which al 0 include a program for the participation of American graduate tudent and junior cholars in Soviet ociolog­ical re earch project , and variou other project pre ently in the re earch planning tage. In addition, the Council and the JCSS are ponsoring the initiation of a program of first-year fellow hip in ociology and anthropology, which will enable Soviet area tudie tudents to be trained in tho e di cipline at the out et of their graduate careers, thereby building a cadre of trained ociologists and anthropol­ogist who al 0 have Soviet area tudie training.

Summer Workshop on Soviet and East European Economics

The Joint Committee on Soviet

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studies spon ored its Fifth Annual Summer Workshop on Soviet and Ea t European Economic at the Uniyersity of California, Berke­ley, from July 9-21, 1989. The program was conducted in cooperation with the University's Center for Slavic and East European Studie , with primary funding provided by the Ford and Alfred P. Sloan foundation . The workshop ought to timulate high quality re earch on the economies of the Soviet Union and East European countries and to encourage the work of younger cholars .

This year's program focu ed on eminar pre entation by the

twenty-one individual workshop participant . In the ninety-minute eminar pre entations, participants pent approximately forty minutes

summarizing research findings contained in preliminary paper distributed in advance. The remaining time was devoted to con tructive critique of the individual re earch projects, a well a more general di cu ions of related theoretical and method­ological i ues . In addition to seminar e ion, the work hop offered lecture and di cu ion period with the faculty and invited peakers. Among the major topic under examination were economic refonn in centrally planned economies, the politics of such refonn, the internal organi­zation and functioning of the indu trial enterpri e, " econd" economy activitie , foreign trade and international economic relation , and the modelling of centrally planned economie .

Herbert S. Levine, University of Penn ylvania, directed the work hop. He wa joined on the faculty by George Bre lauer, Uni-

versity of California, Berkeley; Richard Eric on, Columbia Uni­versity; Victor Meerovich Pol­terovich, Central Mathematical­Economics In titute, USSR Acad­emy of Science (Mo cow); Jan Svejnar, University of Pittsburgh; and Judith Thornton, University of Washington. Gue t peakers Ed A. Hewett of the Brookings In titution (Washington, D.C.) and Blair A. Ruble of the Kennan In titute for Advanced Rus ian Studies (Wa hington, D.C.) also di cussed their re earch and per-pective with workshop partici­

pants.· Kathryn Becker of the Council erved as taff.

The Sixth Annual Summer Workshop on Soviet and East European Economics will be held at the University of Pittsburgh from July 8-19, 1990.

StatT Testifies before Congressional Committee

On September 25th, Raquel Ovryn Rivera, staff to the

• P tdoctoraJ partlcipan were: Michael Alexeev, George Mason University; Daniel Berkowitz, University of Wiscon in , Milo law Gronicki, University of Pennsylvama; Michael Hemesath, Tufts University; Barry Icke , Pennsylvania State University; John Litwack, Stanford University; Michael Murphy, Umversity of Tex ,DiJana Pie tina , College of Wooster; and Milica Uvalic , European University In titute .

PredoctoraJ participants were: David Bartlett, University of California, San Diego; Clifford Gaddy, Duke Umverslty; Yevgeny Kuznetsov, Central Mathematical-Economics In titute, USSR Academy of Science ; In Sung Lee, University of Tex ; Beth Mitchneck, Columbia University; Natalija Nozdran, Central Mathematical-Economic Institute, USSR Academy of Science ; Andre Pickel, York University: Thomas Richardson. Columbia University; Bryan Roberts, M sa­chusetts In tilUte of Technology; Mark Schaffer, University of Sussex; David Sedik, University of California, Berkeley; and Milan Vodopivec, University of Maryland.

VOLUME 43, NUMBER 4

Committee for Public Policy Re earch on Contemporary Hi panic I ues and the Commit­tee for Research on the Urban Undercla s, testified before the U.s. House of Representatives Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families. Ms. Ovryn Rivera' te timony was de igned to inform the committee about the severity of Puerto Rican poverty in the United States and to recommend policies aimed at helping both working poor families and families dependent upon public assistance.

Ms. Ovryn Rivera noted that of all Hi panic groups in the nation, Puerto Ricans have the lowest labor force participation, the highe t poverty levels, unemploy­ment level , rate of households headed by women, incidence of welfare utilization, and high school dropout rate. She pointed out that the e problems may be attributable to larger forces shaping the overall national economy, i.e., low minimum wages, a evere economic decline in the industrial ector, and the increasing importance placed on education and training. Yet, policy makers and the public have failed to initiate policies which would effectively confront the roots of poverty in the Puerto Rican community.

M . Ovryn Rivera recom­mended local economic solutions supported and encouraged at the federal level, in combination with community-based programs designed to provide services to familie in a coordinated and comprehen ive fashion.

Other witne ses included: Raul Hinojo a-Ojeda, University of California, Berkeley; Linda Chavez, Senior Fellow, Manhat-

DECEMBER 1989

tan Institute for Policy Re earch; and Julia Quiroz, National Council de la Raza.

Working Groups of the Urban Underclass Committee

• Communities and Neighbor­hoods, Family Process, and Individual Development. Thi working group was appointed in early 1989. Chaired by Thomas D. Cook, Northwestern Univer­sity, it began its work by addressing some of the difficult conceptual problems that arise in attempting to understand how communities and neighborhood , families, and individual interact in ways that affect developmental trajectories. The group has developed a preliminary model that includes four levels of analysis. At the most macro level are the exogenous forces that produce neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage. The e include housing di crimination, racism, migration and contingent preferences, and a variety of institutional practices and policy, such as housing policy. The e factors will not be the focus of the group's work, but they will be used as criteria for amp ling and the selection of case for compari-on. At the next level are the

characteristics of neighborhood that may vary with the concentra­tion of poverty and disadvantage and are likely to affect develop­mental outcome and trajectories. These include formal opportuni­ties and constraints, dangers, informal networks, ethnicity, and persistent poverty. At the third level are characteri tic of familie which, in re pon e to the neighborhood condition at the second level, are expected to

affect developmental outcome and trajectorie . The e include family proce s, familial theories of child rearing, family network­ing in relation to the opportunities and dangers in the neighborhood, and hou ehold demography. At the fourth level, are the develop­mental trajectorie which are likely to be domain pecific. These include: physical and mental or emotional health, cognitive development and achievement, crime and acting out, fertility and family forma­tion, and interpersonal relation-hip.

To begin to explore relation-hip in the model, the working

group i undertaking everal activities. It is preparing an inventory of studies and data ets that bear on components of the model. It is commi ioning review of exi ting re earch on clas and ethnic differences in parenting and childrearing, and on ethnic difference among the poor in hou ehold economy systems.

To begin its exploration of relation hip between neighbor­hood and developmental outcomes, the group has decided to commi ion analy e of the Panel Study of Income Dynamic (to which cen u tract information i being appended) on the effects

I Gender Workshop I _ Deadline Changed

The Joint Committee on African Studie and Southeast A ia have announced a change in the application deadline for the di sertation work hop on gender and ocial tran fonnation which will take place at the end of May 1990. The new deadline i January 15, 1990.

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of differences in neighborhoods on the incidence of low birth weight, high school dropout, and teenage pregnancy. The group has also decided to append cen u tract infonnation to several longitudinal data sets which are rich in developmental measure . Preliminary analyse will be undertaken as the first tep in the development and testing of more sophisticated models. The e analy es will consider the effects of the concentration of poverty and social i olation on chool perfonnance, achievement, mental health, elf-esteem, conduct

96\ ITEMS

disorders, and behavior problems. After the e initial activitie have been completed, the group will further specify the model, and design new collaborative research to te tit.

• The Economic and Social Ecology of Crime and Drugs in American Inner Cities. The committee has decided to convene a working group of researchers to examine the ocial and economic proce se of crime and ub tance use in areas marked by persistent and concentrated poverty. The group, which i being organized by Jeffrey Fagan, Rutgers

University, will examine the relationship between the economic tran formation of inner citie , the growth of the urban underclas , and the development and effects of ocial processe that contribute to

crime, violence, and drug use in inner-city neighborhood . It will examine change in violence and related problems in inner-city neighborhoods that have experi­enced ignificant adverse ocial and economic changes over the past three decades, as well as those that have avoided these problems despite the intensification of poverty and ocial di location.

VOLUME 43. NUMBER 4

Recent Council Publications

The Japanese Informal Empire in China, 189~1937, edited by Peter Duus, Ramon H. Myers, and Mark R. Peattie. Based on a 1985 conference sponsored by the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1989. xxix + 454 pages. Cloth, $45.00.

Building upon a previous study of Japan's colonial empire, this volume examines the period during which Japan's economic, ocial, political, and military

influence in China expanded so rapidly that it supplanted the influence of Western powers competing there. Among key questions reviewed are: How did Japan's "informal empire" expand in size and importance so that Japanese economic and security interests became heavily dependent upon the China connection? What influence did Japanese business groups, China experts, and the military have upon their government's China policy? How did the Japanese in China deal with the rise of Chine e nationalism in 1931?

The e papers suggest that Japan's informal empire in China had a far more profound influence on Japanese development in the 20th century than its own formal colonial empire.

Peter Duus is profes or of history at Stanford University; Ramon Myers is curator of the East Asia collection and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution; and Mark R. Peattie is professor of Japane e hi tory at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

DECEMBER 1989

Managing Industrial Enterprise: Cases from Japan's Prewar Experience, edited by William D. Wray. Papers based on a conference spon ored by the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies. Harvard East Asian Monographs, 142. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Council on East Asian Studie , Harvard University, 1989.450 pages. Cloth, $25.00.

The burgeoning of Japane e business and indu try since the end of World War n has been of considerable interest to Western economic historians and political scientists. This volume take a different, busines history approach, emphasizing the micro analysis of companies and industrie , their administration, employment practice , inve tment and trade strategies, and opera­tional ties to other firms or industries. In focusing on the years before World War n, the authors have been able to illuminate the foreshadowing of postwar developments.

Two chapters are devoted to overviews of the early stages in the relationship between bu iness and government and to the rise of corporate alaried managers. These are followed by case histories including the development of a model filature, the railway during the 1890 panic, and colonial investment trategy in a high­technology enterprise. The volume close with an examination by the editor of the field of bu ine s history and its literature, with particular reference to Japan.

In addition to William D. Wray, University of Briti h Columbia,

contributors include Michael A. Cusumano, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Steven J. Eric on, Brown University; Andrew Gordon, Duke University; Stephen McCallion, consultant for the Japanese Yearbook on Business History; Barbara Molony, Santa Clara University; and Morikawa Hidemasa, Yokohama National University.

Muerte y resurrecci6n: los partidos poifticos en el autori­tarismo y las transiciones del Cono Sur [Death and Resurrec­tion: Political Parties under Authoritarianism and the Transi­tions in the Southern Cone], edited by Marcelo Cavarozzi and Manuel Antonio Garret6n. Publication resulting from workshops held between 1982 and 1985, sponsored by the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies. Santiago: FLACSO, 1989. 520 pages.

One of the basic objectives of military rule in the Southern Cone during the 1970 was the suppression of all forms of political participation and representation, including political parties. As political parties seemed to disappear, they were also neglected as subjects of systematic analyses. Instead, most studies of the military regimes focused on the relations among form of state, regime, and capitalist development. This, in turn, left scholars ill-prepared to address the reemergence of political parties as important actors in the pr~esses of democratization in the 1980s.

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The authors repre ented in this volume first met in 1982 to elaborate an agenda on the role of political parties in the tran ition to democracy and its con olidation. However, the lack of other tudie nece sitated a preliminary

focus on parties prior to the emergence of military regime as well as under them.

The papers selected for publica­tion rely on different approaches to fill the gap in the literature. Marcelo Cavarozzi, Manuel Anto­nio Garr:t6n, Olavo Bra il de Lima Junior, and Juan Rial, ad­dress the y tern of political par­tie from a global per pective in Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Uru­guay, re pectively. Liliana de Riz pre ent a comparative analy i of the relation hip between tate, political y tern, and ociety in the four countrie . Her paper pays special attention to the role of parties in the crises leading up to the end of democratic regime and the emergence of military rule, in order to hed light on their activitie in the ongoing pro­ce e of democratization. Trade union are the focu of Paul Drake's comparative e ay, while Maria Gro i analyze popular movements, restricting her atten­tion to the case of Brazil.

In contra t to the e papers which center on oppo ition to the military regimes, Tomas Moulian and I abel Torre deal with civilian group and in titution that supported them, as in the case of the Right in Chile. The final e ay, by Wanderley Guilherme dos Santo , examines the future perspectives of political parties in the po t-authoritarian period and argue that, to be ucce sful, the current proce e

of democratization will have to

98\ ITEMS

allow for an end to parties' historical monopoly of political repre entation.

Neo-Confucian Education: The Formative Stage, edited by William Theodore de Bary and John W. Chaffee. Studie on China 9. Papers from a 1984 conference pon ored by the Joint Committee on Chinese Studies. Berkeley: University of California Pres , 1989. xiii + 593 page . Cloth, $65.00.

In the early day of the modernization of East A ia, Neo-Confuciani m was often held re pon ible for the purported intellectual, political and ocial failing of traditional societies in the 19th century. Today, as the rapid ucces at modernization of many East Asian has been compared to the slowness of other underdeveloped countrie , Neo-Confucianism has come to be een in a very different light.

Analy ts now point to the common Confucian culture of China, Japan, Korea, and oversea Chinese communities as a driving force in the East Asians people ' receptivity to new learning, and their capacity for both cultural and economic development.

Central to this capacity for change and development, the e e says argue, lie the influence of the 12th century thinker, Chu H i, the leading representative of Sung learning who e teachings were upported by the state. Chu Hsi has been con idered responsi­ble for providing much of the intellectual mortar that pre erved the e tabli hed order for centu­ries. However, when viewed in their hi torical setting, many of

his views can be seen as liberal, if not progressive.

Thi study provide a much­needed linking of the studie of Neo-Confucianism with tho e of late imperial Chinese ocial history. Covering a spectrum of intellectual and ocial develop­ments, the contributors addre the ways that Neo-Confucian thought and ethics were adapted to changes in Chinese ociety , which anticipate many feature and problem of society today.

William Theodore de Bary i John Mitchell Mason Profe sor of the University, at Columbia University. John W. Chaffee is an as ociate profe or of history at the State University of New York, Binghamton.

Oral Epics in India, edited by Stuart H. Blackburn, Peter J. Claus, Joyce B. Flueckiger, and Susan S. Wadley. Sponsored by the Joint Committee on South Asia. Berkeley: University of California Pre s, 1989. 290 pages. Cloth, $40.00.

The tudy of oral epics has been revitalized in recent years by new research on epics as living cultural traditions. Virtually unknown to We tern scholars at the end of the 19th century, even until 1960 oral epics were thought to exist only in Karelia, northern Asia, central Asia, and the Balkans. However, like an archeological find that extends the boundarie of an ancient culture, recent field work has uncovered the oral epic in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia, with more discoverie certain to follow. The number of epics in each world area is con iderable. When Milman Parry

VOLUME 43. NUMBER 4

went to the Balkans in search of oral epic in the 1930 , he had problems locating singers; for researchers in South A ia today, the problem is not where to find oral epics, but which one to study.

Although British cholar and administrators noted oral epic in India in the late 19th century, re earchers have only recently begun to pay attention to the performance, performers, and social context of the e epic . In 1982 a conference spon ored by the Joint Committee on South Asia was held at the University of Wiscon in, Madi on, which brought together re earchers from India, Europe, and North America, and led to thi volume. One set of es ays presents the processes of change in perf or· mance and narrative patterns within a tradition, attributing them to geographical, caste, or regional factors. Another section analyzes performance cores and performers' strategies. A final set of e ays argues that the e oral epics share both theology and structure with the well·known Ramayana and Mahabharata. As a whole, the book reveal that the emphases of the oral epic in India fall on the primacy of ong, the ritual role of pirit pos ession, and the concept of epic commu· nity. The volume's introduction explores the e relatively unknown Indian tradition in relation to the wider context of epic studies.

Survey of Programs for Under­graduate Study in Japan, prepared by Su an Laughlin. A report spon ored by the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies at the reque t of the Japan Founda·

DECEMBER 1989

tion. Summarizes the results of a urvey of fifteen institution that

provide American undergraduates with the opportunity to study in Japan. Information covers the structure, de ign, and co t of programs, as well as trends or factors influencing undergraduate study in Japan. New York: Social Science Research Council, 1989. 71 pages. Available free from the Council.

The United States and Japan in the Postwar World, edited by Akira Jriye and Warren 1. Cohen. Papers based on a conference sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Joint Committee on Japanese Studie . Lexington, Kentucky: University Pre s of Kentucky, 1989. 237 pages. Cloth, $27.00.

A major phenomenon in the post· World War n world is the rise of Japan as a leading international economic and industrial power. Thi advance began with American aid in rebuilding the nation after the war, but it has now seen Japan rival and even outstrip the United State on everal fronts.

The relations between the two powers and the impact that they have had on economic and political factors during the postwar years are the focu of this volume, which consi t of contributions by American and Japane e cholar. The re ulting collection repre ents a blend of viewpoints from each side of the American·Japane e relation hip.

Akira Jriye is professor of history at the University of Chicago; Warren 1. Cohen is professor of hi tory at Michigan State Univer ity.

Writing on the Tongue, edited by A. L. Becker. Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asian Studies, Number 33. Spon ored by the Joint Committee on Southeast Asia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989. 320 pages. Cloth, $27.95; paper, $14.95.

"In Clifford Geertz's memora· ble phrase," writes A. L. Becker in the introduction to this volume, " 'Art and the equipment to grasp it are made in the same shop.' ... Not only are we poets when we read creatively but when we read in a new language we are also anthropologists, learning to attune our elves to a new word cape, to new metaphor , new grammars, new things to do with words."

With support from the Joint Committee on Southeast Asia, a group of scholars a sembled in 1982 to discuss is ue in Southeast Asian literature and ae thetics. Members of the group each agreed to translate a particular work of Southeast Asian literature, and to write a commentary on the work and on the difficultie faced in arriving at a translation.

The resulting volume presents a election of the works that were

di cussed, cho en because they seem to evoke a single philology, common to Java and Bali, at various time and places. Mo t of the texts have never before been translated into English, and range acro a number of forms: a contemporary short story, a shadow play scene, an Old Javanese tale, and Balinese poetry. Authors include A. L. Becker, Benedict R. Anderson, J. Joseph Errington, Ward Keeler, Nancy Smith·Hefner, and Mary S. Zurbuchen.

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Publication Guidelines Adopted

Council-sponsored workshop and conferences frequently lead to publi hed volume , but actual publication often occurs several years after the activity that gave ri e to it, with deleteriou effect for contributors and the Council itself. In an effort to insure timely publication and protect contributors from undue delays, the Board of Directors at its June 6, 1989 meeting approved the following policy:

Guidelines for Publications Resulting from Projects Sponsored by Committees of the Social Science

Research Council

Within two month after the conclu ion of a committee- ponsored work hop, conference, or seminar, the organizers hould ubmit to the committee taft a report indicating whether the papers presented at the meeting will be prepared for publication, or whether the organizers feel the individual authors hould be encouraged to publi h their works separately. H a committee publication i planned, the report hould indicate which papers will be included, who among the project' participants will as ume editorial re pon ibility for the completed manuscript, and what the anticipated schedule for the completion of the manu cript will be. Thi report will be forwarded to the committee and to conference participants.

During the meeting, or not later than two month afterward, editors will indicate to all authors what revi ion each wiU be expected to make. Author will nonnally be expected to ubmit completed, revi ed version of their papers to the organizers/editors within ix month after receipt of editorial comments. Editors hould feel free to drop papers not atisfactorily revised after six month .

Presentation of a paper at a Council- ponsored meeting create mutual obligation between an author and the Council regarding copyright and publication. Papers presented at uch meeting hould not be ubmitted for separate publication by their authors until or unle the project' organizers have agreed to thi , or have detennined that a committee volume will not be prepared or that a particular paper i not uitable for inclu ion. Paper writers will, in fact, be asked to sign a waiver tran ferring copyright on the paper to the Council. H an author's paper will not be included in a committee publication, the Council will tran fer copyright back to the author.

Editors are expected to complete all editorial work and prepare a complete manu cript for ubmi ion to a publi her within two years of the conference. H, at the end of two years, the manu cript has not been completed, publication plan will be reevaluated by the committee concerned, with the likelihood that contributors will be released to publish their article elsewhere. Thi policy i intended to protect individual authors from undue delay in the publication of their papers. (For books currently in preparation, the tarting date for the two-year period i June 5, 1989.)

Upon completion of the manuscript, the editors hould ubmit a copy to the committee taft, and report on any discu ion they may have had with pro pective publi hers. The editors and the Council taff will conclude negotiation with an appropriate publi her. A the Council hold the copyright on the manu cript, publication contracts are signed between the Council and the publi her.

It i Council policy to negotiate with the publi her the right of all authors to reprint their contribution in collection of their own works.

lOO\ITEM VOLUME 43, NUMBER. 4

Notes

Korean Studies Predoctoral Fellowship Program

The Joint Committee on Korean Studie invite applicants to ubmit propo aI for its predoctoral fellow hip program. The

deadlin is February 1, 1990. The program i intended to upport research to be carried out

in Korea for a period of nine to 18 month . Where ju tified by the nature of the proposed research, the application may be for research both in Korea and in another foreign area. Applicant mu t be enrolled in full-time graduate tudy for an advanced degree at a university in the United State , or be U.S. citizen imilarly enrolled in a foreign university. Applicants are expected

to be proficient in Korean. The total period of upport reque ted for preparatory training and field research cannot normally exceed 18 months. Support for research write-up cannot exceed ix month . For more information, contact the Joint Committee on Korean Studi at the Council.

National Academy of Science East-West Scientific Exchanges

Two-week Project Development Vi its One to Twelve-month Research Vi its

To the USSR and Eastern Europe

The National Academy of Science (NAS) invite application from American scienti t who wi h to make visits to the USSR, Bulgaria, Czecho lovakia, the German Democratic Republic,

DECEMBER 1989

Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugo lavia. A new program of two-week project development vi its begin in April 1990. Also, twelve-month research vi its during 1991 will be upported. Special emphasi on young inve tigators i included in each program.

Applicants mu t be U.S. citizen and have doctoral degree or their equivalent by June 1990 in phy ic ; chemi try; mathematic and computer ience; earth, almo pheric, and oceanographic science; agricultural, fore try, fi hery, and plant science ; biological cience; environmental science ; engineering; archeol­ogy and anthropology; geography; p ychology; science and technology policy; and the hi tory and philo ophy of science. Projects in the economic and ocial cience that involve develop­ment of new analytical methodologie will be con idered on a case-by-case ba i . Nece ary expense will be met by the NAS and the foreign academy, including reimbursement for long-term vi itors for alary 10 t up to a predetermined maximum and expense for accompanying family members for vi its exceeding five month .

Reque t for application hould reach the National Academy of Science not later than February 15, 1990. Application mu t be po tmarked by February 28, 1990. Addre application reque ts to:

National Academy of Science Office of International Affairs

Soviet and East European Affairs (HA-I66) 2101 Con titution Avenue , N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20418 Telephone: (202) 334-2644

ITEMS/101

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