Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Underclass

The term underclass, used to describe a group of people, has acquired pejorative implications, especially in the context of alleged cultural deficiencies. Today, academic and popular discourses evidence substantial disagreements over the appropriate definition, defining characteristics, and explanation of the underclass in the United States. These disagreements are reflected in the debates over what criteria are necessary to claim a separate class, who belongs to the underclass, how homogeneous it is, where it is located, what it encompasses, why it exists, and whether or not it is growing. The most fundamental question is whether or not the publicized observed behaviors such as problems with alcohol, drugs, and police in the underclass should be viewed as cause or consequence.

This entry describes two principal descriptions of the underclass and its causes, while discussing pertinent theoretical questions.

Conservative Views

In defining the underclass, what has been termed the conservative view emphasizes the most pathological members of a targeted group, such as unwed mothers, prostitutes, drug addicts, and gang members, and aggregates these behaviors into an underclass culture that is characterized by dysfunctional or pathological relationships. According to this view, social problems arise because these individuals make poor choices—reflected in lack of commitment to school, family, or neighborhood, rising rates of illegitimacy, and unwillingness to work.

Those who hold this perspective on the underclass believe that social welfare programs merely exacerbate these problems. The inner-city poor, who are characterized as having “weak moral fiber,” are more likely to receive welfare and therefore to suffer its consequences. In this view, the government contributes to the problem by trying to solve individual-level failings with societal-level programs. Because these programs allegedly obviate personal responsibility, they are seen as destructive. Therefore, disparities in socioeconomic status attainments are seen as primarily in individual, not structural, terms.

Despite a lack of comparative research that would verify their claims, the behavioral characteristics that constitute this culture are said to be more severe among the Black poor than among the White poor. Regardless, members of the underclass cease to be responsible adults as a consequence of cultural deficiencies that undermine their participation in the labor force.

Structural Views

Sociologist and author William Julius Wilson developed the contrasting thesis that the underclass exists mainly because of structural changes in the U.S. economy, spatial concentration, and social isolation. According to Wilson, the out-migration of middle- and working-class Blacks from Black neighborhoods and the in-migration of poor Blacks, along with changes in the age structure of the neighborhoods, skills mismatches, inadequate public transportation, and discriminatory practices, created high levels of Black unemployment after the late 1960s. This problem was exacerbated, in Wilson's view, by the politics of locating public housing projects in low-income areas and by government policies that channeled a disproportionate share of federal, state, and local monies to the more affluent.

Wilson held that underclass neighborhoods are characterized by severe losses of opportunities and resources and by inadequate social controls. Segregation compounds the problem of joblessness because it undermines employment networks and contributes to social isolation, according to Wilson, thereby reducing residents' chances of acquiring the human capital necessary to compete. In this view, as neighborhood institutions decline or disappear, formal and informal mechanisms of social control become more difficult to maintain. Property values drop, thus encouraging landlords to abandon buildings, which, in turn, become havens for criminal activities. Disinvestments in, and the decline of, public services; an inability to procure government aid and assistance; and a lack of participation in community-based initiatives accelerate neighborhood decay.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution