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Annotation, While we hear much about the "culture of poverty" that keeps poor black men poor, we know little about how such men understand their social position and relationship to the American dream. Moving beyond stereotypes, this book examines how twenty-six poverty-stricken African American men from Chicago view their prospects for getting ahead. It documents their definitions of good jobs and the good life--and their beliefs about whether and how these can be attained. In its pages, we meet men who think seriously about work, family, and community and whose differing experiences shape their views of their social world. Based on intensive interviews, the book reveals how these men have experienced varying degrees of exposure to more-privileged Americans--differences that ground their understandings of how racism and socioeconomic inequality determine their life chances. The poorest and most socially isolated are, perhaps surprisingly, most likely to believe that individuals can improve their own lot. By contrast, men who regularly leave their neighborhood tend to have a wider range of opportunities but also have met with more racism, hostility, and institutional obstacles--making them less likely to believe in the American Dream. Demonstrating how these men interpret their social world, this book seeks to de-pathologize them without ignoring their experiences with chronic unemployment, prison, and substance abuse. It shows how the men draw upon such experiences as they make meaning of the complex circumstances in which they strive to succeed

The four articles discussed here provide descriptive assessments of the state of research on low-income fatherhood in America and reflect the richness and vastness of contemporary research in this area. In particular, the articles by Lawrence Berger and Callie Langton ("Young Disadvantaged Men as Fathers"), Laura Tach and Kathryn Edin ("The Relationship Contexts of Young Disadvantaged Men"), and Marcia Carlson and Katherine Magnuson ("Low-Income Fathers' Influences on Children") convey the extent to which the choice-making and behavior of low-income fathers involve a broader arena of considerations than implied by the long-standing concern with the narrow question of whether such men are committed to being involved fathers. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

Erving Goffman's attention to the concept of framing provided modern sociology with a critical means for expanding explorations of the cultural terrain of meaning-making. Frame analysis concerns the manner in which individuals perceive and respond to particular events and circumstances. Since Goffman's introduction of the term, the concept of framing has been expanded considerably in sociological inquiry. What Goffman and many of his adherents may not have imagined, however, is that frame analysis serves as a useful tool for improved comprehension of how low-income individuals interpret and present images of their social reality. By drawing from literature that makes use of frame analysis in sociological subfields somewhat removed from research on race and poverty and incorporating data from low-income African American men who reside in Detroit, this article explores how these concepts can enrich and advance sociologically grounded cultural inquiry into poverty and argues that scholarly approaches to considering the agency of the poor can be revised and enriched. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

This essay explores some social ramifications of two portraits of low-income African American New Orleanians that proliferated throughout the country since the arrival of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. The dissemination of these portraits reveals much about America's cultural understandings of African Americans and urban poverty. Some recent ethnographic and qualitative-methodological work has striven to create new depictions of this constituency, but a divide persists between general-public readings of the African American urban poor and those of liberal-minded field researchers who have studied this population. This essay concludes with some reflection on issues concerning the potential for this research to bridge the divide, given the power of mainstream media outlets to construct and promote certain images of disadvantaged and disenfranchised social groups relative to the social power of academic scholarship to achieve the same end.

While we hear much about the ""culture of poverty"" that keeps poor black men poor, we know little about how such men understand their social position and relationship to the American dream. Moving beyond stereotypes, this book examines how twenty-six poverty-stricken African American men from Chicago view their prospects for getting ahead. It documents their definitions of good jobs and the good life--and their beliefs about whether and how these can be attained. In its pages, we meet men who think seriously about work, family, and community and whose differing experiences shape their view

"Worker agency"—the idea that workers have free will and will exercise it to meet their needs—is a fundamental part of organizational psychology and the sociology of work. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in a midwestern factory, the authors examine how workers create opportunities for short-term flexibility within a workplace characterized by shift work, strict production quotas, and team organization. Coping mechanisms involve sympathetic supervisors and supportive coworkers. Workers also describe taking independent action when the structure does not permit them to meet obligations to their families. These exercises in worker agency can be understood in terms of their legitimacy in the workplace and their potential for disruption of work. Worker agency also can be a positive factor in the workplace. Workers describe a supportive work environment as a critical factor that promotes loyalty and a willingness to go beyond workplace requirements for the good of the organization.

The Changing Landscape of Work and Family in the American Middle Class explores the dynamics of the modern American family and how they have adapted to the changing economy and culture. Contributors from a variety of disciplines redefine the concept of the ""model American family"" and provide well-researched insight into what the new standards for judging family life and its functionality will be