Suchergebnisse

William Kornblum-an eminent urban sociologist and a veteran traveler in the Francophone world-invites readers on an exploration of a changing city. Blending travelogue and social observation, he roams Marseille's neighborhoods and regions in the company of writers, scholars, activists, and ordinary people.

Unlike many other major metropolitan centers in France, Marseille has not suffered high rates of collective violence and rioting in its public housing estates ( cités). Yet it is also true that the cités of Marseille are as feared and stigmatized as any in France. This article explores research on the city's housing estates and presents original ethnographic work that helps to explain Marseille's exceptionalism. I find that local efforts at community education by active residents of La Visitation, a typical mid-sized Marseille cité, enhance social cohesion and neighborhood pride, despite persistent problems of underemployment among its young residents. I also describe a successful effort to use a produced video (an application of visual sociology) to draw attention to and support for residents' local initiatives.

Central Park is in full bloom as I write this; the orange Gates that lit up the park in the gloom of February are a faint after-image. The grand achievement of Christo and Jeanne Claude is overshadowed by the changing seasons and the press of daily life in this impossibly busy city. But think back to the Gates for a moment: was there ever in our New York experience a public art event so successful on so many levels? Was there ever one that so captured the imagination of people who don't ordinarily flock to see conceptual art? And yet only a few months after the Gates were taken down, in a move that surprised the public for its stealth, the Bloomberg administration opened another chapter of the park numbers game by signaling that it would limit gatherings on the Great Lawn to fifty thousand people or less. If it remains in effect, this policy will bar not only large concerts, but also political rallies such as the one the mayor and the Police Department refused to permit during the 2004 Republican National Convention. As a sociologist who studies the life of urban public spaces, I am worried about the privatization of public spaces; and like many New Yorkers, I fear the loss of Central Park as a gathering place for rallies and demonstrations. Because I had an insiders' view of the Gates installation, I want to use it to reflect on some critical issues of art, community, and public space.

Ethnographers often find that the discovery of a mentor, someone who generously unlocks doors and shares invaluable experience with a naive outsider, is a critical turning point in the research process. This article explores a mentor-investigator relationship in ethnographic research within the more specialized field of historical ethnography and through a case of historical ethnography: fieldwork in Chicago's jazz and blues music scenes from August through October 1924, where the discovery of a mentor has brought an unexpected and original perspective to the research.

Ethnographers often find that the discovery of a mentor, someone who generously unlocks doors & shares invaluable experience with a naive outsider, is a critical turning point in the research process. This article explores a mentor-investigator relationship in ethnographic research within the more specialized field of historical ethnography & through a case of historical ethnography: fieldwork in Chicago's jazz & blues music scenes from August through October 1924, where the discovery of a mentor has brought an unexpected & original perspective to the research. 20 References. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2004 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

Kornblum reviews 'What Workers Want' by Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers.

The underclass in the US is examined to determine its ideological & socioeconomic dimensions. It is contended that the concept of an "urban underclass" was constituted during the 1980s by conservative political pundits & the economically endowed to justify their excesses. Here, a distinction is made between the underclass & the merely impoverished to underscore the fact the former consists of people whose behavior -- rather than unemployment or poverty -- is the cause of their lowly status. Various descriptions of the underclass are discussed & critiqued, including those offered by William J. Wilson, Christopher Jencks, & Ken Auletta. It is concluded that the underclass is composed of people who are trapped at the bottom of both the legal & illegal class systems, & who, because of mental illness, addiction, or destitution, are likely to remain there. W. Howard