1932

Abstract

This autobiographical essay reflects on my sociological career, highlighting the integration of sociology with social policy. I discuss the personal, social, and intellectual experiences, ranging from childhood to adult life, that influenced my pursuit of studies in race and ethnic relations and urban poverty. I then focus on how the academic and public reaction to these studies increased my concerns about the relationship between social science and public policy, as well as my attempts to make my work more accessible to a general audience. In the process, I discuss how the academic awards and honors I received based on these studies enhanced my involvement in the national policy arena. I conclude this essay with some thoughts about public agenda research and productive controversy based on my own unique experiences. In short, this autobiographical essay shows how a scholar can engage academics, policy makers, and the media concerned with how sociological knowledge can inform a policy agenda on some of the nation's most important social problems.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102510
2011-08-11
2024-12-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/soc/37/1/annurev.soc.012809.102510.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102510&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Bell D. 1973. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society New York: Basic Books [Google Scholar]
  2. Bellah R, Neelly R, Madsen W, Sullivan WM, Swidler A, Tipton SM. 1985. Habits of the Heart Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
  3. Blalock HM. 1967. Toward a Theory of Minority Group Relations New York: John Riley [Google Scholar]
  4. Brimmer A. 1970. Economic progress of negroes in the United States Presented at Founders Day Convocation, Tuskegee, AL, March 22 [Google Scholar]
  5. Burawoy M. 2005. For public sociology. Am. Sociol. Rev. 70:6–28 [Google Scholar]
  6. Chiappori PA, Levitt S. 2003. Theorists most often cited as motivating empirical microeconomic research Presented at Annu. Meet. Am. Econ. Assoc., Washington, DC, Jan. [Google Scholar]
  7. Clark KB. 1965. Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power New York: Harper & Row [Google Scholar]
  8. Frazier FE. 1949. The Negro in the United States New York: Macmillan Rev. ed., 1957 [Google Scholar]
  9. Gans HJ. 1962. The Urban Villagers New York: Free Press [Google Scholar]
  10. Gans HJ. 1967. The Negro family: reflections on the Moynihan report. In The Moynihan Report and the Politics of Controversy ed. L Rainwater, WL Yancey, pp 445–57 Cambridge, MA: MIT Press [Google Scholar]
  11. Gans HJ. 1990. Deconstructing the underclass: the term's danger as a planning concept. J. Am. Plann. Assoc. 56:Summer271–7 [Google Scholar]
  12. Gans HJ. 1997. Best-sellers by sociologists: an exploratory study. Contemp. Sociol. 26:131–35 [Google Scholar]
  13. Gladwell M. 2008. Outliers: The Story of Success New York: Little Brown [Google Scholar]
  14. Gordon M. 1964. Assimilation in American Life New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  15. Hamill P. 1988. Breaking the silence. Esquire91–102 [Google Scholar]
  16. Hochschild A. 1989. The Second Shift New York: Viking: [Google Scholar]
  17. Kasarda J. 1978. Urbanization and the metropolitan problem. Handbook of Contemporary Urban Life Street D. 25–57 San Francisco: Jossey-Bass [Google Scholar]
  18. Levitt S. (with Dubner S) 2005. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything New York: HarperCollins [Google Scholar]
  19. Lieberson S. 1961. A societal theory of race and ethnic relations. Am. Sociol. Rev. 26:902–10 [Google Scholar]
  20. Liebow E. 1967. Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men Boston: Little Brown [Google Scholar]
  21. Lipset SM. 1960. Political Man New York: Double Day [Google Scholar]
  22. Magnet M. 1987. America's underclass: What to do?. Fortune May 11 130 [Google Scholar]
  23. Massey D, Denton N. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  24. Murray C. 1984. Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980 New York: Basic Books [Google Scholar]
  25. Myrdal G. 1944. An American Dilemma New York: Harper [Google Scholar]
  26. New York Times Magazine 1980. The black plight: race or class? A debate between Kenneth B. Clark and Carl Gershman. NY Times Mag. Oct. 5 22–109 [Google Scholar]
  27. Quillian L. 1999. Migration patterns and the growth of high-poverty neighborhoods, 1970–1990. Am. J. Sociol. 105:1–37 [Google Scholar]
  28. Park R. 1950. Race and Culture Glencoe, IL: Free Press [Google Scholar]
  29. Rainwater L. 1966. Crucible of identity: the negro lower-class family. Daedalus 95:176–216 [Google Scholar]
  30. Riesman D, Glazer N, Denny R. 1951. The Lonely Crowd New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  31. Rose PI, Rothman S, Wilson WJ. 1973. Through Different Eyes: Black and White Perspectives on American Race Relations New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  32. Sampson RJ. 2008. Moving to inequality: neighborhood effects and experiments meet social structure. Am. J. Sociol. 114:189–231 [Google Scholar]
  33. Sampson RJ. 2009. Racial stratification and the durable tangle of neighborhood inequality. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 621:260–80 [Google Scholar]
  34. Schermerhorn RA. 1964. Toward a theory of minority group relations. Phylon 25:238–46 [Google Scholar]
  35. Sennett R, Cobb J. 1972. The Hidden Injuries of Class New York: Alfred A. Knopf [Google Scholar]
  36. Sharkey P. 2008. The intergenerational transmission of context. Am. J. Sociol. 113:4931–69 [Google Scholar]
  37. Sharkey P. 2009. Neighborhoods and the Black-White Mobility Gap Washington, DC: Econ. Mobility Proj. Initiat. Pew Charit. Trusts [Google Scholar]
  38. Sugrue TJ. 2010. Not Even Past: Barack Obama and the Burden of Race Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  39. Suttles GD. 1968. The Social Order of the Slum Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  40. Van den Berghe P. 1967. Race and Racism: A Comparative Perspective New York: John Riley [Google Scholar]
  41. Weber M. 1968 [1911]. Economy and Society New York: Bedminster [Google Scholar]
  42. Wilson WJ. 1973. Power, Racism, and Privilege: Race Relations in Theoretical and Sociohistorical Perspectives New York: Macmillan, 2nd. ed., New York: Free Press 1976 [Google Scholar]
  43. Wilson WJ. 1978. The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 2nd. ed., 1980 [Google Scholar]
  44. Wilson WJ. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  45. Wilson WJ. 1991. Studying inner-city social dislocations: the challenge of public agenda research. Am. Sociol. Rev. 56:11–14 [Google Scholar]
  46. Wilson WJ. 1996. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor New York: Alfred A. Knopf [Google Scholar]
  47. Wilson WJ. 1999. The Bridge Over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics Berkeley: Univ. Calif. Press [Google Scholar]
  48. Wilson WJ. 2009. More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City New York: W. W. Norton [Google Scholar]
  49. Wilson WJ, Chaddha A. 2009. The role of theory in ethnographic research. Ethnography 10:4549–64 [Google Scholar]
  50. Wilson WJ, Taub R. 2006. There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102510
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error