Children of Incarcerated Parents
Children of Incarcerated Parents
Children of Incarcerated Parents
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well as Harvard's Department <strong>of</strong> Sociology. He is a member <strong>of</strong> the Library <strong>of</strong> Congress<br />
Scholars Council.<br />
Wilson was an original board member <strong>of</strong> the progressive Century Institute, and a current<br />
board member at Philadelphia-based Public/Private Ventures as well as PolicyLink and<br />
the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He was Dr. Sudhir Venkatesh's advisor<br />
when Venkatesh was a Ph.D. student at the University <strong>of</strong> Chicago.<br />
Published Works<br />
He is the author <strong>of</strong> numerous publications, including Power Racism and Privilege: Race<br />
Relations in Theoretical and Sociohistorical Perspectives (1973, 1976), The Declining<br />
Significance <strong>of</strong> Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions (1978, 1980, 2012),<br />
winner <strong>of</strong> the American Sociological Association's Sydney Spivack Award; The Truly<br />
Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (1987, 2012), which<br />
was selected by the editors <strong>of</strong> the New York Times Book Review as one <strong>of</strong> the 16 best<br />
books <strong>of</strong> 1987, and received The Washington Monthly Annual Book Award, the Society<br />
for the Study <strong>of</strong> Social Problems' C. Wright Mills Award and the American Political<br />
Science Association’s Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award; When Work<br />
Disappears: The World <strong>of</strong> the New Urban Poor (1996), which was selected as one <strong>of</strong><br />
the notable books <strong>of</strong> 1996 by the editors <strong>of</strong> the New York Times Book Review and<br />
received the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award and the American Political Science<br />
Association’s Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award; and The Bridge Over the<br />
Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics. More recently, he is the co-author<br />
<strong>of</strong> There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago<br />
Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America (2006), and Good Kids in Bad<br />
Neighborhoods: Successful Development in Social Context (2006); and author <strong>of</strong> More<br />
than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (2009).<br />
In The Declining Significance <strong>of</strong> Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions<br />
(1978) Wilson argues that the significance <strong>of</strong> race is waning, and that for African<br />
Americans, class is comparatively more important in determining their life chances. In<br />
The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (1987),<br />
Wilson was one <strong>of</strong> the first to enunciate at length the "spatial mismatch" theory for the<br />
development <strong>of</strong> a ghetto underclass. As industrial jobs disappeared in cities in the wake<br />
<strong>of</strong> global economic restructuring, and hence urban unemployment increased, women<br />
found it unwise to marry the fathers <strong>of</strong> their children, since the fathers would not be<br />
breadwinners. In The Truly Disadvantaged Wilson also argued against Charles Murray's<br />
theory <strong>of</strong> welfare causing poverty.<br />
In Wilson's most recent book, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner<br />
City (2009), he directs his attention to the overall framing <strong>of</strong> pervasive, concentrated<br />
urban poverty <strong>of</strong> African Americans. He asks the question, "Why do poverty and<br />
unequal opportunity persist in the lives <strong>of</strong> so many African Americans?" In response, he<br />
traces the history and current state <strong>of</strong> powerful structural factors impacting African<br />
Americans, such as discrimination in laws, policies, hiring, housing, and education.<br />
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