Loic Wacquant - The Invention of the 'Underclass'

8 Part One: The Tale of The “Underclass” Entry Notes 1. Between concept and myth: genealogy of a shifty category Notes 2. “The tragedy of the underclass”: Policy theater and scholarship Notes 3. Anatomy: The three faces of the “underclass” 1. At the origins, the “under-class” as structural position 2. The dominant schema of the “underclass” as assortment of “antisocial behaviors” 3. The neo-ecological conception, or the neighborhood as multiplier of marginality Notes 4. The strange career of a racialized folk devil Notes 5. Implications for the social epistemology of urban marginality Notes Exit Notes

9 Part Two: Lessons From The Tale Quandaries and consequences of naming Forging robust concepts Epistemic opportunity costs Bandwagons, speculation, and turnkeys Notes

10 Coda: Resolving the trouble with “race” in the twenty-first century Notes

11 Appendix: The nine lives of the “underclass” Notes

12 Acknowledgments

13 References

14 Index

15 End User License Agreement

1 Cover

2 Table of Contents

3 Front Matter

4 Title Page The Invention of the “Underclass” A Study in the Politics of Knowledge Loïc Wacquant polity

5 Copyright Copyright © Loïc Wacquant 2022 The right of Loïc Wacquant to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2022 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5219-1 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Control Number: 2021946573 The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

6 Dedication Dedication To Bill Wilson, role model extraordinaire of intellectual courage

7 Endorsement Page

8 Prologue

9 Begin Reading

10 Coda: Resolving the trouble with “race” in the twenty-first century

11 Appendix: The nine lives of the “underclass”

12 Acknowledgments

13 References

14 Index

15 End User License Agreement

1 Part One Figure 1.Cover of Time Magazine in the wake of the “Harlem blackout riot” of August 1977

2 Chapter 3 Figure 2.The causal chain articulated in Wilson’s The Truly Disadvantaged (1987)

3 Chapter 4 Figure 3.The rise and fall of the “underclass” in public debate, 1960–2017 Figure 4.The peregrinations of the “underclass” across the academic, policy-political-…

4 Appendix Figure 5.Mentions of “underclass” in the Social Science Citation Index, 1970–2020 Figure 6.Publications on “underclass” in the Social Science Citation Index, 1970–2020 Figure 7.Mentions of “underclass” in major national newspapers, 1970–2020

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