Includes many original contributions by an assembly of distinguished social scientists. They set forth the main features of a changing American society: how its organization for accomplishing major social change has evolved, and how its benefits and deficits are distributed among the various parts of the population. Theoretical developments in the social sciences and the vast impact of current events have contributed to a resurgence of interest in social change; in its causes, measurement, and possible prediction. These essays analyze what we know, and examine what we need to know in the study, prediction, and possible control of social change.

DR. ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON and DR. WILBERT E. MOORE are both sociologists on the professional staff of the Russell Sage Foundation. They share a common background in demography and a common current interest in the measurement of large-scale structural change. Both have written extensively in various other sociological specialties, and participated in the ongoing activities of their common profession.

CONTRIBUTORS Daniel Bell, N.J. Demerath III, Beverly Duncan, Otis Dudley Duncan, Philip H. Ennis, William J. Goode, Stanley Lebergott, Ida C. Merriam, Joyce M. Mitchell, William C. Mitchell, Wilbert E. Moore, Iwao M. Moriyama, Milton Moss, A.W. Sametz, Conrad Taeuber.

"The authors' concerns resonate with current state and federal policy debates to reinstate more options for education and training. This book should encourage continuing examination of these policies and further research, development, and dissemination of policies that boost education outcomes."
-POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY

"Putting Poor People to Work is the best examination so far of 'work first,' the idea that poor individuals should simply go to work as the most direct way out of poverty .... In the end, their powerful analysis reveals a disturbing duality: at the same time that many policymakers and advocates are trumpeting the value of education, public policy has decided that the poorest among us deserve not education but mere palliatives."
-W. NORTON GRUBB, David Gardner Chair in Higher Education, University of California at Berkeley

"While the Clinton administration was promoting college attendance, welfare reform 'work first' requirements were simultaneously closing off college opportunities for the poor .... This book provides an important contribution to our understanding of this policy and its extensive implications for the poor, for community colleges, and for ideas about who gets educational opportunity in the United States."
-JAMES E. ROSENBAUM, professor of sociology, education, and social policy, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University

"Putting Poor People to Work is an important book that describes in devastating detail how over the past decade, and almost without notice, poor women lost the fragile foothold they had gained onto the first rungs of the education ladder-access to college-that other Americans climb to economic security."
-JULIE STRAWN, senior policy analyst, Center for Law and Social Policy

Today, a college education is increasingly viewed as the gateway to the American Dream—a necessary prerequisite for social mobility. Yet recent policy reforms in the United States effectively steer former welfare recipients away from an education that could further their career prospects, forcing them directly into the workforce where they often find only low-paying jobs with little opportunity for growth. In Putting Poor People to Work, Kathleen Shaw, Sara Goldrick-Rab, Christopher Mazzeo, and Jerry A. Jacobs explore this troubling disconnect between the principles of “work-first” and “college for all.”

Using comprehensive interviews with government officials and sophisticated data from six states over a four year period, Putting Poor People to Work shows how recent changes in public policy have reduced the quantity and quality of education and training available to adults with low incomes. The authors analyze how two policies encouraging work—the federal welfare reform law of 1996 and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998—have made moving people off of public assistance as soon as possible, with little regard to their long-term career prospects, a government priority. Putting Poor People to Work shows that since the passage of these “work-first” laws, not only are fewer low-income individuals pursuing postsecondary education, but when they do, they are increasingly directed towards the most ineffective, short-term forms of training, rather than higher-quality college-level education. Moreover, the schools most able and ready to serve poor adults—the community colleges—are deterred by these policies from doing so.

Having a competitive, agile workforce that can compete with any in the world is a national priority. In a global economy where skills are paramount, that goal requires broad popular access to education and training. Putting Poor People to Work shows how current U.S. policy discourages poor Americans from seeking out a college education, stranding them in jobs with little potential for growth. This important new book makes a powerful argument for a shift in national priorities that would encourage the poor to embrace both work and education, rather than having to choose between the two.

KATHLEEN M. SHAW is chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and associate professor of urban education at Temple University.

SARA GOLDRICK-RAB is assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and faculty affiliate of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education.

CHRISTOPHER MAZZEO is a New York City–based independent consultant.

JERRY A. JACOBS is Merriam Term Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and editor of the American Sociological Review.

An Institute for Research on Poverty Affiliated Book on Poverty and Public Policy

"This volume is the first to examine how public policy aimed at education, income support, welfare, housing, civil rights, and employment may affect health. Since the existing strategy of devoting an increasing share of resources to medical care is at the point of diminishing returns and cannot be sustained in the long run, the approach promoted by this seminal collection deserves and is certain to receive growing attention."
-CHOICE

"In the next fifteen years, baby boomers will enter the elderly population and the number of people over sixty-five in the United States will have doubled, a crisis that will dramatically overwhelm our medical care system. Making Americans Healthier offers crucially important ideas about how we must deal with this challenge."
-S. LEONARD SYME, emeritus professor of epidemiology and community health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

"This is an absolute must-read book for anyone interested in how government policies can improve population health and reduce health disparities. Throughout most of the twentieth century, developed nations focused almost exclusively on the development of health care services, drugs and technology to cure acute illnesses and chronic disease. In contrast, the twenty-first century promises a much more deliberative effort to understand, endorse, and disseminate social and economic policy to promote health and prevent the onset of illness. Making Americans Healthier provides the keys for opening that prevention door by providing an up-to-date critique and thorough examination of how non-health policies targeted on social and economic problems have impacted population health."
-COLLEEN M. GROGAN, associate professor, School of Social Service Administration, and academic dean, Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy, University of Chicago

The United States spends billions of dollars annually on social and economic policies aimed at improving the lives of its citizens, but the health consequences associated with these policies are rarely considered. In Making Americans Healthier, a group of multidisciplinary experts shows how social and economic policies seemingly unrelated to medical well-being have dramatic consequences for the health of the American people.

Most previous research concerning problems with health and healthcare in the United States has focused narrowly on issues of medical care and insurance coverage, but Making Americans Healthier demonstrates the important health consequences that policymakers overlook in traditional cost-benefit evaluations of social policy. The contributors examine six critical policy areas: civil rights, education, income support, employment, welfare, and neighborhood and housing. Among the important findings in this book, David Cutler and Adriana Lleras-Muney document the robust relationship between educational attainment and health, and estimate that the health benefits of education may exceed even the well-documented financial returns of education. Pamela Herd, James House, and Robert Schoeni discover notable health benefits associated with the Supplemental Security Income Program, which provides financial support for elderly and disabled Americans. George Kaplan, Nalini Ranjit, and Sarah Burgard document a large and unanticipated improvement in the health of African-American women following the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

Making Americans Healthier presents ground-breaking evidence that the health impact of many social policies is substantial. The important findings in this book pave the way for promising new avenues for intervention and convincingly demonstrate that ultimately social and economic policy is health policy.
 

ROBERT F. SCHOENI is professor of public policy and economics, the University of Michigan.

JAMES S. HOUSE is Angus Campbell Collegiate Professor of Sociology and Survey Research, the University of Michigan.

GEORGE A. KAPLAN is the Thomas Francis Collegiate Professor of Public Health, the University of Michigan.

HAROLD POLLACK is associate professor of social service administration, University of Chicago.

CONTRIBUTORS: Marianne P. Bitler, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Sarah A. Burgard, Janet Currie, David M. Cutler, Rebecca C. Fauth, Irv Garfinkel. Ben B. Hansen, Pamela Herd, Hilary Hoynes, Daniel Keating, Jean Knab, Adriana Lleras-Muney, Sara McLanahan, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, Enrico Moretti, Theresa L. Osypuk, Richard H. Price,  Nalini Ranjit, Ana V. Diez Roux, Christopher J. Ruhm, Sharon Z. Simonton.

A Volume in the National Poverty Center Series on Poverty and Public Policy

"This book represents a step in the right direction by making important distinctions among types of social capital. Moreover, it addresses how social capital can be generated and used to combat poverty and promote social justice. By providing direction for policy and community practice, research, and teaching, this volume will be a useful addition to many courses and bookshelves."
-Journal of Community Practice

"A landmark accomplishment on three fronts: the evolution of social capital scholarship, our understanding of the causes and consequences of 'true disadvantage,' and our knowledge of effective approaches to working with poor communities. Deftly integrating the practical applications of theory and the theoretical implications of hard-won lessons from the field, this volume showcases the work of America's finest thinkers and doers in the rapidly expanding social capital universe. In conjunction with related work on poverty in low income countries, these U.S. cases powerfully demonstrate that a focus on building up the social, economic, and political assets-rather than harping on the 'deficits'-of poor communities can rest on rigorous conceptual and empirical foundations, and provide a coherent framework for informed policy and project recommendations. Too many books are labeled 'required reading,' but whether you're a new or seasoned reader of the social capital literature, this volume belongs at the top of the list."
-Michael Woolcock, World Bank and Harvard University

"Social Capital and Poor Communities shows why community building is critical to improving the lives of families in low-income communities, and offers fresh ideas for mobilizing social resources to improve housing, education, health, public safety, and economic development. This important book tackles tough questions about how community organizations can act effectively together, the importance of leadership development and institution-building, and the challenges of working in policy and political arenas. Bringing the latest in social science research together with the results of practical efforts to combat poverty, this volume is must reading for policymakers, practitioners, and all those concerned about justice and equity in America."
-Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink

Neighborhood support groups have always played a key role in helping the poor survive, but combating poverty requires more than simply meeting the needs of day-to-day subsistence. Social Capital and Poor Communities shows the significant achievements that can be made through collective strategies, which empower the poor to become active partners in revitalizing their neighborhoods. Trust and cooperation among residents and local organizations such as churches, small businesses, and unions form the basis of social capital, which provides access to resources that would otherwise be out of reach to poor families.

Social Capital and Poor Communities examines civic initiatives that have built affordable housing, fostered small businesses, promoted neighborhood safety, and increased political participation. At the core of each initiative lie local institutions—church congregations, parent-teacher groups, tenant associations, and community improvement alliances. The contributors explore how such groups build networks of leaders and followers and how the social power they cultivate can be successfully transferred from smaller goals to broader political advocacy. For example, community-based groups often become platforms for leaders hoping to run for local office. Church-based groups and interfaith organizations can lobby for affordable housing, job training programs, and school improvement.

Social Capital and Poor Communities convincingly demonstrates why building social capital is so important in enabling the poor to seek greater access to financial resources and public services. As the contributors make clear, this task is neither automatic nor easy. The book's frank discussions of both successes and failures illustrate the pitfalls—conflicts of interest, resistance from power elites, and racial exclusion—that can threaten even the most promising initiatives. The impressive evidence in this volume offers valuable insights into how goal formation, leadership, and cooperation can be effectively cultivated, resulting in a remarkable force for change and a rich public life even for those communities mired in seemingly hopeless poverty.

SUSAN SAEGERT is professor of environmental psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

J. PHILLIP THOMPSON is Associate Professor in American politics, Columbia University.

MARK R. WARREN is associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

CONTRIBUTORS:  Mark Chaves,  Cathy J. Cohen,  Cynthia M. Duncan,  Michael Foley,  Ross Gittell,  Sherman A. James,  Langley C. Keyes,  Margaret Levi,  M. Lisette Lopez,  John D. McCarthy, Lorraine C. Minnite,  Pedro A. Noguera,  Melvin L. Oliver,  Robert Putnam,  Robert J. Sampson,  Amy Schulz,  Robert Y. Shapiro,  Carol B. Stack,  Juliana van Olphen.

A Volume in the Ford Foundation Series on Asset Building

Shows what happens when a specific social policy is tried out on an experimental basis prior to being enacted into law. By providing a trial of a variety of negative income tax plans carried out over a three-year period in four communities, the New Jersey-Pennsylvania Income Maintenance Experiment was designed to observe whether income maintenance would lead to reduced work effort on the part of those who received subsidies. This book evaluates the final project reports on the experiment issued by Mathematica, Inc. and the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin.

PETER H. ROSSI is professor of sociology and director of the Social and Demographic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

KATHARINE C. LYALL is assistant professor of political economy and senior research associate at the Center for Metropolitan Planning and Research, Johns Hopkins University.

A publication in the Continuities in Evaluation Research series.

Social Diagnosis is the classic in social work literature. In it Miss Richmond first established a technique of social casework. She discusses the nature and uses of social evidence, its tests and their practical application, and summarizes the lessons to be learned from history, science, and the law. While other aids in diagnosis have been added to the caseworker's equipment, the assembling of social evidence is still an important discipline of the profession, to which this volume continues to make a significant contribution. No revision of the book has ever been made nor does any later book take its place.

MARY RICHMOND was the director of the Charity Organization Department at the Russell Sage Foundation.

"For twenty years, Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding have developed and enhanced the Luxembourg Income Study to provide comparable data on living standards in industrialized economies. In Poor Kids in a Rich Country, they document that the relative rate of child poverty depends more on how a government regulates the labor market and provides social benefits to those who fare badly in the market than on that country's overall standard of living. They show, that even though average real income in the United States is well-above that of most countries, low-income American children have fewer material resources than their counterparts in ten of fourteen comparison countries. Poor Kids in a Rich Country is the best source for detailed information on variations in living standards across industrialized countries; it should be read by anyone interested in understanding how income poverty is measured and how differences can be interpreted."
-SHELDON DANZIGER, Henry J. Meyer Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

"Poor Kids in a Rich Country easily reaffirms Lee Rainwater's and Timothy Smeeding's reputation as the leading international poverty researchers. With unrelenting scientific rigor, they tackle a great paradox of our times, namely that the world's richest nation produces more child poverty than any other advanced country. The mass of evidence they assemble points to one set of overwhelming and, alas, bleak conclusions. The United States performs badly indeed, with one-fifth of its children living in poverty, and the situation is actually worsening. Equally worrisome is the finding that American children are less likely to escape from poverty. Upon reading this book one begins to wonder whether a country with so many underprivileged children can sustain its economic leadership much further into the future."
-GØSTA ESPING-ANDERSEN, professor of sociology and university dean, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

"Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding have given us a wonderful gift. Poor Kids in a Rich Country is smart, readable, and attentive to the important questions. Researchers and students of child poverty will long be in their debt."
-SARA MCLANAHAN, professor of sociology and public affairs and director of the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, Princeton University

In Poor Kids in a Rich Country, Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding ask what it means to be poor in a prosperous nation - especially for any country's most vulnerable citizens, its children. In comparing the situation of American children in low-income families with their counterparts in fourteen other countries—including Western Europe, Australia, and Canada—they provide a powerful perspective on the dynamics of child poverty in the United States.

Based on the rich data available from the transnational Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), Poor Kids in a Rich Country puts child poverty in the United States in an international context. Rainwater and Smeeding find that while the child poverty rate in most countries has been relatively stable over the past 30 years, child poverty has increased markedly in the United States and Britain—two of the world's wealthiest countries. The book delves into the underlying reasons for this difference, examining the mix of earnings and government transfers, such as child allowances, sickness and maternity benefits, unemployment insurance, and other social assistance programs that go into the income packages available to both single- and dual-parent families in each country. Rainwater and Smeeding call for policies to make it easier for working parents to earn a decent living while raising their children—policies such as parental leave, childcare support, increased income supports for working poor families, and a more socially oriented education policy. They make a convincing argument that our definition of poverty should not be based solely on the official poverty line—that is, the minimum income needed to provide a certain level of consumption—but on the social and economic resources necessary for full participation in society.

Combining a wealth of empirical data on international poverty levels with a thoughtful new analysis of how best to use that data, Poor Kids in a Rich Country will provide an essential tool for researchers and policymakers who make decisions about child and family policy.

LEE RAINWATER is professor emeritus of sociology at Harvard University and research director of the Luxembourg Income Study.

TIMOTHY M. SMEEDING is Maxwell Professor of Public Policy, professor of economics and public administration, and director of the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University. He is also the director of the Luxembourg Income Study.

An Institute for Research on Poverty Affiliated Book on Poverty and Public Policy

This book offers a systematic study of those individuals who derive their livelihood and professional satisfactions from foundation employment above a clerical level. Replies to questionnaires addressed to foundations and to foundation staff, supplemented by other research, enabled the authors to secure a wealth of data, not previously available, concerning such staff personnel. The data relates to their origin, education or training, professional or occupational background, personal qualities, recruitment for foundation service, job specialization in foundations and in-service and on-the-job training, salary levels, retirement, fringe benefits and perquisites of various kinds. These data are systematically analyzed according to the employing foundation's asset size, program, founding auspices, staff size, geographical location, and other variables. The comprehensiveness of the data also makes possible a census of full-time and part-time staff employed by all foundations and better reveals the rather distorted pattern of the distribution of that staff among the employing foundations.

A feature of the study is a chapter that tabulates and analyzes the comments on foundation employment of some 420 foundation executives—on their satisfactions, dissatisfactions, and frustrations and on how foundation employment might be made more attractive. The pros and cons of the related issue of increased professionalization of foundation service is considered in the light of these comments and from the standpoint, also, of the current philanthropic policies of different kinds of foundations. The probable long-term effect on foundation service of certain provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1969 is also examined.

ARNOLD J. ZURCHER was formerly Executive Director of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and is Professor of Politics at New York University.

JANE DUSTAN is Associate for Program Development of the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children.

"While other people have been applying tired old models of assimilation and market response to recent American immigration, economic sociologists have been organizing a small analytic revolution. Alejandro Portes and his splendid band of collaborators make clear that the causes, processes, and consequences of migration vary dramatically from group to group, that a group's history makes a profound difference to its fate in the American economy. They have produced a sinewy book, a book worth arguing with."
-Charles Tilly, New School for Social Research

The children of the past decade's influx of immigrants comprise a second generation far different than any this country has known before. Largely non-white and from the world's developing nations, these children struggle with complex problems of racial and ethnic relations in multicultural urban neighborhoods, attend troubled inner city schools, and face discriminatory labor markets and an economy that no longer provides the abundant manufacturing jobs that sustained previous generations of immigrants. As the contributors to The New Second Generation make clear, the future of these children is an open question that will be key to understanding the long-range consequences of current immigration.

The New Second Generation chronicles the lives of second generation youth in Miami, New York City, New Orleans, and Southern California. The contributors balance careful analysis with the voices of the youngsters themselves, focusing primarily on education, career expectations, language preference, ethnic pride, and the influence of their American-born peers. Demographic portraits by Leif Jensen and Yoshimi Chitose and by Charles Hirschman reveal that although most immigrant youths live at or below the official poverty line, this disadvantage is partially offset by the fact that their parents are typically married, self-employed, and off welfare. However, the children do not always follow the course set by their parents, and often challenge immigrant ethics with a desire to embrace American culture. Mary Waters examines how the tendency among West Indian teens to assume an American black identity links them to a legacy of racial discrimination. Although the decision to identify as American or as immigrant usually presages how well second generation children will perform in school, the formation of this self-image is a complex process. M. Patricia Fernandez-Kelly and Richard Schauffler find marked differences among Hispanic groups, while Ruben G. Rumbaut explores the influence of individual and family characteristics among Asian, Latin, and Caribbean youths.

Nativists frequently raise concerns about the proliferation of a non-English speaking population heavily dependent on welfare for economic support. But Alejandro Portes and Richard Schauffler's historical analysis of language preferences among Miami's Hispanic youth reveals their unequivocal preference for English. Nor is immigrationan inevitable precursor to a swollen welfare state: Lisandro Perez and Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston demonstrate the importance of extended families and ethnic community solidarity in improving school performance and providing increased labor opportunities.

As immigration continues to change the face of our nation's cities, we cannot ignore the crucial issue of how well the second generation youth will adapt. The New Second Generation provides valuable insight into issues that may spell the difference between regeneration and decay across urban America.

ALEJANDRO PORTES is the John Dewey Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Carl L. Bankston III, Yoshimi Chitose, Patricia Fernández Kelly, Charles Hirschman, Leif Jensen, Lisandro Perez, Alejandro Portes, Rubén G. Rumbaut, Richard Schauffler, Mary C. Waters, Min Zhou

"To study the life course is a life-long commitment. Where do the ideas that motivate longitudinal research come from? How do indefatigable investigators find the energy and resources to sustain longitudinal studies? The chapters in Looking at Lives reveal the genius, passion, and dedication that lie behind some of the most important longitudinal studies of human development ever conducted."
-Avshalom Caspi, Institute of Psychiatry, London, and University of Wisconsin, Madison

"This book is a watershed event in the scientific study of human development. It demonstrates in singularly compelling ways the precise methodological details that are required to conduct exemplary longitudinal research and that are involved in exploiting for new purposes existing longitudinal data archives."
-Richard M. Lerner, Tufts University

"Looking at Lives is a must-read for all of us involved in landmark longitudinal studies of the twentieth century. Some of the real pioneers in the long-term developmental study of humans are here as authors, describing the important details of their personal involvement in their work as well as the substance of their studies. Among other things, this volume could easily provide core reading for courses in research methods for longitudinal studies."
-Lewis Lipsitt, Brown University

The impact of long-term longitudinal studies on the landscape of 20th century social and behavioral science cannot be overstated. The field of life course studies has grown exponentially since its inception in the 1950s, and now influences methodologies as well as expectations for all academic research. Looking at Lives offers an unprecedented "insider's view" into the intentions, methods, and findings of researchers engaged in some of the twentieth century's landmark studies. In this volume, eminent American scholars—many of them pioneers in longitudinal studies—provide frank and illuminating insights into the difficulties and the unique scientific benefits of mounting studies that track people's lives over a long period of time.

Looking at Lives includes studies from a range of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and education, which together cover a span of more than fifty years. The contributors pay particular attention to the changing historical, cultural, and scientific context of their work, as well as the theoretical and methodological changes that have occurred in their fields over decades. What emerges is a clear indication of the often unexpected effects these studies have had on public policies and public opinion—especially as they relate to such issues as the connection between poverty and criminal behavior, or the consequences of teen-age pregnancy and drug use for inner-city youth. For example, David Weikart reveals how his long-term research on preschool intervention projects, begun in 1959, permitted him to show how surprisingly effective preschool education can be in improving the lives of disadvantaged children. In another study, John Laub and Robert Sampson build on findings from a groundbreaking study begun by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck in the 1950s to reveal the myriad ways in which juvenile delinquency can predict criminal behavior in adults. And Arland Thornton, Ronald Freedman, and William Axinn employ an intergenerational study of women and their children begun in 1962 to examine the substantial relaxation of social mores for family and individual behavior in the latter decades of the 20th century.

Looking at Lives is full of striking testimony to the importance of long-term, longitudinal studies. As a unique chronicle of the origins and development of longitudinal studies in America, this collection will be an invaluable aid to 21st century investigators who seek to build on the successes and the experiences of the pioneers in life-course studies.

ERIN PHELPS is associate director, Murray Research Center, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

FRANK F. FURSTENBERG, JR. is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania.

ANNE COLBY is senior scholar, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

CONTRIBUTORS: Karl L. Alexander, William G. Axinn, Ann F. Brunswick, Beverly D. Cairns, Robert B. Cairns, Greg J. Duncan, Glen H. Elder Jr., Doris Entwisle, Ronald Freedman, Janet Zollinger Giele, John H. Laub, John Modell, Frank L. Mott, Linda Steffel Olson, Robert J. Sampson, Arland Thornton, George E. Vaillant, David P. Weikart, Emmy E. Werner.