This address, prepared under the Playground Extension Committee of the Russell Sage Foundation, details the exhibition of folk and national dances given in Van Cortland Park in 1908. It examines the role of folk dances and games in the playground movement.
LUTHER H. GULICK was director of the Department of Child Hygiene at the Russell Sage Foundation.
Prepared by the Playground Extension Committee of the Russell Sage Foundation in 1909, this paper presents how public interest and funds were raised for various recreational spaces for children in Chicago at the time.
E. B. DEGROOT was director of gymnasiums and playgrounds, South Park System, Chicago.
This pamphlet was released by the Russell Sage Foundation’s Committee of Education in 1925, detailing proper fireproof building materials and safety regulations to prevent fires in schools.
This 1909 paper traces data on Chicago’s South Park Playgrounds to argue that the presence of parks and playgrounds in a neighborhood correlates to a decrease in the number of cases of juvenile delinquency.
ALLEN BURNS, Department of Child Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation
A preliminary report of an investigation made by the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation and the superintendents of schools of twenty-nine cities in 1911, with the aim of determining the best methods of identifying and helping misfit children in the classroom.
LEONARD P. AYRES was director of the Division of Education at the Russell Sage Foundation.
A volume of the Topeka Improvement Survey, a survey of health conditions in Topeka, Kansas, in 1914, this report centers on the administrative bodies of the city government, as well as the financial measures taken to fund these. Published with A Public Health Survey of Topeka by Franz Schneider, Jr., Delinquency and Corrections by Zenas L. Potter, and Industrial Conditions in Topeka by Zenas L. Potter.
D. O. DECKER was special agent of the Department of Surveys and Exhibits of the Russell Sage Foundation.
A volume of the Topeka Improvement Survey, a survey of health conditions in Topeka, Kansas, in 1914, this report focuses on the sanitary conditions of the city, as well as the organization and work of the city health department. Published with Delinquency and Corrections in Topeka by Zenas L. Potter, Municipal Administration in Topeka by D. O. Decker, and Industrial Conditions in Topeka by Zenas L. Potter.
FRANZ SCHNEIDER, JR. was sanitarian at the Department of Surveys and Exhibits of the Russell Sage Foundation.
Presented at the fifty-first congress of the American Prison Association in 1921, this pamphlet attempts to develop proper, universal plans for a detention home for women. Arguing that each prison would have specific building requirements and characteristics, the author presents several well-established canons of architecture and building which should be followed in any jail, emphasizing humane conditions and required needs. Printed with Plans for a Model Jail by R. W. Zimmerman.
MAXWELL HYDE, architect, New York
“Scott W. Allard is one of the nation’s foremost experts on poverty, and Places in Need is a tour de force. This carefully-researched book offers more than innovative economic analysis and important lessons for social policy. It represents a deeply moral call to update our thinking about vulnerable people across America and rethink outdated assumptions about how to assist them. Places in Need must become required reading for anyone who seeks to understand modern American poverty, let alone begin to combat it.”
—Arthur Brooks, president, American Enterprise Institute
“Places in Need tells the story of how poverty has grown dramatically in suburban America due to displacement, immigration, and job loss and how the existing social safety net is ill-equipped to address this new challenge. Scott W. Allard’s analysis expertly marshals both quantitative and qualitative data to give a nuanced account of the difficulties of meeting social needs in suburban locales. His insights and policy recommendations should be carefully studied by policymakers and social service providers as they come to grips with this new reality.”
—Paul Jargowsky, Professor of Public Policy, Rutgers University, Camden
“An exceptionally rich book that astutely focuses on key current issues related to the geography of poverty in the United States and trends therein. Scott W. Allard’s analysis is impressive in both its breadth and depth. His insights regarding the implications of geographic location for anti-poverty policy—how best to support low-income individuals and families in urban, suburban, and rural areas—make Places in Need essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and policy practitioners alike.”
—Lawrence M. Berger, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Social Work and director, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin
Americans think of suburbs as prosperous areas that are relatively free from poverty and unemployment. Yet, today more poor people live in the suburbs than in cities themselves. In Places in Need, social policy expert Scott W. Allard tracks how the number of poor people living in suburbs has more than doubled over the last 25 years, with little attention from either academics or policymakers. Rising suburban poverty has not coincided with a decrease in urban poverty, meaning that solutions for reducing poverty must work in both cities and suburbs. Allard notes that because the suburban social safety net is less developed than the urban safety net, a better understanding of suburban communities is critical for understanding and alleviating poverty in metropolitan areas.
Using census data, administrative data from safety net programs, and interviews with nonprofit leaders in the Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas, Allard shows that poor suburban households resemble their urban counterparts in terms of labor force participation, family structure, and educational attainment. In the last few decades, suburbs have seen increases in single-parent households, decreases in the number of college graduates, and higher unemployment rates. As a result, suburban demand for safety net assistance has increased. Concerning is evidence suburban social service providers—which serve clients spread out over large geographical areas, and often lack the political and philanthropic support that urban nonprofit organizations can command—do not have sufficient resources to meet the demand.
To strengthen local safety nets, Allard argues for expanding funding and eligibility to federal programs such as SNAP and the Earned Income Tax Credit, which have proven effective in urban and suburban communities alike. He also proposes to increase the capabilities of community-based service providers through a mix of new funding and capacity-building efforts.
Places in Need demonstrates why researchers, policymakers, and nonprofit leaders should focus more on the shared fate of poor urban and suburban communities. This account of suburban vulnerability amidst persistent urban poverty provides a valuable foundation for developing more effective antipoverty strategies.
SCOTT W. ALLARD is professor of public policy at the University of Washington’s Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance.
Winner of the 2016 C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems
Winner of the 2016 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award Presented by the American Sociological Association's Section on Race, Gender, and Class
Honorable Mention, 2017 Outstanding Book Award from the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association
“Unequal City is a revelatory study that shows and tells how inner city young people struggle to acquire a decent education. It powerfully describes the everyday challenges these students face—illuminating how they navigate school and their local communities and the way they confront what too often holds them back. This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the relationship between inequality and urban education.”
—Elijah Anderson, William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Sociology, Yale University
“Carla Shedd has written an important book about how race and place shape the experiences of young people in Chicago. Unequal City stands out for many reasons, but most importantly for its empirical richness. Shedd has amassed amazing data and uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to amplify the voices of young people. If you want to understand what young people think about such topics as the police, schools, and in-equality, you should read this book. It is a timely and insightful book.”
–Cathy Cohen, David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
Chicago has long struggled with racial residential segregation, high rates of poverty, and deepening class stratification, and it can be a challenging place for adolescents to grow up. Unequal City examines the ways in which Chicago’s most vulnerable residents navigate their neighborhoods, life opportunities, and encounters with the law. In this pioneering analysis of the intersection of race, place, and opportunity, sociologist and criminal justice expert Carla Shedd illuminates how schools either reinforce or ameliorate the social inequalities that shape the worlds of these adolescents.
Shedd draws from an array of data and in-depth interviews with Chicago youth to offer new insight into this understudied group. Focusing on four public high schools with differing student bodies, Shedd reveals how the predominantly low-income African American students at one school encounter obstacles their more affluent, white counterparts on the other side of the city do not face. Teens often travel long distances to attend school which, due to Chicago’s segregated and highly unequal neighborhoods, can involve crossing class, race, and gang lines. As Shedd explains, the disadvantaged teens who traverse these boundaries daily develop a keen “perception of injustice,” or the recognition that their economic and educational opportunities are restricted by their place in the social hierarchy.
Adolescents’ worldviews are also influenced by encounters with law enforcement while traveling to school and during school hours. Shedd tracks the rise of metal detectors, surveillance cameras, and pat-downs at certain Chicago schools. Along with police procedures like stop-and-frisk, these prison-like practices lead to distrust of authority and feelings of powerlessness among the adolescents who experience mistreatment either firsthand or vicariously. Shedd finds that the racial composition of the student body profoundly shapes students’ perceptions of injustice. The more diverse a school is, the more likely its students of color will recognize whether they are subject to discriminatory treatment. By contrast, African American and Hispanic youth whose schools and neighborhoods are both highly segregated and highly policed are less likely to understand their individual and group disadvantage due to their lack of exposure to youth of differing backgrounds.
CARLA SHEDD is assistant professor of sociology and African American studies at Columbia University.
