Prismatic Metropolis

"Prismatic Metropolis is destined to become a standard reference for students of urban inequality. Based on thoughtful analysis of very rich and original data sets, this authoritative volume demonstrates the important interplay of structural conditions and cultural-psychological factors in generating and sustaining inequality in one of the nation's most important metropolises."
-WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON, Harvard University

"Far too much of what we think we know about urban poverty stems from studies of blacks and whites in older industrial cities, yet the urban future will increasingly unfold in dynamic, post-industrial agglomerations inhabited by a diverse array of racial and ethnic groups. In their comprehensive analysis of inequality in Los Angeles, the contributors paint a startling picture of the urban future, one increasingly segmented by race, place, ethnicity, and class. Prismatic Metropolis points the way to a new urban sociology for a new century."
-DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, University of Pennsylvania

"In documenting the dynamics of race, ethnicity, and gender in access to housing, jobs, and advancement at work, Prismatic Metropolis maps the contours of social and economic inequality in the nation's foremost "global city." Chapters provide wide-ranging coverage, from a pathbreaking analysis of the reproduction of housing segregation patterns, to detailed accounts of the ways that racial attitudes, social networks, childcare obligations, transportation systems, and ethnic economic enclaves link race and gender to economic success. This extraordinary volume, while based on analyses of one city, has lessons for all U.S. cities. Prismatic Metropolis is the essential starting place for understanding how race, ethnic, and gender inequality play out in contemporary cities and for discovering pathways toward economic and social justice."
-BARBARA RESKIN, Harvard University

This book cuts through the powerful mythology surrounding Los Angeles to reveal the causes of inequality in a city that has weathered rapid population change, economic restructuring, and fractious ethnic relations. The sources of disadvantage and the means of getting ahead differ greatly among the city's myriad ethnic groups. The demand for unskilled labor is stronger here than in other cities, allowing Los Angeles's large population of immigrant workers with little education to find work in light manufacturing and low-paid service jobs.

A less beneficial result of this trend is the increased marginalization of the city's low-skilled black workers, who do not enjoy the extended ethnic networks of many of the new immigrant groups and who must contend with persistent negative racial stereotypes.

Patterns of residential segregation are also more diffuse in Los Angeles, with many once-black neighborhoods now split evenly between blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and other minorities. Inequality in Los Angeles cannot be reduced to a simple black-white divide. Nonetheless, in this thoroughly multicultural city, race remains a crucial factor shaping economic fortunes.

LAWRENCE D. BOBO is professor of sociology and Afro-American studies at Harvard University.

MELVIN L. OLIVER is vice president of the Ford Foundation. He is responsible for overseeing the Asset Building and Community Development Program.

JAMES H. JOHNSON JR. is William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Management, Sociology, and Public Policy and director of the  Urban Investment Strategies Center in the Kenan Institute in the Kenan-Flager Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

ABEL VALENZUELA JR. is assistant professor of urban planning and Chicana/o studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also associate director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, Institute for Social Science Research.

CONTRIBUTORS:  Elisa Jayne Bienenstock, Camille Zubrinksi Charles, Walter C. Farrell Jr.,  Jennifer L. Glanville,  Elizabeth Gonzalez,  David M. Grant,  Tarry Hum, Devon Johnson,  Michael I. Lichter,  Julie E. Press,  Michael A. Stoll, Susan A. Suh,  Jennifer A. Stoloff.  

A Volume in the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality