Underclasses and Yuppies

Valentine Ch 7: esp

The Underclass Those at the bottom of the social order –Persistent, intergenerational poverty –Welfare-dependent –Unstable employment –Low skills –Poor education

The Underclass Cultural meaning –Associated with public housing, inner city poverty, appears on COPS & reality TV Codeword for “race” in USA –Underclass associated with ghettos Does the underclass actually exist? –Valentine accepts this without question –actually debatable

The Underclass Karl Marx 1860s: Underclass = the proletariat, workers whose only possessions are their children Gunnar Myrdal 1962: Underclass = those excluded from the urban labour market by structural economic change New Right 1980s: Underclass = lazy poor people gripped by “dependency culture”

Culture of Poverty Associated with US anthropologist Sinclair Lewis –From 1960s onwards argued that poverty becomes a culture, a way of life –People can’t easily escape it: they become cultured into being poor

The Underclass New left 1980s: Underclass produced by a combination of –structural economic change (Myrdal) –cuts in welfare provisions (New Right)

Some realities Social polarization did increase in UK & North America from 1970s onwards –rich getting richer, poor getting poorer

Some realities “Underclass” is actually very varied, very mixed –In USA potentially multiracial, multilingual, multiethnic

Some realities Some connection between culture and structural change

Bea Campbell - UK Structural economic change: UK working-class males unable to realize masculine identity through work, income or property UK working-class males define masculinity around alcohol, drugs, car theft, soccer hooliganism, and macho misbehaviour

Gentrification Middle-class people moving into inner city areas and taking them over as residential and recreational areas –middle-class once avoided the inner city (where poor people lived) –middle-class able to choose where they live

Gentrification First signs in later 1960s, becomes more common in 1970s Widespread in 1980s

Georgetown DC

Boston North End

Brooklyn Hts NYC

Brooklyn Hts

Amsterdam

Gentrification Changes property values –capital moves back into the city –prices the poor out of the market Transforms the inner-city built-environment Transforms the inner-city social environment animation

Gentrified Landscapes Become places of consumption People want to “buy-into” a lifestyle as well as a place Suits a contemporary middle-class lifestyle and gender relations

Toronto: Cityplace.caCityplace.ca

Sexual Dissidence Emergence of visibly gay neighbourhoods etc., Tolerance of sexual difference easier in the big city?

SF Castro San Francisco’s Castro district emerges as a gay village 1940s onwards Bohemian urban culture Institutional networks: Bars and clubs Eventually a residential expression –gay gentrifiers

Castro

Toronto Cabbagetown Apartment towers of St Jamestown become a bohemian environment from 1960s –Becomes a gay village Gay gentrifiers a key component in mid 1970s gentrification of Cabbagetown

Florida Thesis Urban creativity a result of bohemian culture –bars and clubs vital to a creative urban culture –perhaps gay bars especially