Postwar Urban America by McDonald John F

Author:McDonald, John F.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-317-51381-0
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

CONCLUSION: URBAN ECONOMISTS, URBAN SOCIOLOGISTS, AND THE URBAN CRISIS

Scholars from the fields of economics and sociology devoted a great deal of attention to the various aspects of the urban crisis starting in the 1960s. This chapter has provided a brief and selective review of this research. The field of urban economics was founded with a theoretical framework that was to be refined and expanded upon in the subsequent years. Some scholars are notable for their attempts to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the urban crisis, but most concentrated on one or two aspects of the problem. The late economist John Kain (1968) attempted to link housing segregation, metropolitan decentralization, transportation policy, and employment for blacks. His efforts were highly influential in both research and policy circles. Although his work was criticized by scholars, the general sense of his argument remained intact. His later efforts to construct large-scale computerized models of urban areas were less successful and less influential. Economists Bradbury, Downs, and Small (1981, 1982) developed an urban model based on Cleveland that permitted them to experiment with alternative policies designed to assist the central city. And Bradford and Kelejian (1973) actually found that the problem faced by central cities could be called a vicious circle.

Urban sociologists initially spent their time studying such topics as segregation, urban schools, and crime. Then William Wilson (1987) proposed that the term urban underclass could be a shorthand for the “tangle of pathology in the inner city.” Sociologists and economists quickly responded to this assertion, and much was learned about those pathologies and some of their dynamics. None of these scholars, however, offered the view that the urban crisis could turn around and get better. Instead, they offered some fairly weak policy suggestions that were not followed.

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