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Bibliothèque | Type de document | Numéro de cote topographique | Nombre d'enregistrements enfants | Emplacement | Statut | Réservations du document |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Recherche en cours... Science | Book | 305.569 D912W 1999 | 1 | Stacks | Recherche en cours... Inconnu | Recherche en cours... Indisponible |
Recherche en cours... Science | Paperback | GCMAIN 305.569 D911W | 1 | Stacks | Recherche en cours... Inconnu | Recherche en cours... Indisponible |
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Résumé
Résumé
This work takes us to three remote rural areas in the USA to hear the tales of the residents - the poor, the rich, and those in between - as they talk about their families, work, hard times, and their hopes. It provides an insight into the dynamics of poverty, politics and community change.
Critiques (2)
Critique de Kirkus
University of New Hampshire sociologist Duncan (Rural Poverty in America, not reviewed) looks at the social relations and political and economic institutions that perpetuate poverty in rural America. "Blackwell" (place names have been changed) in Appalachia and --Dahlia-- on the Mississippi Delta, are two of the poorest areas in the US. Duncan studied the lives of the residents of these places, and what she found was communities where the "haves" and "have nots" inhabit different worlds within historically structured, rigid class and, in Dahlia, race divisions. In both places local elites--coal company operators in Blackwell, plantation owners in Dahlia--control not only the economic life of the community but the political life as well. Their power is near absolute, and they use public institutions, including schools, to further their own interests and punish those who cross them. The poor remain "powerless, dependent, and do not participate" in civic life. A kind of stasis sets in where the poor see no option but to give way to those who have always had power, and the powerful resist change as it may threaten their status. In contrast, "Gray Mountain," in northern New England, is a town with a strong civic culture based on a blue-collar middle class that has created public institutions--from little league to effective schools--that serve all in the community. Duncan, through in-depth investigation and interviews, concludes that only a strong civic culture, a sense among citizens of community and the need to serve that community, can truly address poverty. Yet class and race relations in places like Blackwell and Dahlia preclude such a sense of community. Her answer, going against so much conventional wisdom, is federal government intervention, especially to create equitable school systems where they do not exist. Only such intervention, Duncan asserts, will give the poor the knowledge of alternatives, the hope they now lack. Moving and troubling. Duncan has created a remarkable study of the persistent patterns of poverty and power. (The book's foreword is by Robert Coles.) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Critique de Choice
The descriptions of rural poverty in Worlds Apart are interesting and read almost like a novel. Sociologist Duncan (Univ. of New Hampshire) compiles accounts of residents who describe their lives in three rural areas: a coal-mining town in Appalachia, a cotton-plantation town in the Mississippi Delta, and a mill town in northern Maine. In Appalachia and Mississippi the social order is almost feudal--there are the "haves," who control the economic, political, and social life in the area; and the large underclass of the "have-nots," who are dependent on the good will of the haves for their meager livelihood. The few in the middle class generally try to align themselves with the "ruling" haves. Duncan finds that the social milieu in northern Maine is almost idyllic by comparison, with a large blue-collar middle class, and a history of cooperation and involvement by all classes in civic affairs. Duncan presents a short sociological analysis of the communities in the three areas. She concludes that education--according to nationwide, not just (often low) local standards-- is the best, if not the only way, to break the cycle of rural poverty. This well-bound work contains 11 pages of tables and graphs. All levels. E. P. Hoffman; Western Michigan University