Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Social Organization of Suburban Poverty

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SES-1103116Mitchell DuneierAlexandra MurphyPrinceton UniversityThis ethnographic community study seeks to move beyond existing economic and demographic descriptive snapshots of the new suburban poverty phenomenon. Using Penn Hills, PA, a Pittsburgh suburb, as a case-study, three primary questions guide this research: (1) How is poverty socially organized and what is everyday life like for the suburban poor?; (2) How is the social and economic life of the wider community organized around poverty in the suburbs?; and (3) To what extent are these suburban neighborhoods economically, politically, and socially isolated from broader metropolitan networks? The focus is on African American poverty. Suburbs do not feature many of the neighborhood characteristics observed to be important in shaping the lives of the urban poor (e.g. public space and the presence of antipoverty organizations). Given these significant differences, one cannot assume that what is known about urban poverty will translate to the suburbs. This research builds upon existing theories of urban sociology by taking questions asked of urban poverty to the suburbs. In doing so, the researchers are interested in three different suburban actors: (1) poor residents, (2) institutions, and (3) local government. With respect to poor residents what do differences in the suburban built environment mean for three features of daily life important to the poor: (1) the creation of networks and subsistence strategies, (2) access to antipoverty organizations, and (3) neighborhood social control. To better measure the political and economic location of the suburb in the broader metropolitan ecology the study will also research a wide range of suburban institutions (churches, business, schools, and community organizations) and the municipal government. The study?s focus is on the challenges that poverty places on these institutions and the resources and networks they use to meet these challenges. Broader Impact: By being one of the first ethnographic studies of the new suburban poverty, this research will be a critical component of what will surely be a rising field of social science scholarship across disciplines: suburban poverty. The research will also shed significant light on existing urban poverty research and debates by refining the particular built environment and institutional factors that uniquely shape urban versus suburban poverty. Further, by publishing and presenting findings in academic and public forums, this research will make important public policy contributions. It has been argued that suburban poverty exists in a ?policy blind spot.? We may only begin to address the problems of suburban poverty adequately if we understand what life is like for the suburban poor. By working to understand these dimensions of suburban poverty this research will help us to understand the ways in which current policies are not useful for the suburban poor, identify gaps in local, state, and federal policies, illuminate various stakeholders and suburban particularities around which policies should be shaped, and help us to craft tools appropriate to the contours of the lived realities of the poor in these places.