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Structural Underclass Analysis

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Wilson (1978) disagreed with Murray arguing that Underclass is not a cultural deviation but it is a symptom of class inequality. For Wilson (1978) there was a Black Underclass due to structural reasoning. The Structural Underclass is a Liberal left perspective that argues Government policy and economic change has created a minority class who are economically redundant (Macdonald, 1997). The legitimate opportunities of obtaining money through employment is limited, causing a deviant Underclass culture to appear (Macdonald, 1997).
Wilson (1978) identified that the underclass exists within the urban black ghettos of North America. He commented that there are several interrelated factors from which this Underclass emerged. Firstly, discrimination and white fear of blacks concentrated this group within the cities. Secondly, within these cities there was a change from manufacturing to service provision. This meant that especially for young men, who often did not have many skills, only lower paid jobs were available (Anderson and Taylor, 2008), but it meant for educated black people they had more opportunities. Lastly, after the Civil Rights Movement, many Working and Middle-class blacks moved to the suburbs in the hope of finding jobs, therefore leaving the poorer blacks concentrated in the cities. In his work Wilson (1978) …show more content…

Agnosticism is questioning the theory, so whilst there may be the possibility of an Underclass, there is a lack of empirical substantiation to really add validity (MacDonald, 1997). Whist many have tried to deliver evidence, they all conclude only a possibility of such a concept (Roberts, 1997, Williamson, 1997, MacDonald and Marsh, 2005). Whereas atheism is the argument against the theory entirely. This section will look at these is more depth by exploring critics of the theory, and evidence which suggests the underclass is a

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