The Invention of the 'Underclass' : A Study in the Politics of Knowledge (Paperback)

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Prologue

PART ONE ~ THE TALE

1. Between concept and myth: genealogy of a shifty category

2. “The tragedy of the underclass”: policy theater and scholarship

3. The three faces of the “underclass”

4. The strange career of a racialized folk devil

5. Implications for the social epistemology of urban marginality

PART TWO ~ LESSONS FROM THE TALE

Quandaries and consequences of naming

Forging robust concepts

Epistemic opportunity costs

Bandwagons, speculation, and turnkeys

Coda: Resolving the trouble with “race” in the 21st century

Appendix: The afterlives of the “underclass”     

Bibliography

Index