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Analysis of “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All,” Herbert J. Gans
15 points
Task: Begin by reading the background information on Herbert Gans below. This information will give
you context for understanding Gans’ perspective. Then read “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All,”
and answer the three questions at the end of the article in paragraph form (1 paragraph per question):
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answers are in complete sentences with proper grammar
all answers are written in paragraph form
o a paragraph begins with a topic sentence; think of the topic sentence as the one
sentence answer to the question
o a paragraph includes both general information and specific examples
o a paragraph is a minimum of 5-7 sentence long.
answers are typed and double spaced
this sheet is stapled to the front of your answers and your name is place on this sheet
turn in a hard copy of your work and submit it to turnitin.com1
o Class ID:
3099346
o Password:
santacroce
Herbert Gans was born May 7, 1927, in Cologne, Germany. He immigrated to the United
States in 1940 and became a naturalized citizen in 1945. From 1945 to 1946, he served in
the U.S. Army. In 1957, Gans received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.
He married Louise Gruner on March 19,1967.
Throughout his career, Gans has worked for the Chicago Housing Authority as an assistant
planner, the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Studies as a professor of city
planning and development, and he has been are search associate for the Center for Urban
Education, New York City. Gans has as also been a professor of sociology at Columbia
University and a professor of sociology and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge.
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Work must be submitted to turnitin.com and a hard copy must be handed it. Work is late until both of
these steps are complete.
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Gans is known for his participant-observer sociological studies in which he immerses
himself in the life of the community under consideration. Commentator John Goldthorpe
finds that Gans's studies often expose social myths. The Urban Villagers: Groups and Class
in the Life of Italian-Americans, Gans's study of Boston's West End, is, Goldthorpe feels, "in
effect an excellent piece debunking the whole idea of the happy urban peasant. The
Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community, attacks the myth of
the suburb, which holds, according to Goldthorpe's summary, that suburbanites are
anxious, bored, cultureless social climbers without communal roots. Gans's discovery,
remarks Goldthorpe, that "most of the charges made against suburbia simply do not
stick.... There are no good reasons for believing that the residents of Levittown are any
more conformist, insecure, anxious, status-conscious, bored, etc. than otherwise
comparable Americans who are not suburbanites."
Gans continues to contradict common social beliefs in Popular Culture and High Culture, in
which, remarks Richard Todd, the author argues that "American culture includes several
levels of taste--Gans calls them 'taste cultures'--and that any one of them is as good as
any other, because each serves the needs and wants of a particular public." Gans also
opposes policies which would urge that these "taste cultures" be improved and, as
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt summarizes, "instead encourages 'more culturalpluralism' by
means of 'subcultural programming' (or cultural programs that would appeal to groups that
are now excluded by mass culture, like the poor, the old, and the ethnic)."
In Middle American Individualism: The Future of Liberal Democracy, Gans looks at the
political and social viewpoints of the middle and working classes. He finds that these people
are more interested in the well-being of their immediate circles--which Gans dubs
"microsocieties"--than of society as a whole, but contends that this does not mean they are
selfish. They want "an egalitarian, humane welfare state that takes care of their needs--low
taxes, full employment--as well as the needs of the poor," summarizes Alex Raksin in the
Los Angeles Times Book Review. Middle Americans' lack of interest in politics, Gans asserts,
is the fault of politicians; he recommends that elected officials add staff members to reach
out to disinterested or under-represented constituencies.
Gans turns his attention to the people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder in The
War Against the Poor: The Underclass and Anti-poverty Policy. He asserts that many of the
terms used to describe the poor-- including the term "underclass"--help the rest of society
maintain its detachment from the poor. These labels, according to Gans, also facilitate
blaming the poor for their condition and interfere with anti-poverty efforts. "Labels may
only be words," Gans writes, "but they are judgmental or normative words, which can steer
institutions and individuals to punitive action." He calls not only for an end to such labeling,
but also for numerous economic reforms aimed at combating poverty. Among the latter is a
shorter work week, designed to increase the number of available jobs.
Source: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/herbert-gans-soc/
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