PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY
TOULAN SCHOOL OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING
POVERTY IN THE URBAN COMMUNITY
USP429/FALL 2010
Thursday 4:00-6:30
CLY 204
Professor Karen J. Gibson
Room 370J, Urban Center
Phone: 725-8265
Email: gibsonk@pdx.edu
Office hours: Tues, 4-5 or by appt.
Course Description
This course examines the nature, extent, and causes of poverty and economic inequality in the
United States. Topics include the contemporary low-wage labor market; the demographic,
geographic, and historic patterns of poverty; anti-poverty policy; regional under-development; and
anti-poverty activism. Significant attention is given to the economic, social, and political
institutions and processes that contribute to economic marginalization of both people and places.
The basic assumption is that poverty and economic inequality are the natural consequence of the
American form of capitalism (often called “cowboy capitalism”). Historically rooted in the ideology
of classic liberalism which privileges individualism, “free” markets, and a minimal role for
government, American capitalism sustains a higher rate of poverty than her Western industrial
counterparts. The near collapse of the financial, insurance, and real estate sectors of our
economy have revealed that the polarization of wealth and poverty in our nation is both
destructive and unsustainable.
Course Requirements
It is expected that you will regularly come to class prepared to discuss the assigned literature. The
assignments consist of a reflective essay, two exams, and a paper analyzing the impact of a protest
movement whose aim is to alleviate poverty and/or related conditions. Please turn in all assignments on
paper; late papers are strongly discouraged and will be penalized. Please communicate with me should
you anticipate a problem with these requirements at any time through the course.
Grade Components
Reflective Essay
Take-home Midterm
Paper
Take-home Final
Value:
10%
30%
35%
25%
100%
Due Dates:
October 14
November 4
December 2
December 9
Required Readings:
1. The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families,
by Beth Shulman. NY: The New Press, 2005 (Second Edition).
2. An Atlas of Poverty in America: One Nation, Pulling Apart, 1960-2003, by Amy K.
Glasmeier. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2005.
3. Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail, by Francis Fox Piven and
Richard A. Cloward, New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Books are available at the PSU Bookstore and on reserve at the Millar Library.
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS
Sept 30
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Oct 7
AMERICAN POVERTY: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, AND WHY?
Gould, Elise and Heidi Shierholz. A Lost Decade: Poverty and Income Trends Paint a
Bleak Picture for Working Families. Economic Policy Institute. Sept. 2010
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/a_lost_decade_poverty_and_income_trends
Glasmeier. An Atlas of Poverty. Pages vii-50.
Oct 14
SPATIAL ASPECTS I: DISTRESSED CITIES AND REGIONS
Glasmeier. An Atlas of Poverty. Pages 51-88
Oct 21
WORKING YET POOR: HERE AND ABROAD
Shulman. Betrayal of Work. Introduction, Chapters 1-4.
Smeeding, Timothy, Lee Rainwater, and Gary Burtless. United States Poverty in Cross
National Context. Chapter 16 in The Inequality reader: Contemporary and Foundational
Readings in Race, Class, and Gender. David B. Grusky and Szonja Szelenyi, Eds.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2007.
Oct 28
LOW-WAGE ECONOMY: FUNCTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES
Shulman. Betrayal of Work. Chapters 5-8
Gans, Herbert T. The Positive Functions of the Poverty. The American Journal of
Sociology, 78,2:275-289, 1972
Nov 4
SPATIAL ASPECTS II: POVERTY CONCENTRATION AND DISPERSION
Massey, Douglas and Nancy Denton. The Construction of the Ghetto. Chapter 2 in
American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Boston: Harvard
University Press, 1993.
Blumenberg, Evelyn. Metropolitan Dispersion and Diversity: Implications for Community
Economic Development. Chapter 1 in Jobs and Economic Development in Minority
Communities. Paul Ong and Anastia Loukaitou-Sideris, Eds. Phil: Temple Univ., 2006.
Nov 11
PROTEST MOVEMENTS AS ANTI-POVERTY STRATEGY (No Class - Veterans’ Day)
Piven and Cloward. Poor People’s Movements. Introduction, Chapter 1.
Nov 18
THE UNEMPLOYED WORKERS’ MOVEMENT
Piven and Cloward. Poor People’s Movements. Chapter 2.
Nov 25
THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS’ MOVEMENT (No Class due to Thanksgiving Holiday)
Piven and Cloward. Poor People’s Movements. Chapter 3.
Dec 2
THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Piven and Cloward. Poor People’s Movements. Chapter 4.
Dec 9
THE WELFARE RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Piven and Cloward. Poor People’s Movements. Chapter 5.