Urban Ills

Carol Camp Yeakey is founding director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Urban Studies and its Center on Urban Research and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis. She also holds faculty appointments as professor of education; of international & area studies; of American culture studies; and of urban studies at Washington University in St. Louis.Vetta Sanders Thompson is associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis where she holds faculty appointments in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work; the Institute of Public Health; and Urban Studies.Anjanette Wells is assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis' George Warren Brown School of Social Work with faculty appointments in the Institute of Public Health, and Urban Studies.

Urban Ills: Twenty First Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts is a collection of original research focused on critical challenges and dilemmas to living in cities. Volume 1 examines both the economic impact of urban life and the social realities of urban living. The editors define the ecology of urban living as the relationship and adjustment of humans to a highly dense, diverse, and complex environment. This approach examines the nexus between the distribution of human groups with reference to material resources and the consequential social, political, economic, and cultural patterns which evolve as a result of the sufficiency or insufficiency of those material resources. They emphasize the most vulnerable populations suffering during and after the recession in the United States and around the world. The chapters seek to explore emerging issues and trends affecting the lives of the poor, minorities, immigrants, women, and children.

Dedication PagePrefaceIntroductionSection One: Economic Impact on Urban LifeChapter One: "'Running in Place:' Low Wage Work in a High Tech Economy"Chapter Two: "Social Closure or Financialization: Stratification and Race in the Service Economy"Chapter Three: "To Heat or to Eat: The Detrimental Effects of Competing Commodity Costs on Low Income Families"Chapter Four: "Home Ownership among the Low Income in Boston, Massachusetts"Chapter Five: "Coming and Going: Effects of Change in Household Composition on the Economic Wellbeing of Families with Children"Chapter Six: "Predictability, Flexibility, Stability: Economic Restructuring and Low Wage 'Women's Work'"Chapter Seven: "Surprising Diversity in Financial Stability: A Cluster Analysis of Center for Working Families Clients in Twelve (12) Low Income Chicago Communities"Section Two: Social Realities of Urban LivingChapter Eight: "Where Did My Neighbors Go? Revealing Geographies of PostChapter Nine: "How Urban Shrinkage Impacts on Patterns of Socio-Spatial Segregation: Insights from Case Studies in Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic"Chapter Ten: "Is the Grass Any Greener on the Other Side of the Projects? Public Housing Relocation and Resident Outcomes in Atlanta, Georgia"Chapter Eleven: Revisiting the U.S. Black and French Red Belts: Parallel Themes and a Shared Dilemma"Chapter Twelve: "Poverty and Education"Chapter Thirteen: "The Development of Coping Skills for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Students: Transitioning from Minority to Majority Environments"Chapter Fourteen: "Human Trafficking in the U.S.: Globalization's Impact on Dispossessed, Dominated and Discarded Populations"Chapter Fifteen: "The Third World Near You: The American Racial Divide"