The Invention of the 'Underclass'

At century’s close, American social scientists, policy analysts, philanthropists, and politicians became obsessed with a fearsome and mysterious new group said to be ravaging the ghetto: the urban "underclass." Soon, this scarecrow category and its demonic imagery were exported to the United Kingdom and continental Europe, agitating the international study of exclusion in the postindustrial metropolis.

In this punchy book, The Invention of the Underclass, Loïc Wacquant retraces the invention and metamorphoses of this racialised folk devil, from the structural conception of Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal to the behavioural notion of Washington think-tank experts to the neo-ecological formulation of sociologist William Julius Wilson. He uncovers the reasons behind the sudden irruption, accelerated circulation, and abrupt evaporation of the "underclass" from public debate and reflects on the implications for the social epistemology of urban marginality.

What accounts for the “lemming effect” that drew a generation of scholars of race and poverty over a scientific cliff? What are the conditions for the formation and bursting of “conceptual speculative bubbles”? What is the role of think tanks, journalism, and politics in imposing “turnkey problematics” upon social researchers? What are the special quandaries posed by the naming of dispossessed and dishonoured populations in scientific discourse, and how can we reformulate the explosive question of “race” to avoid these troubles?

Answering these questions constitutes an exacting exercise in epistemic reflexivity in the tradition of Bachelard, Canguilhem, and Bourdieu, issuing a clarion call for social scientists to defend their intellectual autonomy against the encroachments of outside powers, be they state officials, the media, think tanks, or philanthropic organisations.

Compact, meticulous, and forcefully argued, this study in the politics of social science knowledge will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, urban studies, ethnic studies, geography, intellectual history, the philosophy of science, and public policy.