Concept and emergence
The term described not simply low-income people but groups in inner-city areas where long-term joblessness, welfare receipt, low education, crime and single parenthood overlapped. It became popular in 1980s US media and scholarship and a central topic of urban poverty research after the Chicago School. Jencks and Peterson (1991) collected competing views on definition and size.
Behavioural versus structural explanations
Murray (1984) argued generous welfare encouraged non-work and non-marriage, a behavioural view akin to the culture of poverty. Wilson (1987) instead argued that the flight of manufacturing jobs and of the Black middle class isolated those left behind from jobs and networks. Massey and Denton (1993) held that racial residential segregation concentrated poverty and created the underclass.
Stigma critiques and later debates
Gans (1990) warned that the label brands the poor as undeserving and fosters punitive policy, and Wilson (1991) proposed 'ghetto poor' instead. Wacquant (2008) compared US ghettos and French banlieues to analyse 'advanced marginality' as the state retreats. Concepts such as social exclusion and the poverty trap now describe similar phenomena with less stigma.
FAQ
- What is the underclass in simple terms?
- A group cut off from work and mainstream society, with long-term joblessness and poverty passed down generations.
- How do Wilson and Murray differ?
- Murray blames welfare for encouraging harmful behaviour; Wilson blames economic and social structures such as job loss and segregation.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Murray, C. (1984). Losing ground: American social policy, 1950–1980. Basic Books. The conservative classic blaming welfare for dependency.
- Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. University of Chicago Press. The structural account of concentrated inner-city poverty.
- Wilson, W. J. (1991). Studying inner-city social dislocations: The challenge of public agenda research. American Sociological Review, 56(1), 1–14. Wilson's address proposing 'ghetto poor' instead of underclass.
- Gans, H. J. (1990). Deconstructing the underclass: The term's dangers as a planning concept. Journal of the American Planning Association, 56(3), 271–277. Warns that the label stigmatises the poor.
- Jencks, C., & Peterson, P. E. (Eds.). (1991). The urban underclass. Brookings Institution. An edited volume on defining and measuring the underclass.
- Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Harvard University Press. Residential segregation as the maker of the underclass.
- Wacquant, L. (2008). Urban outcasts: A comparative sociology of advanced marginality. Polity Press. Compares the US ghetto and French banlieue.