The Making of a Teenage Service Class
Poverty and Mobility in an American City
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of California Press
Published:19th Dec '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
![The Making of a Teenage Service Class cover](https://cdn.theportobellobookshop.com/img/9780520292055.jpg)
Stereotypes of economically marginalized black and brown youth focus on drugs, gangs, violence, and teen parenthood. Families, schools, nonprofit organizations, and institutions in poor urban neighborhoods emphasize preventing such "risk behaviors." In The Making of a Teenage Service Class, Ranita Ray uncovers the pernicious consequences of concentrating on risk behaviors as key to targeting poverty. Having spent three years among sixteen black and Latina/o youth, Ray shares their stories of trying to beat the odds of living in poverty. Their struggles of hunger, homelessness, and untreated illnesses are juxtaposed with the perseverance of completing homework, finding jobs, and spending long hours traveling from work to school to home. By focusing on the lives of youth who largely avoid drugs, gangs, violence, and teen parenthood, the book challenges the idea that targeting these "risk behaviors" is key to breaking the cycle of poverty. Ray compellingly demonstrates how the disproportionate emphasis on risk behaviors reinforces class and race hierarchies and diverts resources that could support marginalized youth's basic necessities and educational and occupational goals.
"Ray uses . . . details to reveal how deeply life is colored by poverty and how desperately these young people want to believe they can succeed." * American Journal of Sociology *
"Ray provides a refreshing analysis of the challenges facing economically marginalized youth of color. . . . The Making of a Teenage Service Class has significant implications for family scholars, practitioners, and educators. It reminds family scholars and practitioners to pay attention to the intricacy of family dynamics and the importance of not assuming that everyone in a family shares the same experiences, has the same needs or interests, or responds the same way in the face of poverty." * Journal of Family Theory and Review *
ISBN: 9780520292055
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 25mm
Weight: 544g
300 pages