331 - Thematic Session. Hard Times and Inequality in the Suburbs

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

This panel will consider suburbs as a key site of the causes and consequences of hard times and economic inequality in America. Suburban areas have distinct social, political, and geographic structures that may reinforce inequality and make hard times harder. The growing populations of suburban poor are often located far from social services that continue to define poverty as primarily a central city concern, even as the poor increasingly move out beyond the city limits. Fragmented government and weak regional cohesion cause destructive competition for tax dollars and exclusionary zoning creates zero-sum games which make some suburbs winners and others losers with rebounding consequences for the life chances of their residents. The housing crisis hit middle-class suburban communities particularly hard as families who had long toiled for the prize of home-ownership saw their investments go sour and their wealth dry up. This panel will highlight the reality that like the American population as a whole, hard times and economic inequality are increasingly located in the suburbs.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Rachel E. Dwyer, The Ohio State University

Presider

• Len Albright, Northeastern University

Panelists

• Margaret Weir, University of California-Berkeley

• Alexandra K. Murphy, University of Michigan

• Jody Agius Vallejo, University of Southern California

• Elizabeth Kneebone, Brookings Institution