Distinctiveness and Disadvantage Among the Urban Poor: Is Low Network Capital Really the Problem?

Although the study of poor populations enjoys a long history in sociology and economics, Wilson’s (1987, 1991a, 1991b, 1993; Elliott et al. 1996) discussion of “social isolation,” “the underclass,” and the “ghetto poor” renewed social scientists’ focus on the “the truly disadvantaged” (Wilson 1987; see also Tienda 1991; Katz 1993). For Wilson, social isolation represents a structural property, which he defi nes as “the lack of contact or of sustained interaction with individuals and institutions that represent mainstream society” (1987: 60). With this articulation, Wilson provided a powerful orienting concept for understanding the dynamics of concentrated poverty-a concept that focuses attention squarely on network capital.