Gans

Michael Hoover hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us
Mon Mar 1 18:55:11 PST 1999


Herbert Gans was schooled in the urban spatial dynamics work of Robert Park and the Chicago School of sociologists as well as Deweyan pragmatism...

he has been writing about the folks that he calls 'middle Americans' for almost 40 years...his book _Urban Villagers_ (1962) was about an Italian community in Boston...the topic of _Levittowners_ (1967) is obvious...Gans concluded that white middle-strata suburbanites were little different from their white middle-strata counterparts living in cities, the alleged differences owed to the way groups were sorted out in the metropolitan landscape...

Gans' _Deciding the News_ (1978) took 'middle Americans' to be the targeted audience for news...I already mentioned _Middle American Individualism_ (1988)...

he has said that his political sympathies are with the poor because they need more help than anyone else...In addition to _The War Against the Poor_ (1995), he wrote _More Equality_ (1973)...he has consistently pushed for income redistribution, job training programs, national industrial policy (promoting a labor-intensive rather than a capital-intensive economy), and a shorter work week... he has also indicated that he does not think that such proposals are politically feasible...Michael Hoover



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