Resisting Amnesia: Renewing and Expanding the Study of Suburban Inequality

Abstract

r. l'Heur eu x lew is-mccoy , natasH a wa r ikoo, stepHen a. m at t Hews , a nd na dir a H fa r a H foley Suburban inequality is the focus of this double issue of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. This introduction addresses the limited related scholarship, describes how inequality unfolds differently in suburban communities than in urban and rural communities, and draws attention to urgent issues related to stratification between and within suburban communities. We argue that inattention to the study of suburban space, methodological and disciplinary silos, and the changing nature of the suburbs have left large holes in our understanding of how inequality operates. This critical review covers areas such as measurement, forgotten suburban scholarship, demographic change, suburban poverty, social supports, race, immigration, education, politics, policing, and future directions for suburban studies. In our call for resisting amnesia, we also draw attention to forgotten suburban histories and studies of a diverse range of suburban communities.

Volatility and Change in Suburban Nonprofit Safety Nets

“…As poverty has increased in suburban America, the adequacy and stability of nonprofit health and human service programs operating in suburban communities has been called into question ( Allard 2017 ; Lewis-McCoy et al 2023 , this issue). Central cities have been the focal point of most public safety net program spending and antipoverty policy for most of the last sixty years, which policy has been the catalyst for growth of the nonprofit human service sector in urban centers.…”