Skip to main content
Log in

The age of extremes: Concentrated affluence and poverty in the twenty-first century

  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

Urbanization, rising income inequality, and increasing class segregation have produced a geographic concentration of affluence and poverty throughout the world, creating a radical change in the geographic basis of human society. As the density of poverty rises in the environment of the world’s poor, so will their exposure to crime, disease, violence. and family disruption. Meanwhile the spatial concentration of affluence will enhance the benefits and privileges of the rich. In the twenty-first century the advantages and disadvantages of one’s class position will be compounded and reinforced through ecological mechanisms made possible by the geographic concentration of affluence and poverty, creating a deeply divided and increasingly violent social world.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abramson, A.J., M.S. Tobin, and M.R. VanderGoot. 1995. “The Changing Geography of Metropolitan Opportunity: The Segregation of the Poor in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1970–1990.” Housing Policy Debate 6:45–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alba, R.D. 1981. “The Twilight of Ethnicity among American Catholics of European Ancestry.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 454:86–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • —. 1990. Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White Identity. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alegría, T. 1994. “Segregación Socioespacial Urbana: El Ejemplo de Tijuana.” Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos 9:411–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, E. 1990. Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1994. “The Code of the Streets.” Atlantic Monthly 273(3): 80–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aronowitz, S. and W. DiFazio. 1994. The Jobless Future: Sci-Tech and the Dogma of Work. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A.B., L. Rainwater, and T.M. Smeeding. 1995. Income Distribution in OECD Countries: Evidence from the Luxem-bourg Income Study. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balán, J., H.L. Browning, and E. Jelin. 1973. Men in a Developing Society: Geographic and Social Mobility in Monterrey, Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banfield, E.C. 1967. The Moral Basis of a Backward Society. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, M.A. and D.E. Adler. 1994. Understanding American Economic Decline. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blau, P.M. and D.D. Duncan. 1967. The American Occupational Structure. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourgois, P. 1995. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Bar-rio. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, D. 1991. The Rich Get Richer: The Rise of Income Inequality in the United States and the World. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, E.W. 1925. “The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project.” Pp. 47–62 in The City, edited by R.E. Park and E.W. Burgess. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cortés, F. 1994. “La Evolución de la Desigualdad del Ingreso Familiar Durante la Década de los Ochenta.” Unpublished manuscript, Centro de Estudios Sociológicos, EI Colegio de México.

  • Cortés, F. and R.M. Rubalcava. 1992. “EI Ingreso Familiar: Su Distribucion y Desigualdad 1984–1989.” Demos: Carta Demo-gráfica sobre México 5:28–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danziger, S. and P. Gottschalk. 1995. America Unequal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delgado, J. 1990. “De los Anillos de la Segregación: La Ciudad de México 1950–1987.” Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos 5:237–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denton, N.A. 1994. “Are African Americans Still Hypersegregated?” Pp. 49–81 in Residential Apartheid: The American Legacy, edited by R.D. Bullard, J.E. Grigsby III, and C. Lee. Los Angeles: CAAS Publications, University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drake, St.C. and H.R. Cayton. 1945. Black Metropolis: A Study of Life in a Northern City. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. [1893] 1933. The Division of Labor in Society, translated by G. Simpson. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Equipo Pueblo. 1996. “Salaries Continue to Plummet.” Mexico Update 69, April 23, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Escobar Latapí, A. 1995. “Movilidad, Restructuracion, y Clase Social en México: El Caso de Guadalajara.” Estudios Sociológicos 13:231–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1996. “Mexico: Poverty as Politics and Academic Disciplines.” Pp. 539–66 in Poverty: A Global Review, edited by E. Oyen, S.M. Miller, and S.A. Samad. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farley, R. and W.H. Frey. 1994. “Changes in the Segregation of Whites from Blacks during the 1980s: Small Steps toward a More Integrated Society.” American Sociological Review 59:23–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Featherman, D. and R.M. Hauser. 1978. Opportunity and Change. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, C.S. 1975. “Toward a Subcultural Theory of Urbanism.” American Journal of Sociology 80: 1319–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1982. To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1995. “The Subcultural Theory of Urbanism: A Twentieth-Year Assessment.” American Journal of Sociology 101:543–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fordham, S. and J.U. Ogbu. 1986. “Black Students’ School Success: Coping with the ’Burden of Acting White.” Urban Review 18:176–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foster, G.M. 1967. Tzintzuntzan: Mexican Peasants in a Changing World. Boston: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R.H. and P.J. Cook. 1995. The Winner-Take-All Society. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, R.B. 1993. “How Much Has De-Unionization Contributed to the Rise in Male Earnings Inequality?” Pp. 133–63 in Uneven Tides: Rising Inequality in America, edited by S. Danziger and P. Gottschalk. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gans, H.C. 1962. The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian Americans. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, L. 1994. The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goleman, D. 1995. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • González de la Rocha, M. 1986. Los Recursos de la Probeza: Familias de Bajos Ingresos de Guadalajara. Guadalajara: EI Colegio de Jalisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, P. 1993. The Slow Plague: A Geography of the AIDS Pandemic. Cambridge, UK: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, B. 1995. Lean and Mean: The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in the Age of Flexibility. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatton, T.J. and J.G. Williamson. 1994. “What Drove the Mass Migrations from Europe?” Population and Development Review 20:533–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauser, R.M. and D.L. Featherman. 1977. The Process of Stratification: Trends and Analysis. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herrnstein, R.J. and C. Murray. 1994. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hershberg, T. 1981. Philadelphia: Work, Space, Family, and Group Experience in the 19th Century. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, E.P. 1956. Immigrants and Their Children, 1850–1950. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jargowsky, P.A. Forthcoming. “Take the Money and Run: Economic Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas.” American Sociological Review, forthcoming.

  • Kasarda, J.D. 1993. “Inner-City Concentrated Poverty and Neighborhood Distress: 1970–1990.” Housing Policy Debate 4:253–302

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1995. “Industrial Restructuring and the Changing Location of Jobs.” Pp. 215–68 in State of the Union: America in the 1990s, edited by R. Farley. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaus, M. 1992. The End of Equality. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krivo, L., R.D. Peterson, H. Rizzo, and J.R. Reynolds. 1996. “Race, Segregation, and the Concentration of Disadvantage: 1980–1990.” Presented at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America, New Orleans.

  • Krivo, L. and R.D. Peterson. Forthcoming. “Extremely Disadvantaged Neighborhoods and Urban Crime.” Social Forces.

  • Krugman, P. 1994. The Age of Diminished Expectations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lasch, C. 1995. The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. New York: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • LeDoux, J. 1986. “Sensory Systems and Emotion.” Integrative Psychiatry 4:237–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, F. 1987. Dollars and Dreams: The Changing Distribution of American Income. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1995. “Incomes and Income Inequality.” Pp. 1–58 in State of the Union: America in the 1990s, edited by R. Farley. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberson, S. 1980. A Piece of the Pie: Blacks and White Immigrants since 1880. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1981. “An Asymmetrical Approach to Segregation.” Pp. 61–82 in Ethnic Segregation in Cities, edited by C. Peach, V. Robinson, and S. Smith. London: Croom Helm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lind, M. 1995. The Next American Nation: The New Nationalism and the Fourth American Revolution. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddrick, J. 1995. The End of Affluence: The Causes and Consequences of America’s Economic Dilemma. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D.S. 1985. “Ethnic Residential Segregation: A Theoretical Synthesis and Empirical Review.” Sociology and Social Research 69:315–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1988. “International Migration and Economic Development in Comparative Perspective.” Population and Development Review 14:383–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1990. “American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.” American Journal of Sociology 96:329–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1995. “Getting Away with Murder: Segregation and Violent Crime in Urban America.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 143:1203–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — Forthcoming. “The Residential Segregation of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians: 1970 to 1990.” In Immigration and Race Relations, edited by G.D. Jaynes. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D.S., G.A. Condran, and N.A. Denton. 1987. “The Effect of Residential Segregation on Black Social and Economic Well-Being.” Social Forces 66:29–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D.S. and N.A. Denton. 1989. “Hypersegregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Black and Hispanic Segregation along Five Dimensions.” Demography 26:373–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D.S. and M.L. Eggers. 1990. “The Ecology of Inequality: Minorities and the Concentration of Poverty, 1970–1980.” American Journal of Sociology 95: 1153–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1993. “The Spatial Concentration of Affluence and Poverty during the 1970s.” Urban Affairs Quarterly 29:299–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D.S., A.B. Gross, and M.L. Eggers. 1991. “Segregation, the Concentration of Poverty, and the Life Chances of Individuals.” Soreal Science Research 20:397–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D.S. and K. Shibuya. 1995. “Unravelling the Tangle of Pathology: The Effect of Spatially Concentrated Joblessness on the Well-Being of African Americans.” Social Science Research 24:352–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miles-Doan, R. and S. Kelly. 1996. “Neighborhood Contexts of Assaultive Violence: A Tract-Level Study of Disaggregated Rates in Duval County, Florida—1992.” Presented at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America, New Orleans.

  • Morris, M., A.D. Bernhardt, and M.S. Handcock. 1994. “Economic Inequality: New Methods for New Trends.” American Sociological Review 59:205–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mufioz, H., O. de Oliveira, and C. Stern. 1977. Migración y Desigualdad Social en la Ciudad de México. Mexico, DF: Universidad Nacional de México y Colegio de México.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nugent, W. 1992. Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migration, 1870–1914. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogbu, J.U. 1978. Minority Education and Caste: The American System in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1983. “Minority Status and Schooling in Plural Societies.” Comparative Education Review 27: 168–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, M.L. and T.M. Shapiro. 1995. Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ousseimi, M. 1995. Caught in the Crossfire: Growing Up in a War Zone. New York: Walker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, A. 1995. “Children of Immigrants: Segmented Assimilation and Its Determinants.” Pp. 248–80 in The Economic Sociology of Immigration: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship, edited by A. Portes. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, S.H. 1979. “Urban Growth in Developing Countries: A Demographic Reappraisal.” Population and Development Review 5:195–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rifkin, J. 1995. The End of Work: The Decline ofthe Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. New York: Putnam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubalcava, R.M. and M. Schteingart. 1985. “Diferenciación Socioespacial Intraurbana en el Area Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México.” Estudios Sociológicos 3:21–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheahan, J. 1991. Conflict and Change in Mexican Economic Strategy: Implications for Mexico and Latin America. La Jolla: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simkus, A.A. 1978. “Residential Segregation by Occupation and Race in Ten Urbanized Areas, 1950–1970.” American Sociological Review 43:81–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sjoberg, G. 1960. The Preindustrial City: Past and Present. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J.P. 1988. “Poverty and the Family.” Pp. 141–72 in Divided Opportunities: Minorities, Poverty, and Social Policy, edited by G.D. Sandefur and M. Tienda. New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stack, C. 1974. All Our Kin: Strategies of Survival in a Black Community. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stalker, P. 1994. The Work of Strangers: A Survey of International Labour Migration. Geneva: International Labour Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suttles, G.D. 1968. The Social Order of the Slum: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tabatabai, H. and M. Fouad. 1993. The Incidence of Poverty in Developing Countries: An ILO Compendium of Data. Geneva: International Labour Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1973.1970 Census of Population Subject Reports: Low-Income Population. PC(2)-9A. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1980 Census of Population, General Social and Economic Characteristics, Part 1: U.S. Summary. PC80- I-C I. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1990. Census of Population, Social and Economic Characteristics: Metropolitan Areas. CP-2-IB. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. 1980. Patterns of Urban and Rural Population Growth. Population Studies, No. 68. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • —. 1995. World Urbanization Prospects: 1994 Revision. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, R. and D. Wallace. 1995. “U.S. Apartheid and the Spread ofAIDS to the Suburbs: A Multi-City Analysis of the Political Economy of a Spatial Epidemic.” Social Science Medicine 36:1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walton, J. 1978. “Guadalajara: Creating the Divided City.” Pp. 2550 in Metropolitan Latin America: The Challenge and the Response, edited by W.A. Cornelius and R.Y. Kemper. Beverly Hills: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte, W.F. 1955. Street Corner Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, W.J. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth, L. 1938. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” American Journal of Sociology 44:3–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolff, E.N. 1995. “The Rich Get Increasingly Richer: Latest Data on Household Wealth during the 1980s.” Pp. 33–68 in Research in Politics and Society, Vol. 5, edited by R.E. Ratcliff, M.L. Oliver, and T.M. Shapiro. Greenwich, CT: JAI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zunz, O. 1982. The Changing Face of Inequality: Urbanization, Industrial Development, and Immigrants in Detroit, 1880–1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas S. Massey.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Massey, D.S. The age of extremes: Concentrated affluence and poverty in the twenty-first century. Demography 33, 395–412 (1996). https://doi.org/10.2307/2061773

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2061773

Keywords

Navigation