The Servant Class City: Urban Revitalization versus the Working Poor in San Diego

Description

San Diego, California, is frequently viewed as a model for American urban revitalization. It looks like a success story: blight and poverty replaced by high rises and jobs. But David J. Karjanen shows that the much-touted job opportunities for poor people have been concentrated in low-paying service work as the cost of living in San Diego has soare

David J. Karjanen is assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota.

"Written in an accessible style, this is a cautionary tale of how urban revitalization bypasses low-income communities, constraining the economic mobility of the working poor and increasing their reliance on shady financial services and other predatory institutions."-Nik Theodore, University of Illinois at Chicago "The Servant Class City is a remarkable book. There are few other books that document growing urban inequality's mechanisms in such a fine-grained way, with both qualitative and quantitative evidence."-Jane Collins, University of Wisconsin-Madison "The book's strong point is its grounding in the real lives of people."-Planning Magazine "This valuable case study does an excellent job of demonstrating the complex reality the hardworking poor face in neoliberal capitalism."-CHOICE "Karjanen expertly illustrates the ineffectiveness of conventional revitalization initiatives devised to reduce poverty."-H-Net "There is much to like about Karjanen's work."-Journal of Urban Affairs "Karjanen's work is an exemplary study that paves the way for future work in urban sociology."-Contemporary Sociology