The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth Feb 9, 2015
by Orlando Patterson , Ethan Fosse , Andrew Clarkwest , Rajeev Dehejia , Thomas DeLeire , Kathryn Edin , Amy E. Foran , Simone Ispa-Landa , Alexandra A. Killewald , Joseph C. Krupnick , Erzo F.P. Luttmer , Wayne Marshall , Jody Miller , Josh Mitchell , Jackie Rivers , James E. Rosenbaum , Janet Rosenbaum , Peter Rosenblatt , Robert J. Sampson , Pam Schuetz , Tommie Shelby , Jennifer Stephan , Van C. Tran , Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh , Christopher Winship , Robert G. Wood , Queenie Zhu
( 11 )
AUD 14.07
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The Cultural Matrix seeks to unravel an American paradox: the socioeconomic crisis and social isolation of disadvantaged black youth, on the one hand, and their extraordinary integration and prominence in popular culture on the other. This interdisciplinary work explains how a complex matrix of cultures influences black youth.
---The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth Paperback – 15 February 2016
by Orlando Patterson (Author), Ethan Fosse (Author), Ethan Patterson, Orlando and Fosse (Author)4.7 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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The Cultural Matrix seeks to unravel a uniquely American paradox: the socioeconomic crisis, segregation, and social isolation of disadvantaged black youth, on the one hand, and their extraordinary integration and prominence in popular culture on the other. Despite school dropout rates over 40 percent, a third spending time in prison, chronic unemployment, and endemic violence, black youth are among the most vibrant creators of popular culture in the world. They also espouse several deeply-held American values. To understand this conundrum, the authors bring culture back to the forefront of explanation, while avoiding the theoretical errors of earlier culture-of-poverty approaches and the causal timidity and special pleading of more recent ones.
There is no single black youth culture, but a complex matrix of cultures—adapted mainstream, African-American vernacular, street culture, and hip-hop—that support and undermine, enrich and impoverish young lives. Hip-hop, for example, has had an enormous influence, not always to the advantage of its creators. However, its muscular message of primal honor and sensual indulgence is not motivated by a desire for separatism but by an insistence on sharing in the mainstream culture of consumption, power, and wealth.
This interdisciplinary work draws on all the social sciences, as well as social philosophy and ethnomusicology, in a concerted effort to explain how culture, interacting with structural and environmental forces, influences the performance and control of violence, aesthetic productions, educational and work outcomes, familial, gender, and sexual relations, and the
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Editorial Reviews
Review
An ambitious new anthology…meant to show that the culturalist tradition still has something to teach us. (New Yorker)
Considering recent tragedies and protests involving black youths, the police and the legal system―along with the centuries of devastation wrought by racial bias―a work exploring the impact of culture is both timely and welcome… Patterson and his peers present a balanced, rigorous interpretation of culture, with ample empirical evidence, and include the actual voices and viewpoints of black youths… They also suggest possible strategies and tactics for the ways in which culture can be understood and employed to improve the lives of black youths―in all their rich diversity and potential. (Greg Thomas The Root)
In The Cultural Matrix, Patterson and about two dozen other academics try to understand the persistence of segregation, social isolation, poverty and crime among Black youth…The Cultural Matrix provides an important framework for understanding an urgent issue that should be a public policy priority. (Glenn C. Altschuler Florida Courier)
This pathbreaking book examines an essential topic that men and women in the street discuss but that social scientists too often ignore: the contrast between the economic and social plight of black youth, on the one hand, and their cultural creativity, on the other. Jam-packed with carefully researched essays by outstanding scholars from a broad array of disciplines, this volume, edited by the ever-fearless Orlando Patterson, is crowned by his call to take culture seriously and his brilliant demonstration of just how to do so. Must reading for students and scholars of urban black America, The Cultural Matrix is an invaluable resource, one to be pondered and savored. (Roger Waldinger, University of California, Los Angeles)
The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth is a landmark book that I believe will become an instant classic. It is replete with original insights on the cultural life of black youth, which enhance our understanding not only of their social plight, but their creativity as well. We are deeply indebted to Orlando Patterson and his colleagues for a work that will change the way we think about black youth and the complex circumstances that impact and shape their lives. (William Julius Wilson, Harvard University) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Orlando Patterson is John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.
Ethan Fosse is a doctoral student in Sociology at Harvard University.
Alexandra A. Killewald is Associate Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.
Robert J. Sampson is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Harvard University.
Tommie Shelby is Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product details
File Size: 5781 KB
Print Length: 686 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0674728750
Publisher: Harvard University Press (February 9, 2015)
Publication Date: February 9, 2015
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00SR5FNSO
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,923 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#53 in Urban Sociology
#258 in African-American Studies
#154 in Popular Culture
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Paperback: 688 pages
Publisher: Harvard University Press; 1 edition (15 February 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780674659971
ISBN-13: 978-0674659971
ASIN: 067465997X
Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 5.1 x 22.9 cm
Boxed-product Weight: 358 g
Customer Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 stars4 customer ratings
Product description
Review
“An ambitious new anthology…meant to show that the culturalist tradition still has something to teach us. - The New Yorker“Considering recent tragedies and protests involving black youths, the police and the legal system - along with the centuries of devastation wrought by racial bias - a work exploring the impact of culture is both timely and welcome… Patterson and his peers present a balanced, rigorous interpretation of culture, with ample empirical evidence, and include the actual voices and viewpoints of black youths… They also suggest possible strategies and tactics for the ways in which culture can be understood and employed to improve the lives of black youths - in all their rich diversity and potential. - Greg Thomas, The Root“In The Cultural Matrix, Patterson and about two dozen other academics try to understand the persistence of segregation, social isolation, poverty and crime among Black youth… The Cultural Matrix provides an important framework for understanding an urgent issue that should be a public policy priority. - Glenn C. Altschuler, The Florida Courier“This pathbreaking book examines an essential topic that men and women in the street discuss but that social scientists too often ignore: the contrast between the economic and social plight of black youth, on the one hand, and their cultural creativity, on the other. Jam-packed with carefully researched essays by outstanding scholars from a broad array of disciplines, this volume, edited by the ever-fearless Orlando Patterson, is crowned by his call to take culture seriously and his brilliant demonstration of just how to do so. Must reading for students and scholars of urban black America, The Cultural Matrix is an invaluable resource, one to be pondered and savored. - Roger Waldinger, University of California, Los Angeles“The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth is a landmark book that I believe will become an instant classic. It is replete with original insights on the cultural life of black youth, which enhance our understanding not only of their social plight, but their creativity as well. We are deeply indebted to Orlando Patterson and his colleagues for a work that will change the way we think about black youth and the complex circumstances that impact and shape their lives. - William Julius Wilson, Harvard University
About the Author
Ethan Fosse is a doctoral student in Sociology at Harvard University.
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Rusty Reeves
5.0 out of 5 stars An Engaging, Enlightening and Scholarly Study of the Culture of Black YouthReviewed in the United States on February 15, 2015
"The Cultural Matrix – Understanding Black Youth", by way of essays from scholars who study black youths, presents Orlando Patterson’s longstanding argument that culture as well as economic, legal, political, and residential structure plays a role in influencing the behavior of young black people. It’s hard to argue with that; that culture and structure both matter – for any person or group – seems a truism. However, for a time, sociologists considered structure paramount, and culture irrelevant, or simply a consequence of structure. What is bracing about this work (and what is consistent with Dr. Patterson’s previous writings) is that while the authors acknowledge that black people face disadvantages, they do not absolve black people of responsibility for their own success or failure.
Patterson and Ethan Fosse edit this insightful and nuanced collection of research-based essays describing the culture – Patterson would insist upon the plural “cultures” – of young black people, and especially poor, young black people. Patterson and Fosse write several of the chapters. There are chapters on, for example, the values of disconnected black youth, hip-hop’s dominance of youth culture, the role of religion, and gender relations among black men and women. Most salient for people like me who work on the reform end of things – I work in correctional psychiatry – are chapters about what, if anything, can be done to improve the situations of black youths. Thus there are also chapters on the effect of affluent suburban schooling, job skills training, encouraging committed relationships among new parents (a study with dismal results), and changing how colleges approach poor students in order to maximize the students’ chances of graduating.
No surprise: there are no easy answers. On the other hand, the evidence suggests that some things work, such as nursing visits to young mothers. In the concluding chapter, Patterson recommends a mix of structural and cultural changes. I doubt we are going to see the overhaul of inner cities, the ending of segregation, and the jobs program that Patterson envisages. A more likely possibility, and one Patterson also recommends, is a substantial decline in the incarceration rate in our country, especially among young black men.
Patterson also advocates for two parents in the home. He considers single-parent families a “national tragedy.” I agree. I have witnessed the disaster of single-parent (i.e. single mother) families nearly every day of my professional career, since my second year of medical school. I am concerned that single-parent families and excessive incarceration may feed upon themselves in a vicious cycle.
Patterson’s and Fosse’s work aspires to popular readership, but may be too big – its heft qualifies it as a "tome" – and too laden with sociological jargon and constructs to maintain the attentions of non-professional readers. (Terms such as “diachronically”, “keying”, and “priming” are an eye-rolling reminder that we are reading sociologists using big, abstract words to describe the everyday behaviors of everyday people.) On the other hand, The Cultural Matrix is accessible and even enjoyable to policymakers, educators, and clinicians – the people in position to learn from this formidable work, and consider and enact its recommendations.
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Feb 18, 2020Ahmed rated it it was ok
Quite boring and uninformative. A collection of articles by a bunch of Harvard scholars. The writing is objective, cold and uninteresting. The book doesn’t address hot issues like the culture of the ghetto, the cycle of poverty and crime and the psychologically scarred black youth and most important of all the epidemic of drug use and hip hop music culture. Instead, it sticks to political correctness and general euphemisms. It lacks courage and daring as the subject requires and finally falls short of its purpose. (less)
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Feb 24, 2018Toby Mustill rated it really liked it
An incredibly in-depth look at African American youth in the United States. This book is a collection of articles from extremely knowledgeable scholars. The articles provide intertwining (although completely separate) accounts off all the factors effecting life as an African American youth. Although this book does an excellent job in the description, it falls short of providing in-depth recommendations for the issues presented. A very long but important book for anyone interested in the topic!
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Sep 10, 2017Markes Gonzalez rated it liked it
Academic read. Not quite the sociological study I thought it would be. Still, an informative read.
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