Unspeakable: The Mysterious Rise and Fall of Crime since 1960

National political culture and social science research in the U.S. have coalesced in blocking recognition of significant experiential and ethnic realities of contemporary crime and economic inequality.  Among the hidden social processes are patterns of network cooperation based on ascribed identity features; the development of collectively held portfolios of property values and government benefits as the basis of individuals’ material well-being; and the formation in the 20th century of a miscellany of historical cohorts as the reference sets used by individuals to understand their biographies.  A pragmatist alternative is to compare the consequences of alternative policies, without regard to the ideologies they would sustain or the causes of the social problems they target.  The discussion will focus on contemporary Los Angeles as seen through biographical interviews, census data, and studies of the ethnic organization of the economy.

Jack Katz, Soziologe; Research Professor Emeritus am Department of Sociology der University of California in Los Angeles
Moderation: Dr. Nadja Maurer Ethnologin; Wissenschaftlerin am Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung