concepts
type: Collection
type: ConceptGroup
member: urban underclass

housing and urbanization
type: Concept
narrower: urban underclass

socioeconomic status
type: Concept
narrower: urban underclass

urban geography
type: Concept
narrower: urban underclass

urban underclass
type: Concept
broader: urban geography
broader: socioeconomic status
broader: housing and urbanization
definition: Within the cores of American cities, and to a lesser extent in other industrialized countries (although most have better national safety nets than does the United States), lives a sizable group of impoverished people often known as the urban underclass. The term has been the object of much debate because some argue that it dehumanizes those to which it refers; however, the concept is widely acknowledged to have considerable validity. [Source: Encyclopedia of Human Geography; Urban Underclass]