Neighborhood Inequality

Neighborhoods matter to inequality on how it can shape children’s lives as adults, financial outcomes. Families who have “impoverished” neighborhood backgrounds are more likely to continue living in poverty for generations to come. Rising in poverished residential environments for generations, is more harmful than living in a poor neighborhood in a single generation. In the predicament carters are in, Sharkey may add that family members who are successful for generations may end up similar neighborhood environments by having resources available to them such as financial capital. Living in wealthier neighborhoods increases children’s educational attainments. folks living in working class neighborhoods may continue living there even if nailing a white-collar occupation. Two-parent family have more of an upward mobility than single parents. Sharkey also emphasizes that ghettos are not persisted but inherited over generations. “Neighborhood inequality may be one of the most rigid dimensions of inequality in America” (35). Living in the ghettos or places with high poverty affects educational outcomes since schools are much poorer and there are fewer resources given to them. Sharkey describes the distinct tie between neighborhoods plays a direct role in reproducing inequality. Sharkey focuses on how inequality in neighborhoods can be multigenerational followed by affecting the trajectory
of children’s future and emotional ties to communities.
PART 2 Middle-class parents utilize concerted cultivation in ways to influence the trajectory of their children’s future of reproducing their own status.
Parent’s fostering their children’s talents through organized activities, enhances their children’s ability to do well in school and in the working force. Cultural capital produced by the middle-class families puts them at an advantage over the lower-class families. Discarding concerted cultivation places families on an even playing field since lower class families are not able to give out as much resources as middle-class parents
do.

Bowles and Gintis believes education reproduces capitalism through social relations in the workforce and school. Schools funnel the working-class labor force, inequality is gained, and the process is legitimated. The school system creates worker’s personality traits and consciousness. The lower end of the spectrum is being learned to be obedient and this creates the class hierarchy. For Bourdieu, the education system reproduces the cultural capital practiced by the family that of the closest to the dominant culture. Those richest in cultural capital are more inclined to invest in their children’s education to reproduce their status. Restructuring the education system is necessary for all classes to succeed. As of now, Bourdieu argues it reproduces inequality and the relations between classes. Occupational prestige shapes parents access to resources.

When dealing with inequality at home, parents naturally give unequal treatment between the siblings. Birth order is significant considering resources are essentially dispersed unevenly between a child and their siblings, when parents have more than one child to care for. Siblings naturally compete due to the scarcity of resources in some families. Parents who continue investing in their kids, gives their children the opportunity to strive for success. While it is recommended that parents should not have more than three children, if parents are concerned about their children’s future, spacing matters so there is an equal amount of resources given to each child.
Every theorist gives their own reason on what grounds inequality is reproduced, they share some similarities and differences between themselves. Education reproduces the cultural capital that is produced by the upper class. The upper class set the standards and we are being tested by it. Bourdieu concludes education system masks its role in reproduction of inequality and power relations between classes. Sharkey suggests Neighborhoods limits the amount of access individuals have to resources which shape children’s lives as they grow to adulthood. Parents use different methods of child development; the middle class use concerted cultivation while the working-class parents or poor parents use natural growth. Capital is a resource that some families do not have enough of. Children are more likely to succeed through their adulthood with having a background of high capital. Any type of capital is beneficial for children as they group up, whether its human, social, cultural, or financial.