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Dubious conceptions: The politics of teenage pregnancy
Public Relations Review
informed about all available homes and/or rental unit and you want to be treated fairly during all stages of your housing search. Unfortunately, according to John Yinger, author of Closed Doors, Opportunities Lost, almost 30 years after the Fair Housing Act was passed, blacks and Hispanics continue to face illegal housing discrimination in the United States. In his encyclopedic report on fair housing and lending practices, Yinger, a professor of Economics and Public Administration at Syracuse University, cites over 550 references, but focuses heavily on a $2 million research project, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that he directed. Describing the results of his study as “striking,” Yinger states: “Compared to their white counterparts, African American and Hispanic homeseekers are shown far fewer houses and apartments (and indeed sometimes excluded from available housing altogether), given far less assistance in finding the house or apartment that best fits their needs and in finding a mortgage, and are steered to neighborhoods with minority concentrations or low house values.” To help find a “balanced policy” for “fair housing and fair lending, Yinger sugprivate discrimination, gests five principles that would include: “eliminating avoiding government discrimination either against or in favor of minorities, offsetting the legacy of past discrimination, supporting integrated neighborhoods, and emphasizing personal and individual responsibility.” Public relations practitioners, educators and students should find this book to be a valuable resource because it discusses relevant studies, legislation and concepts. (For example, integrated neighborhoods could be encouraged through “affirmative marketing,” which can expand “housing choice” when used by real estate brokers “to inform customers about housing possibilities in neighborhoods where their own racial or ethnic group is not concentrated . . .” This is fundamentally different from illegal “steering,” which restricts housing choices and can result in segregated neighborhoods.) Socially responsible public relations people should find this thought provoking book enlightening. Nancy M. Somerick The University of Akron
Kristin Luker Dttbious Conceptions:
The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 283 pp., $24.95 (hardcover), 1996 Dubious Conceptions is an important sociological work that analyzes in great detail the issue of teenage pregnancy. The book is well organized, easy-to-read, and presents a perspective that deserves to be heard in social policymaking circles around America.
406
Vol. 22, No. 4
Book Reviews
Luker’s essay challenges two decades of government policies aimed at solving the problem of “kids having kids” It also debunks many of the myths about teen pregnancy and its im pact on society. The author cites dozens of studies en route to her central point: Teen pregnancy is not so much a problem in itself, but the product of a larger problem called poverty. Although Luker offers a compelling analysis, her solutions are predictable and, for the time being, politically impractical. For example, Luker calls for a national childcare and preschool system, along with expanded government initiatives to eradicate poverty. Her prescription sounds curiously like a 90s version of Johnson’s “Great Society,” but is offered at a time when politicians from both parties are scrambling to limit, not expand the role of government as social engineer. Luker admits her plan has little chance of adoption, and points to the Republican Congress as primary villain to solving the problem of poverty in America. But in blaming Newt Gingrich and friends for their inaction, Luker participates in the same sort of “dubious conceptions” she criticizes. Just as teenage pregnancy is a product of the larger concern-poverty-the Republican Congress is the product of a more conservative American electorate-an electorate weary of social programs that achieve “dubious results.” William E. Sledzik Kent State University
Winter
1996
407
informed about all available homes and/or rental unit and you want to be treated fairly during all stages of your housing search. Unfortunately, according to John Yinger, author of Closed Doors, Opportunities Lost, almost 30 years after the Fair Housing Act was passed, blacks and Hispanics continue to face illegal housing discrimination in the United States. In his encyclopedic report on fair housing and lending practices, Yinger, a professor of Economics and Public Administration at Syracuse University, cites over 550 references, but focuses heavily on a $2 million research project, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that he directed. Describing the results of his study as “striking,” Yinger states: “Compared to their white counterparts, African American and Hispanic homeseekers are shown far fewer houses and apartments (and indeed sometimes excluded from available housing altogether), given far less assistance in finding the house or apartment that best fits their needs and in finding a mortgage, and are steered to neighborhoods with minority concentrations or low house values.” To help find a “balanced policy” for “fair housing and fair lending, Yinger sugprivate discrimination, gests five principles that would include: “eliminating avoiding government discrimination either against or in favor of minorities, offsetting the legacy of past discrimination, supporting integrated neighborhoods, and emphasizing personal and individual responsibility.” Public relations practitioners, educators and students should find this book to be a valuable resource because it discusses relevant studies, legislation and concepts. (For example, integrated neighborhoods could be encouraged through “affirmative marketing,” which can expand “housing choice” when used by real estate brokers “to inform customers about housing possibilities in neighborhoods where their own racial or ethnic group is not concentrated . . .” This is fundamentally different from illegal “steering,” which restricts housing choices and can result in segregated neighborhoods.) Socially responsible public relations people should find this thought provoking book enlightening. Nancy M. Somerick The University of Akron
Kristin Luker Dttbious Conceptions:
The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 283 pp., $24.95 (hardcover), 1996 Dubious Conceptions is an important sociological work that analyzes in great detail the issue of teenage pregnancy. The book is well organized, easy-to-read, and presents a perspective that deserves to be heard in social policymaking circles around America.
406
Vol. 22, No. 4
Book Reviews
Luker’s essay challenges two decades of government policies aimed at solving the problem of “kids having kids” It also debunks many of the myths about teen pregnancy and its im pact on society. The author cites dozens of studies en route to her central point: Teen pregnancy is not so much a problem in itself, but the product of a larger problem called poverty. Although Luker offers a compelling analysis, her solutions are predictable and, for the time being, politically impractical. For example, Luker calls for a national childcare and preschool system, along with expanded government initiatives to eradicate poverty. Her prescription sounds curiously like a 90s version of Johnson’s “Great Society,” but is offered at a time when politicians from both parties are scrambling to limit, not expand the role of government as social engineer. Luker admits her plan has little chance of adoption, and points to the Republican Congress as primary villain to solving the problem of poverty in America. But in blaming Newt Gingrich and friends for their inaction, Luker participates in the same sort of “dubious conceptions” she criticizes. Just as teenage pregnancy is a product of the larger concern-poverty-the Republican Congress is the product of a more conservative American electorate-an electorate weary of social programs that achieve “dubious results.” William E. Sledzik Kent State University
Winter
1996
407