IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v405y1973i1p7-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Critical View of the Urban Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Edward C. Banfield

Abstract

The accounts usually given of the causes of the "urban crisis" are not satisfactory: congestion is decreasing, not increasing; the flight to the suburbs has not left the central cities on the verge of bankruptcy; the urban housing supply is on the whole much better than ever; "white racism" has long been on the wane, and blacks are making rapid income and other gains; and the fragmentation of local government does not account for its ineffectiveness. Changes in the state of the public mind are the main cause of the "crisis." Set in motion mainly by the ideas of philosophers, these are reflected in the attitudes of elites and of the middle class with respect to authority, the self, rational egotism, hedonism, egalitarianism, and consumerism. It follows that the "crisis" will not be ended by either government programs or by exhortation.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward C. Banfield, 1973. "A Critical View of the Urban Crisis," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 405(1), pages 7-14, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:405:y:1973:i:1:p:7-14
    DOI: 10.1177/000271627340500102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271627340500102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271627340500102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:405:y:1973:i:1:p:7-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.