From 'Underclass' to 'Undercaste': Some Observations about the Future of the Postindustrial Economy and its Major Victims.

The article focuses on observations about the future of the postindustrial economy and its major victims. When in 1962 sociologist Gunnar Myrdal took an old-fashioned Swedish word for lower class to describe a new American underclass, little did he know what immense effects his brief, new conceptualization would have on America's view and treatment of the poor. This paper is devoted to some observations about that insight 30 years after the publication of his new concept, and about two other topics: variations in how the victims of the post-industrial economy are chosen in different countries, and cross-national variations in the definitions and uses of the term `underclass'. Several researcher stress the importance. of looking at the victims of the postindustrial economy in countries which vary economically, politically and socially. One analysis must examine who is chosen for victimization, how and why and by whom, dealing also with the diverse ways in which people are victimized. Given the centrality of the behavioral definition of 'underclass' in American life, a parallel cross-national study must look at which economic victims are stigmatized with this label, and by whom, and which economic victims escape the stigma and the punishments that accompany it.