Columbia University Sociologist to Speak on Racial Inequality at Pitt's Center on Race and Social Problems

PITTSBURGH-Sociologist Kathryn Neckerman will deliver a lecture titled "The Time Tax: Race and Spatial Equity in New York City" at Pitt's Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) from noon to 1:30 p.m. March 14, in the School of Social Work Conference Center, 2017 Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave. The talk is free and open to the public; lunch will be provided, and registration is not required.

Neckerman will address what she calls unequal access for many American residents to basic retail and consumer services such as grocery stores and banks.

"This imposes a 'time tax' on residents who must travel farther to meet their everyday needs," said Neckerman. "We often associate this inequality with poor inner-city communities. In New York City, however, spatial inequality is patterned more strongly by race than by poverty," she added. She feels that recent trends in urban policy could widen the "time tax" gap between New York City Blacks and Whites.

Neckerman, who taught sociology at Columbia University, is now the associate director of Columbia's Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. She has studied the role of race and ethnicity in urban labor markets, family structure, and education. She is the editor of Social Inequality (Russell Sage, 2004) and the author of Schools Betrayed: Roots of Failure in Inner-City Education, forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press. Neckerman earned her bachelor's degree at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., and her master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago-all in sociology.

Her lecture is part of the CRSP Reed Smith Spring 2007 Speaker Series. For more information, call 412-624-7382.

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