Urban sociologist Massey makes plans to reach out

by Jennifer Greenstein Altmann
When Douglas Massey, an expert in urban planning, sits down to tackle a problem, he likes to keep in mind some of the blunders that urban planners have made in the past.

One of the classic examples is the high-rise public housing developments of the 1950s and 1960s, said Massey, who joined the Princeton faculty last fall. Entire inner-city neighborhoods were demolished to make way for the high rises, but they turned out to be more conducive to crime and drug dealing than the previous buildings. A mother on the 30th floor couldn't supervise her children hanging out in front of the building, for example. Elevators constantly broke down. And too many people with social problems were concentrated in a small area.

"The plans were based on people's suppositions about what was needed in these neighborhoods, but nobody got out and studied. They were just imposing what they thought, and it was all wrong," said Massey, professor of sociology and public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School, citing class bias as a source of the planners' misjudgments. "As a social scientist, one of the things you learn is how hard it is to figure out what the right answer is. Just because you have good intentions and you want to solve the problems of the world, you can often do more harm than good."

Remembering those mistakes keeps him humble, for one thing, and keeps him focused on the key to doing the job right: gathering and consulting the proper data. Massey has done pioneering work in his fields of research, which include urban sociology, international migration, Latin America, and race and its place in American society. His arrival at Princeton comes 25 years after he received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University.

"I want to reach a wider audience, and that's partly where the Wilson School comes in," he said. "It's my turn to take the gifts I've been given in academia and turn them to a broader public good -- as Woodrow Wilson said, 'Princeton in the nation's service.'"

Read the full story in the Weekly Bulletin.