Urban Conditions: General

• Date: 01 May 1967
• Author: Daniel P. Moynihan
• DOI: 10.1177/000271626737100110
• Published date: 01 May 1967
• Subject Matter: Articles

Urban Conditions: General
By DANIEL P. MOYNIHAN
ABSTRACT: Solving United States urban problems is an
increasingly important concern of the public and of govern-
ment officials.
Social science can make an important contribu-
tion to solutions by providing urban social indicators. Three
general propositions concerning this process are: (1) Social
scientists must be prepared for accusations of betrayal from
proponents of causes which they have previously supported,
if data conflict with objectives of such causes. (2) How indi-
cators are developed will influence at what level problems are
resolved.
(3) Social indicators will be developed by profes-
sors and government executives whose judgments will be based
on a value-background different from that of the urban masses
being measured. In the light of these propositions, four
guidelines for social indicators are suggested: (1) They should
be in the realm of disaggregation and correlation. (2) As they
cannot be apolitical, they must be pan-political. (3) They
should be concerned with the future as well as the present.
(4) They should provide comparisons of local, national, and
"best practice" data. The indicators should report urban
conditions in three categories: (1) people as individuals—
numbers, distribution, density, mobility, employment, income,
behavior, health, and participation rates; (2) f amilies—un—
employment and welfare statistics’ correlations and "poverty
neighborhood" studies; and (3) institutions—public service
and voluntary organizations, business, mass media, education,
and urban ecology.—Ed.
Daniel P. Moynihan, Ph.D., Cambridge, Massachusetts, is Director, M.I.T.-Harvard
Joint Center for Urban Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 1954, he was Director
of Public Relations, International Rescue Committee, and from 1955 to 1958 held,
successively, the positions of Assistant to the Secretary, Assistant Secretary, and
Acting Secretary to the Governor of New York. From 1959 to 1961, he was Director,
New York State Government Research Project, Syracuse University, and from 1961
to 1965, he was successively, Assistant to the Secretary of Labor and Assistant Secre-
tary of Labor for Policy Planning and Research. He is coauthor of Beyond the Melting
Pot (1963) and author of articles in various journals.
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A CHARACTERISTIC theme of to the degree to which social science
American politics at this time, and
becomes exact.&dquo; The demonstrated fea-
an emerging element of American sensi-
sibility of putting social science infor-
bility, is that of &dquo;urban crisis.&dquo; Shorn
mation and theory to work on social
of a tendency to overdo, much of
problems imposes a new and special set
this comes down to a common-sense
of strains both on policy-makers and on
concern with the immediate social and
those who would advise them. To a
physical environment on the part of a
degree that has not, perhaps, existed
society that has been perhaps overmuch
since the age of theological certitude, it
involved with questions of cosmic im-
becomes possible to be &dquo;right&dquo; or
port-and cosmic inscrutability. This
&dquo;wrong,&dquo; and difficult-even impossible
tendency is likely to become more, not
-to avoid scrutiny in just these terms.
less pronounced : the current military in-
There is no turning back: we have bit
volvement in Asia is demonstrating to
this bullet, and had best get on with the
the nation clearly enough that there are
slaughter of a good many of those cher-
limits to its desire to manage the world,
ished notions which are certain to perish
just as there are limits to the world’s
in the first data runs. It will be easy
desire to be managed. Peace is likely
enough to demonstrate what does not
to bring a very considerable inward
work: the job of social science must be
turning, and this is more than likely to
to provide some plausible suggestions as
be defined in terms of an &dquo;attack&dquo;
to what will work.
(there is no avoiding an excess of ag-
THREE GENERAL PROPOSITIONS
gressiveness in American life) on the
problems of cities. Current expositions
Three general propositions may be
of the subject, for example, the hear-
made. First of all, it is essential that
ings conducted by Senator Abraham
all concerned with the development of a
Ribicoff’s Subcommittee on Executive
system of urban social indicators be
Reorganization of the United States
prepared in advance to find themselves
Senate Committee on Government Oper-
accused of having betrayed some of those
ations, as well as President Johnson’s
very causes with which they have been
plans for a model cities program, pro-
most allied.
Concern about urban af-
vide the rudiments of a postwar plan-
fairs derives directly from concern about
ning program. The proposals will be
urban problems: it involves the state-
there when, as may be the case, the
ment by certain persons that certain
national government is, of a sudden,
things are not as they ought to be, and
looking about for something else to do.
must be changed for the better. Such
Moreover, in a nation that increasingly
attitudes are almost always minority
senses the immense burdens imposed
views, at least in the beginning. As a
by the racial barriers and hostilities of
group, however, American social scien-
the present, concern for &dquo;urban affairs&dquo;
tists are peculiarly prone to sharing and
is certain to emerge as the most accept-
even to creating such concerns. They
able code word for &dquo;Negro&dquo; problems-
are problem-prone and reform-minded,
and the white attitudes that give rise
and inevitably come to be seen as allies
to so many of them.
by those about whose problems they are
In the familiar pattern, this poses
most concerned. These latter, becoming
both an opportunity and a problem
accustomed to having social scientists on
for the social sciences.
Irving Louis
their side, easily come to assume that
Horowitz has put it thus: &dquo;The problem
social science will be.
This does not
of social policy becomes acute precisely
always happen, a fact not easily for-

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161
given. Knowledge is power, and in con-
macropolicy net. We are the richest
temporary society social scientists are
nation on earth, with some of the worst
often in the position of handing power
slums; the most educated, with some
about in an almost absent-minded way.
of the most marginal school children;
Professional ethics, at least as ideally
and the most mobile, with some of the
defined, can lead them to hand out the
most rigid caste confinements. One likely
very best arguments to those whom they
source of these contradictions is the
would consider the very worst con-
reluctance, even the refusal, of many
tenders. This is a dilemma not yet well
public organizations to report, much less
understood, and certainly not resolved.
to insist on, the relationship between
For the moment, the most that can be
their activities and concerns with other
done is to be forewarned.’
problems. This must be presumed to
The second proposition is that the
be part of the explanation behind Scott
way in which urban indicators are de-
Greer’s statement that &dquo;at a cost of
veloped is likely to have considerable
more than three billion dollars, the
influence on the level of government-
Urban Renewal Agency has succeeded
and of abstraction-at which the prob-
in materially reducing the supply of low
lems are dealt with.
Specifically, if
cost housing in American cities.&dquo;
In-
urban indicators remain for the most
sisting that one thing has nothing to do
part &dquo;national&dquo; statistics, a powerful
with another is likely to have the effect
built-in tendency to seek &dquo;national&dquo;
of intensifying rather than moderating
solutions will emerge.
the unavoidable interactions.
This is no small matter.
The eco-
A third general consideration may be
nomic policies of the federal government
termed a matter of temperament. It
over the past two generations-begin-
has to do with the fact that urban social
ning with the New Deal-have been
indicators are almost certainly going to
brilliantly successful. But they have
be developed by professors and govern-
concentrated attention on data at the
ment executives who will be far more
continental, even the global level-
concerned with what is bad about cities
&dquo;aggregatics&dquo; in Bertram Gross’s allusive
than with what is good about them.
term-to the exclusion, or at very least
These men will judge good and bad in
the neglect, of specific circumstances.
terms of their own rather special values
Thus, the United States has, quite pos-
acquired in the course of family, reli-
sibly, the best employment data in the
gious, educational, and occupational ex-
world, but there is no city in the nation
periences that, by and large, are quite
that knows what its unemployment rate
different from those of the urban masses
is. And while the economy of the na-
whose condition they will seek to mea-
tion booms, sizzles, and soars, it has
sure.
The idea of social indicators, and
somehow become a practice for city
of an urban subset, is pre-eminently a
workers to riot every summer; after
product of the American intellectual
which disturbances, enquiries determine
world, although, of course, with a whole
that quite astonishing numbers of them
European tradition behind it. But the
were without work.
An impressive
particular quality of the American intel-
number of contradictions have somehow
lectual-quite distinct from his Euro-
slipped through the interstices of the
...