Essay Instructions: Fact: I am not really sure what sociological issue can be talked about for this geographical area so I am asking for this help and have provided you with the information I have been given.
Problem: Needed a literature review about a neighborhood issue that is part of the background information presented below. I was thinking single parent families but you may find something better. Use 2-3 outside readings preferable sociological studies about one issue relating to this neighborhood and social mobility (San Leandro, California). Based on the background information I have sent you please focus on one sociological issue using 2-3 sources. This is a literature review only. Perhaps single parent families or if you see a better sociological topic to focus on for this community please feel free to develop a different idea. I just need to have three sources and all need to be APA cited. This is the Literature review part of a big paper.
Assignment: 3 page literature review on one issue relating to neighborhoods and mobility. Use the literature and be sure to cite this using APA.
EXAMPLE: (For example, in my zip code 94109, we deal issues of wealth neighboring urban poverty. I might look up research on segregation in San Francisco. I might also find an article on urban poverty in San Francisco. I will discuss the main point of both articles and relate them to our discussion of racial inequality)
BACKGROUND:
San Leandro is a small suburban city located in the county of Alameda in the American state of California. The city of San Leandro has an estimated population of around eighty four thousand nine hundred and fifty, according to current estimates of the United States bureau of Statistics Census. The city of San Leandro City is one of the major cities in California and has the greatest number of white residents relative to other cities. The average number of Whites (31,946) exceeds the average population of African Americans (10,437), Native American (669), Asian (25,206) and Pacific Islander (642), other races (16, 050) and Latino/Hispanics (23,237 (“American Fact Finder” 2010). For every ninety-three male residents in the location there are one hundred female residents. An average of one hundred females exceeding the age of eighteen match an estimated eighty-nine males of the same age. The average household income for the residents of this city is slightly above fifty one thousand dollars while that of families falls in the region of sixty thousand dollars. The male residents earn an average of forty one thousand dollars compared to females who bring in thirty three thousand four hundred dollars in income. The entire city’s per capita income is twenty three thousand eight hundred and ninety-five dollars, divided between four and a half percent of the city’s families and about six and a half of the city’s population deemed to be living below the line of poverty (“American Fact Finder” 2010). The number of individuals living below the level of poverty is inclusive of 7.3 percent of individuals that are aged eighteen years and 6.5 percent of older people whose age exceeds sixty-five years.
San Leandro has a notable presence of single female householders who have children. The household distribution statistics indicate twenty-nine percent of all households being single person households. Female householders with children make up six percent of all the households in comparison to two percent that comprise of male householders with children. This indicates a financial strain on the part of women who have to single handedly cater for the needs of their families (“American Fact Finder” 2010). These figures also indicate the presence of a flourishing family life in the city with married couples that have children making up twenty one percent of the households and married couples that do not have children being twenty six percent. This indicates that the number of families that practice family planning is significant.
There seems to be a generally equal distribution of resources for both males and females in the city of San Leandro. Although males earn incomes that slightly exceed those earned by their female counterparts, statistics indicate that they earn it the hard way, with a majority of them working in the construction and service industries. There is a slight disparity in the expenditures of males and females in the city. With the presence of single parent households that females head, it is an indication that most of the income earned by females finds use in catering for the family. The statistics paint the city as an area occupied by generally affluent Hispanics, with most of them being homeowners. In terms of economic disparities, the city has a relatively small percentage of people living below the poverty line (“American Fact Finder” 2010). The city also has enough facilities in terms of education and the health sector although this will merit an address in future because of its notable yearly population growth since the year 2000. For San Leandro city to achieve Race, gender and social equality, it needs systemic changes in social interaction modes and in policy at all levels of the city. As the American Fact finder website illustrates, this includes public services, work, home, media and at school. The American fact finder demonstrates that white and black students attending high school in affluent environments have minimal chances of dropping out of school relative to those attending schools in poor environments. Evidently, the most critical element in bearing on the success rate of students was the affluence of the school and not the racial aspect of the student body. Students attending racially mixed schools scored a high performance relative to students attending all-black schools. Therefore, the distances in the quality of school between all-black schools and racially mixed schools are increasing at the higher education level. As a result, it can be arguably said that absence of the spatial segregation of minorities, most social ills characterizing urban poverty in the city of San Leandro would not exist.
With the deep rooted Race, gender and social factors perpetuating ethnicity, economic inequality, ethnic and racial conflict, educational inequalities, the city is in a tremendous need of reframing the issues and create strategies for change. Framing issues of gender equality is reflected through social justice and human rights. It permits men to view participation in gender issues as actions helping to improve human rights at all levels within the city. This framework of human rights offers a solid instrument for fighting ethnicity, economic inequality, ethnic and racial conflict, educational inequalities in the city.
Below are links to signle parent literature studies as I need 2-3 outside sociological studies as part of this literature review. I have included a couple below but certainly you are welcome to find your own or concentrate on a totally different sociological issue that I am not seeing.
POSSIVLE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES to use:
These articles are about Single Parent Families.
The Single-Parent Family: A Social and Sociological Problem
Jane K. Burgess
The Family Coordinator
Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1970), pp. 137-144
Published by: National Council on Family Relations
Article Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/582443
found at
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/582443?uid=3739560&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102799134293
http://www.prb.org/pdf10/single-motherfamilies.pdf
http://ronaldg.bol.ucla.edu/Rons_UCLA_Homepage/Reese,_Balzano,_et_al,_1995_files/Reese,%20Balzano,%20Gallimore%20%26%20Goldenberg,%201995.pdf
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7493