Managing to Make It

Managing to Make It, by Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., Thomas D. Cook, Jacquelynne Eccles, Glen H. Elder, Jr., and Arnold Sameroff, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 0226273911 (paperback), 0226273938 (hardback)

One of the myths about families in inner-city neighborhoods is that they are characterized by poor parenting. The distinguished sociologist Frank Furstenberg and his colleagues explode this and other misconceptions about success, parenting, and socioeconomic advantage in Managing to Make It.

Based on nearly 500 interviews and qualitative case studies of families in inner-city Philadelphia, Managing to Make It reveals how parents and their teenage children managed different levels of resources and dangers in low-income neighborhoods and how families and communities contributed to the development of the children. The survey results and qualitative analyses lay out in great detail the creative means parents use to manage the risks and opportunities in their communities and the strategies they develop to steer their children away from risk and toward resources that foster positive development and lead to success.

Challenging misconceptions about life in the inner-city, Managing to Make It shows that poor parenting is not necessarily more common in disadvantaged neighborhoods and explains why neighborhood advantage is not invariably linked to success. At the same time the study offers a wealth of information about programs, services, and policy decisions that will be indispensable to policy makers, sociologists, educators, and anyone concerned with the fate of the urban poor.