Ghetto Schooling and a Theme of Three Theories: Functionalism, Conflict and Interactionist
by David W. Boles

Ghetto Schooling is a provocative book that emphasizes the social stratification between the culturally nourished and the socially famished in Newark’s “Marcy School” while grinding a point to the argument that the inequities in urban cities are nested in ghetto economies (Anyon, 1997) where the everyday thinking concerns only survival from breath to breath and not long term planning for how to get up and out. This paper will examine the strengths and weaknesses Anyon’s book from three sociological perspectives: Functionalism, Conflict and Interactionist and how together those three theories conceptualize a theme of how to begin to cure the ills of ghetto schools....

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