Decivilization and demonization. The remaking of the black ghetto in America.

Abstract

The article analyzes the transformations of the U.S. black ghetto from the 1960s to the present. Wacquant describes a process of “decivilization,” characterized by the retreat of the state, the disintegration of public space and social relations, and rising crime. In parallel, a “demonization” of the black urban underclass, represented through the trope of the “underclass,” takes place. These processes reinforce each other, justifying urban abandonment and punitive containment by the state, contributing to the degradation of the contemporary ghetto.