The Re-Underdevelopment of an ‘Internal Periphery’: Persistent Polarization in the Mississippi Delta, public lecture by Michael Timberlake (University of Utah)

The Re-Underdevelopment of an ‘Internal Periphery’:

Persistent Polarization in the Mississippi Delta

One of the persistently poor geographical regions of the more developed world lies within the United States, in the Yazoo Mississippi Delta.  The communities in this predominantly rural region have lower average incomes than other regions of the United States, fewer educational resources—and lower attainment, and lower quality of life and health.  While the region's population as a whole suffers from these disadvantages, it is members of the Delta's relatively large African American population who disproportionately fall victim.  Depending upon how this region is defined, African Americans comprise up to forty-percent of the Delta's population, and among them, opportunities for a better life are much more severely circumscribed than for most of the region's White people.  These disparities persist in spite of thirty or more years of efforts to reduce or end them by many well-meaning and determined people.   This presentation describes the researcher’s periodic interviews with local civic and economic leaders of one Delta community since the mid-1980s, and why he continues to be persuaded by explanations for this persistent inequality and underdevelopment that feature consideration a geographically-based political economy of race, class, and gender.  The research also describes the waning enthusiasm of formerly eager agents of progressive social change in the face of these formidable and persistent structural obstacles. 

Michael Timberlake (Ph.D., Brown University, post-doctoral training, The Johns Hopkins University) is professor of sociology at the University of Utah and North American Editor of the journal Urban Studies.  Previously he was a member of the faculties at the University of Memphis (1977-91), Kansas State University (1991-2001).  His research and teaching experience include the sociology of urban and rural communities, urbanization, globalization, and global cities. Timberlake's research efforts have included quantitative cross-national studies of inequality, political violence, and urbanization; theoretical and empirical explorations of a world-city network approach to globalization; and community development-focused research in four Mississippi Delta communities.  His work has been published in journals such as the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Urban Studies, the American Behavioral Scientist, and Cities and Communities.