born Dec. 20, 1935, Derry Township, Pa., U.S.
U.S. sociologist.
He spent 24 years on the University of Chicago faculty before moving to Harvard University in 1996. In The Declining Significance of Race (1978) and The Truly Disadvantaged (1987) he contends that entrenched black poverty stems neither from racism nor from welfare dependency but from changes in the global economy that pull low-skilled manufacturing jobs out of the inner city. In When Work Disappears (1996) he discusses, among other issues, how chronic joblessness erodes work skills. Wilson holds that only "race neutral" programs such as universal health care and government-financed jobs can alleviate the problems of black poverty in the inner city.