Definition of Missing Class
(noun) “[A] forgotten [part] of the [United States’] labor force—too prosperous to be the ‘working poor,’ too insecure to be ‘middle income'” (Newman and Chen 2008:2).
Etymology of Missing Class
- Term coined by Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen in Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America. Newman and Chen conducted interviews with public service workers and their families in New York City between 1995–2002 to investigate the missing class phenomenon.
Missing Class Pronunciation
Syllabification: miss·ing class
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /mIs-ing klAs/
- British English – /mIs-ing klAHs/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈmɪsɪŋ klæs/
- British English – /ˈmɪsɪŋ klɑːs/
Usage Note
- Plural: missing classes
Related Videos
Additional Information
- Word origin of “missing” and “class” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Abramsky, Sasha. 2013. The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives. New York: Nation Books.
- Caliendo, Stephen M. 2014. Inequality in America Race, Poverty, and Fulfilling Democracy’s Promise. New York: Westview Press.
- Chang, Mariko Lin. 2010. Shortchanged: Why Women have Less Wealth and What can be Done about It. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Irvin, George. 2008. Super Rich: The Rise of Inequality in Britain and the United States. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Newman, Katherine S., and Elisabeth S. Jacobs. 2010. Who Cares? Public Ambivalence and Government Activism from the New Deal to the Second Gilded Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Payne, Ruby K. 2013. A Framework for Understanding Poverty: A Cognitive Approach. 5th ed. Aha! Process.
- Shipler, David K. 2004. The Working Poor: Invisible in America. New York: Knopf.
- Smith, Laura. 2010. Psychology, Poverty, and the End of Social Exclusion: Putting our Practice to Work. New York: Teachers College Press.
- Tach, Laura M., and Sara Sternberg Greene. 2014. “‘Robbing Peter to Pay Paul’: Economic and Cultural Explanations for How Lower-income Families Manage Debt.” Social Problems 61(1):1–21. doi:10.1525/sp.2013.11262.
- Tirado, Linda. 2014. Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America. New York: Putnam
- Katherine Newman on The Missing Class – Bill Moyers Journal: pbs.org
Related Terms
Reference
Newman, Katherine S., and Victor Tan Chen. 2007. The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America. Boston: Beacon Press.
Cite the Definition of Missing Class
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