The recent economic recession and a sluggish recovery have made conditions especially precarious for the most disadvantaged members of the urban poor population-those with criminal records, health condi­tions, undocumented status, or unstable housing. The authors in this volume of The ANNALS argue that the fewer the resources to which people have access, the more their circumstances will depend on the organizations in which they participate, the sys­tems in which these organizations operate, and the institutions governing the behaviour of both.

Over the last 25 years, social science on urban poverty has grappled primarily with evidence of deindustrialization and the loss of low-skilled manufacturing jobs. In turn, structural economic change has transformed family structure, educational attainment, crime, and geographic concentration of the poor. Researchers have approached these issues from a limited set of theoretical perspectives, perspectives wherein the core units of analysis, aside from the market, have been the individual and the neighbourhood. The editors of this volume argue that, today, understanding the conditions of these highly disadvantaged populations requires a focus on not only individuals and their neighbourhoods but also, and perhaps more importantly, on the organizations that structure their lives, the systems in which those organizations are embedded, and the institutions that regulate both.

Introduction: Reconsidering the Urban Disadvantaged: The Role of Systems, Institutions, and Organizations; Scott W. Allard and Mario L. Small
Transnationalism and Community Building: Chinese Immigrant Organizations in the United States; Min Zhou and Rennie Lee
Studying the Roles of Nonprofits, Government, and Business in Providing Activities and Services to Youth in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area; Joseph Galaskiewicz, Olga V. Mayorova, and Beth M. Duckles
The Micro Dynamics of Support Seeking: The Social and Economic Utility of Institutional Ties for HIV-Positive Women; Celeste Watkins-Hayes
The Development of Sectoral Worker Center Networks; Hector R. Cordero-Guzman, Pamela A. Izvnariu, and Victor Narro
People, Place and System: Organizations and the Renewal of Urban Social Theory; Nicole P. Marwell and Michael McQuarrie
Beyond Hierarchies and Markets: Are Decentralized Schools Lifting Poor Children?; Bruce Fuller and Danfeng Soto-Vigil Koon
Mass Incarceration, Macrosociology, and the Poor; Bruce Western and Christopher Muller
Can Drug Courts Help To Reduce Prison and Jail Populations?; Eric L. Sevigny, Harold A. Pollack, and Peter Reuter
Home is Hard to Find: Neighborhoods, Institutions, and the Residential Trajectories of Returning Prisoners; David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff, and Claire W. Herbert
Integration and Exclusion: Urban Poverty, Public Housing Reform, and the Dynamics of Neighborhood Restructuring; Robert J. Chaskin
Segregating Shelter: How Housing Policies Shape the Residential Locations of Low-Income Minority Families; Stefanie DeLuca, Philip M.E. Garboden, and Peter Rosenblatt