ADVISORY

Welfare. Social Security. The Federal Budget. As the nation debates these and other social and economic issues, University of Michigan sociologist W. Reynolds Farley can provide informed analysis of the demographic trends and economic shifts underlying the debates and producing a new and different country. Prof. Farley can be reached at (313) 998-7141.

“State of the Union: America in the 1990s,” a two- volume set edited by Farley and just published by the Russell Sage Foundation, uses 1990 U.S. Census data to present an up-to- date picture of American life.

According to Farley, a research scientist at the U-M Population Studies Center, a growing polarization characterizes the state of the American union, as four major,interrelated trends sweep the nation: industrial restructuring, changing racial and ethnic composition, a prosperous and growing older population, and profound changes in marital patterns and family structure.

Among the questions ” State of the Union” addresses: –What ” edge cities” are and why they’re the boom towns of the ’90s; –Whether women are finally closing the wage gap with men; –Who is working, who is not, and why; –Whether the growing older population is better or worse off than older Americans used to be; –What the implications are of raising up to 30 percent of the nation’s children in single-parent families; and –Why education is more important than ever.

Farley is available to comment on the current state of the union, and to offer expert opinion on where America is heading as the nation approaches the millennial census.