Audio recordings of Edward C. Banfield are exceedingly rare. years ago, I posted a couple of them on this website. Over time, I have added a few more.

A few weeks ago, I was delightfully surprised to find an audio recording of Banfield from April 11, 1970. He was on a panel discussion of urban issues held by the Philadelphia Society. The conference, I hasten to add, included some big names: Milton Friedman, Walter Berns, and M. Stanton Evans.

The recording is quite clear, and Banfield speaks for over 20 minutes.

Edward C. Banfield talk on urban issues and solutions

Banfield states that it is helpful to think about urban problems through the lens of class. There are normal class variants of a problem and there are lower class version. Take unemployment as an issue: the normal class problem involves individuals who are disabled, people who are between jobs, etc. The lower class variant frequently involves individuals who do not want to work regular jobs preferring instead “the action of the street.”

He then takes up solutions to these problems, observing that different phenomena require different interventions, and that some problems are not readily addressable by policy. For example, he states that the libertarian proposal to reducing unemployment by abolishing rid the minimum wage to create jobs—well, that will not do much for someone who doesn’t care to take a job. This class framework he developed first in the publication of his book, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (1968) and came to fruition in The Unheavenly City (1970).

Banfield’s comments range widely, and display is clear-eyed realism about the urban “problems.” I thank the Philadelphia Society for preserving and sharing the Banfield talk and the many other presentations.