January 15, 2009 at 12:16 am | Posted in neighborhoods, non-profits, organizational networks, poverty, what to read | Leave a comment
In “Collaboration Is Not Enough: Virtuous Cycles of Reform in
Transportation Policy,” Margaret Weir, Jane Rongerude, and Christopher K. Ansell analyze the vertical and horizontal networks of development organizations in Chicago and Atlanta. From the abstract: “Over the past two decades, a burgeoning literature has touted the promise of regional collaboration to address a wide range of issues ranging from economic development to poverty and sustainability. This article challenges the premise that horizontal collaboration alone can empower regional decisionmaking venues. By analyzing the organizational networks that emerged in Chicago and Los Angeles in the wake of federal transportation policy reforms in the early 1990s, we show that vertical power is essential to building regional capacities. Only by exercising power at multiple levels of the political system can local reformers launch a virtuous cycle of reform that begins to build enduring regional capacities.” Forthcoming in Urban Affairs Review.
January 5, 2009 at 12:54 am | Posted in amenities, childcare centers, grocery stores, neighborhoods, news, non-profits, organizational density, organizational networks, poverty, social organization, what to read | Leave a comment
The latest issue of the journal City and Community (December 2008 ) features several articles that explore analytic assumptions, international perspectives, and new directions in the study of communities commonly referred to as ghettos. In one of the pieces, “Four Reasons to Abandon the Idea of ‘The Ghetto,’” Mario Small questions the common use of the concept “the ghetto” to theorize conditions in poor, predominantly black urban neighborhoods in the United States. He argues, among other things, that poor black neighborhoods differ dramatically from place to place in their organizational density, the number of banks, childcare centers, pharmacies, and other everyday organizations.
Papers in the symposium:
The Ghetto: Origins, History, Discourse (p 347-352)
Bruce Haynes, Ray Hutchison
Involuntary Segregation and the Ghetto: Disconnecting Process and Place (p 353-357)
Herbert J. Gans
A Century of Harlem in New York City: Some Notes on Migration, Consolidation, Segregation, and Recent Developments (p 358-365)
Andrew A. Beveridge
Barrio Geneology (p 366-371)
Diego Vigil
From the Outside Looking in: A “European” Perspective on the Ghetto (p 372-377)
Talja Blokland
Enclaves, Condominiums, and Favelas: Where Are the Ghettos in Brazil? (p 378-383)
Circe Monteiro
Reconsidering the “Ghetto”1 (p 384-388 )
Anmol Chaddha, William Julius Wilson
Four Reasons to Abandon the Idea of “The Ghetto” (p 389-398 )
Mario Luis Small
City and Community Volume 7, Number 4, December 2008
