Download or read book Democracy in Suburbia written by J. Eric Oliver and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suburbanization is often blamed for a loss of civic engagement in contemporary America. How justified is this claim? Just what is a suburb? How do social environments shape civic life? Looking beyond popular stereotypes, Democracy in Suburbia answers these questions by examining how suburbs influence citizen participation in community and public affairs. Eric Oliver offers a rich, engaging account of what suburbia means for American democracy and, in doing so, speaks to the heart of widespread debate on the health of our civil society. Applying an innovative, unusually rigorous mode of statistical analysis to a wealth of unique survey and census data, Oliver argues that suburbs, by institutionalizing class and racial differences with municipal boundaries, transform social conflicts between citizens into ones between political institutions. In reducing the incentives for individual political participation, suburbanization has negated the benefits of ''small town'' government and deprived metropolitan areas of valuable civic capacity. This ultimately increases prospects of serious social conflict. Oliver concludes that we must reconfigure suburban governments to allow seemingly intractable issues of common metropolitan concern to surface in local politics rather than be ignored as cross-jurisdictional. And he believes this is possible without sacrifice of local government's advantages. Scholars and students of political science, sociology, and urban affairs will prize this book for its striking findings, its revealing scrutiny of the commonplace, and its insights into how the pursuit of the American dream may be imperiling American democracy.
Download or read book Suburbia written by Robert Coldwell Wood and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Suburbia written by Robert Coldwell Wood and published by New York : Arno Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book On the City s Rim Politics and Policy in Suburbia written by Frederick M. Wirt and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs written by Lorrie Frasure-Yokley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs examines racial and ethnic politics outside traditional urban contexts and questions the standard theories we use to understand mobility and government responses to rapid demographic change and political demands. This study moves beyond traditional scholarship in urban politics, departing from the persistent treatment of racial dynamics in terms of a simple black-white binary. Combining an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and multiracial approach with a well-integrated analysis of multiple forms of data including focus groups, in-depth interviews, and census data, Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs explains how redistributive policies and programs are developed and implemented at the local level to assist immigrants, racial/ethnic minorities, and low-income groups - something that given earlier knowledge and theorizing should rarely happen. Lorrie Frasure-Yokley relies on the framework of suburban institutional interdependency (SII), which presents a new way of thinking systematically about local politics within the context of suburban political institutions in the United States today.
Download or read book Contested Terrain written by Marc L. Silver and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1995-07-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics, by its nature, is a contentious arena. Suburbia, on the other hand, has long presented the image of a relatively serene, harmonious, and homogenous social context. Until recently little attention has been paid to whatever might be the distinctive qualities of the suburban political scene. Yet, as this collection of essays makes apparent, suburbia is as volatile a political environment as any other. The suburban political sphere is truly a contested terrain, and this volume effectively shows the links between suburban political realities and our collective economic and social well-being. The suburban political sphere is truly a contested terrain. As the authors make clear, the political conflicts that have haunted the United States from its inception—class inequalities, racial frictions, constraints on the democratic impulse—loom large in the suburbia of today. The haven from social turmoil and strife that suburbia represented at mid-century increasingly appears to have been short-lived and, perhaps, even illusory. Political scientists, sociologists, and other researchers as well as concerned citizens are challenged to examine seriously the suburban political landscape. In this volume all will come away with a better understanding of the distinctive practical facets of the suburban political context, and all will have a better appreciation of the connections to our collective economic and social well-being.
Download or read book When America Became Suburban written by Robert A. Beauregard and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2006-08-25 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the decades after World War II, the United States became the most prosperous nation in the world and a superpower whose dominance was symbolized by the American suburbs. Spurred by the decline of its industrial cities and by mass suburbanization, people imagined a new national identity—one that emphasized consumerism, social mobility, and a suburban lifestyle. The urbanity of the city was lost. In When America Became Suburban, Robert A. Beauregard examines this historic intersection of urban decline, mass suburbanization, domestic prosperity, and U.S. global aspirations as it unfolded from 1945 to the mid-1970s. Suburban expansion and the subsequent emergence of sprawling Sunbelt cities transformed every aspect of American society. Assessing the global implications of America’s suburban way of life as evidence of the superiority of capitalist democracy, Beauregard traces how the suburban ideology enabled America to distinguish itself from both the Communist bloc and Western Europe, thereby deepening its claim of exceptionalism on the world-historical stage. Placing the decline of America’s industrial cities and the rise of vast suburban housing and retail spaces into a cultural, political, and global context, Beauregard illuminates how these phenomena contributed to a changing notion of America’s identity at home and abroad. When America Became Suburban brings to light the profound implications of de-urbanization: from the siphoning of investments from the cities and the effect on the quality of life for those left behind to a profound shift in national identity. Robert A. Beauregard is a professor in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. He is the author of Voices of Decline: The Postwar Fate of U.S. Cities and editor of Economic Restructuring and Political Response and Atop the Urban Hierarchy.
Download or read book Transformation from Below White Suburbia in the Transformation of Apartheid South Africa to Democracy written by Ursula Scheidegger and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2015-08-06 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Africa is an example of a relatively successful political transition. Nevertheless, the first democratic elections in 1994 did not change the systemic and structural inequalities, the socioeconomic legacies of discrimination or the alienation of the different population groups. At the centre of this study is the transformation potential of two formerly white neighbourhoods in Johannesburg Norwood and Orange Grove. Both neighbourhoods have experienced considerable demographic changes and the various population groups differ in terms of their expectations and their willingness to adjust to the changes provoked by the transition. At the local level, patterns of discrimination and oppression continue. Spaces, opportunities and leverage of social networks engaged in the community are influenced by the resources people are able to access. Moreover, cooperation is contested in a context of pervasive inequality because there is no incentive for privileged groups to change arrangements that benefit them. In this context of conflicting interests and unequal access to power and resources, decentralisation and the promotion of participatory structures in local communities are a problem and the reliance on local networks as agents of development is questionable.
Download or read book Citizenship Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain written by David Jeevendrampillai and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the conditions of being a citizen, belonging and democracy in suburban Britain, this book focuses on understanding how a community takes on the social responsibility and pressures of being a good citizen through what they call ‘stupid’ events, festivals and parades. Building a community is perceived to be an important and necessary act to enable resilience against the perceived threats of neoliberal socio-economic life such as isolation, selfishness and loss of community. Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain explores how authoritative knowledge is developed, maintained and deployed by this group as they encounter other ‘social projects’, such as the local council planning committee or academic projects researching participation in urban planning. The activists, who call themselves the ‘Seething Villagers’, model their community activity on the mythical ancient village of Seething where moral tales of how to work together, love others and be a community are laid out in the Seething Tales. These tales include Seething ‘facts’ such as the fact that the ancient Mountain of Seething was destroyed by a giant. The assertion of fact is central to the mechanisms of play and the refusal of expertise at the heart of the Seething community. The book also stands as a reflexive critique on anthropological practice, as the author examines their role in mobilising knowledge and speaking on behalf of others. Citizenship, Democracy and Belonging in Suburban Britain is of interest to anthropologists, urban studies scholars, geographers and those interested in the notions of democracy, inclusion, citizenship and anthropological practice.
Download or read book Fenced Off written by Juliet F. Gainsborough and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2001-03-02 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1980s a distinctive suburban politics has emerged in the United States, Juliet F. Gainsborough argues in Fenced Off . As suburbs have become less economically and socially dependent on the central cities, suburban and urban dwellers have diverged not only in their voting patterns but also in their thinking about national politics. While political reporters have long noted this difference, few quantitative studies have been conducted on suburbanization alone—above and beyond race or class—as a political trend. Using census and public opinion statistics, along with data on congressional districts and party platforms, Gainsborough demonstrates that this "ideology of localism" weakens when suburbs experience city-like problems and strengthens when racial and economic differences with the nearby city increase. In addition, Gainsborough uses national survey data from the 1950s to the 1990s to show that a separate suburban politics has arisen only during the last two decades. Further, she argues, the political differences between urban and suburban voters have found expression in changes in congressional representation and new electoral strategies for the major political parties. As Congressional districts become increasingly suburban, "soccer moms" and liveability agendas come to dominate party platforms, and the needs of the urban poor disappear from political debate. Fenced Off uses the tools of political science to prove what political commentators have sensed—that the suburbs offer a powerful voting bloc that is being courted with sophisticated new strategies.
Download or read book The New Suburban History written by Kevin M. Kruse and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2006-07-15 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction: The new suburban history / Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue -- Marketing the free market : state intervention and the politics of prosperity in metropolitan America / David M.P. Freund -- Less than plessy : the inner city, suburbs, and state-sanctioned residential segregation in the age of Brown / Arnold R. Hirsch -- Uncovering the city in the suburb : Cold War politics, scientific elites, and high-tech spaces / Margaret Pugh O'Mara -- How hell moved from the city to the suburbs : urban scholars and changing perceptions of authentic community / Becky Nicolaides -- "The house I live in" : race, class, and African American suburban dreams in the postwar United States / Andrew Wiese -- "Socioeconomic integration" in the suburbs : from reactionary populism to class fairness in metropolitan Charlotte / Matthew D. Lassiter -- Prelude to the tax revolt : the politics of the "tax dollar" in postwar California / Robert O. Self -- Suburban growth and its discontents : the logic and limits of reform on the postwar Northeast corridor / Peter Siskind -- Reshaping the American dream : immigrants, ethnic minorities, and the politics of the new suburbs / Michael Jones-Correa -- The legal technology of exclusion in metropolitan America / Gerald Frug.
Download or read book Democracy in Our America written by Paul W. Kahn and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of America’s most distinguished political theorists examines what happens when national politics enters a small New England town After the election of 2016 and, even more urgently, after the election of 2020, many citizens looked at the economic and cultural divisions that were causing deep disruptions in American politics and asked, “What is happening to us?” Paul W. Kahn explores these fundamental changes as they show themselves in a small New England town—his home of twenty-five years, Killingworth, Connecticut. His inquiry grounds a democratic theory that puts volunteering, not voting, at its center. Absent active participation, citizens lose the capacity for judgment that comes from working with others to solve real problems. Volunteering, however, is under existential threat today. Changes in civil society, commerce, employment, and public opinion formation have isolated families from each other and from their communities. Even middle-class families live under financial stress, uncertain of their children’s future, and without the support of civil society. Local media has disappeared. Residents do not have the time, information, or interest to volunteer. Under these conditions, national polarization enters local politics, which becomes yet another site for national conflict. To save our democracy, Kahn concludes, we need to find ways of matching opportunities for participation to the ways we live our lives today.
Download or read book Don t Blame Us written by Lily Geismer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Don't Blame Us traces the reorientation of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party away from their roots in labor union halls of northern cities to white-collar professionals in postindustrial high-tech suburbs, and casts new light on the importance of suburban liberalism in modern American political culture. Focusing on the suburbs along the high-tech corridor of Route 128 around Boston, Lily Geismer challenges conventional scholarly assessments of Massachusetts exceptionalism, the decline of liberalism, and suburban politics in the wake of the rise of the New Right and the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. Although only a small portion of the population, knowledge professionals in Massachusetts and elsewhere have come to wield tremendous political leverage and power. By probing the possibilities and limitations of these suburban liberals, this rich and nuanced account shows that—far from being an exception to national trends—the suburbs of Massachusetts offer a model for understanding national political realignment and suburban politics in the second half of the twentieth century.
Download or read book Ideology in America written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ground-breaking study of the rapidly changing character of American society in the 1960's and its effect on three Connecticut communities: a troubled central city, one of its fast-growing suburbs, and a declining small town. Explores the working of social and political organizations in the three communities, the variety of differences in the issues each community deems significant, and the methods each uses to deal with them. Originally published in 1969 by Cornell University Press, this edition contains a new introduction by the author
Download or read book The Politics of Local Government written by Barry E. Truchil and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining scholarly literature with elected experience at the local governmental level, Barry E. Truchil addresses the inner workings and politics of local government in small town and suburban settings in The Politics of Local Government. This book explores issues involving development and implementation of budgets, regulation, and control of development (including conversion of open space to housing and business buildings), as well as the initiation of progressive changes such as the use of green energy and control of corruption. Given the limited available research in this area, this book fills a void for scholars in the field, undergraduate and graduate students as well as those interested in the politics of local government.
Download or read book Suburban Sahibs written by S. Mitra Kalita and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focuses on three waves of immigration in the post-civil rights era through the stories of three families: the Kotharis, Patels and Sarmas. This book attempts to answer the question of how and why they arrived, and it offers a window into what America has become; a nation of suburbs as well as a nation of immigrants.
Download or read book Bourgeois Nightmares written by Robert M. Fogelson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-10 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quintessential American suburbs, with their gracious single-family homes, large green lawns, and leaf-shaded streets, reflected not only residents’ dreams but nightmares, not only hopes but fears: fear of others, of racial minorities and lowincome groups, fear of themselves, fear of the market, and, above all, fear of change. These fears, and the restrictive covenants that embodied them, are the subject of Robert M. Fogelson’s fascinating new book. As Fogelson reveals, suburban subdividers attempted to cope with the deep-seated fears of unwanted change, especially the encroachment of “undesirable” people and activities, by imposing a wide range of restrictions on the lots. These restrictions ranged from mandating minimum costs and architectural styles for the houses to forbidding the owners to sell or lease their property to any member of a host of racial, ethnic, and religious groups. These restrictions, many of which are still commonly employed, tell us as much about the complexities of American society today as about its complexities a century ago.
