Neighborhood Politics

Neighborhood Politics
ISBN-10
0674607856
ISBN-13
9780674607859
Category
Political science (General)
Pages
328
Language
English
Published
1983
Publisher
Harvard University Press
Authors
Matthew A. Crenson, Professor Matthew A Crenson

Description

What makes an urban neighborhood tick? Why do some of a city's poorest neighborhoods have cleaner streets and less vandalism than many of its more affluent areas? The public services that make certain neighborhoods stand out are often provided by the local residents themselves -- but what makes them take action?

The setting for Matthew Crenson's book is Baltimore. In this surprising, powerful work, he finds that such neighborhood action does not arise from a strong sense of neighborliness or community feeling. Instead, it is precisely when neighbors dislike one another that some features of informal self-organization emerge. Residents' efforts to maintain public order, health, and safety frequently spring from social chaos and discord rather than from homogeneity. In fact, Crenson discovers that in many cases community polities arise not from the cohesiveness of close-knit "urban villages" but from the social diversity, inequality, and conflict that are associated with urbanism itself.

In an era when the inability of government institutions to solve the difficulties of city living is starkly apparent, understanding unofficial neighborhood government is critically important, and it can also clarify the foundations of political order itself Crenson's achievement is to redefine neighborhood problem -- solving as the true "grass roots" urban politics, and in doing so he reveals why Baltimore is one of the few big cities that really work in America today.

Other editions

Similar books

  • Single Parents: A Reference Handbook
    By Karen L. Kinnear

    Casey Foundation . 1995. Kids Count Data Book . Baltimore , MD : Annie E. Casey Foundation . Chambers , Diane . 1997. Solo Parenting : Raising Strong and Happy Families . Minneapolis : Fairview Press . Cherlin , Andrew J. , ed . 1988.

  • Women, Politics, Media: Uneasy Relations in Comparative Perspective
    By Karen Ross

    ... American studies report that salient differences in approach and priorities do exist which fracture along gendered lines . ( See , for example , Thomas , 1991 ; Boles , 1991 ; Blankenship & Robson , 1995 ; Schumaker & Burns , 1998. ) ...

  • Climbing the Hill: Gender Conflict in Congress
    By Karen Foerstel, Herbert N. Foerstel

    When the voters went to the polls in November 1992 , they gave Harman a decisive victory over Flores , but two years later Harman would have a more difficult battle against still another Republican woman , Councilwoman Susan Brooks .

  • 西柏坡研究.四
    By 西柏坡纪念馆

    本书是2015年度国家社会科学重大项目“西柏坡时期中国共产党历史文献整理与研究”(15ZDB043)的文字成果。汇编了近年来社会各界研究西柏坡精神、西柏坡历史、两个务必、“赶考 ...

  • 西柏坡研究(三)
    By 西柏坡纪念馆

    20世纪90年代初以来,西柏坡精神研究经历了从初步到逐步深入、从河北省到走向全国、从理论研究到成为现代化建设特别是全面建设小康社会的实践指导这样一个不断发展的过程。

  • Feminism and the Legacy of Revolution: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas
    By Karen Kampwirth

    Booth, John. 1985. The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution. Boulder: Westview. Booth, John, and Thomas W. Walker. 1989. Understanding Central America. Boulder: Westview Borge, Tomás. 1984. Carlos, the Dawn Ls No Longer ...

  • American Legislative Leaders in the West, 1911-1994
    By Nancy Weatherly Sharp, James Roger Sharp

    ... ROBERT MCMASTER 1967 ELDRIDGE DONALD DELOS 1970 COPELAND THOMAS L 1971 SWAYZE THOMAS ALLEN JR 1973 SAWYER LEONARD ALSON ... K 1919 SULLIVAN EUGENE J 1921 EWART LEWIS R STATE NAME 1 ST SPKR ARIZONA 1912 BRADNER SAMUEL B 292 APPENDIX 1.

  • The State of Social Welfare: The Twentieth Century in Cross-national Review
    By John C. Dixon, Robert P. Scheurell

    This collection of documents analyzes the global rise and fall of the welfare state in the 20th century. It concentrates on Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

  • Human Rights and International Political Economy in Third World Nations: Multinational Corporations, Foreign Aid, and Repression
    By William Meyer

    Finally , shortly after the disaster , UC claimed that they believed the leak may have been caused by the deliberate sabotage of a disgruntled employee ( Bogard , 1989 : 3—4 ) . Bogard's investigation of the Bhopal disaster considers ...

  • Experiencing Citizenship: Concepts and Models for Service-learning in Political Science
    By William E. Hudson, Richard M. Battistoni

    This volume is part of a series of 18 monographs service learning and the academic disciplines. This collection of essays focuses on the use of service learning as an approach to teaching and learning in political science.