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Challenging the Growth Machine: Neighborhood Politics in Chicago and Pittsburgh
Economic development and urban growth are the contested grounds of urban politics. Business elites and politicians tend to forge "pro-growth" coalitions centered around downtown development while progressive and neighborhood activists counter with a more balanced approach that features a strong neighborhood component. Urban politics is often shaped by this conflict, which has intellectual as well as practical dimensions. In some cities, neighborhood interests have triumphed; in others, the pro-growth agenda has prevailed.
In this illuminating comparative study, Barbara Ferman demonstrates why neighborhood challenges to pro-growth politics were much more successful in Pittsburgh than they were in Chicago. Operating largely in the civic arena, Pittsburgh's neighborhood groups encountered a political culture and institutional structure conducive to empowering neighborhood progressivism in housing and economic development policymaking. In contrast, the pro-growth agenda in Chicago was challenged in the electoral arena, which was dominated by machine, ward-based politicians who regarded any independent neighborhood organizing as a threat. Consequently, neighborhood demands for policymaking input were usually thwarted.
Besides revealing why the development policies of two important American cities diverged, Ferman's unique comparative approach to this issue significantly expands the scope of urban analysis. Among other things, it provides the first serious study to incorporate the civic sector—neighborhood politics—as an important component of urban regimes. Ferman also emphasizes institutional and cultural factors—often ignored or relegated to residual roles in other studies—and expounds on their influence in shaping local politics and policy. To add an analytical and normative dimension to urban analysis, she focuses on the "non-elite" actors, not just the economic and political elites who compose governing coalitions.
Ultimately, Ferman takes a more holistic and balanced view of large cities than is typical for urban studies as she argues that neighborhoods are an important, integral part of what cities are and can be. For that reason especially, her work will have a profound impact upon our understanding of urban politics.
In this illuminating comparative study, Barbara Ferman demonstrates why neighborhood challenges to pro-growth politics were much more successful in Pittsburgh than they were in Chicago. Operating largely in the civic arena, Pittsburgh's neighborhood groups encountered a political culture and institutional structure conducive to empowering neighborhood progressivism in housing and economic development policymaking. In contrast, the pro-growth agenda in Chicago was challenged in the electoral arena, which was dominated by machine, ward-based politicians who regarded any independent neighborhood organizing as a threat. Consequently, neighborhood demands for policymaking input were usually thwarted.
Besides revealing why the development policies of two important American cities diverged, Ferman's unique comparative approach to this issue significantly expands the scope of urban analysis. Among other things, it provides the first serious study to incorporate the civic sector—neighborhood politics—as an important component of urban regimes. Ferman also emphasizes institutional and cultural factors—often ignored or relegated to residual roles in other studies—and expounds on their influence in shaping local politics and policy. To add an analytical and normative dimension to urban analysis, she focuses on the "non-elite" actors, not just the economic and political elites who compose governing coalitions.
Ultimately, Ferman takes a more holistic and balanced view of large cities than is typical for urban studies as she argues that neighborhoods are an important, integral part of what cities are and can be. For that reason especially, her work will have a profound impact upon our understanding of urban politics.
208 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1996
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December 19, 2020
I have to admit that in rating this I'm probably not the intended audience---I'm more interested in neighborhoods than in politics. So I may have given this book a higher rating if I were already more interested in its theoretical framework about political systems than in reading its case studies.
That said, even as an outsider to the discipline, it was an interesting read. One thinks of US former-manufacturing cities as being hegemonic in their political-machine workings, but this book demonstrates some ways in which ostensibly similar machine politics vary a lot based on the ways neighborhoods organize themselves politically and are laid out demographically.
Although my interest in neighborhoods is better demonstrated by, say, Helmreich's sociological approach to NYC, Ferman's perspective serves to illuminate broader stakes of layouts I tend to take for granted. Neighborhoods don't exist in a vacuum, but rather within the leadership structures that govern their cities, and Ferman portrays those interactions quite well, giving me a much better picture of how cities run.
That said, even as an outsider to the discipline, it was an interesting read. One thinks of US former-manufacturing cities as being hegemonic in their political-machine workings, but this book demonstrates some ways in which ostensibly similar machine politics vary a lot based on the ways neighborhoods organize themselves politically and are laid out demographically.
Although my interest in neighborhoods is better demonstrated by, say, Helmreich's sociological approach to NYC, Ferman's perspective serves to illuminate broader stakes of layouts I tend to take for granted. Neighborhoods don't exist in a vacuum, but rather within the leadership structures that govern their cities, and Ferman portrays those interactions quite well, giving me a much better picture of how cities run.
Displaying 1 of 1 review