URBAN POLITICS IN AMERICA Professeur(s) : Clément Boisseuil Année universitaire 2016/2017 : Spring Semester SCHEDULE Class 1. Introduction: what is urban politics? Presentation of the class Urban politics and/or urban sociology Place matters Theorizing the city Dennis R. Judd, Chapter 1: Theorizing the city in Dennis R. Judd and Dick Simpson (2010), The City Revisited: Urban Theory from Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis (MN) Class 2. History and growth of urban America Birth and growth of a Nation Urbanization through migration and industrialization (Fordism) The effects of rapid urbanization Louis Wirth (1938), Urbanism as a way of life, The American journal of sociology, Vol. 44, No 1, pp. 1-24 Richard Crocker, Tammany Hall and the democracy, in Mollenkopf John H. and Strom, Elizabeth A. 2004. The urban politics reader, Routledge, NYC (NY), pp. 53-57 What are Fordist and Post-Fordist cities? Class 3. Governing cities in the US: history, political machines and regime theory From the Civil War to the Africa-American Great Migration The Gilded Age and Political Machines Reformers and urban inequalities 1
Raymond E. Wolfinger, Why political machines have not withered away and other revisionist thoughts, in Mollenkopf John H. and Strom, Elizabeth A. (2004), The urban politics reader, Routledge, NYC (NY), pp. 76-84 Clarence Stone (1993), Urban regimes and the capacity to govern: a political economy approach, Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol. 15, No 1, pp. 1-28 How to differentiate urban regimes and political machines? Class 4. From the Federal to the Local: governing urban spaces Governmental authorities and political parties Urban regimes: governing cities? Elite theorists and pluralists City Limits The city as a growth machine Global cities? John Logan and Harvey Molotch, "The City as a Growth Machine", in Mollenkopf, John H. and Strom, Elizabeth A. (2004), The urban politics reader, Routledge, NYC (NY), pp. 194-216 Elizabeth Strom (2008), Rethinking the politics of downtown development, Vol. 30, Issue 1, pp. 37-61 Los Angeles (CA), Chicago (IL) and New York City (NY): global cities? Class 5. North/South: large metropolises, competition and cooperation LA, NYC and Chicago Schools The rise of the Sun Belt from California to Florida? Chapter 9: the rise of the sunbelt in Judd and Swanstrom (2012), City politics: the political economy of place, Pearson, Saint Louis (MI), pp. 234-255 Michael Dear, Los Angeles and the Chicago School: invitation to a debate, in Lin Jan and Mele Christopher (2012), The urban sociology reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) 2nd ed, pp.106-116 2
Do we vote the same in the North and the South of the United States? (Select four States to compare State and Federal-level elections) Class 6. Racial segregation since the Civil Rights Movement Segregation times The mobilization against segregation Compulsory Readings: John P., David B. Holian and Laura Tomaka (2000), Does Political Incorporation Matter? The Impact of Minority Mayors Over Time, Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 36, p. 84-92 Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, Segregation and the making of the underclass, in Lin Jan and Mele Christopher (2012), The urban sociology reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) 2nd ed, p. 134-143 Black mayors in America since 1945 Class 7. Immigration and racial integration in America The post-segregation era Obama and race in contemporary America Urban segregation Jan Lin, Globalization and the revalorizing of ethnic places in immigration gateway cities, in Lin Jan and Mele Christopher (2012), The urban sociology reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) 2nd ed, pp. 262-274 Michael B. Katz, Mathew J. Creighton, Daniel Amsterdam and Merlin Chowkwanyun (2010), Immigration and the new metropolitan geography, Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol. 31, Issue 5, pp. 523-547 Latino Governors and Congressmen in America Class 8. Urban poverty in America - In-class test on classes 1 to 7 Urban poverty theories Urban poverty in contemporary America Solutions to urban poverty 3
Loic J. D. Wacquant and William Julius Wilson (1989), "The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City", Annals of the American academy of political and social science, Vol. 501, pp. 8-25 Margaret Weir, Poverty, social rights and the politics of place in the United States, in Mollenkopf John H. and Strom, Elizabeth A. (2004), The urban politics reader, Routledge, NYC (NY), pp. 19-27 Single-headed families: a new social risk? Class 9. Suburban America: population, economic and poverty growth The origins and growth of suburbanization The white flight Suburban poverty growth Alexandra K. Murphy (2007), The suburban ghetto: the legacy of Herbert Gans in understanding the experience of poverty in recently impoverished American suburbs, City and community, Vol. 6, pp. 21-37 Amy L. Holliday and Rachel E. Dwyer (2009), Suburban Neighborhood Poverty in U.S. Metropolitan Areas in 2000, City and community, Vol. 8, pp. 155-176 The Moving to Opportunity experiment Class 10. Housing and community development policies in America Community Development Community Organizing Housing policies and the American welfare regime Peter Dreier, Community empowerment strategies: the limits and potential of organizing in lowincome neighborhoods, in Mollenkopf John H. and Strom, Elizabeth A. (2004), The urban politics reader, Routledge, NYC (NY), pp. 191-203 Fraser James, Lepofsky Jonathan, Kick L. Edward, Williams Patrick J. (2003), The construction of the local and the limits of contemporary community building in the United States, Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 38, No 3, pp. 417-445 4
Alinsky s community organizing theory Class 11. From urban decay to urban renaissance : shrinking cities, revitalizing cities, creative cities The case of Detroit Urban renewal Culture in the city Creative class Gentrification Sharon Zukin Whose culture? Whose city? in Lin Jan and Mele Christopher (2012), The urban sociology reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) 2nd ed, pp. 281-289 Richard Florida Cities and the creative class in Lin Jan and Mele Christopher (2012), The urban sociology reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) 2nd ed, pp. 290-301 Christopher Mele Globalization, culture and neighborhood change in Lin Jan and Mele Christopher (2012), The urban sociology reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) 2nd ed, pp. 308-316 San Francisco and Los Angeles, complementary cultural cities? Class 12. Presentations of final papers In-class test on classes 8 to 12 and the required book Presentations by students of their collective papers Feedback on the class Final collective discussion Peter Eisinger, The American city in the age of terror: a preliminary assessment of the effects of September 11, 2004, Urban affairs review, Vol 40, n 1, p. 115-130 Final paper due one week after the last session Collective final paper by groups of 2/3 students (+/- 15 pages): 30% READINGS Required book: Judd Dennis R. and Simpson Dick (2010), The City Revisited: Urban Theory from 5
Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis (MN) In addition, students will have to read one or two academic paper(s) per week, notably based on two readers that are highly recommended: Mollenkopf, John H. and Strom, Elizabeth A. (2004), The urban politics reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) Lin Jan and Mele Christopher (2012),The urban sociology reader, Routledge, NYC (NY) 2 nd ed. 6