The purpose of this course is to engage students in the various ideas, debates and strategies regarding the development of inner city communities. You will hear speakers and discuss readings that will introduce you to the field of community development. You will examine the assumptions about community, agency, efficiency, equity and political efficacy that underlie discussions of community development. You will grapple with debates that animate the study and practice of community development. You will also engage in hands-on research that will assist the objectives of a local community-based, non-profit organization.
Is there an effective "third sector" that is more fair and humane than the market, but more efficient than the state? What assumptions about public action are embedded in the notion of "community development"? Is the agency of poor, disenfranchised residents nurtured in grassroots efforts to revitalize inner city neighborhoods? Just how democratic is the organization and practice of locally controlled community development? Should inner city neighborhoods be abandoned and their residents disperse to more affluent neighborhoods in the metropolitan area? Should we invest in people rather than places? Lastly, can locally based action adequately respond, resist and transform communities that have been ravaged in the global marketplace?
This course will feature people who study, practice and regulate community development. There will be a particular focus on poor neighborhoods in Holyoke and Springfield.
Course requirements: Class participation and attendance; Required readings; One Reflection paper; Research project. (Detailed instructions will be handed out in class).
I will take into account how well you have expressed your ideas in written form. It is difficult for me to credit good ideas and arguments if they are written poorly. Please proofread your work or it will affect your grade.
You are expected to do your own work and properly credit the work of others. I expect that you will adhere to the college's Academic Honor Code specified in Mount Holyoke College Student Handbook. Use the Guide to the Uses and Acknowledgment of Sources for assistance on the way to properly credit the work of others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me.
The following texts can be purchased at the Odyssey Bookshop:
- John Charles Boger and Judith Welch Wegner, eds., Race, Poverty, and American Cities. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
- Thomas D. Boston and Catherine L. Ross, eds. The Inner City: Urban Poverty and Economic Development in the Next Century. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997.
- Rhoda H. Halperin, Practicing Community: Class Culture and Power in an Urban Neighborhood. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1998.
- Robert Halpern, Rebuilding the Inner City: A History of Neighborhood Initiatives to Address Poverty in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
- W. Dennis Keating, Norman Krumholz, and Philip Starr, eds. Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1996.
*This designates readings that are in a Xeroxed course packet that you may purchase from the Politics Department office at 222A Clapp. Most of these readings, and assigned films are on reserve at the library.
Class Schedule
9/14 Introduction
9/21 Community Development: Ideology, Politics and Policies
Discussion
- R. Allen Hays, "Power, Ideology, and Public Policy," and "The Ideological Context of Housing Policy," pp. 1-56 in The Federal Government & Urban Housing: Ideology and Change in Public Policy. Second Edition. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.
- *Nicholas Lemann, "The Myth of Community Development," New York Times Magazine, January 9, 1994, Section 6.
- *Michael Katz, "Intellectual Foundations of the War on Poverty," chapter 3 in The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
- *Harvey A. Goldstein, "The Limits of Community Economic Development," pp. 40-53 in Pierre Clavel, John Forrester, and William W. Goldsmith, Urban and Regional Planning in an Age of Austerity. New York: Pergamon Press, 1980.
9/28 Community Development in Holyoke & Springfield
- Meet with Community Liaisons
10/5 National Urban Policy, the Urban Crisis, & Community Development
- Discussion
- John Charles Boger and Judith Welch Wegner, eds., Race, Poverty, and American Cities, Parts I & 2, pp. 3-269.
10/12 Semester Break
10/19 Neighborhood-Based Services and Community Development
- Speaker: Yamira Moreno, Director of After-School programs for Girls Inc., Holyoke.
- Robert Halpern, Rebuilding the Inner City: A History of Neighborhood Initiatives to Address Poverty in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
10/26 Inner-City Neighborhood Revitalization
- Discussion
- W. Dennis Keating, Norman Krumholz, and Philip Starr, eds. Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1996.
11/2 Housing and Community Development
- Speaker: Nellie Bailey, President of the Board of Harlem Tenants Council, New York.
- Boger & Wegner, eds. Race, Poverty and American Cities, Part Three, "Residential Mobility: Effects on Education, Employment, and Racial Integration," pp. 273-43 1.
- *Jason DeParle, "The Year That Housing Died," New York Times Magazine. October 20, 1996. Section 6.
- *Larry Bennett and Adolph Reed, Jr., "The New Face of Urban Renewal: The Near North Redevelopment Initiative and the Cabrini-Green Neighborhood," in Adolph Reed Jr., Without Justice for All: The New Liberalism and Our Retreat from Racial Equality. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999: 175-211.
11/9 Community Development: Case Study
- Discussion
- Rhoda H. Halperin, Practicing Community: Class Culture and Power in an Urban Neighborhood. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1998.
11/16 Community Organizing and Community Development
- Discussion
- Karen Paget, "Citizen Organizing: Many Movements, No Majority," The American Prospect, No. 2. Summer 1990:115-128.
- *Steven Rathgeb Smith and Michael Lipsky, "The New Politics of the Contracting Regime," pp. 171-187 in Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
11/23 Inner-City Economic Development
- Discussion
- *Michael Porter, "The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City," Harvard Business Review (MayJune 1995): 55-71.
- Thomas D. Boston and Catherine L. Ross, eds. The Inner City: Urban Poverty and Economic Development in the Next Century. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997: Part 1.
Reflection papers due in class.
11/30 State Politics and Local Economic Development
- Speaker: Carol Harper '84, Program Manager, Massachusetts Community Development Action Grants, Division of Community Services, Executive Office of Communities & Development, Massachusetts Department of Housing & Community Development, Boston.
- Thomas D. Boston and Catherine L. Ross, eds. The Inner City: Urban Poverty and Economic Development in the Next Century. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1997: Part II
12/7 Presentation practice
12/14 Presentations
Research projects due December 17.
Community Development Projects
Politics 348
Fall 1999
Mobility study
Sponsors: Hampden Hampshire Housing Partnership, Inc. (HAP) Liaison: Wendy Tydenkevez, Director of the Regional Counseling Program for Section-8 recipients.
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the housing satisfaction of local low-income residents of Springfield metropolitan area. Last year Mount Holyoke students created a database of 100 households (5% of the program participants) who have received section-8 certificates from the Hampden-Hampshire Housing Partnership (HAP, Inc.). These students evaluated how often the recipients moved, and the housing-type and neighborhood conditions of their residences. In addition, they secured census data on the economic, housing, and racial characteristics of the census tract and/or block where the residence is located. Last year students worked on constructing the database. 100 recipients had been coded and entered into the database (Microsoft Access).
Site Visits:
Last fall a subgroup of students conducted 25 site visits involving 9 households in order to get a fuller description of the housing characteristics and neighborhood conditions. We would like to expand on the number of households whose residences we want to analyze. This group of students created a windshield survey tool that you can modify (if necessary) and use for your site visits.
Interviews:
This semester we would also like to begin some in-depth interviews of the residents of the sites you will visit. The previous levels of analysis - census data and site visits - can provide some information, but in order to understand the decision-making of different households we need to see why people move from a particular residence. If we are finding that people are not moving to the suburb, we need to try to understand why? Is it discrimination or cultural unfamiliarity? Does it have to do with isolation and the lack of transportation? Your group will evaluate trends in order to formulate findings about the patterns of movement, characteristics of the housing and neighborhoods chosen, and decision-making process by section-8 recipients.
Credit Union Feasibility Study
Sponsors: Nueva Esperanza
Liaisons: Carlos Vega, Executive Director
Contact : Nueva Esperanza,
The purpose of this project is to determine whether a community-based credit union is feasible for the inner-city wards of Holyoke. Last year Mount Holyoke students conducted a survey of the people who live, work or get services in South Holyoke and the Flats, two low-income, predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhoods. The survey results suggest that the participants use formal banking. The students then concentrated using last year's research on the inconvenient location of formal banks, and the unavailability of automated teller machines (ATM). Last year students researched the history and current status of banking services in South Holyoke and the Flats. Students presented: a history of how banking mergers have affected banking services in the area; a socioeconomic profile of the target population using census material; a map with the location of both formal and informal banking facilities; and a study of the what kind of credit union would fit the needs of the community. This study commented on the accessibility, both physical and cultural, of formal banking services in the neighborhoods.
This semester you determine what it will take to create a community development credit union in South Holyoke. You will study the regulations for creating a credit union to see what steps need to be taken. You will study examples of credits union in similar locations to understand their successes and failure. This may include hearing from people who have built successful credit unions.
Once you have the model of what will work in Holyoke you are to write a planning grant so that the plan can be implemented. You will need to identify funding sources. The first task of implementation is to create educational workshops co-led by Holyoke residents and Mount Holyoke students on the benefits of a community-based credit union in South Holyoke.
Community Gardening Output Study
Sponsor : Nuestro Raices, Holyoke
Liaison: Daniel Ross, Executive Director
The objective of this research project is to measure the agricultural production of community gardeners in Holyoke. After you have collected information on agricultural production, you are to write a report on the benefits of community garden for Holyoke that will go to the Mayor of Holyoke, City Council, and Department of Community Development and Planning.
Last semester students interviewed 10 gardeners and measured their output. They researched how much of the food is used for consumption by the household and how much is sold or given away. They determined that each household saved approximately $540 a season. In addition to the interview tool, a subgroup of students created a price survey of supermarkets and bodegas that service the inner-city neighborhoods in order to assign prices to the goods produced. They were also able to compare the quality and price of food among these options and with stores in the white and more affluent wards. In addition the report also includes the cultural and social benefits derived
by Puerto Ricans in community gardens.
This semester you will continue to use (perhaps modify) this tool in order to interview more gardeners. There are 84 gardeners in total and we would like to interview as many as possible. The survey tool may need to be revised to be used this upcoming season to record gardeners' output on a daily or weekly basis.
Mortgage Lending Discrimination Project
Sponsor: Housing Discrimination Project(BDP) Liaison: Marian Kent, Acting Executive Director and Tamari Cox,
See separate confidential sheet
Note: Participation on this project will take the utmost confidential discretion because of the sensitivity of the data and consequences of the research.