Governing Urban Restructuring with City-Building Nonprofits

James C Fraser and Edward L Kick
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James C Fraser: Department of Human and Organizational Development, Vanderbilt University, 203 Appleton Place, Peabody #90, Nashville, TN 37203, USA
Edward L Kick: Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, Sociology and Sustainability, North Carolina State University, 3224 Nelson Hall, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

Environment and Planning A, 2014, vol. 46, issue 6, 1445-1461

Abstract: Urban restructuring efforts aimed at redeveloping inner-city neighborhoods are common across the US. They typically involve coalitions of public and private actors that play complementary roles in promoting investments in locales that have been sites of disinvestment, rendering these geographies ripe for economic development and profitmaking (ie, gentrification). Nonprofits are not generally regarded as central players in these initiatives, although they often serve community-development functions for low-income populations living in impoverished city spaces. In this paper we draw on the concept of the shadow state and Foucault's theory of governmentality to examine a city-building nonprofit created by a public–private growth coalition to execute the redevelopment of urban space and, as an integral part, manage neighborhood resident participation in these efforts. As residents began to see themselves as agents of neighborhood change, they came into conflict with the revitalization objectives of the nonprofit's funders. And, while many residents actively challenged the direction that the neighborhood initiative took in focusing on housing redevelopment for more affluent populations, a core group maintained their commitment to a community building approach toward neighborhood redevelopment. Between 1998 and 2014, during CIC's initiative, over half of the original residents were displaced or left as neighborhood housing values dramatically increased, rendering the area inaccessible for low-income populations.

Keywords: governmentality; shadow state; urban restructuring; urban governance; neighborhood revitalization; community building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:6:p:1445-1461

DOI: 10.1068/a46169

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