Neighborhood Politics

Matthew A. Crenson

Published by Harvard University Press 1983

Neighborhood Politics

Matthew A. Crenson

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674188112

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Crenson Matthew A. :

Matthew A. Crenson is Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
1. The Neighborhood as a Polity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Local Political Climates Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
3. Neighborhood Identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
4. Informal Governance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
5. Community Organizations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
6. Foreign Entanglements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 11
- Main content: 328
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 8
- Tables: 39
- Other: illustrations
Keywords: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban; SOCIAL SCIENCE / General; Neighborhood government -- Maryland -- Baltimore.; Baltimore (Md.) -- Politics and government.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674188112

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1983
ISBN: 9780674188105