Larry Bennett, Roberta Garner, and Euan Hague (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040597
- eISBN:
- 9780252099038
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040597.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
The Chicago metropolitan area in the early 21st century is a prime testing ground for the broad concepts and particular approaches to public policy associated with Neoliberalism. Over a span of 25 ...
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The Chicago metropolitan area in the early 21st century is a prime testing ground for the broad concepts and particular approaches to public policy associated with Neoliberalism. Over a span of 25 years Chicago’s municipal government has aggressively closed public schools and supported the formation of charter schools, demolished all high-rise family public housing in favor of mixed-income, new urbanist communities, adopted increasingly advanced police surveillance technologies, and privatized various public facilities through long-term agreements with private vendors. In a parallel fashion, Neoliberal thinking and rhetoric shape various components of the city’s cultural landscape, from the logic of historic preservation to popular understandings of environmentalism and even sports partisanship. Finally, the emergence of Neoliberal Chicago is most evident through its changing cityscape, the processes by which older neighborhoods evolve due to gentrification or disinvestment and new neighborhoods are created. Though Chicago, like many other U.S. metropolitan areas, was severely tested by the mortgage foreclosure and broader economic crisis of 2007-8, its trajectory of Neoliberal government action was already fixed in place. The consequence has been a layering of new inequalities atop an already socially, economically, and geographically divided metropolis.Less
The Chicago metropolitan area in the early 21st century is a prime testing ground for the broad concepts and particular approaches to public policy associated with Neoliberalism. Over a span of 25 years Chicago’s municipal government has aggressively closed public schools and supported the formation of charter schools, demolished all high-rise family public housing in favor of mixed-income, new urbanist communities, adopted increasingly advanced police surveillance technologies, and privatized various public facilities through long-term agreements with private vendors. In a parallel fashion, Neoliberal thinking and rhetoric shape various components of the city’s cultural landscape, from the logic of historic preservation to popular understandings of environmentalism and even sports partisanship. Finally, the emergence of Neoliberal Chicago is most evident through its changing cityscape, the processes by which older neighborhoods evolve due to gentrification or disinvestment and new neighborhoods are created. Though Chicago, like many other U.S. metropolitan areas, was severely tested by the mortgage foreclosure and broader economic crisis of 2007-8, its trajectory of Neoliberal government action was already fixed in place. The consequence has been a layering of new inequalities atop an already socially, economically, and geographically divided metropolis.
Lou Martin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039454
- eISBN:
- 9780252097560
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039454.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Long considered an urban phenomenon, industrialization also transformed the American countryside. This book weaves the narrative of how the relocation of steel and pottery factories to Hancock ...
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Long considered an urban phenomenon, industrialization also transformed the American countryside. This book weaves the narrative of how the relocation of steel and pottery factories to Hancock County, West Virginia, created a rural and small-town working class—and what that meant for communities and for labor. As the book shows, access to land in and around steel and pottery towns allowed residents to preserve rural habits and culture. Workers in these places valued place and local community. Because of their belief in localism, an individualistic ethic of “making do,” and company loyalty, they often worked to place limits on union influence. At the same time, this localism allowed workers to adapt to the dictates of industrial capitalism and a continually changing world on their own terms—and retain rural ways to a degree unknown among their urbanized peers. Throughout, the book ties these themes to illuminating discussions of capital mobility, the ways in which changing work experiences defined gender roles, and the persistent myth that modernizing forces bulldozed docile local cultures.Less
Long considered an urban phenomenon, industrialization also transformed the American countryside. This book weaves the narrative of how the relocation of steel and pottery factories to Hancock County, West Virginia, created a rural and small-town working class—and what that meant for communities and for labor. As the book shows, access to land in and around steel and pottery towns allowed residents to preserve rural habits and culture. Workers in these places valued place and local community. Because of their belief in localism, an individualistic ethic of “making do,” and company loyalty, they often worked to place limits on union influence. At the same time, this localism allowed workers to adapt to the dictates of industrial capitalism and a continually changing world on their own terms—and retain rural ways to a degree unknown among their urbanized peers. Throughout, the book ties these themes to illuminating discussions of capital mobility, the ways in which changing work experiences defined gender roles, and the persistent myth that modernizing forces bulldozed docile local cultures.
