Neighborhood Change and Neighborhood Action

The Struggle to Create Neighborhoods that Serve Human Needs

Contributions by Eileen Ahlin, Maria João Lobo Antunes, Daniel Brisson, Claire Cahen, Sara M. Eccleston, Jyoti Gupta, R. Allen Hays, Stephanie Lechuga-Peña, José Meléndez, Jamila Michener, Douglas Perkins, Susan Saegert, Jakob Schneider, Kelechi Uzochukwu, Diane Wong Edited by R. Allen Hays

Publication date:

19 January 2018

Length of book:

234 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498556446

This book is an examination of neighborhood mobilization and engagement from the perspective of several disciplines: psychology, social work, political science, planning, and education. The essays included in the work examine both internal and external factors related to the ability of neighborhoods to meet the human needs of their residents. They address the constraints put on neighborhood mobilization by the local and international political economy, but they also show how those constraints can, in a number of cases, be overcome by effective action. They treat neighborhood engagement as an educational process through which residents enhance their skills and knowledge as they participate. Taken together, these essays provide a comprehensive and multi-faceted view of the issues facing contemporary urban neighborhoods.

Introduction: Neighborhood Action: Organization, Context, and Learning

R. Allen Hays

1. Critical Perspectives on Neighborhood Engagement and Participatory Development

Sara M. Eccleston, Jyoti Gupta, and Douglas Perkins

2. Neighborhood Networks, Collective Action, and Public Safety

R. Allen Hays

3. Formations of Participation: The Pathways of Emergent Community Land Trusts

Jakob Schneider, Claire Cahen, and Susan Saegert

4. Studying Learning in Neighborhood Level Democratic Activity: Participatory Budgeting in Chicago’s 49th Ward

José Meléndez

5. Gentrification, Demobilization, and Participatory Possibilities

Jamila Michener and Diane Wong

6. Your Family, Your Neighborhood: An Intervention to Develop Social Cohesion

Daniel Brisson and Stephanie Lechuga-Peña

7. Citizens’ Roles in Public Service Delivery: Reconceptualizing Coproduction

Kelechi Uzochukwu

8. Escape from Violence and Changes in Neighborhood Informal Social Control: Understanding Causes and Consequences of Residential Mobility

Eileen Ahlin and Maria João Lobo Antunes

Neighborhood Change and Neighborhood Action by R. Allen Hays is a unique multidisciplinary study of the importance and effectiveness of community engagement in creating positive change on a neighborhood level. With eight essays by various authors, Hays balances the intersection of theory and practice in participatory community development through examples big and small.