Henry J. Schmandt

Municipal Decentralization: An Overview

and neighborhood groups. The widespread attention generated by these activities has highlighted the necessity of making urban political systems and their service-providing bureaucracies more accommodative to resident participation and less insensitive to constituency wants and feelings. It has also forced both theorists and practitioners to address themselves to the issues raised by these developments. The ideology of the new reformist thrust is traditional in content, although the accompanying rhetoric is at times radical in tone. Its call for

Urban Research 1965-1987 A Content Analysis of Urban Affairs Quarterly

This article surveys urban affairs research as it has evolved from 1965 through 1987, principally by analyzing the content of all articles that have appeared in Urban Affairs Quarterly during this period. The survey focuses on the subject matter of the research, its relevance to problems in the contemporary city, its concern with policy, its use of quantification, its interdisciplinary character, and the extent to which its interests and priorities have shifted. The urban-research agenda has undergone significant but not radical changes in content and direction during the 22-year span analyzed, and these changes have reflected developments in the cities themselves.