Jon Shefner

Addressing Barriers to University-Community Collaboration: Organizing by Experts or Organizing the Experts?

Abstract University-community partnerships, and COPC programs in particular, offer important opportunities for traditionally segregated groups to work together in collaborative relationships. The challenge of bringing people who possess distinct differences in background and social power together is a long-standing issue. Class, status, and organizational differences may impede collaboration. This article discusses the history of COPC as social policy and reviews an evaluation report of successful community-university partnerships. Drawing from the community organizing literature in sociology and social work, this article suggests community organizing methods that address structural obstacles to collaborative work. Especially in COPC programs characterized by multiple interactions, it is the community based organization (CBO) which has greatest facility to equalize the playing field between disparate groups. The role of community organizers in CBOs is to acknowledge and disrupt the structural inequalities inherent in these relationships. The community organizer must resist the role of expert or buffer between the community and university and instead strive toward authentic collaboration.

Sponsors and the urban poor : Resources or restrictions?

Recent studies have discussed changes within the politics of the urban poor in Latin America. One perspective finds such politics limited to local material needs petitioning by isolated groups. By contrast, I found a community organization in urban Mexico that was sponsored by another group, and brought into national political efforts and debates by that sponsor. Sponsorship, as a form of relationship between allies, is linked to the grievances felt by Mexican citizens, and these grievances are analyzed as affecting the political opportunity structure of the Mexican urban popular movement. The sponsor brought substantial benefits to the community organization, but the latter organization also suffered from the relationship. The examination of sponsorship between the urban poor and the middle-class allies reveals both benefits and pitfalls.

Rethinking Civil Society in the Age of NAFTA: The Case of Mexico

This article offers an analysis and critique of the concept of civil society and its relationship to neoliberalism as an economic and political project. The author argues that the high level of imprecision in the usage of civil society has enabled both opponents and advocates of neoliberal policies to claim it. We forget that civil society must be understood as a stratified body whose members occupy specific class positions and, therefore, contend for control of vital resources. The authors critique is largely based on the ignoring of class among those who study the intersection of neoliberalism and civil society. In the second part of this article, the author offers an illustration by focusing on Mexicos recent history of democratization in tandem with the application of neoliberal policies.

Hierarchy and Partnership in New Orleans

Recently, increasing numbers of partnerships have emerged in which universities work to address economic, social, and political problems within troubled communities. Such experiences have led to careful discussion of the model such efforts should follow, and a literature which has assessed such activity as overwhelmingly positive. Based on team ethnographic research, this case study discusses the emergence of one such partnership that was forged at high levels of government and university administration. Such an emergence, we argue, impacted the partnership in such a way that the interests of more powerful members outweighed those of members with less power. Unequal interests influenced the structure of the partnership, its ability to carry out its mission, the participation of community residents, and intentions for the future of the partnership.

Civil Society and the State in the Neoliberal Era: Dynamics of Friends and Enemies

Purpose – The discourse about civil society is closely tied to the role of collective action in general, and of social movements in particular. Yet the origins of the recent emphasis on civil society are located in the 1980s – the time period during which the wave of neoliberalism began its rise and spread. Design/methodology/approach – In order to properly situate the concept of civil society and related debates, they must be linked to efforts to delegitimate and demonize the state that also started gaining momentum during that decade. Findings – The historical context of its emergence suggests that civil society may not be so much an analytical category for purposes of social research, but a theoretical category that is imbued with political content, both positively and negatively – both as a means to promote progressive ends, and as an expression of the context in which those ends started to face mounting resistance. Research limitations/implications – At the very least, the concept of civil society has a tendency to distract – both by design and by default – from important questions and challenges, such as those related to the role and persistence of structures of inequality in early 21st century global civilization. Originality/value – A promising starting point to circumnavigate the counterproductive consequences of the use and abuse of the civil society concept and debate for social research may be its explicitly dynamic conceptualization.

Situating the Green Economy: Discourses, Cooptation, and State Change

Abstract Purpose This paper seeks to situate the green economy (GE) within the broader history of sustainable development (SD), bringing related lessons and insights into its fold. Methodology/approach We critically examine the history of SD, focusing on the relationship between SD outcomes and a variety of theoretical and political influences, such as demodernization theories, ecological modernization, neoliberalism, and state theory. We situate the GE within this broader history and identify emergent pathways to successful GE development. Findings We suggest that a strong GE discourse, one that prioritizes both people and the environment, provides an opportunity to revitalize the state, combat neoliberal primacy, and drive progressive economic and environmental policy. Practical implications A critical examination of SD history can provide important lessons for GE actors seeking progressive social and environmental change. Originality/value As social and environmental crises deepen, the need for developing and propagating discourses that engender economic reform and ecological protection becomes ever more evident.

Course corrections and failed rationales: how comparative advantage and debt are used to legitimise austerity in Africa and Latin America

Abstract This article examines the role of ideological mechanisms in support of long-term economic liberalisation. Specifically we examine the ideological roles of comparative advantage and debt reduction as precursors to austerity policy imposition. Austerity policies, as episodic mechanisms designed to deepen neoliberalisation, are examined in the comparative historical context of Africa and Latin America.

How to Green: Institutional Influence in Three US Cities

The green economy holds the potential for addressing key dilemmas of sustainability by mitigating environmental degradation while reviving working and middle-class occupations. In effect, the green economy is a redevelopment practice that requires shifts in values and norms. We build on development scholars and others in our examination of institutions to determine the central roles played in fomenting vibrant green economies in three US cities: Chicago, IL, Little Rock, AR, and Knoxville, TN. Findings suggest that although a sustainable green economy requires inputs from a similar and core set of institutional actors, the role each plays is diverse, differing by case. Additionally, green economy development requires coordinated planning within and across institutions. Planning is often the most difficult strategy, as actors often have different values and goals, but without it, green economy development is unlikely.

Book Review Essay: A Brief History of Neoliberalism

26 N economic thought has predominated policy-making arenas for thirty years, as much in the Global North as in developing nations. The verdict is clear. Globally, neoliberal policy has retarded economic growth, although national and even regional growth spurts have occurred along the way. The growth that has taken place has been uneven geographically and stratified along class lines, with polarization of wealth endemic in nations that have followed neoliberal dictates. For middle classes and below, the results have been unambiguous: declining wages and employment levels and reduced access to services such as health care, education, and others that provide security from the ravages of the market. With such clear eviA Brief History of Neoliberalism

Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El SalvadorInsurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador, by WoodElisabeth Jean. New York; Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 308 pp.

The most striking shortcoming of Part IV is that the authors do not cull from the literature published over the last decade some of the most substantial and sophisticated analyses of what was happening within Palestinian society from 1993 to 2003. The “Palestinian people” are marginalized in this more recent history, in favor of Palestinian (and Israeli) leaders and key decision-makers. While the authors provide an adequate account of “what happened,” their explanations for “why” pale in comparison to the earlier sections of the book, and the footnotes of Part IV are not a comprehensive guide to “essential reading.”