Michael McQuarrie

The Missing Organizational Dimension in Urban Sociology

Our article takes issue with the treatment of organizations in much urban sociology. We argue that both Marxian political economists and Chicagoan ethnographers and quantitative analysts treat organizations as derivative rather than productive of urban social relations. This problem is not epistemological or methodological. Instead, it is rooted in the objects of analysis that urban sociologists choose. Drawing on key elements of structuration theory, we attempt to lay the groundwork for improving the treatment of organizations in urban sociology by flagging some of the key insights in the sociology of organizations. We do not view this intellectual borrowing as a one–way street, and we emphasize that urbanists have a contribution to make to sociological thinking about organizations. Correcting these problems is essential if we are to understand the link between contemporary institutional transformations and urban neighborhoods.

Community Organizations in the Foreclosure Crisis The Failure of Neoliberal Civil Society

This paper looks at the prehistory of the foreclosure crisis in Cleveland, Ohio, in order to understand the effectiveness of civil society organizations in mitigating its impact on the city’s neighborhoods. Social theorists and movement activists have often postulated civil society as an authentic and voluntaristic realm in which we constitute and act on shared values. The voluntary nature of civil society organizations also, it is argued, make them more responsive, adaptable, and effective in meeting the needs of the communities they operate in. The question is whether or not this has held true in the contemporary crisis. I find that in the 1970s, Cleveland’s community-based organizations were instrumental in securing resources from government and private philanthropies to deal with the urban crisis. The unintended result of this success was a general rationalization of Cleveland’s civil society around narrow practices and market-based conceptions of value. In the process, civil society was transformed into a political technology that solved various dilemmas of rule, but at the same time it was transformed into a civic monoculture that made the city especially vulnerable to foreclosure. A key implication of this analysis is that civil society has been transformed into an object and stake of urban politics and, as a result, it should not be expected to protect society against neoliberal institutional transformations.

People, Place, and System Organizations and the Renewal of Urban Social Theory

This article offers a theoretical framework for thinking about how organizations matter for the production, reproduction, and amelioration of urban poverty. We draw on the classical concept of integration, in both its social and systemic versions, as an important tool for advancing urban social theory. A key challenge for urban organizational analysts is to keep within view the processes of both social and systemic integration, while empirically investigating how they are connected (or not). Too many urban researchers focus on one or the other, with little conceptualization of the importance of linking the two. We argue that urban organizations of all kinds provide a strategic site for observing processes of both social and systemic integration, and that urban organizational research should examine many of them to better understand the multiple urban transformations currently in process.

Institutionalized social skill and the rise of mediating organizations in urban governance: the case of the Cleveland Housing Network

In this paper we build on an expanding literature that attempts to understand the changing organizational and institutional dimensions of contemporary urban governance. We do so by utilizing the Cleveland Housing Network as a lens through which salient characteristics of contemporary governance become visible. Doing so enables us to highlight the distinctive challenges of the multi-institutional nature of contemporary governance arrangements and “heterarchic” governance in particular. These challenges situate mediating organizations as central components of governance arrangements. Finally, by focusing on the distinctive characteristics of the organizations leaders, we demonstrate that mediating organizations are usefully thought of as institutionalized forms of the “social skill” of institutional entrepreneurs.

Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship: The Civic Costs of the American Way of Life

Prior studies have documented how deindustrialization poses a bleak outlook for both individuals and their communities: longterm unemployment, elevated poverty, and the erosion of once vital areas. What can people do to mitigate the effects of declining industries that once employed several generations of workers? More importantly, how can collective action help transform society into realizing diverse interests, rather than just a few, narrowly defined interests? Jeremy Brecher’s Banded Together: Economic Democratization in the Brass Valley shares a much-needed account of how such efforts unfold in Western Connecticut’s Naugatuck Valley, a community known for its brass manufacturing since the 1800s. An historian by training, documentarymaker, and resident of Naugatuck Valley for three decades, Brecher conducted over 100 interviews with leaders, staff, and locals for this book. He also conducted archival research and attended over 100 meetings as a participant-observer. The interviews provide the bulk of the data for his case studies of collective action regarding job preservation, job creation, and the construction of affordable housing via more democratic forms of organization. The challenges confronting Naugatuck Valley are depressingly familiar even to the most vibrant of communities and cities: multinational companies take over locallyowned factories and treat these as commodities, rather than as sources of livelihoods and identities, job prospects shift to the poorly-compensated service sector, and longtime renters face rising housing costs as developers deplete the affordable housing stock by converting rental units into condominiums. On the other hand, an influx of new residents poses another challenge that could potentially reinvigorate the community: how to integrate newcomers and incorporate their interests. Rather than relying upon the state or the market to address these issues, Naugatuck Valley residents organized to pursue mutual interests via collectivities run by the community, employees, or residents. Brecher posits that three conditions are necessary for such ‘‘local action’’ and ‘‘democratic economic vision’’—‘‘grassroots organization, democratically controlled enterprises, and supportive public policies’’ (p. xxi). Brecher first recounts how existing organizations, with the help of Ken Gladstone, a community organizer trained in Alinskyite organizing, formed the Naugatuck Valley Project (NVP) in the 1980s. Rather than focusing on one particular project, this ‘‘community alliance’’ has promoted grassroots organizing to revitalize their area. The NVP both formed new ties and built upon existing network ties in the workplace and small businesses, unions, churches and other organizations; this collective identified existing problems and possible solutions. Brecher describes how Gladstone deploys Alinskyite techniques for the unfamiliar ends of economic development—in this community, creating jobs or housing through corporations owned and run by residents. The Alinskyite techniques involve listening to locals to identify issues, selecting possible leaders, and then organizing collectivities to address these issues. These techniques use the power of organized groups—in these cases, residents, and workers—who otherwise have difficulties as individuals eliciting accountability to their interests from the state or their workplaces. The resulting redefined relations help democratize a political process that previously only catered to elite interests. To support his claims, Brecher delves into several case studies to illuminate the challenges, setbacks, and rewards of selforganizing. The first case illustrates how employees need support in honing their selfmanaging skills, but also shares individuals’

The Just City by Susan Fainstein

It’s good news week, so the 1965 song goes. At last, amidst the litany of challenges that most urbanists bemoan about cities, someone—an economist no less—has pronounced that cities are the source of human progress. Says Glaeser, cities are, and always have been, the harbingers of innovation and change, and ultimately the spatial organization best suited to save the planet. Wirthian devotees beware. Size, density, and heterogeneity do not create social disorganization. Rather, the power of cities depends on these attributes, positively framed as “competition, connection, and human capital” (p. 43). Champions of density and critics of zoning for homogeneity and single family homeownership will find solace and even inspiration in a book that unabashedly holds up cities as the historic as well as the contemporary social bastion for solving problems. Although Glaeser’s arguments are couched in the vein of economists, his argument is ultimately a social one—that cities bring disparate people together and this mix of densely packed humanity spurs public health solutions, investment in infrastructure, inventiveness, and, ultimately, happier healthier human beings. The book is chock full of examples from history and all over the world about the positives changes wrought by city dwellers. Although the book relies on research, it is not a research treatise per se. Rather, research is judiciously used to bolster his arguments about the role of cities as a force for change. In the same illustrative manner, Glaeser also criticizes cities for playing racial politics (Detroit), for restricting development (New York, San Francisco), for building cities around cars (Los Angeles, Houston), and for suburban sprawl (all cities). Of course, racial segregation and poverty are cited as detriments but in ways that may seem a bit counter-intuitive to a noneconomist audience like many of us. With the alleged success of antidiscrimination laws, racial segregation reflects white preferences to live in, and therefore pay a premium for, all-white neighborhoods. By default, cheaper minority housing explains minority settlement patterns and, ultimately, the association between race and concentrated poverty. At the same time, the presence of urban poverty is a sign of a city’s success because poor and rich alike seek urban opportunities. What to do about these problems remains unexamined, but at least they are noticed. Not surprisingly, Triumph of the City is not a testament to all cities, despite what the titles says. Glaeser’s ideas on what cities triumph over others are predictable. He loves New York (doesn’t everyone) and would like to see structures built taller to

Urban America Reconsidered: Alternatives for Governance and Policy

The Professional Guinea Pig belongs to a social science growth area investigating the pharmaceutical industry in contemporary health care. This literature is united by a prevailing consensus that views the drug industry as the villain du jour in health policy. After focusing on unbridled professional power and the for-profit insurance industry, the critical social gaze is turned to Big Pharma. Consequently, most social scientists see it as their job to expose the scientific manipulation, the chase of profit margins, the dehumanization, the ethical transgressions, and the inequities that flow from drug industry involvement. In engaging prose, Roberto Abadie delivers the expected social science message. Abadie conducted an eighteen-month ethnography of a group of healthy people who made a living as research subjects in Phase One clinical trials in Philadelphia. Most trial participants are African-American and Latino, but Abadie spent time with a group of young, non-Hispanic white anarchists who enrolled in clinical trials. He compares these trial participants with people enrolling in HIV trials. The book examines the motivations, reflections, and practices of professionalized clinical trial participation. What does Abadie make from this data? He highlights the ‘‘commodification’’ (p. 15) of the trial subjects’ bodies in a ‘‘slow torture economy’’ (p. 46). He pays attention to the ‘‘revolt’’ (p. 54) of the professional research subjects when they felt underpaid and threatened to walk out. Instead they received an

Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life By Mario Luis Small Oxford University Press. 2009. 312 pages.

800 bonus. He notes the ‘‘resistance of the weak’’ (p. 60), when ‘‘guinea pigs’’ (p. 21) smuggle in forbidden foods or engage in other acts of ‘‘sabotage’’ (p. 61). Abadie also examines the risk-management strategies of the trial subjects: they weigh money against potential long-term effects but tend to believe that drugs wash out of their bodies in a couple of days. He then compares the professional trial participants to those involved in HIV trials and argues that the latter are motivated by deeper existential concerns but, of course, they also have a disease and participate in different kinds of trials. In a final empirical chapter, Abadie examines the professional trial subject’s limited understanding of informed consent procedures, and argues that the drug industry deliberately uses the consent form to obfuscate the commodified relationship with research subjects. Abadie’s book has two glaring weaknesses. First, he brings much rhetorical bluster to his study but the interview quotes and observations do not bear out the core themes of ‘‘alienation’’ (p. 6) and ‘‘exploitation’’ (p. 154). The fascinating empirical puzzle of his study is that anarchists are willing to swallow their principles and vegan diet to take money from this most controversial industry. In the conclusion, Abadie pays attention to the paradox between anarchist politics and pragmatics, but throughout most of the book he tries to rationalize the anarchists’ justifications for the blood money that sustains their lifestyle of leisure. Some of his friends even minimize the trial risk because they assume that strong government oversight protects them from harm! Abadie writes: ‘‘[these] views of governmental regulation are not totally at odds with their radical [anarchist] beliefs’’ (p. 143). Really? Rather than reconcile the dissonance between what anarchists do and belief in theoretical constructs of exploitation, the explanation seems more mundane. People end up in trial after trial by choice or circumstances because it is easy money. Compared to flipping burgers, cleaning toilets, or being homeless, testing pills is extremely attractive. The job stinks, but the money is good. Abadie also wrote the wrong book. While he lived in the anarchist community, he never participated along with his research subjects in the trials. Abadie’s information comes largely from casual conversations

29.95 cloth

online: intimacy, connection and support; hanging out and playing; socializing, flirting and dating; privacy, control and availability; identity and self-expression; and inequality and power. The bulk of the book weaves together the perspectives of 87 informants, the public accounts of others through blogs and traditional media, and the voices of other scholars’ informants as found in their publications. Chayko’s informants are primarily American adults drawn from convenience and snowballing; her interviews are conducted online. Rather than using these different voices to anchor her own claims, Chayko primarily draws on others’ words to shed light on, and highlight the contributions made by, previous scholars investigating mediated sociality. In essence, the voices are exemplary glue that help craft a contiguous story from the claims made about mediated interaction over the years. While the voices Chayko use enrich the narrative, her choice to label her informants by what they do (e.g., MobileUser5) dehumanizes their voices. Although background on each informant is provided in the appendix, this move makes it hard to get a sense of the people behind the voices. This is not to say that names alone provide rich information about informants, but it feels peculiar to boil people down to what Chayko sees as their salient mediated practice. While the naming choice creates unnecessarily distance, the voices themselves are quite compelling and work well alongside the literature-driven claims. Reading these alone sheds light on contemporary mediated practices. Although some of the linguistic and stylistic choices are puzzling, this book successfully documents the current state of thinking surrounding mediated sociality, using personable voices to flesh out what it means to live in ‘‘portable communities’’ today. From looking at how people connect during an emergency to the voyeuristic habits of participants, Chayko provides a taste for a wide swath of practices in mediated life.