Search

This article investigates how state-sponsored 'arts and cultural districts' and 'creative placemaking' revitalization strategies affect urban neighborhoods, using the Station North Arts & Entertainment (A&E) District in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) as a case study. Through ethnographic participatory methods and 39 qualitative interviews, we studied the activities and attitudes of various stakeholders within Station North. Since its designation as an arts and entertainment district in 2002, a number of public-private partnerships have helped increase home values in Station North, suggesting that the 'branding' of Station North has been successful. While the institutions involved in the district, including community development corporations and local universities, are careful to insist that they do not want to displace low-income residents, many interviewees expressed concerns that these institutions exert influence outweighing that of longtime residents. While a certain level of gentrification has occurred with the arrival of new residents, we argue that the people who are most likely to be displaced from the arts and entertainment district in the future are, paradoxically, artists, especially those who wish to buy homes and settle in the district. After discussing the case of Station North, we consider broader implications of the use of arts for urban revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper historicises the recent and ongoing professionalisation of community development in the Republic of Ireland. The term professionalisation refers both to the designation and accreditation of a distinctive community work occupation and a wider set of processes that effect more strategic approaches to the planning, delivery and evaluation of community organisations. The paper reviews some tensions associated with professionalisation; tensions that closely relate to community work's reputation as a 'bottom-up' or 'participatory' strategy. It also interrogates community development's place as a strategy of government in contemporary Ireland. In so doing it reconsiders the assumed separateness and distinctiveness of the state and community sectors, arguing that the state has been centrally implicated in calling the community sector into being. In their turn community development organisations have shaped and mediated policy delivery on the ground. It is these processes of hybridisation, co-operation, antagonism and struggle that have given professionalisation its momentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two developments — the fragmentation of governance and the mediatization of politics — lead governmental organizations to engage in discursive and institutional competition. These new circumstances also drastically change the relationship of governmental organizations to clients, target groups and the citizenry as a whole. We empirically investigate these changes through a study of a privately funded community development organization in the Netherlands, the Neighbourhood Alliance. In this case, it is no longer the citizenry that articulates a public discourse, but a public discourse that, through the mediation of an institutional entrepreneur like the Neighbourhood Alliance, stipulates what type of participation is appropriate. This development raises the critical issue of the nature and mechanisms of democratic engagement in a fragmented, mediatized polity. Résumé Deux évolutions — la fragmentation de la gouvernance et la médiatisation de la politique — poussent les organismes gouvernementaux à une concurrence symbolique. Ces contexte nouveau change aussi radicalement la relation de ces organismes avec les usagers, les groupes ciblés et les citoyens dans leur ensemble. Nous examinons ces transformations à travers une étude empirique d'une structure néerlandaise à fonds privés de développement de quartiers, Wijkalliantie (alliance de quartier). En l'occurrence, ce ne sont plus les habitants qui déclinent un discours public, mais un discours public qui, par le biais d'une entreprise institutionnelle comme l'alliance de quartier, spécifie le type de participation approprié. Cette évolution soulève la question cruciale de la nature et des mécanismes de l'engagement démocratique dans un fonctionnement politique fragmenté et médiatisé. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looks at the importance of community development corporations (CDC) as both tools for rural development planning and mechanisms to alleviate problems of alienation and economic impoverishment in the United States. Role, functions and purpose of CDC; Potential advantages of CDC in community development programs; Community structure and technical assistance for establishing business ventures.

Examines the implication of regional industrial development programmes on the growth of factories in Australia. Significance of industrial classification and size on the growth potential of industries; Different characteristic of factories with growth potential; Factors affecting growth rates of industries.

The article is an attempt to understand and analyze the politics of community action agencies. These agencies are viewed as organizations allowing us to draw upon the large body of knowledge and theory social scientists have developed in studying the behavior of organizations. Emphasizing particularly the imperative of survival for an organization and the necessity of obtaining sufficient environmental support in order to assure survival, much of the political behavior of CAA's is readily explained. The displacement of goals caused by survival needs, the effort to co-opt the environment, and the internal conflict caused by this process are analyzed through an intensive study of the Washington, D.C., Community Action Agency (UPO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a discussion of community development corporations (CDCs) as a development alternative for rural United States. Aspects of CDCs cited to demonstrate their potential advantages in community development; Public commitment to end human degradation of central Appalachia.