"Urban Movements and State Strategies."
Abstract
The American urban social movements of the 1960s and 70s constituted a heterogeneous mixture of tendencies. Given this mixture and the prevalence of material needs and distributive demands in it, and given the relatively open political opportunity structure of the U.S., the transition to a pragmatic and institutionalized form of community organizing and community economic development during the late 70s and early 80s is not difficult to explain. The transition from advocacy-style community organizations to effective CDCs was additionally encouraged by government programs, both on the local and, particularly under Carter, on the national level. This article describes and explains the process through which active community-based interest organization and representation has become supported and presupposed both in legislative negotiations and in the implementation of certain services, while also being channelled to adapt to the economic norm of the public-private partnership. Under current conditions, voluntarism and coproduction have come to shape the terrain—a qualitatively new terrain—on which the movements’ goals have to be worked out.