Power networks: Determinants of community participation styles in Kreuzberg/Berlin and the Lower East Side/New York City.
Item
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Title
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Power networks: Determinants of community participation styles in Kreuzberg/Berlin and the Lower East Side/New York City.
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Identifier
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AAI9510635
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identifier
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9510635
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Creator
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Bockmeyer, Janice Lee.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Marilyn Gittell
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Date
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1994
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General | Urban and Regional Planning | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
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Abstract
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Lower-income urban community residents are those most affected by public and private-sector urban redevelopment plans, but their participation in policymaking is severely limited. This dissertation compares housing development participation strategies used by lower-income and immigrant residents in New York City's Lower East Side and Kreuzberg, Berlin since 1975 and hypothesizes that a complex network of factors emerging from local political cultures determines styles of participation. It finds that Kreuzberg participation was led by young Germans--while older Germans and immigrant workers were more reticent--was directed at the state and characterized by confrontational protest actions, primarily squatting. On the Lower East Side, in contrast, relatively heterogeneous community-based organizations targeted primarily private developers and landlords and competed for government funding to develop affordable housing. Kreuzberg strategies are explained by restrictive national immigration laws and a history of prohibitions against local associations, centralized labor interests, a paternalistic welfare state and emergence of autonomous city bureaucracies. Specific generational and spatial factors also contributed to the network. Lower East Side styles were shaped by a tradition of community organizing reinforced by a decentralized Democratic party and the creation of community district boards, ethnic diversity and competition encouraged by American programmatic federalism and the limited involvement of the public-sector in housing. The dissertation concludes that in each site a unique network of influences shaped mobilization, pointing to the value of reconstructing power networks for specific sites, time periods and policy areas to understand resident participation.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
