Looking closely at New York City’s political development since the 1970s, three “political orders”—conservativism, neoliberalism, and egalitarianism—emerged. In Inequality, Crime, and Resistance in New York City, Timothy Weaver argues that the intercurrent impact of these orders has created a constant battle for power.

Weaver brings these clashes to the fore by showing how New York City politics has been shaped by these conflicting orders. He examines the transformation of the city’s political economy in the aftermath of the 1975 fiscal crisis through neoliberal real estate development and privatization, the conservative rise of law-and-order politics in the 1970s to 1990s, and the efforts of the city’s egalitarians to respond to each of these shifts through social movements such as Occupy and Black Lives Matter.

Inequality, Crime, and Resistance in New York City belies glib assumptions about the city’s liberal character. Weaver reveals the metropolis not as a homogenous political whole, but as a site in which the victories and defeats of rival political forces change the terms of local citizenship for the millions of residents who call the city home.

Temple Press is publishing six titles in their series, “Political Lessons from American Cities,” which is edited by Richardson Dilworth, UAR Managing Editor and Professor of Politics at Drexel University.

Credits 

Many thanks to Gary Kramer and Sam Cohn at Temple University Press, the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University, the managing editors at Urban Affairs Review, and our guests for sharing their time and insights with us. The show’s music is “Hundred Mile” by K2, courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reforming Philadelphia examines the cyclical efforts of insurgents to change the city’s government over nearly 350 years. Political scientist Richardson Dilworth tracks reformers as they create a new purpose for the city or reshape the government to reflect emerging ideas. Some wish to thwart the “corrupt machine,” while others seek to gain control of the government via elections. These actors formed coalitions and organizations that disrupted the status quo in the hope of transforming the city (and perhaps also enriching themselves).

Dilworth addresses Philadelphia’s early development through the present day, including momentous changes from its new city charter in 1885 and the Republican machine that emerged around the same time to its transformation to a Democratic stronghold in the 1950s, when the city also experienced a racial transition. Focusing primarily on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Dilworth evaluates the terms of Mayors Frank Rizzo, Wilson Goode, and Ed Rendell, as well as John Street, Michael Nutter, and Jim Kenney to illustrate how power and resistance function, and how Philadelphia’s political history and reform cycles offer a conceptual model that can easily be applied to other cities.

Reforming Philadelphia provides a new framework for understanding the evolving relationship between national politics and local, city politics.

Temple Press is publishing six titles in their series, “Political Lessons from American Cities,” which is edited by Richardson Dilworth, UAR Managing Editor and Professor of Politics at Drexel University.

Credits 

Many thanks to Gary Kramer and Sam Cohn at Temple University Press, the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University, the managing editors at Urban Affairs Review, and our guests for sharing their time and insights with us. The show’s music is “Hundred Mile” by K2, courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special series, “Political Lessons from American Cities,” is presented courtesy of Temple University Press. In this episode, you'll hear from Jennifer A. Heerwig (Stony Brook University) and Brian J. McCabe (Georgetown University) about their book, Democracy Vouchers and the Promise of Fairer Elections in Seattle.

In 2017, Seattle inaugurated a new way for citizens to be involved in democracy: they introduced publicly financed vouchers for voters to donate to local candidates. The innovative plan is designed to level the playing field in campaign financing. Through the vouchers, residents allocate dollars to candidates of their choice in local elections, putting political money directly in the hands of voters. The intent is to increase political participation and ameliorate the long-standing representational inequalities of private donations.

Democracy Vouchers and the Promise of Fairer Elections in Seattle critically evaluates the success and impact of this program. Jennifer Heerwig and Brian J. McCabe emphasize how local elections now attract a much wider and more diverse field of both donors and candidates. They also consider external threats to the program, from litigation about the constitutionality of a voucher program to the rise of independent expenditures.

Offering important lessons on how other cities can adopt a similar program, this compelling case study also highlights the obstacles that will likely arise in its implementation.

Temple Press is publishing six titles in their series, “Political Lessons from American Cities,” which is edited by Richardson Dilworth, UAR Managing Editor and Professor of Politics at Drexel University.

Credits 

Many thanks to Gary Kramer and Sam Cohn at Temple University Press, the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University, the managing editors at Urban Affairs Review, and our guests for sharing their time and insights with us. The show’s music is “Hundred Mile” by K2, courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special series, “Political Lessons from American Cities,” is presented courtesy of Temple University Press. In this episode, you'll hear from Els de Graauw (Baruch College/CUNY Graduate Center) and Shannon Gleeson (Cornell University) about their book, "Advancing Immigrant Rights in Houston."

Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the United States and has long been a prime destination for international migrants from Latin America, Asia, and more recently, Africa. However, the city is politically mixed, organizationally underserved, and situated in a relatively anti-immigrant state. This makes Houston a challenging context for immigrant rights despite its rapidly diversifying population.

Els de Graauw and Shannon Gleeson recount how local and multi-level contexts shape the creation, contestation, and implementation of immigrant rights policies and practices in the city. They examine the development of a city immigrant affairs office, interactions between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement officials, local public-private partnerships around federal immigration benefits, and collaborations between labor, immigrant rights, faith, and business leaders to combat wage theft.

The case study of Houston provides a bellwether for how other U.S. cities will deal with their growing immigrant populations and underscores the importance of public-private collaborations to advance immigrant rights.

Temple Press is publishing six titles in their series, “Political Lessons from American Cities,” which is edited by Richardson Dilworth, UAR Managing Editor and Professor of Politics at Drexel University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this four-part miniseries, we spoke with six scholars whose research addresses different aspects, geographies, and approaches to analyzing and understanding the relationship between migration and urban politics and culture. In this episode, we’ll hear from collaborators Deirdre Conlon and Nancy Hiemstra about their decade-long project on detention economies; Leslie Gross-Wrytzen on how migration has shaped Moroccan cities; David Kaufmann on the important but fraught role of NGOs; and Andrew Baldwin raises some important and understudied questions on the relationship between urban climate migration and property.

We could have created an entire show focused on this topic! But instead, we’re taking a wide-angled and ecumenical approach to general topics in urban studies. We hope to expose scholars, students, and practitioners of urban studies to diverse research methods and approaches to these themes. Each episode will be accompanied by a suggested reading list based on our discussions, and we welcome suggestions for future guests and topics!

GUESTS

Andrew Baldwin, Durham University

Deirdre Conlon, University of Leeds

Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen, Yale University

Nancy Hiemstra, Stony Brook University (SUNY)

David Kaufmann, ETH Zürich

Domenic Vitiello, University of Pennsylvania

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this four-part miniseries, we spoke with six scholars whose research addresses different aspects, geographies, and approaches to analyzing and understanding the relationship between migration and urban politics and culture. In this episode, we take a multidisciplinary look at the sanctuary city with political scientist David Kaufmann and historian Domenic Vitiello, and examine the fraught concept of climate migration with Andrew Baldwin.

We could have created an entire show focused on this topic! But instead, we’re taking a wide-angled and ecumenical approach to general topics in urban studies. We hope to expose scholars, students, and practitioners of urban studies to diverse research methods and approaches to these themes. Each episode will be accompanied by a suggested reading list based on our discussions, and we welcome suggestions for future guests and topics!

GUESTS

Andrew Baldwin, Durham University

Deirdre Conlon, University of Leeds

Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen, Yale University

Nancy Hiemstra, Stony Brook University (SUNY)

David Kaufmann, ETH Zürich

Domenic Vitiello, University of Pennsylvania

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this four-part miniseries, we spoke with six scholars whose research addresses different aspects, geographies, and approaches to analyzing and understanding the relationship between migration and urban politics and culture. This episode delves into recent debates in critical geography that explore the relationships between racism, migration, borders, and labor.

We could have created an entire show focused on this topic! But instead, we’re taking a wide-angled and ecumenical approach to general topics in urban studies. We hope to expose scholars, students, and practitioners of urban studies to diverse research methods and approaches to these themes. Each episode will be accompanied by a suggested reading list based on our discussions, and we welcome suggestions for future guests and topics!

GUESTS

Andrew Baldwin, Durham University

Deirdre Conlon, University of Leeds

Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen, Yale University

Nancy Hiemstra, Stony Brook University (SUNY)

David Kaufmann, ETH Zürich

Domenic Vitiello, University of Pennsylvania

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this four-part miniseries, we spoke with six scholars whose research addresses different aspects, geographies, and approaches to analyzing and understanding the relationship between migration and urban politics and culture. After introducing our guests for the series, this episode works through the concept of the border as a mobile entity that carries very real and concrete implications.

We could have created an entire show focused on this topic! But instead, we’re taking a wide-angled and ecumenical approach to general topics in urban studies. We hope to expose scholars, students, and practitioners of urban studies to diverse research methods and approaches to these themes. Each episode will be accompanied by a suggested reading list based on our discussions, and we welcome suggestions for future guests and topics!

Guests

Andrew Baldwin, Durham University

Deirdre Conlon, University of Leeds

Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen, Yale University

Nancy Hiemstra, Stony Brook University (SUNY)

David Kaufmann, ETH Zürich

Domenic Vitiello, University of Pennsylvania

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our final installment of this four-part cities on cities and technology, we wrap up our conversations on smart cities, urban platforms, knowledge production, and civic intelligence by exploring alternative approaches to urban transformation – analog and digital. Tune in to learn more about the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, the changing geography of carbon economies, and what post offices and hardware stores can teach us about community.  

GUESTS 

David Banks, SUNY, University at Albany 

Ryan Burns, University of Calgary 

Ayonna Datta, University College London 

Shannon Mattern, University of Pennsylvania 

Erin McElroy, University of Washington 

John Stehlin, University of North Carolina at Greensboro 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part three of our four-part series on cities and technology attempts to grapple with the urban platform, platform urbanism, and the messy consequences of implementing these approaches in cities. Is a city like a platform, or is it a platform? What kinds of data do urban platforms need to operate, and what kinds of subjects do those data make? This episode features excerpts from all six scholars in the series who untangle these threads and challenge the assumptions of tech-driven policies.  

GUESTS 

David Banks, SUNY, University at Albany 

Ryan Burns, University of Calgary 

Ayonna Datta, University College London 

Shannon Mattern, University of Pennsylvania 

Erin McElroy, University of Washington 

John Stehlin, University of North Carolina at Greensboro 

CREDITS 

Many thanks to the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University, the managing editors at Urban Affairs Review, and our guests for sharing their time and insights with us. The show’s music is “Hundred Mile” by K2, courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions. 

Producer and sound engineer: David Weems, Drexel University 

Executive Producer and writer: Emily Holloway, Associate Managing Editor, Urban Affairs Review

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.