Publications and Research
Document Type
Working Paper
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
To generate more inclusive environments for marginalized urban communities of color demands a strategy that privileges symbolic boundary change and uses it as the inroad towards spatial changes. This paper theorizes a three step relational process of a) communicative democratic activism, b) "multicultural" capital brokers providing access to the policy making process, and c) practices of community building that reflect the role of cities as key sites for sociospatial boundary transformation. An emphasis on discursive and ideational change, relying on communicative democratic processes steeped in historical, comparative analysis opens up our minds towards different classification schemes for stigmatized groups. Participating political elites bridge U.S. political and economic power structures that perpetuate inequality, so that efforts at symbolic change can be channeled towards and result in concrete change. These elites lead urban community organizations that carry out the processes of community building that bring this sociospatial transformation full circle.
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Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Place and Environment Commons, Political Theory Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Public Policy Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Policy Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Urban Studies Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons