Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, policy for inner city regeneration underwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local government activity and the use of public funds, to a much heavier dependence on private sector activities and private investment. In The Enterprise Culture and the Inner City, the authors offer a vigorous and critical investigation of government policy and, in response to the result of the 1992 general election and the implications of the Olympia and York Canary Wharf project, present a credible prediction for the future (or lack of future) of the inner city.
Uneven distribution of life is a dominant feature of the city. Major social, economic and spatial divisions are apparent in terms of income and wealth, health, crime, housing, and employment. This text offers an introduction to current processes of urban restructuring, geographies of division and contemporary conditions within the city. The geography of Britain's cities is the outcome of interaction between a host of public and private economic, social and political forces operating at a variety of spatial scales from the global to the local. A deeper understanding of the nature of urban division and of the problems of and prospects for local people and places in urban Britain must be grounded in an appreciation of the structural forces, processes and contextual factors which condition local urban geographies. This book combines structural and local level perspectives to illuminate the complex geography of socio-spatial division within urban Britain. It combines conceptual and empirical analyses from researchers in the field.
Offers a vigorous and critical investigation of government policy for inner city regeneration during the 1980s and 90s, and in light of Canary Wharf, presents a credible prediction for the future (or lack of) of the inner city.
In 1995, Neil Altman did what few psychoanalysts did or even dared to do: He brought the theory and practice of psychoanalysis out of the cozy confines of the consulting room and into the realms of the marginalized, to the very individuals whom this theory and practice often overlooked. In doing so, he brought together psychoanalytic and social theory, and examined how divisions of race, class and culture reflect and influence splits in the developing self, more often than not leading to a negative self image of the "other" in an increasingly polarized society. Much like the original, this second edition of The Analyst in the Inner City opens up with updated, detailed clinical vignettes and case presentations, which illustrate the challenges of working within this clinical milieu. Altman greatly expands his section on race, both in the psychoanalytic and the larger social world, including a focus on "whiteness" which, he argues, is socially constructed in relation to "blackness." However, he admits the inadequacy of such categorizations and proffers a more fluid view of the structure of race. A brand new section, "Thinking Systemically and Psychoanalytically at the Same Time," examines the impact of the socio-political context in which psychotherapy takes place, whether local or global, on the clinical work itself and the socio-economic categories of its patients, and vice-versa. Topics in this section include the APA’s relationship to CIA interrogation practices, group dynamics in child and adolescent psychotherapeutic interventions, and psychoanalytic views on suicide bombing. Ranging from the day-to-day work in a public clinic in the South Bronx to considerations of global events far outside the clinic’s doors (but closer than one might think), this book is a timely revision of a groundbreaking work in psychoanalytic literature, expanding the import of psychoanalysis from the centers of analytical thought to the margins of clinical need.
The idea of the ‘enterprise culture’ has been much vaunted over the last few decades: the growth of self-employment and small business ownership has been an important feature of the restructuring of the British economy. Because it is a concept that is difficult to evaluate, controversial and politically sensitive, social scientists were slow to analyse it. Consequently, it had been caricatured and many questions about its impact on society and the economy had been left unanswered. This collection, which was first published in 1991, presents a critical analysis of the various manifestations of the enterprise culture. Drawing upon a range of research, it deals with a number of related topics. The result is a powerful analysis of the material and ideological role of the petty bourgeoisie in contemporary capitalism. Its multidisciplinary approach, which contributions from leading scholars in the field, makes this book of interest to anyone wanting to make sense of the socio-economic restructuring of Britain.
Escalations in student violence continue throughout the nation, but inner-city schools are the hardest hit, with classrooms and corridors infected by the anger, aggression, and criminality endemic to street life. Technological surveillance, security personnel, and paramilitary control tactics to maintain order and safety are the common administrative response. Essential educational programs are routinely slashed from school budgets, even as the number of guards, cameras, and metal detectors continues to multiply. Based on years of frontline experience in New York's inner-city schools, Maximum Security demonstrates that such policing strategies are not only ineffectual, they divorce students and teachers from their ethical and behavioral responsibilities. Exploring the culture of violence from within, John Devine argues that the security system, with its uniformed officers and invasive high-tech surveillance, has assumed presumptive authority over students' bodies and behavior, negating the traditional roles of teachers as guardians and agents of moral instruction. The teacher is reduced to an information bureaucrat, a purveyor of technical knowledge, while the student's physical well-being and ethical actions are left to the suspect scrutiny of electronic devices and security specialists with no pedagogical mission, training, or interest. The result is not a security system at all, but an insidious institutional disengagement from the caring supervision of the student body. With uncompromising honesty, Devine provides a powerful portrayal of an educational system in crisis and bold new insight into the malignant culture of school violence.
In 1896 W. E. B. Du Bois began research that resulted three years later in the publication of his great classic of urban sociology and history, The Philadelphia Negro. Today, a group of the nation's leading historians and sociologists celebrate the centenary of his project through a reappraisal of his book. Motivated by Du Bois's deeply humane vision of racial equality, the contributors draw on ethnography, intellectual and social history, and statistical analysis to situate Du Bois and his pioneering study in the intellectual milieu of the late nineteenth century, consider his contributions to the subsequent social scientific and historical studies of the city, and assess the contemporary meaning of his work. Together these essays show that The Philadelphia Negro remains as vital and relevant a book at the end of the twentieth century as it was at the start. Contributors include Elijah Anderson, Mia Bay, V. P. Franklin, Robert Gregg, Thomas C. Holt, Tera W. Hunter, Jacqueline Jones, Antonio McDaniel, and Carl Husemoller Nightingale.
For the middle class and the affluent, local ties seem to matter less and less these days, but in the inner city, your life can be irrevocably shaped by what block you live on. Living the Drama takes a close look at three neighborhoods in Boston to analyze the many complex ways that the context of community shapes the daily lives and long-term prospects of inner-city boys. David J. Harding studied sixty adolescent boys growing up in two very poor areas and one working-class area. In the first two, violence and neighborhood identification are inextricably linked as rivalries divide the city into spaces safe, neutral, or dangerous. Consequently, Harding discovers, social relationships are determined by residential space. Older boys who can navigate the dangers of the streets serve as role models, and friendships between peers grow out of mutual protection. The impact of community goes beyond the realm of same-sex bonding, Harding reveals, affecting the boys’ experiences in school and with the opposite sex. A unique glimpse into the world of urban adolescent boys, Living the Drama paints a detailed, insightful portrait of life in the inner city.
First Published in 1999. This book addresses one such needed change in the corporate arena—the continuing inequality of opportunities for success that blacks experience relative to their similarly qualified white peers in the U.S. Through interviews and research, the author tries to find the answers that still need explanation due to the the stereotypes of blacks and other minorities that were kept alive through various media.
