John L. Rury
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501748394
- eISBN:
- 9781501748417
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501748394.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This book explains how American suburban school districts gained a competitive edge over their urban counterparts. It focuses on the period between 1950 and 1980, and presents a detailed study of ...
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This book explains how American suburban school districts gained a competitive edge over their urban counterparts. It focuses on the period between 1950 and 1980, and presents a detailed study of metropolitan Kansas City, a region representative of trends elsewhere. While big-city districts once were widely seen as superior and attracted families seeking the best educational opportunities for their children, suburban school systems grew rapidly in the post-World War II era as middle-class and more affluent families moved to those communities. At the same time, economically dislocated African Americans migrated from the South to center-city neighborhoods, testing the capacity of urban institutions. As demographic trends drove this urban–suburban divide, a suburban ethos of localism contributed to the socioeconomic exclusion that became a hallmark of outlying school systems. As the book demonstrates, struggles to achieve greater educational equity and desegregation in urban centers contributed to so-called white flight and what Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan considered to be a crisis of urban education in 1965. Despite the often valiant efforts made to serve inner city children and bolster urban school districts, this exodus, the book argues, created a new metropolitan educational hierarchy—a mirror image of the urban-centric model that had prevailed before World War II. The stubborn perception that suburban schools are superior, based on test scores and budgets, has persisted into the twenty-first century and instantiates today's metropolitan landscape of social, economic, and educational inequality.Less
This book explains how American suburban school districts gained a competitive edge over their urban counterparts. It focuses on the period between 1950 and 1980, and presents a detailed study of metropolitan Kansas City, a region representative of trends elsewhere. While big-city districts once were widely seen as superior and attracted families seeking the best educational opportunities for their children, suburban school systems grew rapidly in the post-World War II era as middle-class and more affluent families moved to those communities. At the same time, economically dislocated African Americans migrated from the South to center-city neighborhoods, testing the capacity of urban institutions. As demographic trends drove this urban–suburban divide, a suburban ethos of localism contributed to the socioeconomic exclusion that became a hallmark of outlying school systems. As the book demonstrates, struggles to achieve greater educational equity and desegregation in urban centers contributed to so-called white flight and what Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan considered to be a crisis of urban education in 1965. Despite the often valiant efforts made to serve inner city children and bolster urban school districts, this exodus, the book argues, created a new metropolitan educational hierarchy—a mirror image of the urban-centric model that had prevailed before World War II. The stubborn perception that suburban schools are superior, based on test scores and budgets, has persisted into the twenty-first century and instantiates today's metropolitan landscape of social, economic, and educational inequality.
Lily Geismer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157238
- eISBN:
- 9781400852420
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157238.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This book traces the reorientation of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party away from their roots in labor union halls of northern cities to white-collar professionals in postindustrial ...
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This book traces the reorientation of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party away from their roots in labor union halls of northern cities to white-collar professionals in postindustrial high-tech suburbs, and casts new light on the importance of suburban liberalism in modern American political culture. Focusing on the suburbs along the high-tech corridor of Route 128 around Boston, the book challenges conventional scholarly assessments of Massachusetts exceptionalism, the decline of liberalism, and suburban politics in the wake of the rise of the New Right and the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. Although only a small portion of the population, knowledge professionals in Massachusetts and elsewhere have come to wield tremendous political leverage and power. By probing the possibilities and limitations of these suburban liberals, this rich and nuanced account shows that—far from being an exception to national trends—the suburbs of Massachusetts offer a model for understanding national political realignment and suburban politics in the second half of the twentieth century.Less
This book traces the reorientation of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party away from their roots in labor union halls of northern cities to white-collar professionals in postindustrial high-tech suburbs, and casts new light on the importance of suburban liberalism in modern American political culture. Focusing on the suburbs along the high-tech corridor of Route 128 around Boston, the book challenges conventional scholarly assessments of Massachusetts exceptionalism, the decline of liberalism, and suburban politics in the wake of the rise of the New Right and the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. Although only a small portion of the population, knowledge professionals in Massachusetts and elsewhere have come to wield tremendous political leverage and power. By probing the possibilities and limitations of these suburban liberals, this rich and nuanced account shows that—far from being an exception to national trends—the suburbs of Massachusetts offer a model for understanding national political realignment and suburban politics in the second half of the twentieth century.
Lily Geismer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157238
- eISBN:
- 9781400852420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157238.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This introductory chapter describes the myth of Massachusetts exceptionalism in the context of suburban liberalism, and provides a brief overview of Massachusetts politics in general, particularly ...
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This introductory chapter describes the myth of Massachusetts exceptionalism in the context of suburban liberalism, and provides a brief overview of Massachusetts politics in general, particularly what it means to be a “Massachusetts liberal.” In particular, the chapter states that the suburban liberals in the Route 128 area have stood at the intersection of the political, economic, and spatial reorganizations that occurred in the United States since 1945, but they have been largely left out of the traditional frameworks of twentieth-century political and urban history. Yet the chapter argues that liberal activism in the Route 128 area illuminates several key factors about the nature of suburban politics and the relationship between national developments and the particularities of political patterns in Massachusetts.Less
This introductory chapter describes the myth of Massachusetts exceptionalism in the context of suburban liberalism, and provides a brief overview of Massachusetts politics in general, particularly what it means to be a “Massachusetts liberal.” In particular, the chapter states that the suburban liberals in the Route 128 area have stood at the intersection of the political, economic, and spatial reorganizations that occurred in the United States since 1945, but they have been largely left out of the traditional frameworks of twentieth-century political and urban history. Yet the chapter argues that liberal activism in the Route 128 area illuminates several key factors about the nature of suburban politics and the relationship between national developments and the particularities of political patterns in Massachusetts.
Lily Geismer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157238
- eISBN:
- 9781400852420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157238.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter looks at the growth of suburban feminism as a means to consider the persistence of certain elements of suburban liberal activism and ideology in a changed political and economic climate. ...
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This chapter looks at the growth of suburban feminism as a means to consider the persistence of certain elements of suburban liberal activism and ideology in a changed political and economic climate. The increasing wedding of feminism with suburban politics had key trade-offs for the larger cause of women's equality. The sensibility and organizing strategies of suburban liberal politics were both crucial to the success of several campaigns, especially the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The pivot also helped the movement further earn the notice and attention of politicians eager to win suburban votes. Yet the relationship hardened the middle-class orientation of second-wave feminism and elevated class-blind and consumerist ideas of choice.Less
This chapter looks at the growth of suburban feminism as a means to consider the persistence of certain elements of suburban liberal activism and ideology in a changed political and economic climate. The increasing wedding of feminism with suburban politics had key trade-offs for the larger cause of women's equality. The sensibility and organizing strategies of suburban liberal politics were both crucial to the success of several campaigns, especially the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The pivot also helped the movement further earn the notice and attention of politicians eager to win suburban votes. Yet the relationship hardened the middle-class orientation of second-wave feminism and elevated class-blind and consumerist ideas of choice.
Gene E. Likens
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195309454
- eISBN:
- 9780199871261
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309454.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter identifies the conservation and protection of ecosystems and landscapes as a critical need in the largely destabilized world of the early 21st century. This threat comes from several ...
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This chapter identifies the conservation and protection of ecosystems and landscapes as a critical need in the largely destabilized world of the early 21st century. This threat comes from several factors, including (1) war and terrorism, which seriously threaten and degrade natural and human-dominated ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide; (2) increased globalization of the marketplace, which markedly accelerates the invasion of alien species and spread of infectious disease; (3) the accelerating rate of suburban sprawl and fragmentation of landscapes and shorelines; and (4) the deficiency of leadership on these issues from the US.Less
This chapter identifies the conservation and protection of ecosystems and landscapes as a critical need in the largely destabilized world of the early 21st century. This threat comes from several factors, including (1) war and terrorism, which seriously threaten and degrade natural and human-dominated ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide; (2) increased globalization of the marketplace, which markedly accelerates the invasion of alien species and spread of infectious disease; (3) the accelerating rate of suburban sprawl and fragmentation of landscapes and shorelines; and (4) the deficiency of leadership on these issues from the US.
Lily Geismer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157238
- eISBN:
- 9781400852420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157238.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter examines the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) and its commitment to equal opportunity and changing individual attitudes through one-on-one interaction. While ...
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This chapter examines the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) and its commitment to equal opportunity and changing individual attitudes through one-on-one interaction. While METCO offered a rare example of interracial and urban–suburban cooperation, its focus on collective benefits rather than collective responsibility had wide-ranging consequences. Tracing the development of METCO offers an important case study of the trade-offs that suburban liberal activists made in their quests to achieve social justice. The organizers' pragmatic approach ensured the acceptance of the program in the suburbs and paved the way for later support of diversity claims about the value of affirmative action. This strategy, nevertheless, fortified the consumer-based and individualist dimensions of the Route 128 political culture. It ultimately made community members more resistant to grappling with the systemic and historical circumstances that necessitated programs like METCO and affirmative action in the first place.Less
This chapter examines the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) and its commitment to equal opportunity and changing individual attitudes through one-on-one interaction. While METCO offered a rare example of interracial and urban–suburban cooperation, its focus on collective benefits rather than collective responsibility had wide-ranging consequences. Tracing the development of METCO offers an important case study of the trade-offs that suburban liberal activists made in their quests to achieve social justice. The organizers' pragmatic approach ensured the acceptance of the program in the suburbs and paved the way for later support of diversity claims about the value of affirmative action. This strategy, nevertheless, fortified the consumer-based and individualist dimensions of the Route 128 political culture. It ultimately made community members more resistant to grappling with the systemic and historical circumstances that necessitated programs like METCO and affirmative action in the first place.
Jennifer F. Hamer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520269316
- eISBN:
- 9780520950177
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520269316.003.0010
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
Today, in the metropolitan-area small cities, African Americans are more likely than whites to live in poverty, to experience a high rate of school dropouts, and to be incarcerated. At a later point ...
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Today, in the metropolitan-area small cities, African Americans are more likely than whites to live in poverty, to experience a high rate of school dropouts, and to be incarcerated. At a later point in the twenty-first century, a clear majority of African Americans will be living in the suburbs, not in either rural areas or inner cities. The experiences of those in East St. Louis report that there is nothing particularly romantic about the deprivations of working-class suburban life in this space or place, especially for those at the outermost socioeconomic margins. The hallmarks of suburban living were being threatened by a global economic crisis, but working-class suburbanites in East St. Louis have been feeling the pinch for a long time. Without fixes of the problems at the root level, the spiral of distress and abandonment will continue.Less
Today, in the metropolitan-area small cities, African Americans are more likely than whites to live in poverty, to experience a high rate of school dropouts, and to be incarcerated. At a later point in the twenty-first century, a clear majority of African Americans will be living in the suburbs, not in either rural areas or inner cities. The experiences of those in East St. Louis report that there is nothing particularly romantic about the deprivations of working-class suburban life in this space or place, especially for those at the outermost socioeconomic margins. The hallmarks of suburban living were being threatened by a global economic crisis, but working-class suburbanites in East St. Louis have been feeling the pinch for a long time. Without fixes of the problems at the root level, the spiral of distress and abandonment will continue.
John L. Rury
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501748394
- eISBN:
- 9781501748417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501748394.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This introductory chapter discusses an “ecological” approach to understanding urban development, as applied to suburban schooling. It narrows down the scope of the study to metropolitan Kansas City, ...
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This introductory chapter discusses an “ecological” approach to understanding urban development, as applied to suburban schooling. It narrows down the scope of the study to metropolitan Kansas City, a major midwestern hub near the geographical center of the contiguous forty-eight states. The chapter briefly considers the process of suburban development examined in light of the racialization of neighborhoods and institutions, especially schools. As historians have amply demonstrated, suburbanization entailed a massive movement of human and material resources out of central cities, leaving poverty and inequity in its wake. While Kansas City's urban schools struggled with growing numbers of impoverished students, outlying districts grew rapidly and remained predominantly white and middle class. And much of this occurred within the municipal boundaries of Kansas City, Missouri.Less
This introductory chapter discusses an “ecological” approach to understanding urban development, as applied to suburban schooling. It narrows down the scope of the study to metropolitan Kansas City, a major midwestern hub near the geographical center of the contiguous forty-eight states. The chapter briefly considers the process of suburban development examined in light of the racialization of neighborhoods and institutions, especially schools. As historians have amply demonstrated, suburbanization entailed a massive movement of human and material resources out of central cities, leaving poverty and inequity in its wake. While Kansas City's urban schools struggled with growing numbers of impoverished students, outlying districts grew rapidly and remained predominantly white and middle class. And much of this occurred within the municipal boundaries of Kansas City, Missouri.
John L. Rury
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501748394
- eISBN:
- 9781501748417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501748394.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This chapter describes the development of educational systems in the United States through much of the twentieth century, and changes in metropolitan life following the Second World War. Patterns of ...
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This chapter describes the development of educational systems in the United States through much of the twentieth century, and changes in metropolitan life following the Second World War. Patterns of suburban development varied somewhat by region, a process that held important implications for the organization of schooling. In the end, however, there was considerable convergence in the general process of suburbanization. Distinctions between central city and suburban communities became commonplace, especially in larger metropolitan regions. Educational inequities generally paralleled these developments, with few exceptions. By the later 1970s it was quite clear that a new national model of suburban advantage had taken hold—one that has continued to be evident largely to the present.Less
This chapter describes the development of educational systems in the United States through much of the twentieth century, and changes in metropolitan life following the Second World War. Patterns of suburban development varied somewhat by region, a process that held important implications for the organization of schooling. In the end, however, there was considerable convergence in the general process of suburbanization. Distinctions between central city and suburban communities became commonplace, especially in larger metropolitan regions. Educational inequities generally paralleled these developments, with few exceptions. By the later 1970s it was quite clear that a new national model of suburban advantage had taken hold—one that has continued to be evident largely to the present.
David K. Skelly, Susan R. Bolden, Manja P. Holland, L. Kealoha Freidenburg, Nicole A. Freidenfelds, and Trent R. Malcolm
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198567080
- eISBN:
- 9780191717871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567080.003.0011
- Subject:
- Biology, Disease Ecology / Epidemiology
Amphibians depend on freshwater wetlands that have greatly been altered by urbanization. Increases in human density can be linked to changes in light and thermal environments, water chemistry, and ...
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Amphibians depend on freshwater wetlands that have greatly been altered by urbanization. Increases in human density can be linked to changes in light and thermal environments, water chemistry, and hydrology. These characteristic shifts provide a changing backdrop for the infection of amphibian hosts by macroparasites such as trematodes. Comparative and experimental approaches show how changes in the environmental context influence patterns of infection in wild amphibian populations. The patters of infection of amphibians collected from sixty wetlands located in underdeveloped, suburban, and urban environments are compared. Results show that the environmental context is a critical driver of infection patterns in wild amphibians, and that urbanization may alter the dynamics of disease in wildlife populations.Less
Amphibians depend on freshwater wetlands that have greatly been altered by urbanization. Increases in human density can be linked to changes in light and thermal environments, water chemistry, and hydrology. These characteristic shifts provide a changing backdrop for the infection of amphibian hosts by macroparasites such as trematodes. Comparative and experimental approaches show how changes in the environmental context influence patterns of infection in wild amphibian populations. The patters of infection of amphibians collected from sixty wetlands located in underdeveloped, suburban, and urban environments are compared. Results show that the environmental context is a critical driver of infection patterns in wild amphibians, and that urbanization may alter the dynamics of disease in wildlife populations.
Sam Wetherell
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780691193755
- eISBN:
- 9780691208558
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691193755.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This book is a history of twentieth-century Britain told through the rise, fall, and reinvention of six different types of urban space: the industrial estate, shopping precinct, council estate, ...
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This book is a history of twentieth-century Britain told through the rise, fall, and reinvention of six different types of urban space: the industrial estate, shopping precinct, council estate, private flats, shopping mall, and suburban office park. The book shows how these spaces transformed Britain's politics, economy, and society, helping forge a mid-century developmental state and shaping the rise of neoliberalism after 1980. From the mid-twentieth-century, spectacular new types of urban space were created in order to help remake Britain's economy and society. Government-financed industrial estates laid down infrastructure to entice footloose capitalists to move to depressed regions of the country. Shopping precincts allowed politicians to plan precisely for postwar consumer demand. Public housing modernized domestic life and attempted to create new communities out of erstwhile strangers. In the latter part of the twentieth-century many of these spaces were privatized and reimagined as their developmental aims were abandoned. Industrial estates became suburban business parks. State-owned shopping precincts became private shopping malls. The council estate was securitized and enclosed. New types of urban space were imported from American suburbia, and planners and politicians became increasingly skeptical that the built environment could remake society. With the mid-century built environment becoming obsolete, British neoliberalism emerged in tense negotiation with the awkward remains of built spaces that had to be navigated and remade. The book highlights how some of the major transformations of twentieth-century British history were forged in the everyday spaces where people lived, worked, and shopped.Less
This book is a history of twentieth-century Britain told through the rise, fall, and reinvention of six different types of urban space: the industrial estate, shopping precinct, council estate, private flats, shopping mall, and suburban office park. The book shows how these spaces transformed Britain's politics, economy, and society, helping forge a mid-century developmental state and shaping the rise of neoliberalism after 1980. From the mid-twentieth-century, spectacular new types of urban space were created in order to help remake Britain's economy and society. Government-financed industrial estates laid down infrastructure to entice footloose capitalists to move to depressed regions of the country. Shopping precincts allowed politicians to plan precisely for postwar consumer demand. Public housing modernized domestic life and attempted to create new communities out of erstwhile strangers. In the latter part of the twentieth-century many of these spaces were privatized and reimagined as their developmental aims were abandoned. Industrial estates became suburban business parks. State-owned shopping precincts became private shopping malls. The council estate was securitized and enclosed. New types of urban space were imported from American suburbia, and planners and politicians became increasingly skeptical that the built environment could remake society. With the mid-century built environment becoming obsolete, British neoliberalism emerged in tense negotiation with the awkward remains of built spaces that had to be navigated and remade. The book highlights how some of the major transformations of twentieth-century British history were forged in the everyday spaces where people lived, worked, and shopped.
Thad Williamson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195369434
- eISBN:
- 9780199852826
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369434.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter addresses six broad strategies in reforming the United States' social pattern: undoing exclusionary zoning and subsidies, improving urban quality of life and education, redressing local ...
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This chapter addresses six broad strategies in reforming the United States' social pattern: undoing exclusionary zoning and subsidies, improving urban quality of life and education, redressing local inequalities, government-steered development in older areas, setting hard limits on suburban expansion, and direct intervention into individual choices—which were most compatible with the green civic republican ideology. The metropolitan model would then serve as a guideline in establishing a vision of a just and healthy metropolitan city. This chapter provides a summarized review of what was discussed in previous chapters, at the same time, it directs a systematic formulation of forming solutions to suburban sprawl and its existence within American social pattern through a two-pronged approach to policy reform.Less
This chapter addresses six broad strategies in reforming the United States' social pattern: undoing exclusionary zoning and subsidies, improving urban quality of life and education, redressing local inequalities, government-steered development in older areas, setting hard limits on suburban expansion, and direct intervention into individual choices—which were most compatible with the green civic republican ideology. The metropolitan model would then serve as a guideline in establishing a vision of a just and healthy metropolitan city. This chapter provides a summarized review of what was discussed in previous chapters, at the same time, it directs a systematic formulation of forming solutions to suburban sprawl and its existence within American social pattern through a two-pronged approach to policy reform.
John Gatta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195165050
- eISBN:
- 9780199835140
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195165055.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
Wendell Berry’s creative nonfiction has been chiefly inspired by the author’s longstanding relation to his home place in Kentucky. It embodies his religious conviction that land should be understood ...
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Wendell Berry’s creative nonfiction has been chiefly inspired by the author’s longstanding relation to his home place in Kentucky. It embodies his religious conviction that land should be understood not as commodity but as divine gift and sacrament, and that human community is organically wedded to the rest of nature’s ecological household. Confronting the problem of theodicy raised by the apparent cruelty and waste of Creation, Annie Dillard endeavors to combine traditional practice of meditation on the creatures with spiritual understanding gleaned from modern science. John Cheever, in his final work of fiction, produced a scathing critique of the pastoralism fancied to persist in suburban America—yet affirmed that this world we inhabit can indeed be revered as a marvelous and holy “paradise.” By contrast, Marilynne Robinson’s novelistic tale of a mountain-rimmed lake in the Pacific Northwest images not paradise, but the holy terror of the abyss inspired by untamed nature.Less
Wendell Berry’s creative nonfiction has been chiefly inspired by the author’s longstanding relation to his home place in Kentucky. It embodies his religious conviction that land should be understood not as commodity but as divine gift and sacrament, and that human community is organically wedded to the rest of nature’s ecological household. Confronting the problem of theodicy raised by the apparent cruelty and waste of Creation, Annie Dillard endeavors to combine traditional practice of meditation on the creatures with spiritual understanding gleaned from modern science. John Cheever, in his final work of fiction, produced a scathing critique of the pastoralism fancied to persist in suburban America—yet affirmed that this world we inhabit can indeed be revered as a marvelous and holy “paradise.” By contrast, Marilynne Robinson’s novelistic tale of a mountain-rimmed lake in the Pacific Northwest images not paradise, but the holy terror of the abyss inspired by untamed nature.
Chester E. Finn and Andrew E. Scanlan
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691178721
- eISBN:
- 9780691185828
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178721.003.0007
- Subject:
- Education, Higher and Further Education
This chapter explores the Advanced Placement (AP) program in suburban school districts. Even as urban centers like Fort Worth and New York typify today's livelier venues for AP expansion, the program ...
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This chapter explores the Advanced Placement (AP) program in suburban school districts. Even as urban centers like Fort Worth and New York typify today's livelier venues for AP expansion, the program has deep roots in the prosperous suburbs that abut them. Along with elite private schools, upscale suburban high schools were among the program's earliest adopters, and they remain natural habitats for a nationally benchmarked, high-status venture that gives strong students a head start on the college education that they are almost certainly going to get and perhaps an extra advantage in gaining admission to the universities they aspire to. Yet they are also ripe for attention as they struggle with equity and growth issues of their own. The chapter then reviews two well-known yet very different suburban districts: Dublin City Schools in Ohio and Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. Both are celebrated as education successes in their states and both boast long and impressive AP track records. Both, however, face distinctive challenges as they seek to serve today's constituents. Their stories illustrate how AP is functioning in places that know it well yet continue to evolve with it.Less
This chapter explores the Advanced Placement (AP) program in suburban school districts. Even as urban centers like Fort Worth and New York typify today's livelier venues for AP expansion, the program has deep roots in the prosperous suburbs that abut them. Along with elite private schools, upscale suburban high schools were among the program's earliest adopters, and they remain natural habitats for a nationally benchmarked, high-status venture that gives strong students a head start on the college education that they are almost certainly going to get and perhaps an extra advantage in gaining admission to the universities they aspire to. Yet they are also ripe for attention as they struggle with equity and growth issues of their own. The chapter then reviews two well-known yet very different suburban districts: Dublin City Schools in Ohio and Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. Both are celebrated as education successes in their states and both boast long and impressive AP track records. Both, however, face distinctive challenges as they seek to serve today's constituents. Their stories illustrate how AP is functioning in places that know it well yet continue to evolve with it.
Gregory L. Simon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520292802
- eISBN:
- 9780520966161
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292802.001.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Environmental Geography
This book investigates the ongoing politics, folly, and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. The 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire is ...
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This book investigates the ongoing politics, folly, and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. The 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire is used as a starting point to better understand these complex social-environmental processes. The Tunnel Fire is the most destructive fire—in terms of structures lost—in California history. More than 3,000 residential structures burned and 25 lives were lost. Although this fire occurred in Oakland and Berkeley, others like it sear through landscapes in California and the American West that have experienced urban growth and development within areas historically prone to fire. The book blends environmental history, political ecology, and science studies to closely examine the Tunnel Fire within a broader historical and spatial context of regional economic development and natural-resource management, such as the widespread planting of eucalyptus trees as an exotic lure for homeowners and the creation of hillside neighborhoods for tax revenue—decisions that produced communities with increased vulnerability to fire. The book demonstrates how in Oakland a drive for affluence led to a state of vulnerability for rich and poor alike that has only been exacerbated by the rebuilding of neighborhoods after the fire. Despite these troubling trends, the text illustrates how many popular and scientific debates on fire limit the scope and efficacy of policy responses. These risky yet profitable developments (what the book refers to as the Incendiary), as well as proposed strategies for challenging them, are discussed in the context of urbanizing areas around the American West and hold global applicability within hazard-prone areas.Less
This book investigates the ongoing politics, folly, and avarice shaping the production of increasingly widespread yet dangerous suburban and exurban landscapes. The 1991 Oakland Hills Tunnel Fire is used as a starting point to better understand these complex social-environmental processes. The Tunnel Fire is the most destructive fire—in terms of structures lost—in California history. More than 3,000 residential structures burned and 25 lives were lost. Although this fire occurred in Oakland and Berkeley, others like it sear through landscapes in California and the American West that have experienced urban growth and development within areas historically prone to fire. The book blends environmental history, political ecology, and science studies to closely examine the Tunnel Fire within a broader historical and spatial context of regional economic development and natural-resource management, such as the widespread planting of eucalyptus trees as an exotic lure for homeowners and the creation of hillside neighborhoods for tax revenue—decisions that produced communities with increased vulnerability to fire. The book demonstrates how in Oakland a drive for affluence led to a state of vulnerability for rich and poor alike that has only been exacerbated by the rebuilding of neighborhoods after the fire. Despite these troubling trends, the text illustrates how many popular and scientific debates on fire limit the scope and efficacy of policy responses. These risky yet profitable developments (what the book refers to as the Incendiary), as well as proposed strategies for challenging them, are discussed in the context of urbanizing areas around the American West and hold global applicability within hazard-prone areas.
John L. Rury
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501748394
- eISBN:
- 9781501748417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501748394.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This chapter introduces metropolitan Kansas City as the site for a case study to examine the dynamics of suburban development and its implications for educational inequality. Following the lead of ...
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This chapter introduces metropolitan Kansas City as the site for a case study to examine the dynamics of suburban development and its implications for educational inequality. Following the lead of its city manager Perry Cookingham, Kansas City, Missouri, undertook an aggressive program of annexation to foreclose the negative effects of suburban development on the central city, expanding its boundaries substantially. Cookingham's plan did not include annexation of school districts, however, and as a result the enlarged municipality contained all or parts of more than a dozen districts, a development that would have important consequences. At the same time, suburbanization resulted in population shifts across the area, with affluent and college-educated adults settling in suburban communities, especially in Johnson County, Kansas. This too would have important educational consequences, giving suburban schools on the Kansas side of the state line a particular advantage in terms of academic attainment and achievement. It also relegated the schools of Kansas City, Missouri, to a range of problems associated with concentrated poverty and declining revenues.Less
This chapter introduces metropolitan Kansas City as the site for a case study to examine the dynamics of suburban development and its implications for educational inequality. Following the lead of its city manager Perry Cookingham, Kansas City, Missouri, undertook an aggressive program of annexation to foreclose the negative effects of suburban development on the central city, expanding its boundaries substantially. Cookingham's plan did not include annexation of school districts, however, and as a result the enlarged municipality contained all or parts of more than a dozen districts, a development that would have important consequences. At the same time, suburbanization resulted in population shifts across the area, with affluent and college-educated adults settling in suburban communities, especially in Johnson County, Kansas. This too would have important educational consequences, giving suburban schools on the Kansas side of the state line a particular advantage in terms of academic attainment and achievement. It also relegated the schools of Kansas City, Missouri, to a range of problems associated with concentrated poverty and declining revenues.
Lily Geismer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157238
- eISBN:
- 9781400852420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157238.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter shows how structural processes, policies, and national trends intersected with the particular history, geography, and reputation of the Boston area to produce the set of ...
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This chapter shows how structural processes, policies, and national trends intersected with the particular history, geography, and reputation of the Boston area to produce the set of juxtapositions—between history and progress, tradition and technology, open-mindedness and exclusivity, meritocracy and equality—that characterized the physical landscape and political culture of the Route 128 suburbs and the political ideology of many of their residents. It reveals that homeowners' view of themselves in rural Lincoln and cosmopolitan Newton fueled grassroots activism on a range of liberal issues. This sense of individual and collective distinctiveness simultaneously made many residents see themselves as separate from, and not responsible for, many of the consequences of suburban growth and the forms of inequality and segregation that suburban development fortified.Less
This chapter shows how structural processes, policies, and national trends intersected with the particular history, geography, and reputation of the Boston area to produce the set of juxtapositions—between history and progress, tradition and technology, open-mindedness and exclusivity, meritocracy and equality—that characterized the physical landscape and political culture of the Route 128 suburbs and the political ideology of many of their residents. It reveals that homeowners' view of themselves in rural Lincoln and cosmopolitan Newton fueled grassroots activism on a range of liberal issues. This sense of individual and collective distinctiveness simultaneously made many residents see themselves as separate from, and not responsible for, many of the consequences of suburban growth and the forms of inequality and segregation that suburban development fortified.
Lily Geismer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157238
- eISBN:
- 9781400852420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157238.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter places the debates over voluntary integration within the context of the Boston busing crisis and the national recession. Explorations of the dramatic events that surrounded the Boston ...
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This chapter places the debates over voluntary integration within the context of the Boston busing crisis and the national recession. Explorations of the dramatic events that surrounded the Boston busing crisis have often focused on the ways in which “suburban liberals” passively stood by as working-class whites and blacks in the city endured the burden of school integration. However, the residents along Boston's Route 128 belt were not as removed from the events and issues as those depictions might suggest. The discussion about METCO during this period of turmoil illuminates how the various forces of suburban politics influenced the remedies to school desegregation and racial and economic inequality.Less
This chapter places the debates over voluntary integration within the context of the Boston busing crisis and the national recession. Explorations of the dramatic events that surrounded the Boston busing crisis have often focused on the ways in which “suburban liberals” passively stood by as working-class whites and blacks in the city endured the burden of school integration. However, the residents along Boston's Route 128 belt were not as removed from the events and issues as those depictions might suggest. The discussion about METCO during this period of turmoil illuminates how the various forces of suburban politics influenced the remedies to school desegregation and racial and economic inequality.
Peter Hall
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861349842
- eISBN:
- 9781447302711
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861349842.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This book provides a unique collection of ordinary Londoners who, in their own voices, tell about ordinary London lives. Interviews with over a hundred people in eight localities, from inner-city ...
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This book provides a unique collection of ordinary Londoners who, in their own voices, tell about ordinary London lives. Interviews with over a hundred people in eight localities, from inner-city Battersea, to suburban Heston, to Greenhithe on the London fringe, have been edited with a linking commentary. The first half of the book, ‘London Voices’, introduces the characters — their hopes and aspirations, their frustrations and struggles, and their determination and optimism. The second half, ‘London Lives’, introduces the themes that dominate the everyday lives of these people — the struggle to keep their heads above water, the search for a place to live, the hassle of the journey to work, their friends and neighbours, their concerns about crime, and the quality of their everyday lives. The book is a social record of today's London.Less
This book provides a unique collection of ordinary Londoners who, in their own voices, tell about ordinary London lives. Interviews with over a hundred people in eight localities, from inner-city Battersea, to suburban Heston, to Greenhithe on the London fringe, have been edited with a linking commentary. The first half of the book, ‘London Voices’, introduces the characters — their hopes and aspirations, their frustrations and struggles, and their determination and optimism. The second half, ‘London Lives’, introduces the themes that dominate the everyday lives of these people — the struggle to keep their heads above water, the search for a place to live, the hassle of the journey to work, their friends and neighbours, their concerns about crime, and the quality of their everyday lives. The book is a social record of today's London.
Carolyn T. Adams
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451621
- eISBN:
- 9780801471858
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451621.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This book addresses the role of suburban elites in setting development agendas for urban municipalities and their larger metropolitan regions. It shows how major nongovernmental, nonmarket ...
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This book addresses the role of suburban elites in setting development agendas for urban municipalities and their larger metropolitan regions. It shows how major nongovernmental, nonmarket institutions are taking responsibility for reshaping Philadelphia, led by suburban and state elites who sit on boards and recruit like-minded suburban colleagues to join them. In Philadelphia and other American cities, Third-Sector organizations have built and expanded hospitals, universities, research centers, performing arts venues, museums, parks, and waterfronts, creating whole new districts that are expanding outward from the city's historic downtown. The book argues that suburban elites have recognized the importance of the central city to their own future and have intervened to redevelop central city land and institutions. Suburban interests and state allies have channeled critical investments in downtown development and K–12 education. The book contrasts those suburban priorities with transportation infrastructure and neighborhood redevelopment, two policy domains in which suburban elites display less strategic engagement. The book is a rich examination of the promise and difficulty of governance that is increasingly distinct from elected government and thus divorced from the usual means of democratic control within an urban municipality.Less
This book addresses the role of suburban elites in setting development agendas for urban municipalities and their larger metropolitan regions. It shows how major nongovernmental, nonmarket institutions are taking responsibility for reshaping Philadelphia, led by suburban and state elites who sit on boards and recruit like-minded suburban colleagues to join them. In Philadelphia and other American cities, Third-Sector organizations have built and expanded hospitals, universities, research centers, performing arts venues, museums, parks, and waterfronts, creating whole new districts that are expanding outward from the city's historic downtown. The book argues that suburban elites have recognized the importance of the central city to their own future and have intervened to redevelop central city land and institutions. Suburban interests and state allies have channeled critical investments in downtown development and K–12 education. The book contrasts those suburban priorities with transportation infrastructure and neighborhood redevelopment, two policy domains in which suburban elites display less strategic engagement. The book is a rich examination of the promise and difficulty of governance that is increasingly distinct from elected government and thus divorced from the usual means of democratic control within an urban municipality.
