COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

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growth and “beautification” of the environment. Social change is thus perceived as an aesthetic improvement of the environment. Varying definitions of social change include an example published by the San Gabriel Valley Tribune in an article titled “Celebrating 40 years of Social Change.” This article documents forty years of the Center for Social Action’s non-profit work to empower the low-income Latino community through after-school programs (Ertll 2008). Another article published in the Sacramento News and Review states, “Improving the image of Oak Park requires not only the revitalization of the community, but also the physical improvement to increase development” (Shirey 2005). In other words, there are different perspectives as to how community improvement should be accomplished. Observations in Oak Park reveal the community groups studied in this thesis differ in their definition of what a social problem is and in their strategies needed to alleviate and improve the perceptions of the social problem. Their agendas for change overlap in the community and produce social conflict between middle-class residents and the poor in Oak Park. Many community groups and non-profit organizations are dedicated to social change initiatives because they believe they can help the poor attain social mobility and higher standards of living through their programs. Helping the poor attain social mobility is a key component for those helping to create social change, and community groups believe their work will help create social change for lower-income residents. But perceptions of social change and how to facilitate social mobility influence the creation of these initiatives, which take many different forms in low-income communities. 46
Different types of social change initiatives can include empowerment programs, which educate the poor about issues that affect them or about laws that are not in their interest. Through these empowerment programs, the most marginalized step into the political arena. Furthermore, non-profit organizations also act as bridges or facilitators in social change (Corville and Piper 2004). There are conflicting agendas among the groups active in Oak Park and these conflicts animate the concerns and approaches of Oak Park residents: Do revitalization projects improve the community? How do agendas of change manifest themselves in the community? Who do social change strategies benefit? How do the poor perceive revitalization projects and the work of neighborhood community groups and non-profit organizations? These types of questions reveal what Kling and Posner (1990), in their collection of essays, identify as “dilemmas of activism” which serve to inherently shape the issues and strategies around which people mobilize community action. Such dilemmas of activism need inquiry and can be further illuminated through public discourse in Oak Park. Many leaders of Oak Park community groups and organizations understand these issues to some extent and struggle in a political climate wherein the multiple perspectives regarding poverty are voiced and the choices regarding how to combat poverty are debated and contested by residents, community groups, property owners, and the government. Neighborhood activists involved in the community are at times aware of these dilemmas, and they argue that simply ridding the area of blight (occurring in the form of closing liquor stores, increasing police patrol, and welcoming 47
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COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COM
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COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COM
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Abstract of COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN O
Page 7 and 8: DEDICATION For my parents Joe and I
Page 9 and 10: I would also like to thank Joyce Bi
Page 11 and 12: Neighborhood Association ..........
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: STUDYING TH
Page 15 and 16: different from themselves, they dis
Page 17 and 18: known about the residents who are l
Page 19 and 20: contested racialized images of thei
Page 21 and 22: Although the anthropological litera
Page 23 and 24: Research Focus The research site of
Page 25 and 26: Association was also gaining attent
Page 27 and 28: in city environments is exposed in
Page 29 and 30: Moffat (1992:217) states, “if man
Page 31 and 32: Choldin and Hanson (1981:562) defin
Page 33 and 34: neighborhood. The neighborhood thus
Page 35 and 36: the various definitions of “commu
Page 37 and 38: The City Chapter 3 SETTING The city
Page 39 and 40: stratified, selective, and distance
Page 41 and 42: people living outside the neighborh
Page 43 and 44: studies have demonstrated that reli
Page 45 and 46: In 1889, the Oak Park Association s
Page 47 and 48: edevelopment projects elsewhere in
Page 49 and 50: een lured to Arts and Crafts style
Page 51 and 52: ig black sunglasses, khakis, and a
Page 53 and 54: poverty. They and their comrades wo
Page 55 and 56: undesirable consequences; it can pr
Page 57: aiding in the dilapidation of the c
Page 61 and 62: groups that are political and produ
Page 63 and 64: problems, events, and initiatives.
Page 65 and 66: Pertinent to the Neighborhood Assoc
Page 67 and 68: were to be the main participants in
Page 69 and 70: members, students, and sympathetic
Page 71 and 72: evitalization projects in the commu
Page 73 and 74: 1990:138). Likewise, “The mission
Page 75 and 76: eports of residents marching down t
Page 77 and 78: Altheide and Michalowski (1999:476)
Page 79 and 80: organizations is part of a broader
Page 81 and 82: hours of the day and night and resi
Page 83 and 84: At a particular Neighborhood Associ
Page 85 and 86: I think the city is trying to make
Page 87 and 88: community they began an onslaught o
Page 89 and 90: Rehabilitation programs would do a
Page 91 and 92: “neighborhood” as one where the
Page 93 and 94: were being made by middle-class res
Page 95 and 96: efreshments and appetizers and maki
Page 97 and 98: For three months I performed a vari
Page 99 and 100: and spent their time trying to recr
Page 101 and 102: Convention Center in downtown Sacra
Page 103 and 104: more than two decades we have oppos
Page 105 and 106: The surveys for the Women’s Needs
Page 107 and 108: these residents were also affected
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professor, who was also a Neighborh
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twenty other residents in May to ma
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Most community members felt the sch
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coordinated with community revitali
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you sure you want to live here? Jus
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the community but are able to view
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esidents have “rights to the city
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are activists and non-activists in
Page 125 and 126:
Ethnic entrepreneurs in American so
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such as milk, eggs, and toiletries,
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presence that would produce long-te
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eneficial to one group may not be b
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organizations conflict and tried to
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social stratification in the commun
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class does not view the lifeways of
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them. And the middle-class don’t
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in low-income neighborhoods. Among
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improve the quality of life for res
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NOTES 1 Neighborhood “revitalizat
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20 The National Labor Federation (1
Page 149 and 150:
Altheide, L. David and Michalowski,
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Boyd, Michelle Bridge, Gary 2005.
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Ertll, J. Randy 2008. “Celebratin
Page 155 and 156:
Gupta, Akhil and Ferguson, James 19
Page 157 and 158:
Jenkins, Timothy 1994. “Fieldwork
Page 159 and 160:
Lee, A. Barrett, Spain, Daphne, and
Page 161 and 162:
Marwell, P. Nicole 2004. “Privati
Page 163 and 164:
Nylund, Katarina Oropesa, S. R 2001
Page 165 and 166:
Rosenhall, Laurel 2005. “Charter
Page 167 and 168:
Simpson, M.A. Lee 2004. Images of A
Page 169 and 170:
Thacher, David 2001. “Conflicting
Page 171:
Wolch, R. Jennifer 1980. “Residen
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