Impossible democracy : the unlikely success of the war on poverty community action programs / Noel A. Cazenave.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cazenave, Noel A., 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Community Action Program (U.S.).

Economic assistance, Domestic--United States.

Economic assistance, Domestic.

Community development--United States.

Community development.

Community organization--United States.

Community organization.

Social action--United States.

Social action.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 264 p. ) ill., map ;

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Explores how community action programs used federal funds to sponsor social protest?based community reform. Honorable Mention, 2008 Gustavus Myers Book Award, presented by the Gustavus Myers Center for Human Rights in North America Impossible Democracy challenges the conventional wisdom that the War on Poverty failed, by exploring the unlikely success of its community action programs. Using two projects in Manhattan that were influential precursors of community action programs-the Mobilization for Youth and the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited-Associated Community Teams-Noel A. Cazenave analyzes national and local conflicts in the 1960s over what the nature of community action should be. Fueled by the civil rights movement, activist social scientists promoted a model of community action that allowed for the use of social protest as an instrument of local reform. In addition, they advanced a more participatory view of how democracy should work, one that insisted local decision making not be left solely to elected officials and other powerful people, as traditionally done.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction: elite competition, community action, and democratic theory in the expansion of American democracy

Professional turf battles in the planning of the mobilization for Youth Project

Sufficiently vague: the Ford Foundation, social scientists, and their conceptualizations of community action

Community action and Congressional intent: the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime

The mobilization for youth proposal and the project's dispute with area school principals

Challenging "social work colonialism" in Harlem: the Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited and Associated Community Teams proposals and early project disputes

The HARYOU-ACT and mobilization for youth project crises of 1964

Black protest and white backlash: the rise and fall of community action in the war on poverty

Conclusion: the legacy of impossible democracy

Methodological appendix

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-247) and index.

ISBN:

1-4619-0420-X