Fighting Poverty with Mobility: A Normative Policy Analysis

Concentrated urban poverty is America's deepest social problem. Eliminating it stands as our nation's greatest challenge. In this article I analyze from a normative perspective antipoverty policies that attempt to address this problem via "mobility," that is, policies that attempt to disperse the urban poor to suburban locations. I find these policies to be normatively problematic on two grounds: the level coercion experienced by (and the corresponding lack of free choice given) a vulnerable population and the undesirable effects (in the current context of American urban development) caused by failing to regard established neighborhoods as stable communities. The results of this analysis indicate strongly the need to generate increased levels of economic activity in America's inner cities, and I suggest that more research on this issue be conducted with an eye toward formulating and implementing a comprehensive strategy to bring about inner-city revitalization. Copyright 2004 by The Policy Studies Association..

Introduction

The chapter first explores the rise of the ‘network orthodoxy’. It proceeds to develop a critique of the regime-theoretical conception of the ruling class, building on my earlier work (Davies, 2002) and arguing that the Marxist conception is both stronger and, in the context of a theory of systemic power, more dynamic. It next examines the position of the urban proletariat, largely ignored by regime theory, arguing that the basic class structure of society depicted by Marx remains intact and consequently that working-class led transformations remain possible. It then moves from the macro to the micro level of analysis, illustrating the importance of class for understanding the dysfunctional dynamics of networked urban governance in the UK. It then demonstrates how the approach can be applied comparatively in explaining similarities and differences between two different forms of networked governance, UK partnerships and US regimes. In conclusion, it is argued that a new wave of Marxist research in urban politics is long overdue