Education Reform and Gentrification in the Age of #Camdenrising: Public Education and Urban Redevelopment in Camden, NJ

ISBN-13: 9781433160714 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 200 str.

Keith E. Benson

Opis

Education Reform and Gentrification in the Age of #CamdenRising: Public Education and Urban Redevelopment in Camden, NJ examines the perceptions and interpretations of Camden-a New Jersey community whose population is predominately minority, historically impoverished, and rapidly employing neoliberal strategies in public education and urban redevelopment. Using the framework of standpoint theory as a lens to alternatively view change and "progress" in Camden (dubbed by city officials as #CamdenRising), this book highlights the views of Camden residents who hold little sociopolitical capital yet are profoundly impacted by the city's efforts in employing neoliberal approaches within urban development and public education.This book will center current and future resident viewpoints on living in a city whose leadership employs neoliberal tactics in redevelopment and in rebranding public education. Participants in this work reported feelings of political alienation pertaining to participation in redevelopment and public education decision-making. Further, participants also believe such recent efforts for change in Camden are intended to benefit a targeted, potentially gentrifying, population and not the majority low-income minorities who currently reside there.

Recenzje

"Policymakers, philanthropists, and developers pledge 'renaissance' for working class and poorer communities. Their policies and performance often contradict their promise. Keith E. Benson's fascinating book about schools in Camden illustrates this while making readers recognize how community residents experience and challenge the contradiction." -Michael Leo Owens, Associate Professor of Political Science at Emory University and author of God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America

Spis treści

List of Figures - Acknowledgments - Preface - Introduction - Postindustrial Urban Ecology - Public Education in Low-Income Urban America - The Camden Context - Suspicion and Skepticism - "Change Is Happening But Not For Us" - The Influence of Outsiders and George Norcross - Participants' Views of Public Schools and School Choice in Camden - It's All Connected ... for the Benefit of Others - Overview of Study, Implications, Conclusion - Epilogue - Appendix - Index.

O autorze

Keith E. Benson's areas of research are urban schooling and critical pedagogies, urban education reform policy, and school choice within contemporary urban redevelopment. Benson is also interested in eliciting and highlighting the voices of forgotten urban community members impacted by both urban redevelopment and the education reforms that accompany it. As an urban education researcher and activist, he is an active member of local activist civic groups Save Camden Public Schools, Communities United, and currently serves as President of the Camden Education Association.