DRAFT – 9-3-14
I am still tinkering with some of the assigned readings, but the books for this course will not change.
Urban Politics and Policy
Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00 to 3:15
Instructor:
Dr. Karen Kaufmann
Office:
6383 Public Affairs
Phone:
Email:
kkaufmann@luskin.ucla.edu
Office Hours: TBA
About the course:
This class is about urban poverty, the detrimental effects of concentrated poverty on the people that live in
these neighborhoods, and the efficacy of various public policies that have been employed to improve the
life chances of the urban poor. This course approaches these topics through an explicitly political lens,
evaluating the roles that elite institutions, mass behavior, class and race-based power disparities, and
public opinion play in the development and implementation of urban policy. Class discussions and reading
assignments will cover a variety issues including: the role of federal policy in shaping the evolution of cities
and suburbs; patterns of racial/economic segregation and their respective consequences for urban
populations; the political economy of cities in relation to development and redevelopment policies; interethnic conflict, demographic change; and the potential for multiracial electoral strategies to succeed in
helping the urban poor. Discussions and assessments of various urban policies will be integrated
throughout the readings and lectures in this course.
Regular attendance at lectures is expected. Assigned readings should be completed prior to lectures, as this
will facilitate better class discussion.
Course requirements include two in-class exams and one written assignment. The exams will be comprised
of short answer/short essay questions and will cover all assigned reading and lectures preceding the exam.
The writing assignment will be discussed later in the quarter. Your final grade in the course will be
calculated as follows:
Exams
70%
Paper
20%
Participation
10%
If you miss an exam due to illness, please email me prior to the exam (health permitting) and bring required
documentation for an excused absence on the first day of your return. Any other absence (aside from
illness) must be discussed with and excused by me.
The required books for this course are:
• Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of
the Underclass.
• William Julius Wilson. 1996. When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor.
• Paul Grogan and Tony Proscio. 2000. Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival
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The three required books will be available for purchase through the student store and on Amazon. I will
also try to put copies of these books on reserve in the library.
All other reading assignments will be available through CCLE under the weekly tabs.
COURSE OUTLINE
WEEK 1:
October 6: Introduction (please read the Iceland chapter to prepare for this class)
October 8: Urban Renewal and the Foundations of Urban Poverty
FILM: New York: A Documentary Film – Episode 7: 1945 to present
Assigned Reading:
John Iceland, Poverty in America, Third Edition, (2013) Chapter 2, “Measuring Poverty” (22-38)
Massey and Denton, American Apartheid, Chapters 1 through 4 (1-114)
WEEK 2:
October 13: Concentrated Poverty
October 15: Concentrated Poverty
Assigned Reading:
Massey and Denton, American Apartheid, Chapters 5 through 7 (115-216)
Rolf Pendall, et al., “Lost Decade: Neighborhood Poverty and the Urban Crisis of the 2000s”
http://jointcenter.org/research/fact-sheet-lost-decade-neighborhood-poverty-and-urban-crisis-2000’s
Richard Rothstein, “Racial Segregation Continues, and Even Intensifies”
http://www.epi.org/publication/racial-segregation-continues-intensifies
WEEK 3:
October 20: Joblessness
October 22: Joblessness
Assigned Reading:
William Julius Wilson: When Work Disappears. Introduction & Chapters 1-7 (pp. xiii-206)
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WEEK 4:
October 24: American Perceptions of Poverty
October 26: The Political Economy of Cities
Assigned Reading:
Martin Gilens/. 1996. “Race and Poverty in America: Public Misperceptions and the American News
Media” Public Opinion Quarterly, 60:4:515-541
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2749633
Peterson, Paul (1981) City Limits, Chapter 2 "The Interests of the Limited City" (17-38).
Swanstrom, Todd (1988) "The Politics of Urban Development" in Kantor and Judd (eds.) The Politics of
Urban America. (272-288).
WEEK 5:
November 3: Exam #1
November 5: City Politics
Assigned Reading:
Carmichael, Stokely and Charles V. Hamilton. 1967. Black Power Chapter 3 "The Myth of Coalition" (5884).
Sonenshein, Raphael. 1993. Politics in Black and White Chapter 1 "Overview: Biracial Coalition Politics." (320)
Kaufmann, Karen M. 2004. The Urban Voter: Group Conflict and Mayoral Voting Behavior in American Cities
Introduction (pp.1-8), Chapter 2 (pp. 37-60), and Chapter 4 (87-11).
WEEK 6:
November 10: Racial and Ethnic Identity Politics
November 12: Racial and Ethnic Identity Politics
Assignment: due by beginning of class on November 10th: Watch Spike Lee’s, “Do The Right Thing” You
can rent the film from Amazon or iTunes, you can watch it on Netflix, or you can view it in the library.
Assigned Reading:
Gay, Claudine. 2006. “The Effect of Economic Disparity on Black Attitudes toward Latinos.” American
Journal of Political Science 50:4:982-997
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4122928
Manning Marable. 1994. “Building Coalitions among Communities of Color: Beyond Racial Identity
Politics” In Blacks, Latinos and Asians in Urban America, James Jennings (ed.) (29-43).
Steele, Shelby. 1990. “Ghettoized by Black Unity” Harpers Magazine (20-23).
Price, Melanye T. 2009. Dreaming Blackness, Chapter 2 “Beyond Martin and Malcolm: Ordinary Citizens
Talk about the Civil Rights Legacy and Community Problems” (pp.31-58)
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Lawrence Bobo and Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. 1990. American Political Science Review "Race, Sociopolitical
Participation and Black Empowerment" (377-393)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1963525
Kaufmann, Karen M. 2003. “Cracks in the Rainbow: Group Commonality as a Basis for Latino and AfricanAmerican Political Coalitions.” Political Research Quarterly 199-210
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3219898
WEEK 7:
November 17: Immigration and Urban Politics
November 19: Limitations of Urban Power
Assigned Reading:
Roberto Suro. 1998. “Strangers among Us: How Latino Immigration is Transforming America. Chapter 1,
pp. 2-26
Roger Waldinger. 2001. Strangers at the Gates: New Immigrants in Urban America. Chapter 1 (pp.1-21) and
Chapter 3, Up From Poverty, (pp.80-116)
Roger Lowenstein. “The Immigrant Equation” The New York Times Magazine July 9, 2006 p.36
Reed, Adolph, Jr. 1986. "The Black Urban Regime: Structural Origins and Constraints" Comparative Urban
and Community Research (138-189).
Kaufmann, Karen M. 2007 “Immigration and the Future of Black Power in American Cities” Du Bois
Review
WEEK 8:
November 24: History of Federal Urban Policy
November 26: NO CLASS – Happy Turkey Day!
Assigned Reading:
John Iceland, Poverty in America, Third Edition. 2013. Chapter 7, “Poverty and Policy” (22-38)
WEEK 9:
December 1: Private Markets and Urban Policy
December 3: Governmental Approaches to Community Uplift
Assigned Reading:
Grogan and Proscio: Comeback Cities. (pp. 1- 150)
David Rusk. Inside Game/Outside Game Chapter 9 - "Montgomery County Maryland: Mixing Up the
Neighborhood" (pp. 178-200).
WEEK 10:
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December 8: Exam#2
December 10: Looking Toward the Urban Future
Assigned Reading:
Margaret Turner and Lynette Rawlings. 2005. “Overcoming Concentrated Poverty and Isolation: Lessons
from Three HUD Demonstration Initiatives” The Urban Institute (pp. 1-38)
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311205_Poverty_FR.pdf
** Final Exam: There will be no in-class final exam for this course.
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