PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY TOULAN SCHOOL OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING

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1 PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY TOULAN SCHOOL OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING CONCEPTS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT USP528 FALL 2011 Tuesdays 1-3:40 p.m. 220 Urban Center Professor Karen J. Gibson Room 370J, Urban Center Phone: Office Hrs: By appointment COURSE DESCRIPTION Broadly defined, community development implies a set of activities and processes designed to improve the quality of life in a neighborhood, city, or region. It often refers to strategies which attempt to respond to the conditions found in disinvested neighborhoods: high levels of unemployment and working poverty; a shortage of decent, affordable housing; limited access to commercial and retail services; inadequate public services such as transportation and parks; and limited access to capital. In this course we will explore the origins and context of community development, concepts and strategies employed in practice, and current issues and debates in the field. Topics covered include community disinvestment and reinvestment, urban policy, affordable housing, community organizing, accountable development, and environmental justice. COURSE OBJECTIVES To enable the student to: a. become familiar with the origins and context of neighborhood-based community development b. understand the basic concepts, goals, and ideas undergirding community development c. become familiar with organizational and policy framework of community development practice d. become familiar with the current challenges and debates in the field. COURSE REQUIREMENTS This course consists of readings, lecture, discussion, films, and field-based research. Please come to class prepared to discuss the reading materials. There will be a take-home essay examination in the fifth week of class. You will also conduct field-based research on a topic relevant to community development theory and/or practice. You must submit a well-developed paper proposal by the fourth week of class and present your research findings at the end of the term. Please communicate with me if you anticipate a problem with an assignment. All work must be submitted on paper. Grade Composition: Value Due Dates: Field Paper Proposal 5% October 18 Midterm Exam 25% November 1 Final Exam 25% November 29 Field Paper Presentation 5% November 29 & December 8 Field Paper 40% December 9, 5:00 pm 100%

2 REQUIRED BOOKS AND READINGS Asset Building & Community Development, 3 rd Edition. Gary Paul Green and Anna Haines. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, Streets of Hope: The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood. Peter Medoff and Holly Sklar. Boston: South End Press, The books are at the PSU Bookstore and on reserve. Other readings are available through the library, websites, or via (readings with asterisk will be sent from me). ASSIGNMENTS Take-home Midterm and Final Exams: The exams consists of essay questions that require you to analyze and critique the evidence and perspectives presented in the readings. You must write original essays that demonstrate a synthetic understanding of the material and your own reflective thoughts. The essays will be evaluated based upon your grasp of the material, composition and clarity, and level of effort. Field Paper: This paper allows you to conduct field research on community development in the Portland region. Field research implies that you will collect data from the field (a local area), through observation at meetings, interviews of key informants, and analysis of reports, newspapers, etc. Your field research MUST be informed by the relevant theoretical and/or empirical literature on the topic. You are free to select a concept, issue, organization, public agency, policy, or planning process that is related to community development in the Portland region. It is best to communicate with me about your topic before finalizing your proposal. SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS Week 1 - September 27 INTRODUCTION Film: Building Hope (Produced by the Pratt Institute, New York, 1994) Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development, Community Development Corporation Oral History Project. Week 2 - October 4 COMMUNITY DISINVESTMENT PROCESSES *Jackson, Kenneth T. Federal Subsidy and the Suburban Dream: How Washington Changed the American Housing Market. Chapter 11 in Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, *Massey, Douglas and Nancy Denton. The Construction of the Ghetto, Chapter 2 in American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Boston: Harvard University Press, Fullilove, Mindy Thompson and Rodrick Wallace. Serial Forced Displacement in American Cities, Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 88, No. 3, Newman, Kathe. Post-Industrial Widgets: Capital Flows and the Production of the Urban. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 33.3, 2009: Ludwig, Sarah. Losing Ground. Shelterforce, Summer Streets of Hope, Introduction and Chapter 1. 2

3 Week 3 October 11 THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE Asset Building and Community Development. Chapters 1-3, 5, 9. Nowak, Jeremy. Neighborhood Initiative and the Regional Economy. Economic Development Quarterly. Vol. 11, No. 1, February Streets of Hope, Chapters 2-3. Week 4 October 18 AFFORDABLE HOUSING I Joint Center for Housing Studies. The State of the Nation s Housing, See especially Executive Summary and Housing Challenges. *Hayden, Dolores. Housing and American Life. Chapter 1 in Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family Life. New York: Norton, Baar, Kenneth. The National Movement to Stop the Spread of Multifamily Housing, Journal of the American Planning Association, 58/1, Winter Chicago: APA. *Wright, James D., Beth Rubin, and Joel Devine. Poverty, Housing, and Homelessness. Chapter 4 in Beside the Golden Door: Policy, Politics, and the Homeless. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, National Alliance to End Homelessness. Chronic Homelessness. March Week 5 October 25 AFFORDABLE HOUSING II Goetz, Edward G. Housing Policy Innovation in U.S. Cities and States. Chapter 4 in Shelter Burden: Local Politics and Progressive Housing Policy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, Schwartz, Alex. The Credit Crunch and Subsidized Low-Income Housing: The UK and US Experience Compared. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 26: , Asset Building and Community Development. Chapter 8. Shamus Roller. Community Development and Ending Homelessness. Shelterforce, Summer Portland Bureau of Housing Point-In-Time Report of Homelessness in Multnomah County National Alliance to End Homelessness. Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing for Survivors of Domestic Violence. March Week 6 November 1 NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION Immergluck, Dan. The Local Wreckage of Global Capital: The Subprime Crisis, Federal Policy, and High-Foreclosure Neighborhoods in the United States. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 35.1, 2011:

4 Mallach, Alan. Managing Neighborhood Change: A Framework for Sustainable and Equitable Revitalization. National Housing Institute, Portland Neighborhood Economic Development Strategy. Portland Development Commission, *Beauregard, Robert A. The Chaos and Complexity of Gentrification. Chapter 3 in Gentrification of the City. Edited by Neil Smith and Peter Williams, Boston: Allen and Unwin, Streets of Hope, Chapters 4-6. Week 7 - November 8 THE ACCOUNTABLE DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT Parks, Virginia and Dorian Warren. The Politics and Practice of Economic Justice: Community Benefits Agreements as Tactic of the New Accountable Development Movement. Journal of Community Practice, 17:88-106, Streets of Hope, Chapter 7. Asset Building and Community Development, Chapter 11. Good Jobs First. A Beginner s Guide to Accountable Development East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE). Building a Better Bay Area: Community Benefits Tools and Case Studies to Achieve Responsible Development. Executive Summary and Introduction. Optional Reading: The Partnership for Working Families (Resources on Economic Justice Issues) Week 8 - November 15 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND SUSTAINABILITY Agyeman, Julian and Tom Evans. Toward Just Sustainability in Urban Communities: Building Equity Rights with Sustainable Solutions. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol Nov., 2003: Pulido, Laura. Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 90,1:12-40, Asset Building and Community Development, Chapters 10, Week 9 - November 22 COMMUNITY ORGANIZING I Cummings, Scott L. Community Economic Development as Progressive Politics: Toward a Grassroots Movement for Social Justice. Stanford Law Review, Vol. 54, 3: , Note: Read pages Stoecker, Randy. Has the Fight Gone Out of Organizing? Shelterforce, Spring DeFilippis, James, Robert Fisher, and Eric Shragge. What Kind of Community Organizations and for What Purpose? Shelterforce, Spring

5 McQuarrie, Michael. ESOP Rises Again. Shelterforce, Spring Streets of Hope, Chapters 8-9. Asset Building and Community Development, Chapter 15. Week 10 November 29 Field paper presentations Week 11 December 8 (Thursday 10:15-12:05) Field paper presentations 5