Urban Emergency (Mis)Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism

Flint, Mi in Context
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-90-04-44616-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 184, 454 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 903 g

Reihe: Studies in Critical Social Sciences

This volume places the Flint, Michigan, water contamination disaster in the context of a broader crisis of neoliberal governance in the United States. Authors from a range of disciplines (including sociology, criminal justice, anthropology, history, communications, and jurisprudence) examine the failures in Flint, but with an emphasis upon comparison, calling attention to similar trajectories for cities like Detroit and Pontiac, in Michigan, and Stockton, in California. While the studies collected here emphasize policy failures, class conflict, and racial oppression, they also attend to the resistance undertaken by Flint residents, Michiganders, and U.S. activists, as they fought for environmental and social justice.

Contributors include: Terressa A. Benz, Jon Carroll, Graham Cassano, Daniel J. Clark, Katrinell M. Davis, Michael Doan, David Fasenfest, A.E. Garrison, Peter J. Hammer, Ami Harbin, Shea Howell, Jacob Lederman, Raoul S. Lievanos, Benjamin J. Pauli, and Julie Sze.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Benz, Terressa A.

Cassano, Graham

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltverschmutzung, Umweltkriminalität, Umweltrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Interessengruppen, Lobbyismus und Protestbewegungen
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Soziale & wirtschaftliche Auswirkungen von Umweltfaktoren
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Gruppen & Klassen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

INTRODUCTION: The Flint Sacrifice Zone

Terressa A. Benz and Graham Cassano

Where We Are Today

Stigmatizing Michigan’s (post-industrial) Sacrifice Zones

Prospectus of the Work

CHAPTERS

PART I STRUCTURE IN CONTEXT

1. Neoliberalism, Urban Policy and Environmental Degradation

David Fasenfest

Introduction

Racial Politics and Subjectivities of Michigan’s EM Process

Roots of Neoliberalism

Michigan’s Municipal Financial Emergency Laws

A Tale of Two Frameworks

What Did EMs Do?

Short Term Fixes, Long Term Viability and Local Austerity

The Environmental Impact of Strategic and Structural Racism

Conclusion

2. Colorblind Michigan: The Legal Impossibility of Environmental Justice in Flint and Southwest Detroit

Terressa A. Benz

Introduction

Environmental Caste Systems

Neoliberalism

Equal Protection in Practice

Environmental (lack of) Regulation

The “state” of Michigan

Conclusion

3. Stockton Isn’t Flint, or Is It? Race and Space in Comparative Crisis Driven Urbanization

Raoul S. Lievanos and Julie Sze

Introduction

Recasting Crisis Driven Urbanization: Race and Space

Racialized Crisis Driven Urbanization

Conclusion

4. Too Close to Home: The Incidence and Health Effects of Neighborhood Neglect in Flint, Michigan

Katrinell M. Davis

Introduction

The Impact of Dwelling Characteristics and Socioeconomic Status on Lead Exposure

Data and Method

The Significance of Independent Variables

Hypotheses

Results

Discussion and Conclusion

5. Housing Waste: The Lakeside Public Housing Complex, Pontiac, Michigan

Graham Cassano, Jon Carroll, and Daniel J. Clark

Introduction

The Lakeside Housing Complex, 1950-2002

Contexts: Demographic Change and Deindustrialization

After Demolition: Bankruptcy and Emergency Management in Pontiac

PART II: REACTION AND RESISTANCE

6. Technocracy and Populism: Remaking Urban Governance in Post-Democratic Flint

Jacob Lederman

Introduction

Populism and Neoliberal Politics

Democracy’s Unwanted Other

Neoliberalism, Politics, and Populism

“Rightsizing” as Dispossession

Overview of a Master Planning Process

Greenlining the Periphery

Conflict-Free Zones: Collaboration and Cooptation

Planning Utopias

The Centrality of Markets

Conclusion

7. Waging Love from Detroit to Flint

Michael Doan, Shea Howell, Ami Harbin

Resisting Emergency Management in Michigan

Emergency Management and Mass Water Shutoffs

Stop the Shutoffs!

International Connections and United Nations Visit

Conflicting Values, Visions, and Narratives

Water Affordability vs. Assistance

Free the Water!

Flint Healing Stories

International Social Movements Gathering

Detroit to Flint Water Justice Journey

Grassroots Journalism and Filmmaking

Press Conference, Teach-in, People’s Tribunal

Epilogue: Five Years & Counting

8. Bottling public thirst: Scarcity, Abundance, and the Exploitation of “Need” in Mid-Michigan

A.E. Garrison

9. Lead Does (Not) Discriminate: Environmental Racism in Expert and Popular Discourse

Benjamin J. Pauli

A (Relatively) Brief Conceptual History of “Environmental Racism”

Racism in the Water?: Expert and Popular Perspectives on Race and the Flint Water Crisis

Conclusion

AFTERWORD: The Flint Water Crisis, KWA and Strategic-Structural Racism: Written Testimony Submitted to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission Hearings on the Flint Water Crisis

Peter J. Hammer

I. Flint, Municipal Distress, Emergency Management and Strategic-Structural Racism

II. KWA, DEQ, Treasury, Emergency Managers, and Strategic Racism

III. The Perfect Storm of Strategic and Structural Racism: Conflicts, Complicity, Indifference and the Lack of an Appropriate Political Response

IV. Conclusion

INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

Terressa A. Benz received her Ph.D in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine (2011). She is the author, most recently, of Black Femininity and Stand Your Ground: Controlling Images and the Elusive Defense of Self-Defense (Critical Sociology, forthcoming).

Graham Cassano received his Ph.D in Sociology from Brandeis University (1991). He is the author of numerous books and articles on social theory, racial and ethnic history, and the sociology of culture, including A New Kind of Public: Community, Solidarity, and Political Economy in New Deal Cinema, 1935-1948 (Brill, 2014).