Description

Overcoming a past of deteriorating homes, empty storefronts, and corrupt city administrations, Somerville, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, today proudly defines itself as a long-time immigrant city, a historically blue collar town, and a hip new urban centre with a progressive city government. In Citizenship and Governance in a Changing City, Susan Ostrander shows how beneath current high levels of engagement by Somerville residents lies a struggle about who should be the city's elected leaders and how they should conduct the city's affairs. It is a struggle waged between diverse residents - relatively new immigrants and a new middle class - trying to gain a foothold in democratic participation, and the city's political old guard. Citizenship and Governance in a Changing City informs current debates about the place of immigrants in civic and political life, and the role of voluntary associations in local politics and government. In the process, Ostrander provides useful lessons for many midsize urban communities. Susan A. Ostrander is Professor of Sociology and Professor, Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship & Public Service at Tufts University. She is author of Money for Change: Social Movement Philanthropy at Haymarket People's Fund and Women of the Upper Class (both Temple).