Much recent research on government-society relations has pointed to the crucial importance of civil society in sustaining democracy. This project by cultural anthropologists from Temple University compares the nature of civic participation and community mobilization in three impoverished neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The main goals are to describe and analyze the ways urban poor people respond to different forms of local government activity in the context of large-scale economic restructuring. Using methods of participant observation, formal and informal interviews, sample surveys, consensus analysis and archival research, the researchers will assess the impact of state strategies (indirect, proactive, and reactive intervention); the roles played by local community organizations, informal social networks, and the subjective meanings and identities used by local people in relating to the government. The questions to be addressed include evaluating the effectiveness of governmental attempts to enhance civil participation; analyzing the potential for civil society to resist or influence change in a time of major economic restructuring; and evaluating means to provide resources and facilitate empowerment in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This research is important because it advances our knowledge of how local communities and organizations can create civil society under stressful conditions. By comparing the experience in three neighborhoods in the same urban area the project will provide valuable new knowledge of use to urban planners as well as theorists of urban development.
