Dissertation•
Business Improvement Areas and the Justification of Urban Revitalization: Using the Pragmatic Sociology of Critique to Understand Neoliberal Urban Governance
01 Sep 2019-
About: The article was published on 2019-09-01 and is currently open access. It has received None citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Urban sociology & Social order.
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TL;DR: The authors analyzed the role of property developers and the Liberty Village Business Improvement Association in fostering the area's internal economic geography, and dissected how the production of a place identity requires both new subjectivities and the exclusion of alternative actors and understandings of organization within the district.
Abstract: In this paper we analyze the making of Liberty Village as a creative hub in inner-city Toronto. We focus on the role of property developers and the Liberty Village Business Improvement Association in fostering the area's internal economic geography. Drawing on the literature on governmentality, we dissect how the production of a place identity requires both the production of new subjectivities and the exclusion of alternative actors and understandings of organization within the district.
47 citations
TL;DR: The role played by cultural discourses of the 'good and legitimate citizen' and the role of spatiality, or more specifically, the importance of being an appropriate body in the appropriate space, are explored in this paper.
Abstract: This paper draws upon data from two research projects following two distinct groups of young people: youth activists and homeless or street-involved youth. Although these two groups differ in many ways--the former largely white and middle-class, the latter more ethnically diverse and entirely working-class--each describes encounters with the police that are strikingly similar. The paper explores two such similarities: (1) the role played by cultural discourses of the 'good and legitimate citizen' and (2) the role of spatiality, or, more specifically, the importance of being an appropriate body in the appropriate space. The paper explores how the above two dimensions nuance and complicate the relationship between youth and police, in the context of governmentality studies.
47 citations
TL;DR: Basaure et al. as mentioned in this paper show that Boltanski's recent research on various subjects, such as abortion and procreation, can be understood as part of a developing research programme that has been partly set in motion by the divers critiques raised against the sociological perspective exposed in On Justification.
Abstract: In their important work On Justification: The Economies of Worth Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot (2006) develop the notion of a ‘sociology of critique’, which has made a decisive contribution to our understanding of what can be called an ordinary sense of justice. In this interview, I take the model worked out in On Justification as a point of departure to ask about the various conceptual consequences it has had on the further development of the sociological theory of Luc Boltanski. The interview shows that Boltanski’s recent research on various subjects – such as capitalism (Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005a), abortion and procreation (Boltanski, 2004), and distant suffering (Boltanski, 1999) – can be understood as part of a developing research programme that has been partly set in motion by the divers critiques raised against the sociological perspective exposed in On Justification. In other words, Boltanski takes these criticisms seriously by responding to them through a transformation and expansion of his research program without abandoning the kernel of his pragmatic social theory. LB 1⁄4 Luc Boltanski; MB 1⁄4 Mauro Basaure MB I would like to start with a slightly problematic question: Is it true that, in France, On Justification was implemented not only as an instrument of sociological research, but also – in the context of administration theory – as an instrument for conflict management strategies? What is your opinion on this type of reception of your sociology? LB That happens to be the way it is: once a book has been published, the author no longer has control over how and in which contexts it is used. An author is not always content with the reception of his work, and I was not always at ease with the way On
46 citations
TL;DR: Boltanski's pragmatic sociology is mainly inspired by pragmatism and ethnomethodology, but it is still concerned with sociology as a critical project of emancipation as discussed by the authors, which can greatly advance international political sociology by further developing a practice theoretical account which reconciles Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology.
Abstract: Luc Boltanski is one of the most important contemporary social theorists. Whether and how his sociology matters for International Relations (IR) theory has, so far, not been explored. Boltanski’s work, as this article demonstrates, can greatly advance international political sociology by further developing a practice theoretical account which reconciles Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s praxeology. Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology is mainly inspired by pragmatism and ethnomethodology, but it is still concerned with sociology as a critical project of emancipation. He aims to renew critical sociology by focusing on the ‘critical capacities’ ordinary actors use in disputes and controversies of political life. Practices of justification and critique as triggers of conflicts and sources of agreements are consequently the subjects of analysis. This implies, furthermore, a strong notion of normativity in practice, which reveals a blind spot in current debates in IR. Justification becomes a social practice through which diverging legitimacy claims are tested under conditions of uncertainty. Such a view is conceptually and methodologically relevant for IR scholars interested in contested norms, moral ambiguity, and the fragile character of political reality. Considering Boltanski’s work broadens the empirical scope of practice theory and provides promising new directions for IR theory.
45 citations
TL;DR: A survey of managers of a business improvement district (BID) found that almost half of the managers were interested in finding new ways of doing things and more focused on either local political problems or day-to-day supervisory tasks as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Innovation is a major theme in contemporary American public administration. Innovative structures are assumed to change both service delivery and managerial behavior. This assumption is currently being tested in many policy areas but perhaps nowhere better than in the management of a recent innovation in public administration: the business improvement district (BID). To discover the relationship between the innovative structure of BIDs and the adoption of an entrepreneurial approach to management, a national survey of BID managers was undertaken. As expected, the survey found that almost half of the BID executives emphasized entrepreneurial activities. But, unexpectedly, the other half were less interested in finding new ways of doing things and more focused on either local political problems or day-to-day supervisory tasks. The conclusion is that innovative structures provide managers with the opportunity to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to management but also with the possibility of not following su...
45 citations