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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.
References
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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of business improvement districts (BIDs) in the central business districts of major American cities also aimed at fashioning a post-industrial geography is examined.
Abstract: Much has been written about the role of redevelopment in the formation of the post-industrial city. Less attention has been paid to other ways in which such spaces are produced and reproduced. This paper examines the role of business improvement districts (BIDs) in the central business districts of major American cities also aimed at fashioning a post-industrial geography. After a discussion of their service-providing and regulatory activities, consideration is given to these organisations as an evolution of special district local government. An explanation linking the development of BIDs to the spatial contradictions resulting from redevelopment activity and the emerging post-industrial political economy is outlined.

24 citations

DOI
07 Nov 2007
TL;DR: The tourist is the prototypical postmodern citizen, the successor to the vagabond and the flaneur of earlier periods of modernity as discussed by the authors, and the tourist experience is characterized by a profusion of safety cushions and wellmarked escape routes.
Abstract: In his seminal article, ‘From Pilgrim to Tourist – or a Short History of Identity’, the eminent social philosopher Zygmunt Bauman (1996) detects a fundamental ambivalence in the tourist condition. The tourist, Bauman says, is the prototypical postmodern citizen, the successor to the vagabond and the flaneur of earlier periods of modernity. Tourists, he observes, periodically become restless – as the ‘joys of the familiar wear off and cease to allure’ (1996: 29). To cope, they become conscious and systematic seekers of new and different experiences. At the same time, the tourist is rarely willing to sever the umbilical cord to everyday life. Consequently, the touristic experience is characterized by ‘a profusion of safety cushions and wellmarked escape routes’. In a phrase, ‘shocks come in a package deal with safety’ (1996: 29-30).

23 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: This article provided an in-depth discussion of Luc Boltanski's "On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation" and provided a fine-grained account of the strengths and weaknesses of his "pragmatic sociology of critique".
Abstract: This chapter provides an in-depth discussion of Luc Boltanski’s 'On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation'. On the basis of a detailed textual analysis of what may be regarded as Boltanski’s most philosophical study, this contribution offers a fine-grained account of the strengths and weaknesses of his ‘pragmatic sociology of critique’. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part examines five significant strengths of On Critique: (1) its engagement with the normative tasks of critical theory; (2) its insights into the structuring function of institutions; (3) its emphasis on the justificatory role of critique; (4) its concern with the adaptable nature of domination; and (5) its insistence upon the empowering potential of emancipation. Following the thematic structure of the previous investigation, the second part reflects upon the flaws and limitations of On Critique: (1) its failure to identify solid normative foundations for critical theory; (2) its terminologically imprecise, analytically short-sighted, and insufficiently differentiated conception of institutions; (3) its unsystematic approach to the multilayered relationship between ordinary and scientific forms of critique; (4) its lack of attention to the polycentric constitution of power relations in highly differentiated societies; and (5) its reductive understanding of human emancipation.

22 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The work of as mentioned in this paper examines and applies the widely influential work of Boltanski and Thevenot in order to investigate and understand the political issues or disputes within sport, including Olympic bidding and hosting, and how key social actors or stakeholders (such as local and national governments, event sponsors, and sport bodies) draw on different worlds of justification in advocating the staging of these events.
Abstract: This paper examines and applies the widely influential work of Boltanski and Thevenot in order to investigate and understand the political issues or disputes within sport. We provide a critical elaboration of Boltanski and Thevenot’s theory of the six ‘orders of worth’ or ‘worlds’ of justification that are drawn upon by social actors within these disputes. We examine how social actors may draw upon multiple justifications (or worlds) in order to advance their positions or interests; how power differences arise between these worlds; and, how weak worlds of justification may extend their influence within specific issues. To elaborate our analysis, we discuss the public issue of Olympic bidding and hosting, and how key social actors or stakeholders (such as local and national governments, event sponsors, and sport bodies) draw on different worlds of justification, particularly in advocating the staging of these events. This issue indicates that the six worlds are organized hierarchically into three ‘...

22 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In a 2008 study of managers in the United States, managers overwhelmingly identified the BID as a public-private partnership (PPP) and themselves as managing a PPP and said that a key factor in determining success was how well the partnership was managed as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Business improvement districts (BIDs) offer an increasingly popular avenue of public impact, participation, and organization for invested local private actors to revitalize business centers as well as enhance local governance, services, and management capacity. The privatization aspects of BIDs have received important attention. Little attention, however, has been dedicated to BIDs as a form of public—private partnerships (PPPs), particularly the public purpose and intention—the "publicization" aspects—of these partnerships. BIDs are distinctive but uncanny partnerships between the public and private sectors, operating at the local subgovernmental level and functioning both contractually and in a strategic collaboration. In a 2008 study of BID managers in the United States, managers overwhelmingly identified the BID as a PPP and themselves as managing a PPP and said that a key factor in determining success was how well the partnership was managed. This suggests that BID management is fundamentally more th...

21 citations