An
exploration of how and why American city governments delegated the
responsibility for solving urban inequality to the nonprofit sector.
Nonprofits serving a range of
municipal and cultural needs are now so ubiquitous in US cities, it
can be difficult to envision a time when they were more limited in
number, size, and influence. Turning back the clock, however,
uncovers both an illuminating story of how the nonprofit sector
became such a dominant force in American society, as well as a
troubling one of why this growth occurred alongside persistent
poverty and widening inequality. Claire Dunning’s book connects
these two stories in histories of race, democracy, and capitalism,
revealing how the federal government funded and deputized nonprofits
to help individuals in need, and in so doing avoided addressing the
structural inequities that necessitated such action in the first
place.
Nonprofit Neighborhoods
begins after World War II, when suburbanization, segregation, and
deindustrialization inaugurated an era of urban policymaking that
applied private solutions to public problems. Dunning introduces
readers to the activists, corporate executives, and politicians who
advocated addressing poverty and racial exclusion through local
organizations, while also raising provocative questions about the
politics and possibilities of social change. The lessons of Nonprofit
Neighborhoods exceed the
bounds of Boston, where the story unfolds, providing a timely history
of the shift from urban crisis to urban renaissance for anyone
concerned about American inequality—past, present, or future.
