Empowerment in Chicago: Grassroots Participation in Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation

Customer Reviews:

Empowering the Poor.......2003-07-19

Empowerment zones represent the latest in a series of market-centered federal efforts to revitalize cities by promoting economic competitiveness, attracting investment capital, and creating a favorable "business climate." Like the Enterprise Zone program of the Reagan-Bush years, the Clinton-Gore Empowerment Zone initiative embraces a supply-side policy approach that provides economic incentives to the private sector to invest in central city communities. However, under Clinton-Gore, economic incentives are targeted to resident-based 11 empowerment zones" rather than to industry-based businesses, as in the Reagan-Bush initiative. Whereas the Reagan-Bush program included no direct, citizen-based participation, a hallmark of the Clinton-Gore initiative is the creation of partnerships among government, business, and community organizations to encourage and sustain grassroots participation in policy making and implementation.

Empowerment in Chicago draws upon the research of a diverse group of scholars, graduate students, community leaders, and local activists involved with the National Empowerment Zone Action Research Project at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and DePaul University. The volume contains eight essays, and its contributors bring diverse methods and data to examine Chicago's experience in the early stages of the implementation of the Empowerment Zone (EZ) legislation (from December 1994 through 1996). Scholars looking for a broad overview of the effects of Empowerment Zones on business growth and investment, grassroots participation, and poverty alleviation will find much to like about this book.

The contributors use a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods, including participant observation, semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus groups, content analysis of government reports, and statistical analysis of census and survey data. In the opening chapter, Michael Bennett, Noah Temaner Jenkins, and Cedric Herring introduce and develop an inductive methodology--critical events analysis--to understand citizens' participation in the EZ process as well as to examine and interpret data from specific events that predispose subsequent actions to follow identifiable lines. This analysis begins with a specific event or development and works backward in time to identify the important actions, decisions, and previous events that led up to it. Sociologists will recognize this method as a variant of path dependency used in political and historical sociology. Bennett, Jenkins, and Herring argue that critical events analysis can be used to "inform discussions about the content of authentic democracy and how forms of citizen participation potentially influence who gains what from the Empowerment Zone process" (p. 9). The method remains implicit throughout the book, and it is useful for understanding citizen participation in the EZ process.

The book succeeds in its major goals. The contributors build eclectically on several analytic perspectives to examine the implementation of the EZ initiative, at the same time interrogating the term "empowerment," using it as a normative standard for evaluating the relative success of the program. For the contributors, empowerment "depends on the success of requirements for citizen participation and on attempts to ,reinvent' government" (p. 7). Urban economic development means little, according to the editors and authors, if there is no direct participation of urban residents in the economic and political decision making that affects their lives. Chapter 2, by Doug Gills and Wanda White, is particularly strong in this regard. According to Gills and White, access to resources through formal organizations and informal networks is a requisite for initiating and sustaining grassroots participation (pp. 57-59). Indeed, as these contributors document, Chicago city officials have tended to restrict citizen access to decision making and have been reluctant to accept the notion of government-business-community partnerships in the EZ process. As the authors point out, the "fiercest battles have not been about fashioning a vision of change, but about implementing that vision into the practice of governance and into decisions about resource allocation" (pp. 64-65). Thus, it comes as no surprise that the city of Chicago has failed to acknowledge community structures in the formal makeup of Empowerment Zone governance.

Whereas Gills and White imply that EZ program can succeed with local government reform and the cultivation and development of resource networks, Cedric Herring (Chapter 3) and Nikolas Theodore (Chapter 7) are more pessimistic, arguing that the program is shot through with inconsistencies and opposing conditions. On one hand, to qualify for designation as an empowerment zone an area must exhibit high poverty, high unemployment, and other social problems-characteristics typically associated with socially and spatially isolated minority communities. On the other hand, residents living in the empowerment zone must participate directly in the policy making process to keep receiving federal money and economic incentives. As Cedric Herring points out, this expectation is based on a "one size fits all" model by which inner-city residents can forge a collective awareness of social problems and work together toward common objectives. Thus, rather than addressing the structural causes of urban social problems, the EZ legislation assumes that high levels of local political activism and collective action can combat poverty and solve the problems of distressed inner-city communities. As the chapters by Herring and Theodore point out, while political empowerment can address some urban problems, it cannot, by itself, remedy the problems of continuing racial residential segregation, minority poverty concentration, and urban disinvestment-complex and interrelated problems that are national in their scope and effect. The lesson here, according to the contributors, is that policies geared toward economic development, including the EZ program, must reject the false dichotomy between "empowerment" and urban "development." Urban areas need both kinds of targeted programs to help residents in their bottom-up efforts to revitalize their communities.

The advantage of the volume is that it provides a critical analysis of the assumptions and aims of the EZ program. However, some historical background and comparative insights would have helped. Nevertheless, Empowerment in Chicago is an informative and well-written book that will appeal to a general audience as well as urban planners and policy analysts interested in urban revitalization strategies and community organizing.

Book Description

Written by the leading gender communication scholar, Julia Wood's text introduces students to theories, research, and pragmatic information that demonstrate the multiple and often interactive ways in which our views of masculinity and femininity are shaped within contemporary culture. With the most up-to-date research, balanced perspectives of masculinity and femininity, a personal introduction to the field, and a conversational first-person writing style, GENDERED LIVES provides students with an engaging text that encourages them to think critically about gender and our society.

Customer Reviews:

Not the book for me.......2007-09-18

I didn't like the book. I had to read it for class. It was interesting to read, but she put so much facts in there that I couldn't remember everything that she said. It needs to be more oraganized and maybe less man biased like the other two men said. Before bashing me or my review, I'm a woman.

Edit: I put two stars, but I meant one, I changed my mind.

Propaganda.......2006-06-24

While I don't doubt the author's intentions weren't honestly good, the prescence of society influenced bias is ever present.

Just to point out a lone example from the first chapter, "In general, African American women are more assertive than European American women, and African American men tend to be more communal than White men".

Notice how she cares to use extensive titles for women and African American men, but when she discusses European American males we are merely "White" males. So much for an unbiased presentaton :)

Man Haters handbook.......2004-07-18

Julia Wood takes every chance she can to insult and denigrate men. In fact, the only men she will acknowledge in a positive way are those who have distinctly "feminine" traits. Many feminists may find this refreshing and validating, but it does little to foster better communication or interaction with members of the opposite sex. Wood is guilty of the same spiteful attacks on men that she portrays as happening to women.

A Great, Non-Stereotypical Feminist Book.......2004-04-27

Having read way too many textbooks in my academic career, I feel pretty confident saying that this is one of the best. The author presented the material (some of it difficult to swallow) in a straight-forward way, interjecting much-needed humor here and there. Many different viewpoints are addressed, and comments from other students, from a wide variety of walks of life are included, giving the reader exposure to a wide variety of thoughts and opinions.
The text reads quickly, and a lot of territory is covered. The author addresses everything from the various 'waves' of feminism to media coverage and violence. There is a lot of material in the book, and if it is read with an open mind, I don't see how the reader can help but be moved and possibly changed. There is no one that this book won't relate to - everyone has a gender.

Gendered Lives is a good read.......2004-04-22

I was assigned this book for my Gender, Race and Class class but I enjoyed it so much that I am not selling it back! I found standpoint theory helpful as I try to figure out where I stand in the world of feminism. As a minority, I liked reading about different cultures. So many textbooks are White. But this one wasn't. It was refreshing.

The Balancing Act: Gendered Perspectives in Faculty Roles and Work Lives (Women in Academe Series)

Average customer rating:

The Balancing Act: Gendered Perspectives in Faculty Roles and Work Lives (Women in Academe Series)

Manufacturer: Stylus Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1579221483

Book Description

* Of interest to all women in faculty ranks
* Extensive academic marketing

Why are women not entering academic careers at a rate proportional to their degree attainment? And once they enter academe, why are they are not achieving tenure or gaining promotion at the same rate as men? How can deeper understanding of attitudes toward academic women combined with research on their experiences within the academic environment, in particular those balancing family and academic careers, help us to shape more responsive institutional policies and environments?

These questions are all the more urgent at a time when institutions recognize the need to recruit more women and faculty of color to meet their changing missions and student demographics. This book argues that creating healthy and equitable work environments for women is good for the whole academic community. Indeed, the authors make the point that, as the feminization of academe continues, failure to implement gender equity and family-friendly initiatives could be perilous.

This book brings together new and original research--representing a broad range of institutional types--that reveals the pressures women face to postpone childbirth and limit the size of their families; that exposes the often the inequitable treatment of their scholarship when women are part of a dual-career couples; and that identifies other tacit and structural barriers to women’s advancement.

This book challenges assumptions about how men and women manage the boundaries between their personal and professional lives and suggests new ways to creatively and collaboratively combine productive work lives and satisfying personal lives. It shows how women have agency in structuring their careers and describes a multiplicity of solutions that they and institutions can adopt to create new couple- and family-friendly structures and practices that will encourage women to stay in the pipeline.

This book, and its companion volumes in the Women in Academe series, offers compelling data and ideas both for women scholars seeking fulfillment in their professional and personal lives, and for adminstrators who recognize the need to transform their work places.

Gendered Outcasts And Sexual Outlaws: Sexual Opression And Gender Hierarchies in Queer Men's Lives

Average customer rating:

much needed bok
Talk about having an axe to grind!

Gendered Outcasts And Sexual Outlaws: Sexual Opression And Gender Hierarchies in Queer Men's Lives
Christopher, Ed. Kendall
Manufacturer: Haworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Violence in Society | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

A candid re-examination of what it means to be a gay man

Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws: Sexual Oppression and Gender Hierarchies in Queer Men's Lives explores the impact and effects of sexual oppression and power relationships within the gay male community. This controversial book features thoughtful and provocative essays from authors, educators, and activists who challenge the stigmatization and issues of power they face as gay men who don't fit the masculine mold formed by the gay porn industry and the media. Their poignant words reveal the sting of finding discrimination and alienation where least expected as the rise of sexualized hyper-masculinity, racism, and femiphobia among gay men has created a need to re-examine appropriate gay male identity and sexuality.

Editors Christopher Kendall and Wayne Martino, who have written about and researched the negative side of gay male pornography, the links between sexism and homophobia, gay male suicide, and the impact of masculinity and sexuality on gay men, divide the book's powerful essays into two sections: "The Dynamics of Sex/Gender Oppression" and "When Gender Harms and Oppression Becomes the Norm." The first section challenges the assumptions that form the basis of gay male identity. Relying on the work of radical feminists and cultural theorists, the authors explore the meaning of "gender" in a society that expects men to act according to a masculine ideal—and punishes them when they don't. The book's second section analyzes the reality of gender oppression caused by inequality and sexualized gender hierarchies. Contributors discuss what can happen when gay men take seriously the sexual role models that are offered and what happens if they dare to reject them.

Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws examines:

effeminacy in gay men's lives

the idealization of the gay male body

straight-acting masculinities and the rejection of the feminine

narcissism, masculinity, and body absorption

racialized masculinity

the feminization of the Asian gay male in gay pornography

gay male rape

domestic violence

and much more! Gendered Outcasts and Sexual Outlaws is an eye-opening re-evaluation of what being "gay" means, why being gay is still considered socially unacceptable, and how the gay male community can respond to systemic stigmatization and hate.

Customer Reviews:

much needed bok.......2006-05-20

As a gay man who early on identified as a feminist, I have been continuously struck and perplexed by the ways in which some gay men internalize our tormentors and lionize heterosexuality and hyper-masculinity. We should be critiquing the whole system of patriarchy, not buying into it.

Talk about having an axe to grind!.......2006-04-28

The editors want to explore many issues: why do some gay men oppress others? why don't gay men use ideas from radical feminism? why are gay men afraid of diversity, especially gender diversity? These are all good questions that could lead to great intracommunal discussions. However, his book poorly meets that objective. There are just too many cooks here.

For starters, the cover shows several gender-conforming men of different races. You would think this book were about racial tensions among gay men. That is somewhat addressed here. However, the main schism covered concerns masculine gay men vs. non-masculine ones. Why didn't the cover show men in drag or semi-drag instead? The cover has one photograph of an African-American men, but black men are only cursorily brought up in this book. In fact, though the last article is about portrayals of gay Asian men in mature films, this book has no contributions from any writers of color. Yes, Australia is less ethnically-diverse than the US, but don't talk about Eurocentrism, but have no opportunities for actual men of color to contribute.

The chapters are uneven. Some are microscopic and could be read by anyone. Others are tediously long and full of academic hyperbabble. Some authors even contradict themselves. One author bemoans the demand that gay men have chiseled, gym-produced bodies and that TV is too complacent in showing that ubiquitous image. But as an example of his concern, he mentions a flamboyant character from an HBO show. Contradictory!

There is a section on abuse in same-sex couples. It is very informative, but it breaks the tone of the book. While masculine gays may fight with non-masculine ones and white gay men may hassle with gay men of color, the gay male community cannot be divided into abusees and abusers. That is an individually-based problem that can happen in all communities. It's not "us versus them" like the other topics highlighted. Abuse is a serious concern, but it really doesn't apply to the parameters that the editors set up here.

Finally, contributors bemoan that gay men don't embrace radical feminism enough. But why should they? Many gay men are rubbed the wrong way by ideas that all men are bad or violent against women. Radical feminism can be deemed pass'e since its height in the 1970s, especially given all this current interest in "post-feminism." Radical feminism can be seen as a rigid identity politic incompatible to the promotion of coalitional movements now. I am not sure why it is necessary to beat this potentially dead horse.

The contributors have good intentions. Still, this book will be useful to few.

Songs, Stories, Lives: Gendered Dialogues and Cultural Critique

Average customer rating:

Songs, Stories, Lives: Gendered Dialogues and Cultural Critique
Gloria Goodwin Raheja
Manufacturer: Kali for Women,India
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 8186706585

Average customer rating:

Web Site-Gendered Lives 6e
WOOD
Manufacturer: Wadsworth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0534636160

Teaching Gendered Lives a Resource Book for Wood's Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture

Average customer rating:

Teaching Gendered Lives a Resource Book for Wood's Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture

Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0534562604

Customer Reviews:

How to Start & Manage a Carpet-Cleaning Service Business.......2005-03-05

This book is only good for basic information on starting a small business. The book has nothing to do with carpet cleaning. I wonder why the word Carpet Cleaning was even used in the title?

Average customer rating:

Not much help
crap

How to Start a Cleaning Service
Entrepreneur Press
Manufacturer: Entrepreneur Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Home Based | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Service | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Case Studies | Reference | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1932156135

Book Description

Learn the secrets to starting a residential maid service, commercial janitorial service, and a carpet/upholstery cleaning service with the help of this CD set.

Customer Reviews:

Not much help.......2004-08-31

This book is more of a "service" business book than a "cleaning" business book. Gives general info about cleaning, general info about who to target and how to advertise to your target market. I read through it once and never picked it up again. I was looking for a book I could come back to over and over again for references and information...this is not the book for that. Check out "Clean Up The Profits" by Sam Rodman if you're looking to start office cleaning...it's decent.

crap.......2004-01-27

This set includes a lot of irrelevant information ie..overly detailed information about computer terms like RAM. But, the other stuff that is specific to starting a cleaning business is not there. I seriously doubt the authors have any experience in this industry. This will NOT get you ready to start a cleaning business. Most of the other information is common sense This thing appears as if were written with very little or no research.

Building Service Contracting : How to Start, Promote, and Manage a Cleaning Maintenance Janitorial Service Business, (Hardbound Edition)

Average customer rating:

Not worth the money.
Thank you letter

Building Service Contracting : How to Start, Promote, and Manage a Cleaning Maintenance Janitorial Service Business, (Hardbound Edition)
Forrest L. Farmer
Manufacturer: Clean-Pro Industries, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Ring-bound

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Science of Professional Cleaning : Handbook for Janitorial Services

ASIN: 0967830354

Book Description

This 350-page book, first published in 1980, has been updated and revised six times, most recently in February 2000. It is a complete and comprehensive source of information for starting, promoting, and managing a successful janitorial service business. It was written for business opportunity seekers, building service contractors, and others interested in the cleaning maintenance and janitorial service business. This publication is the result of the author's thirty-two years experience in all phases of the building service contracting and janitorial service industry.

Building Service Contracting will teach you how to start your own business with a minimal investment and earn as much as you want. Your potential earnings are unlimited, depending upon how much time and effort you are willing and able to put into your business. Many successful janitorial service contractors are grossing $1,000,000 in sales a year; others are grossing several million dollars a year.

If you were to franchise a janitorial service business grossing only $20,000 to $50,000 a year, you could expect to pay as much as $8,000 to $20,000 in franchise fees. You can now have the same information that will show you how to start, promote, and manage your own business. You save thousands of dollars with this information.

Here are some of the secrets revealed in this manual:

How you can set up your company to succeed right from the beginning. How you can start earning an outstanding income within a few weeks. Where you can buy low-cost materials, supplies, equipment, and printed products. Fifteen steps to a successful business. Seventeen ways to finance your business. How to avoid legal problems when buying or selling janitorial accounts. How you can obtain profitable customer contracts. What is required to succeed in the janitorial service business. How to set up your monthly accounting calendar. Advantages and disadvantages of hiring subcontractors. How to subcontract. What to include in an employee handbook. Sample employee job descriptions.

The fundamentals of supervision. How to write a hazard communication program. Setting up a safety program.

How to approach building owners and managers. How to compete with other companies for your share of the business.

How to land the big accounts. What customers look for in janitorial service contracts. How buyers evaluate building service contracts. How to draft a janitorial service proposal and agreement. How to prepare service specifications. And much, much more.

Customer Reviews:

Not worth the money........2002-03-31

If you are looking to start a cleaning service go with the book:
Cleaning up for a living, much more info and cheaper.
Building Service Contracting : How to Start, Promote, and Manage a Cleaning Maintenance Janitorial Service Business, (Softbound Edition) leaves you in the dark, it is very cheaply done and goes from one subject to another without going into any detail.
Like I said, save your money and go with Cleaning up for a living.

Thank you letter.......2000-08-19

Najia Bouabdallah #1 French Cleaning Suffolk couonty NY.

Dear Mr.Farmer Forrest,

My husband and I would like to thank you for your part in making our present entepreneurial ventures a great success. We have found your manual detailing step-by-step instructions on how to start a cleaning business and making it work and we found it to be an invaluable and user-friendly resource as our cleaning business continues to grow. I need to mention that this business is not the first business that my husband and myself have attempted. We lacked prerequisite knowledge essential to makining this type of business venture thrive. Since obtaining your manual, all of this has changed. your clear and logical guidance has helped us to understand the skills required making this business, or any other service profession like it, succeding. In providing a realistic blueprint for our business, your "Building Service contractor"(how to start, promote and manage a cleaning Maintenance janitorial Service business) manual has helped us save countless hours and countless dollars. In short time, your manual has taught me more about advertising, submitting business proposal, bidding, estimating contract, and maintaining a satisfies clientele than i believe I would have learned after several years in the field or even several years in a business college.

Thus far, with the help of your manual and software (Executive Tool Kit), we were able to secure several commercial accounts and we have numerous accounts pending. At present the future looks very promissing and for this we feel indebted. Once again thank you for all your support and assistance. We will be visiting your web site and purchasing any other products that you provide.

Average customer rating:
How to Start & Manage a Housecleaning Service Business
Leslie D. Renn , and Jerre G. Lewis
Manufacturer: Lewis & Renn Associates Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1579169147

Average customer rating:
How to Start a Cleaning Service

Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000KLO74E

Average customer rating:

What a waste of money!

How to Start and Manage a Carpet-Cleaning Service Business
Jerre G. Lewis , and Leslie D. Renn
Manufacturer: Lewis & Renn Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1887005838

Customer Reviews:

What a waste of money!.......2002-08-29

This book is nothing more than a generic list of things to do to start a small business. Nothing wrong in that, but no particular insight is offered here. The title focuses on Carpet Cleaning, which is why I bought it, but there is almost nothing that is carpet-specific. Maybe this quote says it all: "To start a carpet cleaning service, you should have some knowledge about carpet cleaning and business..."

How to start and operate a successful cleaning business

Average customer rating:

How to start and operate a successful cleaning business
William R Griffin
Manufacturer: Cleaning Consultant Services
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0944352413

How to Start and Manage a Janitorial Service Business: A Practical Way to Start Your Own Business

Average customer rating:

How to Start and Manage a Janitorial Service Business: A Practical Way to Start Your Own Business
Jerre G. Lewis , and Leslie D. Renn
Manufacturer: Lewis & Renn Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1579160891

Entrepreneur magazine's how to start a cleaning service: A step-by-step guide to success (Guide)

Average customer rating:

Entrepreneur magazine's how to start a cleaning service: A step-by-step guide to success (Guide)
Jacquelyn Lynn
Manufacturer: Entrepreneur Media Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006RPSNQ

How to start & manage a housecleaning service business: A practical way to start your own business

Average customer rating:

How to start & manage a housecleaning service business: A practical way to start your own business
Leslie G Lewis
Manufacturer: Lewis & Renn Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books