Neighborhood Organizing and Urban Revitalization: An Historical Perspective

Abstract

Neighborhood organizing as a means of urban and even national revitalization is currently experiencing a revival. What this contemporary interest in neighborhood organizing lacks, however, is a sense of its past. Neighborhood organizing is not a recent phenomenon: it has a long and instructive history. But few neighborhood organizers or members of neighborhood groups seem to know this. This paper, based on a larger study, seeks to remedy this situation by presenting a typology of the three dominant approaches to neighborhood organizing in the United Slates since the 1880s—social work, political activist, and neighborhood maintenance—and concludes with six prescriptions for current neighborhood organizing projects based on the successes and failures of past efforts.