Sociological Knowledge and Profit: Urban Redevelopment and Policy Ethics of Application

Abstract

A private commercial real estate firm achieved racial integration in producing private middle-income housing for private capital gains purposes in a publicly espoused urban redevelopment project in Chicago in the 1950s and the 1960s. The effort included critical use of (1) market research (demographic data analysis considered in relation to race-based dominant dwelling types) and (2) sociological principles of white–black ratio tolerance. This paper describes the use of the data analysis and the application of the sociological principles to achieve the results in the face of a public policy ethical question. The urban context within which these efforts, accomplishments, and quandary took place and the central policy and development problems faced by the development firm in relation to these are outlined.