Transforming place and belonging through action research, community practice, and public policy: Comparing responses to NIMBYism

Abstract

While solidifying class inequalities on a transnational basis, corporate globalization often disrupts power regimes locally. Such disruptions can generate site-specific contention across social differences that solidify the physical marginalization or exclusion of less powerful groups at the local level. In the United States one form of local contention that results from corporate globalization is strong, organized opposition to the presence of marginalized and vulnerable immigrant populations. This article focuses upon NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) encountered in two cases where community organizations sought to create spaces and services for immigrants. The first section provides a multidimensional analytical framework centered around the concept of boundary contention. The second section lays out the methodological approach to the collaborative endeavor. The third section provides lessons learned for developing strategic practices that can assist organizations to reverse the disempowering dynamics of corporate globalization by either removing or expanding symbolic, relational, and physical boundaries in local contexts.