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We are in a struggle for the very soul of democracy, and all that we hold dear - interdependence, reason, compassion, respect for all human beings, and stewardship of the natural world that sustains us,– is under direct, unabashed assault. This book is meant for those who are concerned about dangers to our democracy, and to our social health as a nation. It is for those who desire to work for social justice, and to respond to essential protests by enacting progressive change. The stories offered in this book provide examples of the critical work being done to create generative interdependence: a community that fully values diversity and connection, that nurtures creativity and scientific rigor, and that embodies responsibility for others and the freedom to find new and better ways of living out, and creating, expansive human communities of connection, respect and cooperation. In this book, we will explore the worlds of social enterprise, impact investing, and other attempts to create economic systems that are environmentally sound and economically just. And we will study the way in which universities and colleges are educating students to be critical participants in creating a truly just and sustainable social order. In each of these instances, activists are working from positions of power to transform institutional practices and structures to foster justice and equality. Their work, “after the protests are heard,” aims at actually enacting social change once injustices are brought to light.

Arab New York is an ethnographic exploration of how everyday life and politics intersect in the diverse and complex Arab communities of New York City. The book argues that politics and contention move into everyday social spaces in order to circumvent many of the most challenging barriers to Arab American political participation. To show this, it studies Arab communities in practice, places where Arab Americans identify together as Arab and engage in collective work: in particular, community organizations providing services to newly immigrated Arabs and social movement organizations advocating on behalf of freedom and justice in their countries of origin. The book covers issues of forming community in diaspora, young women’s political engagement, differences between different approaches to pro-Palestine activism, and the challenges and possibilities of organizing on behalf of the Arab spring revolutions. Through detailed portraits of community organizations and activist groups, Arab New York helps explain why politics is everywhere for Arab Americans, and how their experiences of contestation, exclusion and acceptance shape their lives.

The book is divided into three sections: The first section, Cultivating Feminist Accountability, explores practices of accountability that embrace critical engagement of the power lines that shape our identities, relationships, and communities as we engage in feminist movement building and social change. The second section, Building Community Accountability and Transformative Justice, explores the concept and practice of community accountability and transformative justice within the context of U.S.-based feminist antiviolence movements. It introduces the feminist-of-color led efforts to shift from the dominant paradigm of institutionalized social services and carceral legal reform to community-based support, intervention, accountability, and transformation. The third section, (Re)Imagining Feminist Solidarity Politics, explores how a framework of feminist accountability can serve to disrupt and disentangle US-based feminist storytelling about the issues facing women of the global south from US imperial logics. Such a shift is essential for making visible the deep and historic relationship between and across these global divides and for creating possibilities for a solidarity based in mutuality, reciprocity and respect.

The Jim Crow era of outright racism seemingly ended decades ago, yet the major American film industry—Hollywood—is waist deep in racial politics. Jim Crow Hollywood shows how Hollywood insiders consider race when making decisions about moviemaking. Movies by and about white Americans are said to be worthy investments, while movies by and about Black Americans are said to be risky investments. This way of thinking has profound effects on the way movies and people move through the Hollywood system—shaping their production budgets, determining who directs lucrative tent pole blockbuster franchise movies, and creating stigma around race and moviemaking. Quotes from film directors, statistics on over a thousand movies, and emails between Hollywood insiders reveal that race is back in the forefront regarding how decision-makers in American culture institutions rationalize inequality. Except now understandings about race are mixed with talk about economic investments and cultural preferences, making racial inequality more palatable to the everyday observer and further entrenching racial divisions that counteract post-Civil rights narratives of racial progress.

This book is a way to learn from the Persian Gulf – to use its cities, cultures, and politics to broaden our understanding of how wealth and power operate in the world today. To learn from cities of the Arabian Peninsula -- places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha -- does not mean celebrating them or ridiculing them either. It means looking closely at how they operate and their prospects for future impacts inside and outside the region. Here, a group of scholars from across the disciplines and much of the world, strives to emplace the new developments in wider histories of trade, of technology, and of design. They trace where the money, ideas and projects come from and where they end up going. They show how Gulf elites import planning and design solutions, along with brands and prestige cultural institutions, from the West – and also what they then send out. The Gulf set-ups – in real estate, finance, and governance -- function as “test beds” for new state-market arrangements. Also involved is the massive import of temporary labor and, almost incidentally, severe ecological deficit. Gulf Cities display extreme manifestations of urbanization trends that, however unanticipated in the grand traditions of urban scholarship, now impact the world.

Taking Back the Boulevard tells the story of Northeast Los Angeles known popularly for historic Arts and Crafts architecture, bohemian cultural life, independent small businesses, immigrant diversity and quality of life on its boulevards. It chronicles the initial emergence of these prototypical LA streetcar suburbs and the Arroyo Culture bohemia, then disinvestment with growth of mid-20^th century freeway suburbs and white flight with residential succession by incoming Latin American and Asian immigrants. Neighborhood revitalization followed through a Latino/a arts renaissance and Arroyo Culture revival involving muralism, youth involvement and public arts events and festivals. Neighborhood activism was also a key force through campaigns to preserve natural and architectural landmarks and museums, oppose mini-malls, “big box” and chain store franchises, and to “Take Back the Boulevard” for bikers and pedestrians. Yet the creation of a more culturally vibrant and livable city along with entry of speculator developers fostered accelerated gentrification and white return after the Great Recession with increasing mass evictions of working-class and Latino/a households sparking new rounds of local protest. Changing conditions and generational divides confront the neighborhoods as established slow growth leaders share space with newer “right to the city” activists. The author offers lessons for urban planners and policymakers on addressing gentrification effects of public transit-oriented development and smart growth through strategies like participatory planning, Latino Urbanism, and community advisory boards.

This book addresses the matter of how social audiences, both formal agents of social control (the NYPD and the Park Enforcement Control) and the ordinary, everyday park-goer, react when they encounter what they consider wrongdoing, or “deviance.” The focus is on the micro or face-to-face interactional level; the larger structural forces are held in abeyance and assumed to operate, but they are not analysed or accounted for here. Likewise, literary and philosophical speculations as well as considering political and ideological implications have been left to other analysts. What constitutes deviance in an unconventional public setting remains the central issue throughout the volume. Visitors to the park—one that is known for celebrating difference and diversity—observe behaviour or utterances by an actor or a speaker in their presence that, they feel goes too far in violating their sense of acceptable norms. What do they do? How do they sanction the offender? The analysis in this book presents the reader with a series of anecdotes—events or episodes observed or statements overheard by the researcher that audiences, judging by their reactions, consider untoward. The action-reaction-interaction dynamics constitutes the lodestone of this volume. Washington Square Park is a “text”; this book represents a sociological “reading” of that text.