Local Democracy Under Siege Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics

Local Democracy Under Siege argues persuasively that American democracy is at a pivotal moment where the forces of exclusion and the ideology of market rule contest with new forms of political activism and engaged citizenship. Readers will see many of the same issues that North Carolina faces in their own communities and will take away new perspectives on power, race, class, and activism from this cogent and timely analysis. - Louise Lamphere,Past President of the American Anthropological Association A luminous work about everyday citizens that should free up local democratic energies across the land! - Aihwa Ong,author of Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty Debates about democracy often get stuck at the national scale. But the capacity for ordinary people to shape the conditions of their lives through politics and public speech is often greatest at the local level. This important book opens up anthropological perspectives on how this happens. It situates the challenges of local politics amid the constraints of neoliberalism, but also reports on the creative solutions different communities have developed to the distinctive problems they face. - Craig Calhoun,President, Social Science Research Council This book opens up the crucial questions of what democracy means in the U.S. today and the ways in which everyday Americans struggle to make themselves heard. Conceptually, methodologically, and theoretically this book realizes the potential for anthropological analysis as a way to understand the dangers of increasing inequality in the contemporary U.S. It is a major contribution. - Ida Susser,author of Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban Neighborhood Produces new insights into the 'makeover' of local government (Choice)