By Maureen M. Donaghy (MPolSci’07; PhD’11)
(Temple University Press, 234 pages; 2017)
Rising housing costs puts secure and decent housing in central urban neighborhoods in peril. How do civil society organizations (CSOs) effectively demand accountability from the state to address the needs of low-income residents? In her book, Democratizing Urban Development: Community Organizations for Housing across the United States and Brazil, Maureen M. Donaghy (MPolSci’07; PhD’11) examines how community organizations can fight to prevent displacement and secure affordable housing across cities in the U.S. and Brazil.
By charting the constraints and potential opportunities facing these community organizations, Maureen assesses the various strategies CSOs use to influence officials and ensure access to affordable housing through policy, programs and institutions. She studies the impact and outcomes that ensue from these efforts, noting that CSOs must sometimes shift their own ideology or adapt to the political environment in which they operate to ensure access to housing and support the goals of an inclusive city. The book presents efforts by CSOs in four cities across the hemispheric divide: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Washington, DC and Atlanta.Â
Maureen is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, and the author of Civil Society and Participatory Governance: Municipal Councils and Social Housing Programs in Brazil.