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14 - Neighborhood Associations and Community Change

from Part III - Civil Society and Coalitions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2024

By
Kayla M. Anderson  and
Brian D. Christens
Edited by
Brian D. Christens
Brian D. Christens
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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Summary

Neighborhood associations are geographically bound, grassroots organizations that rely on volunteer membership and direct participation to identify and address issues within their neighborhood. Often these groups serve as intermediaries between residents and local decision-makers, such as government officials, developers and business owners, and providers of public goods and services. As a case example, we describe the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP), launched in 1990. The NRP is a notable long-standing attempt to bolster the role of neighborhood associations in municipal governance. It demonstrates many of the potential benefits as well as the challenges of neighborhood associations as vehicles for locally scaled democracy. After this, we examine dynamics of community power and empowerment processes in neighborhood associations and make recommendations for practice and future research.

Keywords

civic engagementcommunity developmentneighborhoodparticipationrevitalizationurban planningvolunteers
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Community Empowerment , pp. 360 - 388
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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