Description
Book SynopsisEducation Reform and Gentrification in the Age of #CamdenRising: Public Education and Urban Redevelopment in Camden, NJ examines the perceptions and interpretations of Camdena New Jersey community whose population is predominately minority, historically impoverished, and rapidly employing neoliberal strategies in public education and urban redevelopment. Using the framework of standpoint theory as a lens to alternatively view change and progress in Camden (dubbed by city officials as #CamdenRising), this book highlights the views of Camden residents who hold little sociopolitical capital yet are profoundly impacted by the city's efforts in employing neoliberal approaches within urban development and public education.
This book will center current and future resident viewpoints on living in a city whose leadership employs neoliberal tactics in redevelopment and in rebranding public education. Participants in this work reported feelings of political alienation pertaini
Trade Review
“Policymakers, philanthropists, and developers pledge ‘renaissance’ for working class and poorer communities. Their policies and performance often contradict their promise. Keith E. Benson’s fascinating book about schools in Camden illustrates this while making readers recognize how community residents experience and challenge the contradiction.” —Michael Leo Owens, Associate Professor of Political Science at Emory University and author of God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America
“In Education Reform and Gentrification in the Age of #CamdenRising, Keith E. Benson tells the story of gentrification from the perspective of people in the communities most directly suffering its impact. For these vulnerable citizens, ‘progress’ involves the takeover of local public institutions, resulting in a profound sense of civic alienation and disempowerment. We ignore these voices at the risk of imperiling our democracy.” —Beth C. Rubin, Professor in the Rutgers Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University and author of Making Citizens: Transforming Civic Learning for Diverse Social Studies Classrooms
Table of Contents
List of Figures – Acknowledgments – Preface – Introduction – Postindustrial Urban Ecology – Public Education in Low-Income Urban America – The Camden Context – Suspicion and Skepticism – "Change Is Happening But Not For Us" – The Influence of Outsiders and George Norcross – Participants’ Views of Public Schools and School Choice in Camden – It’s All Connected … for the Benefit of Others – Overview of Study, Implications, Conclusion – Epilogue – Appendix – Index.
