Suchergebnisse

Lit.

In this final article, I sum up the major comments, respond to the questions, and address the critiques of the contributing authors. I also examine some key developments that occurred after the publication of the book, particularly the rash of teacher strikes in red states and the nationwide student movement against gun violence. What might these events portend for large-scale coalition building to preserve education as a public good?

The article provides an overview of my book, The Fight for America's Schools: Grassroots Activism in Education. The book examines how grassroots activists in Pennsylvania and New Jersey challenged various neoliberal reforms in education such as high stakes testing, school closures, state takeovers of local school districts, and charter school expansion. The four case studies focus on who the activists were, how they became involved, the challenges they faced, and the prospects for coalition building across different constituent groups. The comparative analysis reveals the role of political, organizational, demographic, and historical factors in shaping how activism played out in each location and in its effectiveness.

Although political conflict is certainly no stranger to U.S.
cities, the contributors to Culture Wars suggest that a new
kind of conflict, heavily embued with moral overtones, is
surfacing with more frequency on the urban landscape.
Battles over abortion, gay and lesbian rights, hate crimes, and
the like, are taking their place along side the more traditional
disputes associated with service delivery, economic develop-
ment, and redistribution of resources. The morality-based
nature of these new culture wars has, according to the
contributors, created a new type of politics that is evidenced
in the way issues are presented, debated, and resolved. These
differences are a function of the passion associated with
moral claims, the involvement of religious organizations, and
the use of nonconventional protest tactics that can be fairly
aggressive. These differences between how culture wars play
out and politics as usual may render existing theories of local
politics insufficient.