Active Members of Diverse Communities: Race and the Doing of Diversity

Author: Meghan A. Burke

Dissertation School: Loyola University Chicago

Abstract:

This project is seeking to fill a much-needed gap in prior research around stably diverse urban communities and their active members. While there has been a large body of research into persistent urban segregation in the United States, diverse urban communities – and particularly those communities whose diversity persists from decade to decade – are seldom examined. What little research we have in this area is largely quantitative or descriptive; there is little qualitative analysis into how the diversity of these neighborhoods is understood, contested, and maintained. In particular, this study aims to understand: the degree to which these neighborhoods' diversity is intentional; the ways in which active members of these communities understand and shape policy at the local level to interact with that diversity; and the racial identities of these active members in a diverse context.

I am working in collaboration with Loyola University Chicago's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), whose past HUD-funded work was featured in a special edition of Cityscape (vol. 4, no.2) focusing on racially and ethnically diverse urban neighborhoods. Following CURL's tradition of community-driven and policy-relevant research, I have designed a study to better examine the nuances of three of the nation’s 14 stably diverse urban neighborhoods. My study, following ten years after the initial study, comes at a time when many commentators are pointing toward a shift in U.S. race relations. Further, much attention has been given to the re-emergence of cities as a desirable place to live; diverse neighborhoods in particular have been shown to have far more appeal than previously recognized. Paying special attention to the policies that have been contested in these neighborhoods, paired with the ways in which residents in these communities understand and work to maintain their diversity, is vital for an an increasingly diverse nation. My close examination of the struggle for minority homeownership, retention of affordable rental housing, the structure and impact of local grassroots organizations, and initiatives to strengthen these communities will provide key insights for policymaking that may continue to nurture and support diverse neighborhoods in the future.

I am conducting 50-75 qualitative interviews with active members of three neighboring communities in Chicago whose racial demographics roughly mirror the racial demographics of the city at large. Further, these three neighborhoods are unique in that their diversity has been maintained over several decades. I am conducting a snowball sample of those named by others as "active" members of these communities, and interviewing them about their housing history, their history of neighborhood involvement, their viewpoints about the neighborhood’s diversity, their viewpoints about current and past neighborhood issues, details about their own community involvement, and the salience of race both in their life and in their community.

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