Hoffman, S J (1993) Behind the facade: The constraining influence of race, class and power on elites in the city-building process, Richmond, Virginia, 1870-1920. PhD thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
Abstract
Using Richmond, Virginia as a case study, this dissertation argues that all of a city's inhabitants, including African-Americans and white workers, influence city building even when they have no formal role in the decision-making process. American cities are not just the products of the vision of their foremost business leaders, but of myriad forces beyond their control. The policies of government at the federal, state and local levels, and the workings of an increasingly international system of capitalism influence tremendously the growth and decay of America's urban centers. In addition to these macro-level forces, the habits, patterns and actions of ordinary city dwellers also influence the shape of the physical city. At some level, the actions of all urban dwellers become embodied in the cityscape just as readily, if not as frequently, completely or monumentally as those of economic and political elites. By moving beyond the traditional analysis of the city-building process, this study brings to the fore the hitherto unexplored role that non-elites played in the creation of the built environment. This analysis does not seek to replace the commercial-civic elite as the primary agents of southern urban change, but rather to place them in their proper context. In the new paradigm offered by this study, urban elites do not occupy the pinnacle of power, leading all others in the construction of the built environment, but lead instead from the middle, surrounded on all sides by a variety of conflicting forces that both allow opportunity and impose constraints. Just as behind the richly finished facades of urban buildings lay the more commonplace materials that give them their structure, so too is it with the city as a whole. By shifting the metaphor of city building and looking behind the facade of elite control to see the structure imposed by race and class, this study offers a clearer picture of the complex dynamic of city building, and provides a better understanding of how American cities developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Tarr, J A and Trotter Jr., J W |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building process; built environment; case study; government |
| Index terms: | case study, decision-making process, paradigm, built environment, dissertation, building process, agent, habit |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, infrastructure and transport systems, decision analysis, education and knowledge transfer, health behaviours and lifestyles, practitioner, research dissemination and communication, building construction |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Site Management, Urban Studies, Risk Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here