Michelle Wilde Anderson on America’s Cities
On this episode of Free Range, Mike Livermore speaks with Michelle Wilde Anderson, a law professor at Stanford. Anderson is the author of The Fight To Save The Town: Reimagining Discarded America, published in June 2022. In it, she analyzes how certain towns in the United States are trapped in poverty and continuously lack government resources, and resolving this issue is a complex task that requires serious investment into the futures of those who live in the town. Anderson conveys this concept through the narratives of those who have lived through this struggle, and through this the strength and compassion of those trapped in this cycle is able to be seen.
Episode is an appropriate teaching tool for but not limited to the following topics & courses: public policy, sociology
Discussion Questions
- What are some dominant cultural narratives about economically struggling towns and regions in the U.S.? How might these narratives influence policy discussions?
- How does concentrated local poverty undermine social trust and cooperation necessary for community progress? What examples illustrate this?
- In what ways can declining towns still act as “gateways” offering opportunity rather than “traps” locking people into poverty? What policies could better facilitate this?
- How might climate change alter the logic behind proposals for people in struggling regions to simply move elsewhere? What migration trends make this difficulty?
- What false assumptions exist in narratives that frame mobility toward economic opportunity as an accessible solution for the disadvantaged? What barriers and responsibilities limit realistic mobility?
- How does reduced local government capacity in struggling towns affect residents’ lived experience of state power? How does this influence views of government?
- What are some downsides of prior redevelopment strategies focused on things like downtowns and attracting big employers? How did the initiatives highlighted differ?
- How might resident-centered reforms rebuild social fabric within struggling cities to enable local progress? What examples illustrate this?
- What forms of “mutual aid” between institutions, not just individuals, does Anderson argue are necessary in addressing urban poverty?
- Why does Anderson argue against easily “exporting” one city’s anti-poverty programs to other towns? What local leadership is still required?
- How has language explicitly discussing and addressing poverty fallen in and out of mainstream U.S. political discourse over time?
- What connections exist between historical labor movements and contemporary efforts highlighted to empower low-wage workers and struggling regions today?
Additional Readings
- Michelle Wilde Anderson, “Why We Should Pay Attention to the Slow Decay of America’s Forgotten Cities,” Literary Hub (Jun. 23, 2022).
- Foster, Sheila R., “Seeing Like a Chocolate City: Reimagining Detroit’s Future Through Its Past,” Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works (2023).
- Sherry Turkle, “Building Back Better — One Community at a Time,” New York Times (Jun. 21, 2022). (review of Anderson’s book).
- Michelle Wilde Anderson, “The Deserving Poor,” 75 Stanford Law Review Book Review Symposium (Feb. 2023).
- Michelle Wilde-Anderson, Democratic Dissolution: Radical Experimentation in State Takeovers of Local Governments, 39 Fordham Urb. L.J. 577 (2012).
- Carl Schramm, Save America’s Dying Cities, Issues in Science & Technology 36(4) (2020).
- Laurie A. Walker, Urban Planning and Social Work, Encyclopedia of Social Work (Nov. 29, 2021).
- David Fukuzawa & Nancy O. Andrews, “Philanthropy Must Change So Community Development Can Keep Changing for the Better,” InsidePhilanthropy (Mar. 22, 2023).
- Democracy Collaborative. “Community Wealth Building.”
- Csilla Weninger, Urban Pioneers in the Making: Recontextualization and the Emergence of The Engaged Resident in Redeveloping Communities, Journal of Sociolinguistics 13(1) pp. 83-105 (2009).
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