Comparative Civic Culture—The Role of Local Culture in Urban Policy-Making

Reese (Michigan State U.) and Rosenfeld (East Michigan U.) present the findings of a comparative multicity research project exploring the nature of civic culture and its connections to urban policy-making in cities in the United States and Canada. The project was designed to answer questions concerning the applicability of a typology of local civic culture across cities, how well current taxonomies of culture apply to a diverse set of large cities, whether large cities with heterogeneous populations can be said to have a single civic culture, whether there are different civic cultures for different policy areas, what sorts of events are likely to effect change in local civic culture, and the connections between local civic culture and public policy. The case studies offer investigations of civic culture in the "inclusive/bureaucratic" cities of Pittsburgh, Ottawa, and Vancouver; the "market-active and passive" cities of Charlotte, Calgary, Cleveland, and Louisville; and the "individualistic" cities of Dallas and Miami. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Laura A. Reese, Director, Global Urban Studies Program and Professor, Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, USA; Raymond A. Rosenfeld, Professor, Department of Political Science, Eastern Michigan University, USA