From Myths to Means: Place and Organizational Processes in the Gowanus Canal Superfund, New York.

• In Event: 189 - Section on Community and Urban Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 09. Urban Crises and Recovery

Abstract

This empirical study proposes a new approach to understanding the relationship between Old and New Institutionalism by considering the effect of place, specifically urban place, on an organization. I examine the process through which an institutional myth was transformed into an operational goal of an organization. I focus on the effect of interaction between organizational actors within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local community members, on organizational processes at a Superfund site in Brooklyn, New York. Superfund is a federal program to clean environmentally hazardous sites. Designated a Superfund in 2010, the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal (Brooklyn, NY) was ongoing in 2015. Community involvement was an institutional myth within Superfund. Cost-saving was an operational goal. The Superfund Team (EPA organizational actors) aimed to manage community impressions of the cleanup through community involvement, while fulfilling their operational goals. However, a densely populated urban place with a highly active local community was an atypical context for a Superfund site. The Superfund Team deferred to negative reaction to a proposed disposal facility and removed it from the cleanup plan, which increased cost. As such, they transformed the myth of community involvement into an operational goal. Data were collected over three years. They consist of interviews with Superfund Team members and community organizations, Community Advisory Group meeting minutes, EPA documents and EPA public meetings. By highlighting the influence of place and community interaction on organizational processes I bring together literature on urban and organizational sociology, thus increasing knowledge on urban organizations.

Author

• Orla Stapleton, Indiana University