A Tale of Two Communities: The Ones That Organized and Those Left Behind

• In Event: Dynamics of Racial Separation and Solidarity

Abstract

A large body of research has shown that modern American politics have been highly influenced by burgeoning conservative movements that have risen in American white suburbia since the postwar era. While suburbs in America often still embody this historical legacy, these areas are also moving left and becoming more diversified. These two types of communities still remain for the most part geographically differentiated but they often do share county elected officials that represent very different populations in one jurisdiction. This context has led to new cityhood movements in unincorporated areas of some regions of the US. By forming their own cities, these unincorporated communities detach themselves from shared county level authorities and more importantly from the wider populations served by these elected officials. When do communities decide to incorporate and what kinds of governments do they create? To answer these questions, I analyze the politics behind municipal incorporations by conducting fieldwork in Georgia. I complete a series of interviews with key actors involved in incorporation processes that have taken place in the state. I argue that municipal incorporations are a type of White Flight triggered through individual level actions and institutional shifts. I find that proponents of these movements appeal to ideals of freedom, individualism, racial resentment and market rationalities. In this manuscript, I update the study of boundary change and new city formation by analyzing a new wave of municipal incorporations, but also, I contribute to literatures on White flight, race and the role of neoliberalism in urban policy.

Author

• Luisa Godinez Puig, Boston University