SSSP 2024 Annual Meeting

Date: Friday, August 9

Time: 4:30 PM - 6:10 PM

Session 032: Who Speaks for the Community? Complicating Power, Representation and Decision Making
Room: Hemon

Sponsor: Community, Research, and Practice

Organizer, Presider &

Discussant: Susan Halverson, Portland State University

Description: 

Social science researchers likely all engage with communities in some way. But what does "community" actually mean? Who is included and excluded, and who participates? Who is considered a valid representative of the community? How is power distributed and used in communities? The papers in this session explore and complicate community power, representation, and decision-making in spatial/geographic, identity, and interest communities.

Papers:

“‘No One Can Tell Our Stories Like We Can’: The Ypsi Farmers and Gardeners Oral History Project,” Finn McLafferty Bell and Sasha Kindred, University of Michigan-Dearborn

“Civic Engagement in the Homeless Community: How the Homeless Are Left out of the Democratic Process, and What to Do about It,” Caitlin M. Krenn, New York University

“Community Power in Inclusionary Housing,” Susan Halverson, Portland State University

“The Financialization of Human Shelter and Community-based Public Sociology,” David Jaffee, University of North Florida