Reinventing Detroit The Politics of Possibility [Paperback]

This book addresses the questions of what went wrong with Detroit and what can be done to reinvent the Motor City. Various answers to the formerdeindustrialization, white flight, and a disappearing tax baseare now well understood. Less discussed are potential paths forward, stemming from alternative explanations of Detroit's long-term decline and reconsideration of the challenges the city currently faces.

Urban crisissocioeconomic, fiscal, and politicalhas seemingly narrowed the range of possible interventions. Growth-oriented redevelopment strategies have not reversed Detroit's decline, but in the wake of crisis, officials have increasingly funnelled limited public resources into the city's commercial core via an implicit policy of urban triage. The crisis has also led to the emergency management of the city by extra-democratic entities. As a disruptive historical event, Detroit's crisis is a moment teeming with political possibilities.

The critical rethinking of Detroit's past, present, and future is essential reading for both urban studies scholars and the general public.

IntroductionReinventing Detroit: Urban Decline and the
Politics of Possibility
Michael Peter Smith and L. Owen Kirkpatrick

Part I: Theoretical and Epistemological Frameworks

1 Rereading Detroit: Toward a Polanyian Methodology
L. Owen Kirkpatrick and Michael Peter Smith

2 The Spontaneous Sociology of Detroit's Hyper-Crisis
Mathieu Hikaru Desan and George Steinmetz

3 Learning from Detroit: How Research on a Declining City Enriches Urban Studies
Margaret Dewar, Matthew Weber, Eric Seymour, Meagan Elliott, and Patrick Cooper-McCann

Part II: How we Got Here: Cities, the State, and Markets

4 National Urban Policy and the Fate of Deló…