Manufacturing Decline: How Racism and the Conservative Movement Crush the American Rust Belt

It is a common assumption in the international media that the fundamentalist Christian Right suddenly appeared on the US political scene following the 11 September 2001 tragedy, and that it became a major force in shaping US policy in the Middle East. While it is true that fundamentalist Christians have exercised considerable influence during the George W. Bush administration, their ascendance is neither new nor surprising. The movement has demonstrated political influence in the US and England intermittently for more than a hundred years, particularly in the formation of Middle East policy. This article focuses on the unique theology and historical development of Christian Zionism, noting its essential beliefs, its emergence in England during the nineteenth century, and how it grew to gain prominence in the US. The alliance of the pro-Israel lobby, the neo-conservative movement, and several Christian Zionist organizations in the US represents a formidable source of support for the more maximalist views of Israel's Likud Party. In the run-up to the 2004 US presidential elections this alliance could potentially thwart any progress on an Israeli–Palestinian peace plan in the near future. Moreover, Likud ideology is increasingly evident in US Middle East policy as a result of this alliance.

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Preachers Or Politicians: The Religious Fundamentalist Conservative Movement in America

10.21236/ada425412 ◽

1997 ◽

Author(s):

Peggy T. Anglin

Keyword(s):

Conservative Movement ◽

Religious Fundamentalist

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The Shadow Society and Its Fictitious Capital

10.1093/oso/9780198828211.003.0014 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Louçã Francisco ◽

Ash Michael

Keyword(s):

Social Movements ◽

Economic Crisis ◽

Global Economy ◽

Democratic Governance ◽

Professional Expertise ◽

Conservative Movement ◽

Electoral Success ◽

Fictitious Capital ◽

Equitable Outcomes ◽

National Economies

The concluding chapter surveys the prospects for more democratic governance of national economies and more equitable outcomes in the global economy. The backdrop for the chapter is the marriage of shadow finance with the conservative governments that have achieved electoral success on the basis of popular dissatisfaction with the response of neoliberal governments to the global economic crisis. The conservative movement and its governments are incoherent and unwilling to address, even in terms of modest reform, the power of finance and its responsibility for inequality and crisis. Effective reform could emerge from the union of professional expertise, whose commitment to technocratic aspects of the neoliberal project may have weakened, with democratic social movements.

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Rethinking “Disinvestment”: Historical geographies of predatory property relations on Chicago’s South Side

Environment and Planning D Society and Space ◽

10.1177/02637758211013041 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026377582110130

Author(s):

Rea Zaimi

Keyword(s):

Real Estate ◽

Focal Point ◽

Economic Feasibility ◽

Private Institutions ◽

Rust Belt ◽

South Side ◽

Real Estate Markets ◽

Property Relations ◽

And Function ◽

South Side Chicago

As vacancy in Rust Belt cities becomes a focal point of planning and policy efforts, Chicago planners and private institutions attribute it to “disinvestment” and seek to remove barriers to real estate investment in order to unlock the market’s purported ability to bring land to “productive use.” Drawing on findings from an analysis of nearly 10,000 postwar property records in the South Side Chicago neighborhood of Englewood, this article demonstrates that vacancy stems not from disinvestment but from predatory and hyperextractive investments in housing that derive economic feasibility and legal sanction from property’s historical articulation with race. I argue that racial regimes of ownership are endemic to the operation of real estate markets and function as central modalities for the appropriation of ground rent. As an analytical lens into the political economy of land, racial regimes of ownership expand urban geographers’ capacity to address the mechanisms that mobilize difference to accommodate capital’s circulation and, more broadly, to account for the racial logics that configure the terrain of contemporary land struggles.

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Surviving the Era of Deindustrialization: The New Economic Geography of the Urban Rust Belt

Journal of Urban Affairs ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00625.x ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 417-434 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

George Hobor

Keyword(s):

Economic Geography ◽

New Economic Geography ◽

Rust Belt

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Industrial Policy and Local Economic Transformation: Evidence From the U.S. Rust Belt

Economic Development Quarterly ◽

10.1177/08912424211022822 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 089124242110228

Author(s):

Ben Armstrong

Keyword(s):

Industrial Policy ◽

Local Governments ◽

State Level ◽

Economic Transformation ◽

Local Economy ◽

Rust Belt ◽

Industrial Policies ◽

Cast Doubt ◽

State And Local

State and local governments frequently invest in policies aimed at stimulating the growth of new industries, but studies of industrial policy and related economic development initiatives cast doubt on their effectiveness. This article examines the role of state-level industrial policies in contributing to the different economic trajectories of two U.S. metro areas—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio—as they adapted to the decline of their legacy industries. Comparative case studies show that industrial policies in Pittsburgh, which empowered research universities as local economic leaders, contributed to the transformation of the local economy. In Cleveland, by contrast, state industrial policies invested in making incremental improvements, particularly in legacy sectors. The article concludes that by empowering new local economic actors—such as universities—industrial policies can foment political change that enables structural economic change to follow.

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