The second edition of Qualitative Research Methods for Community Development teaches the basic skills, tools, and methods of qualitative research with special attention to the needs of community practitioners. This book teaches students entering planning, community development, nonprofit management, social work, and similar applied fields the core skills necessary to conduct systematic research designed to empower communities and promote social change. Focusing on the basic elements of qualitative research, such as field observation, interviewing, focus groups, and content analysis, this second edition of this book provides an overview of core methods and theoretical underpinnings of successful research. It also includes two new chapters on qualitative data analysis software and techniques for conducting online qualitative interviews and focus groups. From housing, community organizing, neighborhood planning, and urban revitalization, this book gives students the skills they need to undertake their own projects and provides professionals a valuable reference for their future research. This book serves as a primary text for courses in applied qualitative research and as a reference book for professionals and community-based researchers.

This review essay contextualizes the articles included in the Journal of Urban Affairs’ special issue on promoting social justice and equity in shrinking cities. It introduces a framework to guide the analysis of shrinking cities and the formulation of urban revitalization policies. The essay begins by anchoring the literature on shrinking cities to a broader critique on globalization. Following this discussion, the emergence of a new urban form, called the peripheral dual city, is described. The article concludes with an outline for radically rethinking revitalization policy in shrinking cities.

Policies focusing on enforcing property code violations and the improvement of vacant properties are argued to be more efficacious than demolition policies to fight urban blight. This study applies parcel level data to a multi-year hybrid modeling structure. A fine-grained analysis is conducted on the dynamic patterns of abandonment and demolition for a unique period of four years before and after the City of Buffalo’s stepped-up demolition efforts. Results showed that proximity to vacant and abandoned properties, sustained over the years, had the greatest impact on the possibility of a property being abandoned. The second greatest positive impact on property abandonment was small lot front size. Results also showed that neighborhood vacancy density had the greatest negative impact on surrounding housing sales prices over the years. There was no significant impact of demolition on housing sales prices. These findings suggested that the City should aim to have more incentive programs that are tailored to control the number of vacant properties, rather than focusing primarily on demolition-oriented programs.

Community benefits agreements (CBAs) allow coalitions of labor and grassroots organizations to negotiate for concessions in the development process. One goal of a CBA is to more broadly distribute the benefits of new development to distressed communities and historically disenfranchised groups. Since their emergence in the 1990s, CBAs have not been well institutionalized. To date, there have been roughly 30 CBAs adopted across the United States. A relatively new development in the CBA movement has been the push to adopt model CBAs and community benefits ordinances, that outline all of the linkages that local government expects a developer to include in a project and require developers to negotiate linked development agreements as part of the project approval process. Although the emergence of model CBAs and CBA ordinances is promising for local groups interested in promoting equitable development, little research has been done on them. This article examines three critical cases in the United States (Portland, OR; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI) and evaluates the degree to which they serve as tools to institutionalize equitable development in the urban planning process. This analysis is based on content analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders.

This article examines the role of anchor institutions in the urban revitalization process. We use case study analysis to understand how concerns about residential displacement are addressed by anchor institutions in the urban planning process. This analysis is designed to build upon William Worthy’s critique of anchor-based development during the 1960s and 1970s. Our analysis examines the degree to which his concept of “institutional rape” applies to contemporary urban revitalization efforts. The article focuses on university and medical campus expansion in Buffalo, NY. We describe how the planned expansion of the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus has raised concerns about the displacement of residents living in a neighboring subsidized housing development. We conclude that despite incremental improvements in the planning process designed to facilitate coordination between anchor institutions and grassroots interests, resident empowerment has not been fully realized. Instead, the planning process continues to be dominated by institutional interests with limited community input. Consequently, residents worked through grassroots organizations, local government, and the media to resist anchor-based development. In light of these findings, we recommend that the role of residents in the planning process for neighborhood revitalization become more institutionalized through the negotiation of community benefit agreements and other linkages.