Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Typically when we think of street markets we think of chaotic places full of energy and vibrating with danger and opportunity. Traders or governments create markets to meet existing and emergent demands as well as the unintended consequences of other policy decisions. It is this institutional design, this governance, this regulatory process that provides access to the market and organizes the vending space therein. Public and private entities operating in fiscally constrained environments should attend to the variety of ways there are to establish and regulate markets. Municipalities typically assume that a detailed management scheme is the best approach to managing access to markets and organizing the distribution of space, the assumption being that chaos would result in the absence of the state. However, this is not necessarily the case, merchants’ can self-organize access to space as well as a stable and flexible spatial order, and this self-organization can minimize costs, improve access, and contribute to social goods and goals associated with having a public market.

This article provides an empirical justification for this claim by examining the creation of Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market (hereafter the Market), and describing the subsequent changes in the regulatory scheme of that Market. This discussion recalls Polanyi's observation that all markets are regulated, one way or another, but that the forms and character of regulation obviously varies -- and thus this article argues the thesis that even in apparently unregulated markets we will find regulation, self-created, that produces a social order, in this case a stable and flexible order that accommodates a variety of private and public circumstances and goals. Our case is Chicago’s Maxwell St. Market, which between 1973 and 1994 resembled unfettered capitalism. An ethnically heterogeneous multitude of street entrepreneurs organized vending space with little violence in the absence of stable, state sponsored, legal expectations. But this self-organization is nested in an overall history of unregulated street commerce in the area, starting in the 1870s, followed by the City government’s creation and regulation of the Market in 1912, then a period of regulation lasting 60 years, followed by a radical change in the regulatory regime that produced a self-organized Market for about 20 years, then finally the City recaptured the Market and has regulated it again since 1994. Planners and policy makers will find this case interesting for three reasons: first, it is an interesting history of public markets and planning interests, second, the data indicate how an ethnically heterogeneous population can self-produce a flexible and stable social order and third, planners and policy makers concerned with locally appropriate and economically efficient, combinations of government and self-regulation of economic activities might apply lessons from this case to the large and growing interest in public markets around the country.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The term “holy hip hop” is in reference to the Bible or Christian messages of salvation, faith and walking the Christian lifestyle being put to hip hop beats. Hip hop provides the means to reach the streets in a manner they understand and allows them the opportunity to reconnect and express their faith in a vernacular in which they speak. Thus, this project looks at “holy hip hop” as a movement to see how the gospel and faith is being brought to the streets through the use of two turntables and a microphone.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Few studies have looked explicitly at street kids. Those that have done so have mostly attended to their participation in illicit activities (e.g., drug use, panhandling, prostitution, theft) or have focused on particularly deviant street kids. As a result, street kids have been painted as an exceptionally deviant group with little or no involvement in the mainstream world. This paper, based on ethnographic field research and informal interviews with Hollywood street kids, explores their participation in and allegiance to mainstream society by examining their daily lives and activities—including work, school, having fun, maintaining and building relationships with family and friends, staying aware of current events and popular culture, and espousing societal values—and suggests that street kids, far from being wholly deviant, are more accurately viewed as occupying a liminal position participating in both the straight, licit world of mainstream society and the illicit world of the street.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Street corner preachers are preachers without walls. They do not have the comforts or benefits of established congregations. Each time they preach, they must acquire and try to keep an audience while they deliver a message. However, the costs of not having a supportive religious institution could also result in benefits such as having the freedom to choose any style and to preach an uninhibited message.

The purpose of this article is to look at the role of faith-based nongovernmental organizations (FNGOs) in incorporating normative issues of human rights concerns into foreign policy. FNGOs could be considered the “street corner preachers” of U.S. foreign policy. Rather than addressing what has happened or what could happen in international relations, normative debates focus on what should happen. Normative issues are not typically given priority in foreign policy. Difficulties for FNGOs in finding a voice in foreign policy are high considering the fact that they typically lack the resources and acceptability of more powerful organized interests such as foreign governments and large corporations. Nevertheless, FNGOs are free from policymaking constraints and are therefore able to maintain a consistent witness in the realm of politics.

The case of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba provides a prime context for studying FNGOs due to the deep division between those who advocate the position that Cuba is a national security threat to the United States and those who emphasize the normative argument that provision of food, medicine, humanitarian aid, and normalized relations should be the United States’ primary policy towards one of its nearest neighbors. For over forty years, the latter viewpoint has faced an uphill battle in establishing itself in U.S. policy on Capitol Hill. This leads to the main topic of this article: In particular, how and why do FNGOs seek to have an impact on U.S. foreign policy when they typically lack the resources and acceptability of more powerful organized interests?

Even though any FNGO seeking to have influence in this realm may be considered outside the mainstream and therefore a “street corner preacher” of foreign policy, some are more acceptable to decision-makers than others. A street corner preacher who stands still and speaks gently may be considered more acceptable than one who uses a bull-horn and confronts passers-by. Similarly, FNGOs use a diversity of tactics to impact U.S. foreign policy.

In delving into the complexity of the FNGOs in this study, their tactics can be divided into two separate stances. On the one hand, moderate groups seek to increase their acceptability to policy makers by engaging in traditional lobbying tactics such as establishing coalitions, building relationships with government officials, and seeking success on incremental measures. On the other hand, resistance-oriented groups seek to protest policy measures they consider immoral by engaging in civil disobedience. As a result, several questions are addressed: 1) What do FNGOs hope to achieve with these stances as moderate groups or resistance groups? 2) What are the implications of each mode of operation?

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this paper, I argue that clients contribute to inequality in high-status service professions. Using data from a cohort sample of 76 current or former Wall Street professionals, I illustrate that clients’ homophily preferences shape sex- and racial-ethnic segregation within the securities industry. I also reveal how some professionals partially insulate themselves from client biases against them by deliberately avoiding positions where their success would be most dependent on client relationships. The findings support homophily theories. In conclusion, I postulate that the strength of homophily preferences in the Wall Street context is related to the high-status of this service profession.