Stephen Danley
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About Stephen
Danley’s research focuses on the ethnography of protest and participation, particularly in cities. Overarching themes in Danley’s writings include the ways that segregation impact day-to-day interactions in development, nonprofits, and social movements. Danley is the founder and author of the Local Knowledge Blog, runs the Camden Supper Club, and is the graduate director of Rutgers-Camden’s MS/PhD program in Public Affairs and Community Development.
Contributions
The Messy Necessity of Community Buy-In for Philly’s Supervised Injection Site
Publications
A Neighborhood Politics of Last Resort examines participation and protest in post-Katrina New Orleans from the perspective of neighborhood activists. It argues that contrary to the 'cult of community', neighborhood movements were seen as a last resort because they burn out activists, and are subject to NIMBYism.
Examines what facilities sustained community resistance to neoliberal reform in the presence of undemocratic governance mechanisms and finds that access to social and economic capital, and timely access to information via an engaged press are present in the existing accounts of such resistance. Explores this emerging hypothesis via in-depth comparative case studies of Newark and Camden, New Jersey. Provides additional evidence for the hypothesis that access to social and economic capital and to information makes sustained resistance possible. Identifies a third variable, extreme political control as manifested through political machines, that intersects with the other variables to limit the sustainability of resistance movements in the presence of undemocratic governance mechanisms.
Examines what activists opposing development mean by gentrification, arguing that often they see development through the lens of white spaces and whether residents are welcome.