CUED
Center
for Urban Economic Development
University of Illinois at Chicago
Community Inc.: The Rationalization of Civic Life
Project Number: 200
Report Date: 1987
Author(s): Wim Wiewel
In the business world there has long been a tension between the forces of small business and competition and those of centralization, oligopoly and corporate dominance. Less attention has been paid to the same phenomenon applied to civic life and community organizations. A couple of recent proposals in Chicago suggest a certain corporate mentality, emphasizing centralized control, monopoly, and efficiency, rather than participation, pluralism and attention to individual and local needs. These proposals raise serious questions about the organization of civic and community action, particularly in regard to how well the needs of all groups can be expressed, whether new and creative solutions can be tried out, who controls resource allocation, and how diverse the resources will be.
The case which has been getting the most publicity is the Chicago Project, an attempt by a group of business executives to do something "about what they saw as a chaotic and ineffective civic community in Chicago" (The Chicago Project, 1986: 71). Based on interviews with business executives, public officials and representatives of civic organizations, The Chicago Project's report concluded that a lack of understanding, respect and trust made effective public-private interaction impossible. It recommended the formation of a partnership of civic organizations with, among others, the following functions: Develop an agenda that reflects consensus among the member organizations and negotiate that agenda with other organizations in the public and private sectors. Produce long-range strategic action plans: develop goals to be carried out and negotiated and prioritized by the member organizations. Identify the organizations that would act as catalysts in precipitating implementation of its plans and build coalitions among those various organizations.
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