Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC uncovers and explains the dynamics that have influenced the contemporary economic advancement of Washington, DC. This volume's unique interdisciplinary approach using historical, sociological, anthropological, economic, geographic, political, and linguistic theories and approaches, captures the comprehensive factors related to changes taking place in one of the world's most important cities.
Capital Dilemma clarifies how preexisting urban social hierarchies, established mainly along race and class lines but also along national and local interests, are linked with the city's contemporary inequitable growth. While accounting for historic disparities, this book reveals how more recent federal and city political decisions and circumstances shape contemporary neighborhood gentrification patterns, highlighting the layered complexities of the modern national capital and connecting these considerations to Washington, DC's past as well as to more recent policy choices.
As we enter a period where advanced service sector cities prosper, Washington, DC's changing landscape illustrates important processes and outcomes critical to other US cities and national capitals throughout the world. The Capital Dilemma for DC, and other major cities, is how to produce sustainable equitable economic growth. This volume expands our understanding of the contradictions, challenges and opportunities associated with contemporary urban development.
About the Author: Derek Hyra is associate professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy and director of the Metropolitan Policy Center at American University. His research focuses on processes of neighborhood change, with an emphasis on housing, urban politics, and race. Dr. Hyra is the author of The New Urban Renewal: The Economic Transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville (University of Chicago Press 2008) and recently completed his second book, Making the Gilded Ghetto: Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City (University of Chicago Press Forthcoming), which investigates the redevelopment of Washington, DC's Shaw/U Street neighborhood. He received his BA from Colgate University and his PhD from the University of Chicago.
Sabiyha Prince is a Researcher and Data Analyst for Houses of Worship and the Environment at the Anacostia Community Museum. She earned her Ph.D in Anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center and has held teaching positions at American University, St. Mary's College of Maryland, and Coppin State University. She is the author of Constructing Belonging: Class, Race, and Harlem's Professional Workers (Routledge 2004) and of African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, DC: Race, Class, and Social Justice in the Nation's Capital (Ashgate 2014).
