The Significance of Place in Urban Governance: Mart 125 and the Politics of Community Development in Harlem, New York

Abstract

The paper highlights the nexus between place and identity on the one hand, and urban entrepreneurialism on the other, which has become important nationally and internationally in recent decades. This refers to a form of urban governance that mixes together state with civil society and private interests to promote urban development. The city as a product of a common if perpetually changing and transitory urban life, “growth machines” or “urban regimes” play a significant role in the relationship between place and identity. This paper documents an instance of this relationship where the “growth machines” played themselves out in Harlem, New York City.