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ABSTRACT
Resurgent movements against inequality have returned the topic of progressive cities to the urban politics agenda. This paper documents the growth of economic and racial justice (ERJ) coalitions and assesses the key role they play in progressive politics. Where a growing body of research uses a racial capital analysis of inequality to lodge normative critiques about the problems facing cities, ERJ coalitions use racial capital analysis as a practical tool for expanding coalitions, linking allied causes and creating a political agenda larger than the sum of its constituent parts. Drawing on an inventory of participating organizations and representative campaigns, and a comparison of ERJ coalitions in Chicago and Denver, we show that ERJ coalitions (1) integrate analysis, discourse and action on economic and racial inequality in ways that strengthen both causes; (2) work through territorial and scalar networks that extend the power of urban social movements; and (3) use language and analysis of structural racism to expand activism to structural issues previously immune to urban activism, including fiscal austerity, state policy and environmental racism.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank three anonymous reviewers and the editors for helpful comments on previous versions of this paper.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marc Doussard
Marc Doussard is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the author of multiple books about work, inequality and urban politics. His current research focuses on universal basic income programs.
Greg Schrock
Greg Schrock is Associate Professor in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. His scholarship focuses on regional economic change, local labor market and workforce development policy and planning for inclusive and equitable development.