Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Developing communities

The Ford Foundation and the global urban crisis, 1958–66

Bibliographic Data

ID12876327
AuthorsSam Collings-Wells (0000-0002-1868-0345, University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume16
Issue3
Pages336-354
Publication date2020-07-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Global History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-0228 • E-ISSN: 1740-0236
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1740022820000200
OpenAlexW3045903982
LanguageEN
Citations received7

Between 1958 and 1966 the Ford Foundation embarked on a series of pilot projects of ‘urban community development’ in India and the United States. This article will highlight how both of these programmes emerged in response to what Ford officials understood to be a global urban crisis, caused by the migration of ‘backward’ rural populations into the cities. Rather than modernizing under the pressure of urban living, these newcomers appeared to be pooling into pockets of underdevelopment – ‘ghettos’ in the United States and ‘slums’ in India. Ford sought to tackle the problem by encouraging the participation of these marginalized communities in the process of urban renewal, a strategy intended to engineer the psychological modernization of their residents. In practice, however, Ford struggled to control the channels into which these mobilizations flowed, with poor urban residents utilizing the projects to push for radical changes concerning housing, policing, and tenant–landlord relations

Civil engineering · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Foundation (evidence · Landlord · Modernization theory · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Underdevelopment · Urban planning · Engineering · Indian Economic and Social Development · Law · Public Administration

  • Ford’s network

    Vladimir Kulić•Planning Perspectives•2022

  • Genealogies of revanchism

    Open Access•Philip Lawton•Dialogues in Urban Research•2026

  • Two classic texts

    Open Access•Mick Carpenter•Community Development Journal•2025

  • A ‘gray area’? Neighborhood decline and reclamation in 1950s and 1960s U.S. urban discourse and legislation

    Philip Lawton•Journal of Urban Affairs•2024

  • Two technical assistance methods

    Alejandra Monti•Planning Perspectives•2025

  • Global counterinsurgency and the police-military continuum

    Sarah Schrader•Small Wars and Insurgencies•2022

  • Cycling as work

    Open Access•Manas Murthy, Malini Sur•Mobilities•2023

Unique citing works7
Citations per year1,75
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 7

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae