The ubiquitous settlement pattern of the American suburb is in fact a carefully constructed reality. Because the vision of the home in the suburbs is very deeply rooted, any development which is considered threatening to this image is met with a defensive reaction. Too often, however, when these NIMBY ("Not In My Back Yard") sentiments are permitted to dictate what is acceptable in a community, housing affordable to low- and moderate-income households is purposely excluded. / This thesis explores the processes by which discriminatory NIMBY sentiments are realized as legal development regulations in contemporary suburbs. The historic evolution of the suburbs and the psychological foundations behind their typical characteristics are presented as the sources of a suburban value structure which esteems NIMBY. Suburban governments are mandated to represent their constituents' values, but exclusionary development controls are a complex product of constituent demands, fiscal constraints, and constitutional limits. / This analysis reveals that legislative responsibility often bows to political weakness. NIMBY groups use political pressure to manipulate municipal governments into using their vast discretionary powers over development as a weapon for exclusion. In response to either political or fiscal motivations, legislators pressure planners to validate discriminatory legislative agendas with their plans, thus undermining their abilities to guide growth effectively. Although the process of development regulation is well-grounded in historic and legal precedents, when legislation is used for discriminatory ends, citizens' civil and property rights are jeopardized. This thesis explains how regulations such as zoning ordinances can be used for exclusion when municipal government disregards its mandate to be the guardian of the general welfare. / Increased awareness of both the motivations and the manifestations of the NIMBY phenomenon may enable individuals as well as lawmakers to create a more equitable suburbia.

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No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- American University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-258). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed July 26, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. iv-v).

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Detroit Mercy, 2010. / "2009-2010" Includes bibliographical references (p. 112).

This research draws upon the writings of Michel Foucault and a range of governmentality texts to problematise those planning techniques and practices promulgated in an attempt to produce particular ideals of community. To accomplish this I have focused predominantly on the discourses pertaining to the Golden Grove Development. The histories I re-construct from these discourses demonstrate how ideals of community have been constituted and how they act as technologies of government. The goals of these governmental technologies, I argue, were the normalisation of particular suburban subjectivities, with the intent to maximise economic gains and minimise financial, temporal, spatial and social risks. In the discourses of the Golden Grove Development subjects are positioned as docile and self-disciplined individuals who are active in the government of their own conduct. This governmental practice was in accordance with the goals of the planners and developers of the suburban site. The pre-occupation with the production of ideals of community was one that was legislated by indenture. It was also a theme that the developers harnessed and developed to market and sell the development. / The resultant suburban landscapes reflect specific lifestyles which consequently alienate, limit or deny others. Ideals of community thus act as technologies of polarisation rather than as mechanisms to create a "e;cohesive community"e; which was a paramount objective in the planning discourses of the development. The Golden Grove Development emerged at a time when neo-liberal rationalities began to proliferate. Proponents of the project considered ideals of community to be fundamental to the financial and social success of the new suburban development. This is evident in key Golden Grove planning, marketing, development, legislative and business texts, which point to the actual production of particular ideals of community. The planning techniques and practices that underpinned these ideals were significant in the Golden Grove Development being ranked as a 'benchmark community' for the planning of other new residential developments across Australia. The histories of the new suburban development that I re-construct focus on how ideals of the 'good community' have been and continue to be produced, circulated and put into effect in some of the most significant Golden Grove 'community' sites. / I argue that the planners of the Golden Grove Development conceived 'community' as a phenomenon that was deterministically achievable, 'normal', 'good' and 'truthful'. My research disrupts these notions by analysing ideals of community as technologies of government. The aim of these studies is to acknowledge and contest suburban government and thereby open up other possibilities to think about techniques and practices of suburban planning. / Thesis (PhDPlanning)--University of South Australia, 2005.

No description available.

This dissertation explores the effects of postwar suburbanization on American Catholicism by studying the dioceses of metropolitan New York, especially the creation and expansion of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in suburban Long Island. Throughout the 1960s the Diocese of Rockville Centre was one of the fastest growing Catholic communities in the country and was hailed as the nation’s first suburban diocese and a model for the future of the U.S. Church. The project details how Catholic pastoral leaders grappled with the rapid exodus of the faithful from urban ethnic neighborhoods to newly built suburbs, and how Catholic sociologists and intellectuals assessed the effects of suburbanization. I argue that postwar suburbanization revolutionized the sacred space of the parish, the relationship between clergy and laity, and conceptions of Catholic education. In suburbia the communal life of the ethnic parish yielded to the nuclear family and the home, the dominance of the clergy gave way to lay leadership and initiative, and devotion to parochial schools declined in favor of participation in public education. Suburbanization was thus a crucial catalyst of religious reform even before the Second Vatican Council. Similarly, suburbanization transformed Catholic participation in American politics. The economics of suburbia drove Catholic voters to prioritize tax relief and local control of public schools over the bishops’ demands for state funding of private schools. Suburban Catholics thus contributed to the growth of postwar conservatism and to the development of the culture wars that reconfigured American politics through the 1960s and 70s.

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