Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An Urban History of Inequality and the American State

The Public Policy Center is proud to support this seminar series hosted by the School of Planning and Public Affairs.

Nonprofits serving a range of municipal and cultural needs are now so ubiquitous in U.S. cities, it can be difficult to envision a time when they were more limited in number, size, and influence. Turning back the clock, however, uncovers both an illuminating story of how the nonprofit sector became such a dominant force in American society, as well as a troubling one of why this growth occurred alongside persistent poverty and widening inequality.

Join Dr. Claire Dunning, assistant professor with the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, as she discusses her new book, which connects these two stories in histories of race, democracy, and capitalism, revealing how the federal government funded and deputized nonprofits to help individuals in need, and in so doing avoided addressing the structural inequities that necessitated such action in the first place.

For access to the Zoom link, please contact Samantha Zuhlke at samantha-zuhlke@uiowa.edu.