From Conflict to Collaboration

            In “Chapter One: Can’t We All Just Get Along?” and “Chapter Six: Struggle and the City: Conflict Informed Collaboration” in From Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America’s Metro Areas,” Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor discuss the need for diverse and dynamic epistemic communities. They use case studies from Greensboro, Fresno, and San Antonio to present how conflict, collaboration, and knowledge generation either aided or hindered the revitalization of each post-1970 metropolis.
            Benner and Pastor explain diverse and dynamic epistemic communities as those which comprise of a diverse and resilient knowledge and membership base. In turn, these communities construct regional social norms allowing for long-term growth. The need for these communities is evident in a relatively community-devoid US landscape. Benner and Pastor attribute the lack of a common knowledge base to the media and economic inequality, and an increase in spatial sorting to partisan ideology and social class. Lack of exposure to different opinions is exacerbated as individuals move to homogenized political and social areas. The authors describe that amidst an inextricably linked political, job, and inequality crisis, the first step towards building diverse and dynamic epistemic communities is to address the fragmentation of knowledge that underpins the individual truth claim. With the ability to broaden membership through a diversity of knowledge, increase scope of action, sustain interaction, and handle conflict, diverse and dynamic epistemic communities will “recreate a sense of commons and common good.” (Benner and Pastor, 17)
            In “Chapter Six: Struggle and the City: Conflict Informed Collaboration,” Benner and Pastor present the case studies of Greensboro, Fresno, and San Antonio and how the revitalization (or lack thereof) of each metropolis relied on the empowerment of the dispossessed in an effort of racial rebalancing.
            Greensboro’s economy suffered from deindustrialization and increasing mistrust and disconnection amongst the citizenry. Crisis ensued with a decline in employment, job growth, and earnings, and an increase in poverty and inequality. Racial tensions and inequality left the citizens unable to cooperate, and unstable leadership and organizational structures fostered intra-regional competition. The Greensboro Partnership made an effort to increase business, economic, and community development but was not entirely successful. Ultimately, the cooperation that Greensboro needed lacked trust and social capital and was undermined by racial tensions, “fragmented government structures, and unequal spatial distribution of poverty and economic opportunity.” (139)
            Despite being one of the most fruitful regions in the United States, Fresno maintains high levels of poverty and unemployment. The local economy lacks diversity, and laissez-faire politics have been formulative in racial segregation and suburban sprawl. The dominant power structures of oil, development, and agriculture, as well as a polarized economy have robbed marginalized communities of their agency. Fresno’s economic growth is dependent on its “poverty industrial cycle complex inequity.” (143) While Fresno has had organizing successes—the Chicano social movement, national farm workers association, and Plan A—the city lacks leadership that can simultaneously use conflict resolution to bridge competing knowledge claims and maintain validity.
           Lastly, there is the promising case of San Antonio—a lesson for the future. San Antonio’s goal was to move beyond its dependence on military spending. As a historically racialized city run by top-heavy business elites exploiting cheap labor, organizing efforts ultimately needed to tip political power to create change. In contrast to Fresno and Greensboro, there was important leadership that kept conflict at bay, allowing for engagement and collaboration to create a “common destiny” (13) that characterizes San Antonio today. Communities Organized for Public Services (COPS), Project Quest, Ernesto Cortes, and Henry Cisneros, as well as many others made strides in allocating resources, changing economic development strategy, creating cross-class collaboration, reskilling workers, and enhancing education. Together, the citizens of San Antonio created a vision—SA2020—focusing on education, employment, environment, and health. The collaboration in San Antonio came from intense conflict, controversy, and demand for representation. San Antonio’s successful revitalization proves that conflict can precede collaboration. Because of its strong leadership and the citizens deep connection with place, the space was created for all citizens to communicate and find a common purpose, in turn creating an epistemic community.
            Benner and Pastor’s articulation of struggle, collaboration, and community situates community creation within historical, community-corroding injustices of the United States. The success of San Antonio’s revitalization has me curious how The Clemente will utilize leadership, diversity of voices, common understanding, and collaboration in the preservation of Latinx culture which is in itself rooted in a history of struggle, conflict, and community.