IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v49y2025i6p1417-1436.html

NONPROFIT‐LED NEOLIBERAL GROWTH MACHINES AND THE PRIVATIZATION OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: The Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side

Author

Listed:
  • Virginia Parks
  • William Sites
  • Tadeo Weiner Davis

Abstract

We analyze the development of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago as the product of a new kind of urban growth machine—a nonprofit‐led neoliberal growth machine. Building on studies of nonprofit‐led urban development as well as research on CBA‐driven opposition, we reconstruct how an Obama Foundation‐led growth machine was able to dominate pre‐development planning, privatize public parkland and mount its own private community engagement process in ways that stymied powerful community opposition. We contend that the political resources of nonprofit foundations, especially their ability to claim a mantle of public authority and legitimacy, equip them to bypass genuinely public institutional processes and to repel even strong resistance from community actors. We argue that the array of soft political resources marshaled by the Obama Foundation—its perceived neutrality, collaborative reputation and public/private ambiguity—lend valuable assets to the task of bending participatory processes toward the political legitimation of controversial development projects. Because nonprofits are uniquely situated to deploy these political resources, the case of the OPC portends an expanding repertoire of action for growth machine actors, including the privatization of community engagement.

Suggested Citation

  • Virginia Parks & William Sites & Tadeo Weiner Davis, 2025. "NONPROFIT‐LED NEOLIBERAL GROWTH MACHINES AND THE PRIVATIZATION OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: The Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1436, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:49:y:2025:i:6:p:1417-1436
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.13350
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13350
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-2427.13350?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lisa Berglund, 2020. "The Shrinking City as a Growth Machine: Detroit's Reinvention of Growth through Triage, Foundation Work and Talent Attraction," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 219-247, March.
    2. Robert Giloth, 2019. "Philanthropy and Economic Development: New Roles and Strategies," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(3), pages 159-169, August.
    3. Stephanie Farmer & Chris D Poulos, 2019. "The financialising local growth machine in Chicago," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(7), pages 1404-1425, May.
    4. ., 2022. "Smart cities must be sustainable and inclusive cities," Chapters, in: Rethinking Smart Cities, chapter 3, pages 43-65, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Syrus M. Islam, 2022. "Impact investing in social sector organisations: a systematic review and research agenda," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 709-737, March.
    2. Martin J. Murray & María Arquero de Alarcón & Olaia Chivite Amigo, 2026. "THE CONTESTED URBANISM OF ABANDONMENT: The Afterlife of Two Distressed Neighborhoods in Detroit," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 5-23, January.
    3. Caitlyn Bolton, 2026. "Short‐Term Sustainability: Neoliberal Philanthropy, Dependency, and Divine Economics in Islamic Zanzibar," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), January.
    4. Ruiying Liu, 2022. "Long-Term Development Perspectives in the Slow Crisis of Shrinkage: Strategies of Coping and Exiting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-30, August.
    5. Wiatrowski, Matthew R. & Miller, Jacob H. & Bhatt, Arpit & Tifft, Stephen M. & Abdullah, Zia & Tao, Ling, 2024. "Economic and sustainability prospects for wet waste valorization: The case for sustainable aviation fuel from arrested anaerobic digestion," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    6. Peter O’Brien & Phil O’Neill & Andy Pike, 2019. "Funding, financing and governing urban infrastructures," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(7), pages 1291-1303, May.
    7. Julie Mah, 2023. "Broadening equitable planning: Understanding indirect displacement through seniors’ experiences in a resurgent Downtown Detroit," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 905-922, June.
    8. Heather Whiteside, 2019. "Advanced perspectives on financialised urban infrastructures," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(7), pages 1477-1484, May.
    9. Furkan Ahmad & Ameni Boumaiza & Mehmet Yazici & Nevin Taşaltın & Samet Özmen, 2026. "From Global Mapping to Local Action: Green Finance, Regulatory Frameworks, and Policy Transformation for Sustainable Energy Transition in Qatar and Türkiye," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 1648-1684, April.
    10. Yasuyuki Motoyama, 2020. "Beyond formal policies: Informal functions of mayor’s offices to promote entrepreneurship," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(2), pages 155-164, March.
    11. Jian Liu & Yixin Zhang & Junsong Mao, 2023. "Social Enterprises and Their Role in Revitalizing Shrinking Cities—A Case Study on Shimizusawa of Japan," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Changqing Sui & Wei Lu, 2021. "Study on the Urban Fringe Based on the Expansion–Shrinking Dynamic Pattern," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, May.
    13. Seong-Yun Hong & Yeorim Kim & Yongchae Lee, 2023. "Ethnic segregation on linguistic landscapes," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(7), pages 1916-1931, September.
    14. Jovović, Jelena & Popović, Saša, 2025. "Investigating volatility spillovers: Connectedness between green bonds, conventional bonds, and energy markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Güldem Özatağan & Ayda Eraydin, 2021. "Emerging policy responses in shrinking cities: Shifting policy agendas to align with growth machine politics," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(5), pages 1096-1114, August.
    16. Nikola VANGELOV, 2025. "AI and digital out-of-home advertising in smart cities," Smart Cities and Regional Development (SCRD) Journal, Smart-EDU Hub, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies & Public Administration, vol. 9(2), pages 55-61, March.
    17. Jingge Wei & Yurong Tang & Jinxin Chen & Kelin Wang & Peng Li & Mingxia Shen & Longshen Liu, 2025. "SPMF-YOLO-Tracker: A Method for Quantifying Individual Activity Levels and Assessing Health in Newborn Piglets," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-21, October.
    18. Kamila Ewelina Mazur & Jan Barwicki & Vitalii Tseiko, 2024. "Comparison of Mechanized and Automated Technologies in the Scope of Cumulative Energy in Sustainable Milk Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, January.
    19. Yi Feng & Zhigang Li & Fangzhu Zhang & Fulong Wu, 2026. "Upscaled state entrepreneurialism: Centrally controlled state-owned enterprises in post-pandemic urban development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 58(2), pages 194-215, March.
    20. Stefano Cascone & Valeria Anastasi & Rosa Caponetto, 2025. "Performance Optimization of Building Envelope Through BIM and Multi-Criteria Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-25, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:49:y:2025:i:6:p:1417-1436. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.