Where do we belong? Urban adolescents' struggle for place and voice.
Through a telling of key events in the history of the "Teen Action Center" (TAC), a drop-in youth center located in downtown "Unionville," this story demonstrates how 'youth' is an important diversity category. The community conflict highlighted in this story centers around the 1997 arrest of TAC's Executive Director and two youth leaders (all Puerto Rican) because a small group of Latino and African-American youth was smoking cigarettes on the sidewalk in front of the Center. This conflict brings into focus divergent views on where Unionville's youth of color belong in the city, both physically and figuratively. The lessons learned in this story have wide application as Unionville, and other cities undergoing demographic transformation and economic decline, are likely to continue to experience these types of clashes, where the dominant paradigm of economic development overrides the realities, rights, and interests of marginalized groups.
Ross
Laurie
L
Community Development and Planning, IDCE, Clark University, 950 Main Street, 01610, Worcester, Massachuesettes 01610, USA. lross@clarku.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D002958:City Planning / Q000458:organization & administration; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004467:Economics; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009511:New England; D015279:Organizational Culture; D011593:Psychology, Social; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D011822:Race Relations; D012946:Social Welfare; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D044465:White People