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Preface Angles of Vision This book is an interdisciplinary effort by a team of researchers associated with Urban Affairs Programs at Michigan State University (MSU). As with all approaches to understanding the city, interdisciplinary investigations have special strengths and some weaknesses. We think the special strength of Detroit: Race and Uneven Development comes from our attempt to bridge disparate methods and disciplines. Disciplines represented here include sociology, geography, history, and planning. And the crosscutting methodological dimensions informing our research and analyses range from positive to normative and from historical to futuristic. By offering many angles of vision, we hope to capture much of the richness, the complexity, and the contradiction of urban life. But a strength can be a weakness too. So we must also note at the outset that our book is probably less consistent in style, method, and argument than a work turned out by a single author or by a team from a single discipline would have been. Pulling our act together has not been easy. It took more hours of discussion than we can or care to enumerate. But our quest for coherence was aided by our shared concerns and sensibilities. Our objective throughout this project has been to understand the human damage done by inequality, in order that we might contribute to the creation of a more just city. And our belief at the end, as at the beginning of our investigation of metropolitan Detroit, is that the best scholarly path to that goal is the one charted by interdisciplinary, holistic, historical, and critical signposts. Several graduate assistants offered help with the research necessary to complete this work. These include Angela Braithwaite, Jo Dohoney, Cleopatra Jones, and Melvin Williams. In addition, Marie McNutt's secretarial prowess with our word processor greatly eased the journey through numerous drafts of the book. Thanks are also extended to Urban Affairs Programs for its support. Cartographic assistance was provided by Cindy Brewer of the Center for Cartographic Research and Spatial Analysis, under the directorship of Michael Lipsey of the Department of Geography at Michigan State University. The figures in Chapter 5 were compiled by Sherman K. Hollander. We sincerely appreciate these contributions. Copyrighted Material Preface Angles oj Vision This book is an interdisciplinary effort by a tcam of researchers associaled with Urban Affairs Programs at Michigan State University (MSU). As with all approaches to understanding the city. interdisciplinary investigations have special strengths and some weaknesses. We think the special strength of Detfoit: Raci' and VI/even Dew/oplII(,1JI comes from our attempt to bridge disparate methods and disciplines. Disciplines represented here include sociology, geography, history. and planning. And the crosscutting methodological dimensions informing our research and analyses range from positive to normative and from historical to futuristic. By offenng mmly angles of vision. we hope \0 capture much of the richness, Ihe complexity, and the contradiction of urban life. But a strengt h can be a weakness 100. So we must also nOle at Ihe outset Ihal our book is probably less consistent in style, method. and argument than a work turned out by a single author or by a team from a single discipline would have been. Pulling our act together has not been easy. II took more hours of discussion than we can or care 10 enumerale. But our quest for coherence was aided by our shared concerns and sensibilities. Our objective throughout this project has been to understand the human damage done by inequality, in order thai we might contribute to Ihe creation of a more just city. And our belief at the end. as allhe beginning of our investigation of metropolitan Detroit, is that the best scholarly path to that goal is the one charted by interdisciplinary, holistic, historical, and critical signposts. Several graduate assistants offered help with the research necessary to complete this work. These include Angela Braithwaite. Jo Dohoney, Cleopatra Jones, and Melvin Williams, In addition, Marie McNutt's secretarial prowess with our word processor greatly eased the journey through numerous drafts of the book. Thanks are also extended to Urban Affairs Programs for ils support. Cartographic assistance was provided by Cindy Brewer of the Center for Cartographic Research and Spatial Analysis, under the directorship of Michael Lipsey of the Department of Geography at Michigan State UniversilY. The figures in Chapter 5 were compiled by Sherman K. Hollander. We sincerely appreciate these contributions, Copyrighted Material x Preface We also appreciate the cooperation of Michael Band, Graphics Editor of the Detroit News, in...

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