Spring 2002 - Haverford College

Faculty Profile
strategies while co-authoring a book with
Charles Euchner, Executive Director of
the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston
at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of
Government. Called To Make the City
Whole: Dialogues on the Problems and
Prospects of Urban America, the book will
give an overview of past and present urban
policy in the areas of economic development,
poverty and welfare, housing and
community development, education, and
crime, and recommend policy proposals
and revitalization strategies for the future.
The class encourages
students to make an
attempt to see the political
world through the eyes
of these groups.
“The number one policy priority, in my
view, ought to be education,” he says, and
uses the case of Philadelphia in the ’90s
to illustrate his point. “In the 1990s
Philadelphia had a very popular mayor,
who was reelected by a lopsided margin
for a second term, yet the city lost more
residents than any other city in the country
during this decade, largely due to its
substandard public schools.” The core
problem, he says, is that city schools are
underfunded, with fewer resources than
their suburban counterparts. “The textbooks
are sometimes more than 20 years
old, classes are far too large, and there are
a lot of physical problems. In an urban
school on a rainy day, you can count the
number of puddles inside in the hallway.”
Next year, when McGovern is on leave,
he plans to take a closer look at
Philadelphia by beginning a new research
project centered on two aspects of the
city’s redevelopment: its waterfront refurbishing
(and the extent to which citizens
are involved in the planning process) and
Mayor John Street’s Neighborhood
Transformation Initiative (NTI). Budgeted
at more than $250 million, the NTI aims
to demolish 14,000 decaying structures
and assemble large tracts of land in distressed
neighborhoods beyond Center
City for new market-rate housing. “This is
a bold move,” says McGovern, “and it raises
all kinds of questions: How will it disrupt
neighborhoods? Will lower-income
residents benefit?”
McGovern, who normally hires at least
one student as a research assistant per
year, wants to involve his students even
more deeply in this new project, bringing
them into the field to conduct interviews
and gather data. In the meantime, he continues
to offer them an alternate perspective
on the American political scene by
teaching a course in politics as seen from
the point of view of marginalized groups,
such as people of color, women, gays and
lesbians and the poor. “It encourages students
to make an attempt to see the political
world through the eyes of these
groups,” he says, although he has noticed
that most Fords are already inclined to do
so even before they arrive on campus.
“One of the unique things about
Haverford is its long tradition of supporting
social justices causes,” he says.
“This sets it apart from other small liberal
arts colleges.”
Outside of his teaching and research,
McGovern spends quality time with his
wife of 11 years, Lisa Baglione, an associate
professor of political science at St.
Joseph’s University in Philadelphia who
specializes in international relations and
Russian politics, and his two children,
three-year-old Jack and one-year-old
Maria. It’s not unusual to see Jack and
Maria strolling around campus with their
mother and father and greeting their many
fans in the Haverford community, or playing
in the sandbox outside of the Hall
Building on nice days. When they leave
campus, the family sometimes goes to
Philadelphia to explore neighborhoods
and new development sites. “Jack is a big
fan of large construction sites,” says his
proud father, “especially if there are any
mobile cranes around.”
McGovern has still another vision for
the future that would bring students from
Haverford and Bryn Mawr full force into
the midst of his research: an urban center,
located in Philadelphia, that would
allow participants to live and study in the
city and work as interns in local government
offices and nonprofit organizations.
“It would expose them to urban life firsthand,”
says McGovern, “and I think they’d
love it.” And, with any luck, they’ll follow
in the footsteps of their professor,
searching for ways to make cities whole
once again.
Steve McGovern currently teaches the
following classes in political science:
American Politics: Difference and
Discrimination—An introduction to
American politics through the
perspective of individuals who
have experienced discrimination
Mobilization Politics—Explores
how ordinary citizens have sought to
advance their interests outside the
normal institutions of politics and
government
Social Movement Theory—A theoretical
analysis of origins and development
of mass-based protest movements in
the U.S.
Urban Politics—Examines power and
politics at the local level of government,
particularly of large American cities
Urban Policy—An analysis of public
policies aimed at revitalizing U.S. cities
following several decades of suburbanization
and capital disinvestments
McGovern’s most recent publications include:
The Politics of Downtown Development:
Dynamic Political Cultures in San Francisco
and Washington, D.C. (University Press of
Kentucky, 1998); “Cultural Hegemony as
an Impediment to Urban Protest
Movements: Grassroots Activism and
Downtown Development in Washington,
D.C.,” Journal of Urban Affairs, vol. 19,
no. 4, December 1997; “Political Culture
as a Catalyst for Political Change in
American Cities: An Analysis of
Competing Models,” Critical Sociology,
vol. 23, no. 1, November 1997; and
“Mayoral Leadership and Economic
Development Policy: The Case of Ed
Rendell's Philadelphia,” Policy and
Politics, vol. 25, no. 2, April 1997. He has
presented several of his papers at leading
academic conferences, among them
“Ideology, Consciousness, and Inner-City
Redevelopment: The Case of Stephen
Goldsmith’s Indianapolis,” at the Ninth
National Conference on American
Planning History, Philadelphia/Camden,
November 2001; and “Revitalizing the
City: New Strategies from a Republican
Mayor,” at the Northeast Political Science
Association, Annual Meeting,
Philadelphia, November 1997.
14 Haverford Magazine