Doyle, Meghan. 2025. Detroit Is Us: A qualitative study of community action and DIY spirit in Detroit’s hidden neighbourhoods after state bankruptcy. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

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Abstract or Description

This thesis explores the ways in which active residents in Detroit’s hidden neighbourhoods are reimagining urban futures at a local level in response to global crises as the City exhibits the ideal preconditions for hope and change. This is examined through the individual and collective efforts of Detroit’s residents in developing a movement to redress the effects of global, social and financial inequality in the first quarter of the 21st century.

The research is positioned within a framework of social and environmental justice, community development studies and futures-focused anthropology, while also drawing on political, economic and critical urban studies. It draws on theories from David Graeber, Sarah Safransky, Adrian Pabst, Cornel West, Marjorie Mayo and Thomas Sugrue as a basis for examining contemporary forms of community development practice taking place in Detroit. I argue that Detroit as a city in flux, still reeling from industrial decline, racial segregation, political apathy, a strained social contract and the Global Financial Crisis, provides profound insights and valuable learning for other cities around the world experiencing similar economic and social instability, as well as land use and resource challenges. The research exposes the risks of undemocratic, discriminatory and top-down policies aimed at bolstering a faltering neoliberal capitalist system, and illustrates alternative solutions being created and tested by residents to rebuild the social fabric of the city from the ground up, based on social justice, altruism, reciprocity, hope and a DIY spirit.

The research covers a period of eight years, between 2014 and 2022. It uses qualitative, participatory and ethnographic research methods to provide a counter-narrative to binary mainstream media portrayals of Detroit as either ghost town or Renaissance city. Instead, it offers the perspective of residents themselves, including stories of their lived experience as a contribution to reimagining urban neighbourhoods in the changing socio-economic and political landscape of the 21st century.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00039041
Keywords:	Detroit, state bankruptcy, DIY spirit, community action, social justice, reimagining urban neighbourhoods, alternative futures
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Social, Therapeutic & Community Engagement (STaCS)
Date:	31 May 2025
Item ID:	39041
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2025 15:14
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2025 15:19
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/39041

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