Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the right to the city and community conflict over casino development in Philadelphia. Community outrage erupted in 2006 following the selection of two casinos to be built in Philadelphia. Sugarhouse Casino was planned for construction in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood and Foxwoods Casino was planned for South Philadelphia neighboring the Society Hill, Queen Village and Pennsport communities. For a brief time between 2008 and 2009, plans to develop the Foxwoods Casino moved downtown to Philadelphia’s Chinatown community. This dissertation explores the framing of community needs, vulnerabilities and conflict over casino development in each of these three communities and how these framing strategies were used as a foundation for expressing community power. I use a variety of data in this dissertation including in-depth content analysis of the local Philadelphia media, sight observations of casinos, anti-casino actions and town hall meetings. The most important data for this research comes from twenty-nine, oneon-one, semi-structured interviews with a variety of people involved with or knowledgeable about casino development in Philadelphia including anti-casino activists and community members, pro-casino community members, local political officials and their aides, and casino advisors and representatives.

ISBN

1-303-13951-0

Keywords

Housing

Disciplines

Sociology

Publisher

Temple University

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Included in

Sociology Commons

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