A Town Abandoned: Flint, Michigan, Confronts Deindustrialization (Popular Culture Pol Chng (Dis))

A Town Abandoned: Flint, Michigan, Confronts Deindustrialization (Popular Culture Pol Chng (Dis)) by Dandaneau, Steven P.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780791428788.

A cultural study of the Flint communitys response to its own deindustrialization, within the framework of the state, national, and international forces that produced it. Hometown to both General Motors and the United Auto Workers, and the setting for the documentary film Roger and Me, Flint, Michigan, is a striking example of a declining city in Americas Rust Belt. A Town Abandoned examines Flints response to its own social and economic decline and at the same time pursues a broad analysis of class and culture in Americas late capitalist society. It tells the story of how Flints local institutions and citizens interpret and rationalize their citys massive auto-industry job loss and consequent decline, and it relates these interpretations to statewide, national, and international forces that led to the deindustrialization. Using a critical-theory approach, Dandaneau reveals the futility of Flints efforts to confront essentially global problems and moreover depicts the disturbing conceptual and cultural distortions that result from its sustained powerlessness. Dandaneau shows that all policy solutions to Flints problems were in essence public relations solutions, and he gives a moving portrayal of the consequences for local communities of the internationalization of American business.