The Center for Urban and Global Studies at Trinity College is sponsoring a research seminar titled “The Transformation of Hartford Through the Early 21st Century: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives,” which will run from 2008 to 2010. The purpose of this seminar is to widen and deepen Trinity’s engagement with and contribution to Hartford by undertaking a comprehensive and multi-scaled study of the transformation of Hartford from a once strong manufacturing center to an economically challenged and ethnically diverse post-industrial city today, as well as of other dimensions of this fundamental transformation. This two-staged seminar will involve a broad group of Trinity and non-Trinity faculty along with interested policy analysts, community representatives, and students. The first stage (2008-09) will feature a series of open forums, extended discussions, and background research on a range of critical issues facing Hartford. The second stage (2009-10) aims to produce a research-based book that will contribute to classroom and experiential teaching, urban scholarship, and community development. To officially kick off this seminar, the Center staged the inaugural panel discussion on February 8, 2008 (see the flyer and Powerpoint presentations on this web page). The second event of the seminar was held on March 7 (see the flyer and presentations) and focused on economic development and political governance in the Hartford city-region. The third and last event of Spring 2008 took place on April 10 (see the flyer and presentations) and focused on race and ethnic relations and boundaries in Greater Hartford.
The questions being addressed by the Hartford research seminar include but are not limited to:
1. What are the important local and global sources for the growth and decline of Hartford’s economic sectors such as “manufacturing vs. services?” What local impact does the increasingly globally oriented industry like insurance have on Hartford’s economic base?
2. What are the opportunities for developing any form of regional cooperative and governance approach to addressing economic and spatial disparities sustained by racial tension, ethnic politics, school segregation, political fragmentation, and inter-local competition? Can Hartford help answer the questions: Are there greater or fewer advantages for impoverished cities if they are located in less egalitarian metro areas? Do suburbs compete with the city, draining away the vitality of the city? Does suburban economic development provide greater opportunity for ameliorating urban poverty and joblessness?
3. How do we understand Hartford and its surrounding region as a key node in the transnational migration circuit? How do we explain the varied economic, cultural, and spatial consequences for the different immigrant groups and individuals within and throughout Greater Hartford? How might the city-suburb gap be linked to distinctive in-migration patterns? For example, how might Hartford’s heavy Puerto Rican predominance among Hispanics help us understand transnational or translocal linkages to changes in Puerto Rico?
4. What are the interactive and intersecting effects of race, class, and space on residential and school segregation and health disparities in Hartford?
5. How has the Trinity-Hartford relationship changed over time in response to both internal (College-wide) and external (City-wide) dynamics? To what extent and in what ways can Trinity become an effective player in or contributor to enhancing the welfare of the city and its surrounding neighborhoods given the College’s professed urban-global mission?
6. What are the cumulative two-way outcomes and benefits of Trinity’s integrated classroom and community learning model for the College’s educational goals and knowledge transfer to and from the community?
7. How do various neighborhood groups like the Neighborhood Revitalization Zones (NRZs) and community development organizations like SINA matter to both the economic conditions and social fabric of the city? In what ways can in-depth comparative case studies of these grass-roots organizations and actors yield a bottom-up aggregate picture of the transformations in Hartford?
8. How do the various local and regional arts and cultural communities form a repository of civic and community strength? How are they affected by socio-economic circumstances? Do the arts offer a critique of existing problems, and a unifying force for change in the face of economic and social hardship? How do local cultural roots and patterns resonate with and reinforce global cultural influences? How can the Hartford city-region sustain its relatively strong position in cultural preservation and the arts in a very limited and uneven resource environment?
9. How does the relationship, or lack of it, between globalization, climate change, and environmentally sustainable development manifest itself in the Hartford city-region?
10. Finally, is Hartford unique? What theoretical and policy lessons can we learn from understanding the distinctive features and outcomes of Hartford’s transformation relative to placing it in a comparison with other deindustrialized New England cities such as Bridgeport, New Britain, New Haven in Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts?
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Xiangming Chen
Dean and Director
Center for Urban and Global Studies
Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of
Sociology and International Studies
Trinity College
xiangming.chen@trincoll.edu
February 16, 2008