Institutional Change in Japan Book

When the University of Michigan trims its collections, bids farewell to faculty, or needs a little extra storage space, a lot of interesting things are left for scavengers. Somewhere in Ann Arbor, I came upon a forelorn collection of annual reports published by a U-M research center on Detroit. I picked a few up, thinking they'd be nice artifacts to add to my small collection of Michigan salvage. While I chuckled at the statistics from the 1950s (# of TVs per household, % of households with income under $2000 per year, etc.) I didn't realize that this very same project provided the foundations for one of the best and most extensive volumes of social research on Detroit.

Several years later, my friend Tasha sent me this book. It was published during Detroit's most recent "boom" era, the late 1990s. While this is discussed in some detail, the decades of statistical data and then-recent qualitative research reveal the key long-term trends underlying what was then, and is now, an extremely vexing state of affairs in the metropolitan area. Many Detroiters will find few surprises in the data, although this is to be expected from a study which strives to represent the social and economic fundamentals of the region. Most insightful, though, is the way in which defining features of geography, culture, economics, and politics are linked; the nature of these links, and how they relate to one another, does more to explain Detroit than any of the reductionist reasons cited around dinner tables and in the steady stream of magazine and newspaper commentary.

Also interesting is their discussion of public policy debates on urban issues circa the mid 1990s. Without having much historical perspective on these debates, I can only say that current experience with the social service / economic development sector seems to show that many of these debates have yielded policy initiatives which define current approaches to economic development and social programs.

The authors close with a discussion of various ways to revitalize Detroit, many of which, such as job training programs, free cars for low-income individuals, re-location vouchers so inner-city residents could move closer to jobs, are predicated on favorable macroeconomic conditions. There was little indication at the time that the auto industry was only a decade away from a major collapse. For all of the misfortune that this has caused, we can at least say that a sequel to Detroit Divided is sure to be interesting. Until it arrives, I'll recommend this book highly to all.