{"id":72812,"date":"2019-06-18T12:24:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=72812"},"modified":"2019-06-18T12:31:27","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:31:27","slug":"keep-off-the-grassroots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2019\/06\/18\/keep-off-the-grassroots\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep off the Grassroots?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Housing is a serious issue across the country, and here in Minneapolis there has been a big discussion about new zoning policies<\/a> that could be a model for cities everywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In true midwestern fashion, the favored way to fight this out on the ground is the passive-aggressive yard sign. Homeowners kicked it off, followed by a pro-development crowd seeking more affordable housing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Regardless of where you stand on the issue, both groups draw grassroots support from local residents who live in Minneapolis and have a stake in how it might change. Just recently, though, someone else jumped on the bandwagon. A new set of shiny yard signs started popping up all over my neighborhood. Someone had coordinated an overnight drop, putting out three or more signs every block with this slogan:
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Many of the signs were outside apartment buildings, and it turns out that they came from a group of landlords organizing against protections for renters<\/a>. I came home to my apartment one day to find three signs<\/em> posted in the front yard of the building. Nobody told us these signs were going up, and many of them were removed the following week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a classic example of what social scientists call “astroturfing”\u2014a practice where business leaders copy grassroots activism strategies to advocate for their political interests. According to sociologist Edward Walker<\/a>, full-on astroturfing where a business relies on deception to suggest grassroots support is pretty rare. This is a risky practice that can backfire if they get caught. Instead, business are getting much more savvy<\/a> by adopting other kinds of grassroots organizing tactics to drive attention to their interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These signs show the power of astroturfing, because we usually assume a lawn sign is a pretty direct statement\u2014one that represents the person who lives behind it. Sure, landlords can lobby just like everyone else, but do they have a right to do it in front of where their tenants live, especially if they might disagree? A counter-mobilization effort is already underway in the neighborhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\nEvan Stewart<\/a> is an assistant professor of sociology at University of Massachusetts Boston. You can follow his work at his website<\/a>, or on BlueSky<\/a>.<\/i> <\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Housing is a serious issue across the country, and here in Minneapolis there has been a big discussion about new zoning policies that could be a model for cities everywhere.  In true midwestern fashion, the favored way to fight this out on the ground is the passive-aggressive yard sign. Homeowners kicked it off, followed by a pro-development […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1893,"featured_media":72830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23633,8080,85,234],"class_list":["post-72812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-economics-corporations","tag-housingresidential-segregation","tag-politics","tag-democracy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2019\/06\/signs-e1560879064492.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72812"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72829,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72812\/revisions\/72829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}