Overview

When a nursing facility for AIDS patients is planned for a city neighbourhood, residents may be expected to voice concerns. But, as the author of this text recounts, when that community is known for its racial and ethnic diversity and liberal attitudes, public reaction becomes less predictable and in many ways more important to comprehend. An ethnographer who spent two years talking with inhabitants of a progressive neighbourhood facing this prospect, Jane Balin demonstrates that the controversy divided residents in surprising ways. She discovered that those most strongly opposed to the facility lived furthest away, that families with young children were evenly represented in the two camps, and that African-Americans followed a Jewish community leader in opposing the home while dismissing their own minister's support of it. By viewing each side sympathetically and allowing participants to express their true feelings about AIDS, the author invites readers to recognize their own anxieties over this sensitive issue. The book stresses the importance of uncovering the ideologies and fears of middle-class Americans in order to understand the range of responses that AIDS has provoked in our society. Its ethnographic approach seeks to expand the parameters of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) research, offering a picture of the multi-faceted anxieties that drive responses to AIDS at both the local and national levels.

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9780801436062

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Reviews

This study is a contribution to the literature about the politics of residential care facilities, but, in addition to more conventional concerns about property values, this nursing home also tapped into anxieties about drug use, homosexuality and the protection of children. . . . This book does a fine job in telling the dispiriting tale so typical of the late 1980's of one neighborhood's conflicts about its identity as these are provoked by thinking about AIDS. Timothy F. Murphy, Medical Humanities Review. Fall, 1999. Jane Balin's book gives the reader a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the social dynamics behind the chilling phrase. . . not in my backyard. . . . it would probably be very beneficial to anyone considering opening any sort of AIDS care facility to read this book. . . . Hopefully, A Neighborhood Divided will spark more open discussion on the issues of racism and classism and how they relate to HIV/AIDS. . . . The epidemic forces us to confront the severe social problems and challenges of our time. A&U, September 2000 Jane Balin's A Neighborhood Divided is an excellent in-depth study. Carrie E. Foote-Ardah. Qualitative Sociology, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2000. Balin describes and educates. . . The book provides excellent points that can help us think more creatively about how to proactively approach siting challenges. . . This book presents an easy-to-read and thoughtful examination of the subject. Balin offers advice that can help planners avoid unnecessary controversy. Rick Hooper. APA Journal, Autumn 2000, Vol. 66, No. 4 By illustrating her arguments with first-hand comments from her subjects including both the supporters and opponents of the AIDS nursing home Jane Balin allows readers to hear the voices of the neighborhood. She does an excellent job of raising and discarding the simpler ways of explaining community opposition to the facility while laying the groundwork for an analysis based upon anxieties about social status and position. Balin concludes with a series of policy recommendations and with observations about the perceptual and strategic errors made by the sponsors of the nursing home. Joel Savishinsky, Ithaca College

Jane Balin's book gives the reader a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the social dynamics behind the chilling phrase... not in my backyard.... it would probably be very beneficial to anyone considering opening any sort of AIDS care facility to read this book.... Hopefully, A Neighborhood Divided will spark more open discussion on the issues of racism and classism and how they relate to HIV/AIDS.... The epidemic forces us to confront the severe social problems and challenges of our time. --A&U Jane Balin's A Neighborhood Divided is an excellent in-depth study. --Carrie E. Foote-Ardah Qualitative Sociology Balin describes and educates.... The book provides excellent points that can help us think more creatively about how to proactively approach siting challenges.... This book presents an easy-to-read and thoughtful examination of the subject. Balin offers advice that can help planners avoid unnecessary controversy. --Rick Hooper APA Journal This study is a contribution to the literature about the politics of residential care facilities, but, in addition to more conventional concerns about property values, this nursing home also tapped into anxieties about drug use, homosexuality and the protection of children.... This book does a fine job in telling the dispiriting tale--so typical of the late 1980's--of one neighborhood's conflicts about its identity as these are provoked by thinking about AIDS. --Timothy F. Murphy Medical Humanities Review

By illustrating her arguments with first-hand comments from her subjects including both the supporters and opponents of the AIDS nursing home Jane Balin allows readers to hear the voices of the neighborhood. She does an excellent job of raising and discarding the simpler ways of explaining community opposition to the facility while laying the groundwork for an analysis based upon anxieties about social status and position. Balin concludes with a series of policy recommendations and with observations about the perceptual and strategic errors made by the sponsors of the nursing home. Joel Savishinsky, Ithaca College

Author Information

Jane Balin is a health care information systems consultant in Long Beach, California. A sociologist, she is coauthor, with Lani Guinier and Michelle Fine, of Becoming Gentlemen: Women, Law School, and Institutional Change.

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