This ethnographic study of a neighborhood association focuses on the process of organizing residents to collective action. Situated in the post-industrial city of Buffalo, New York, the Urban Community Collaborative (UCC) employs two main governing techniques: (1) “taking responsibility” and (2)“working collaboratively” that emphasizes the rationality of “active citizenship” and the formation of horizontally linked collaborative partnerships to address perceived urban social problems. Similar to previous studies, we view this political rationality as a discursive constitution that shapes the actions of the members of the UCC (Atkinson, 1999; Schofield, 20002). This political rationality invokes neoliberal discourses of individual responsibility, entrepreneurship, and community partnership in place of a dependency on the government. We find residents utilizing moral techniques of responsibilization which entails calling on their neighbors to “take responsibility” and to “work collaboratively” with one another and paradoxically, with the government itself in revitalization efforts.

这项对邻里协会的民族志研究侧重于组织居民采取集体行动的过程。位于纽约布法罗的后工业城市，城市社区协作组织 (UCC) 采用两种主要的治理技术：(1)“承担责任”和 (2)“协同工作”，强调“积极公民”的合理性以及形成横向联系的合作伙伴关系，以解决感知到的城市社会问题。与之前的研究类似，我们将这种政治理性视为一种话语宪法，它塑造了 UCC 成员的行为（阿特金森，1999 年；斯科菲尔德，20002 年）。这种政治理性援引了个人责任、企业家精神和社区伙伴关系的新自由主义话语，而不是对政府的依赖。