Jamila Michener – ‘Uncivil Democracy’
Jamila Michener – ‘Uncivil Democracy’
Jamila Michener will discuss her new book Uncivil Democracy: How Access to Justice Shapes Political Power. She will be joined in conversation by Cathy J. Cohen. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.
At the Co-op
About the Book: Each year, as many as 250 million Americans face civil legal problems like eviction, debt collection, and substandard housing. These problems are disproportionately shouldered by racially and economically marginalized people, particularly women of color. Civil courts and legal aid organizations are supposed to protect their rights, yet more than 90 percent of low-income people receive inadequate or no legal assistance. Instead, access to justice is reserved for those who can afford its high price.
In Uncivil Democracy, Jamila Michener and Mallory SoRelle show how civil legal problems, and the institutions meant to address them, can erode trust in the legal system among marginalized communities, undermining their broader sense of democratic citizenship and political standing. While legal representation offers vital protections, increased access to justice through an ever-growing supply of lawyers does not address the structural problems that generate demand for lawyers in the first place. Looking at cases involving unfair evictions and substandard housing, Michener and SoRelle demonstrate how community groups such as tenants’ unions can fill this justice gap and provide the means to build political power that transforms the conditions that create precarity.
Drawing on eye-opening qualitative evidence and a wealth of historical and survey data, Uncivil Democracy explains why collective organizing holds the greatest promise for altering the systems that create civil legal problems and exercising the political power necessary for meaningful change.
About the Author: Jamila Michener is a professor of Government and Public Policy at Cornell University. She is Director of the Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Futures. She works closely with community-based organizations around the country to apply research insights to address urgent problems facing racially and economically marginalized communities.
About the Interlocutor: Cathy J. Cohen is the D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. Cohen is the author of two books, The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press) and Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (Oxford University Press). She is also co-editor of the anthology Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (NYU Press) with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto. Cohen created and oversees two major research and public-facing projects: the GenForward Survey and the Black Youth Project. She is the recipient of numerous awards, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-editor with Frederick Harris of a book series at Oxford University Press entitled “Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities.”