Between Public and Private Action

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed shifts in the division of labor among actors in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, leading in part to new forms of governance. Indeed, some recent scholarship argues that nongovernmental organizations may go beyond their provisional and advocacy functions to play a much more central role in actually governing by contributing directly to public decision-making and action as part of the governing process. This article examines the governance roles of neighborhood organizations acting to shape community action in Chicago and their relationships with local government. It finds that while engaging in governance processes in both direct and indirect ways, neighborhood organizations often function at the interstices of public and private action created by absences or gaps in state policy or by local action. Developing these liminal spaces may be important to increase the influence of neighborhood organizations and their capacity to contribute directly to governing.