Building Wal-Mart with resistance: community political action against a new Wal-Mart supercenter

Abstract

A discussion of the three dimensions of power as they play out in the development arena sets the stage for understanding a local social movement within a specific political context. Through the use of face to face interviews and in depth analysis of local government documents, newspaper articles, and an online elite discourse I uncover the ways in which political context plays a role in determining the strategies and outcomes of social movements which have formed around land use disputes. Overall, if local politics are not designed to encourage citizen involvement, citizens are generally unable to have a role in the development process. In an increasingly privatized world, I make a call for deep democracy in the development process.