Reconstructing Urban Politics

In urban governance, some responsibility for services and planning may lie with private entities. Residents challenging public policies may find recourse not from elected officials but from quasi-public agencies. This article examines contestation over a hospital expansion plan in Athens, Georgia. Using archival accounts and interviews, the author investigates the responses of the local state and the hospital to neighborhood-based activism and the success of residents in restructuring the hospital’s decision-making process. The scale of contestation and negotiation differed from that of the city government. This case illustrates newstructures and scales of negotiation and accountability in quasi-public urban governance.