ABSTRACT
In 1983, urban sociologist Manuel Castells published The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements . The book is a series of case studies of collective action undertaken by Castells and his students to demonstrate how social identity and cultural lifestyles may form the basis of urban social movements. Scholars have long noted that urban conflicts, such as those between renters and landlords, are rooted in larger class-based struggles. Castells set out to show that conflicts around ethnic and national movements and sexuality and gender relationships are important sources of urban change as well. When, for example, particular territories, such as neighborhoods, become associated with specific social group identities, movements may organize to claim a stake in conventional district electoral politics. Such was the case of the Castro district as discussed in the book’s chapter, “Cultural Identity, Sexual Liberation, and Urban Structure: The Gay Community in San Francisco.” Castells shows that the Castro’s space-based social and cultural activities – the clustering of gay bars and ensuing nightlife, the surfeit of gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses and gay clientele, and numerous festivals and celebrations – operated as the basis for successful political organizing. Openly gay Castro businessman Harvey Milk was elected to the city’s Board of Supervisors in 1977, largely due to organized efforts of the gay community in the Castro area (Milk and Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed by conservative supervisor Dan White in 1978).
