Xavier Briggs
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Xavier de Souza Briggs | |
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Herbert Gans |
Xavier de Souza Briggs (born 1968) is an American educator, social scientist, and policy expert, known for his work on economic opportunity,
From 2005 to 2014, he was a professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[1] He returned to the MIT faculty in 2011. In January 2014, he went on leave anew, to join the Ford Foundation as Vice President of Inclusive Economies and Markets — leading the foundation's economic opportunity work worldwide—and later, following a reorganization, its U.S. Programs. At the end of 2019, he left the foundation to begin a visiting appointment at New York University (NYU).
Professional life
In New York City, Briggs helped develop the widely emulated "quality-of-life" planning approach to neighborhood revitalization, and in 1996 his work with the
Briggs' research centers on economic opportunity, racial and ethnic diversity, and democratic problem-solving in cities worldwide. His teaching has included negotiation and collaborative problem solving; policy analysis; strategy and management, housing and economic development; the politics, history and ethics of planning and social change; and the uses of research in public policy making.
His earliest research, focused on the social networks of poor young people, examined the controversial desegregation of
In 2002, he was a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Scholar at MIT. His edited book, The Geography of Opportunity (Brookings, 2005), analyzed the singular role of segregation as America has become more racially and ethnically diverse and at the same time more economically unequal. The book argued that significant responses to segregation remain rare and suspect in American politics and culture, also that these responses consist of either "curing" segregation (by changing housing patterns, i.e. changing where people live) or mitigating its substantial economic and social costs (by changing the links between place of residence and exposure to risks and resources, rather than changing housing patterns themselves). The edited volume also included the leading research on racial attitudes toward integration, racial discrimination in housing markets, links between smart growth in land use policy and housing affordability and segregation, and other key topics. The book won the top book award in planning in 2007 (the Paul Davidoff Award).
A second book, "Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities across the Globe" (MIT Press, 2009) offers an account of transformative change and the politics of reform in the U.S., Brazil, India and South Africa. The book, which was a finalist for the C. Wright Mills Prize, also offers an alternative theory of the functions and forms of democracy, focusing on local governance and grounded in core concepts of learning and bargaining, accountability, and stakeholder participation. Influenced by American educator and political philosopher John Dewey, this work argues that learning and bargaining are the twin capacities essential to collective problem-solving and shows the conditions under which it is possible to cultivate and advance both.
Briggs is the founder of two online tools for self-directed learning in the field of civic leadership and local problem-solving: The Community Problem-Solving Project @ MIT, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Working Smarter in Community Development, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation.
In 2010, he and co-authors Susan Popkin and John Goering published "Moving to Opportunity: The Story of An American Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty" (Oxford University Press). The culmination of more than a decade of work on housing opportunity and the effects of high-risk neighborhoods on poor children and their families, and focused on "surprising" results of one of America's most ambitious housing experiments — a
This mixed-method research, with ethnographic, survey and administrative data on families and regions in the controversial MTO social experiment, complements the influential research of economists
Briggs has been an adviser to the
His views and research have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Salon.com, National Public Radio, and other major media. He has appeared on CNN and other broadcast news networks, explaining public policy and budget issues in both English and Spanish.[2]
In November 2020, Briggs was named a member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the Small Business Administration and the United States Postal Service.[3]
Personal life
Briggs is Bahamian-American and has identified himself as a mixed-race person of color. Born in
Raised by his mother, Briggs moved back to the U.S. in 1976, several years after The Bahamas secured independence from
Key publications
- Lempert, David; Briggs, Xavier de Souza (1995). Escape from the Ivory Tower: Student Adventures in Democratic Experiential Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers/ISBN 0-7879-0136-9.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza; Miller, Anita; Shapiro, John (Winter 2006). "Planning for Community Building: CCRP in the South Bronx". Planners' Casebook, American Institute of Certified Planners.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza; Mueller, Elizabeth J.; Sullivan, M. (1997). From Neighborhood to Community: Evidence on the Social Effects of Community Development. New School for Social Research.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza (April 1998). "Brown Kids in White Suburbs: Housing Mobility and the Multiple Faces of Social Capital". Fannie Mae Foundation Housing Policy Debate. 9 (1).
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza; Darden, Joe T.; Aidala, Angela (March 1999). "In the Wake of Desegregation Early Impacts of Scattered-Site Public Housing on Neighborhoods in Yonkers, New York" (PDF). Journal of the American Planning Association. 65 (1): 27–49. .
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza (2003). "Community Building". In Christensen, Karen; Levinson, David (eds.). Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World. SAGE. ISBN 0-7619-2598-8.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza (December 2004). "Civilization in Color: The Multicultural City in Three Millennia". City & Community. 3 (4): 311–342. S2CID 227069996.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza (2005). The Geography of Opportunity Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 0-8157-0873-4.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza (November 2007). "Some of My Best Friends Are: Interracial Friendship, Class, and Segregation in America". City & Community. 6 (4): 263–290. S2CID 227257216. Archived from the originalon January 5, 2013.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza; Turner, Margery Austin (March 2005). "Fairness in new New Orleans". The Three-City Study of Moving to Opportunity, Policy Briefs. Archived from the original on May 1, 2008.
- Briggs, Xavier de Souza (2008). Democracy as Problem Solving. ISBN 978-0-262-02641-3.
References
- National Archives. In January 2009, Briggs went on a public service leave from MIT, appointed by President Barack Obama to become Associate Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and oversaw policy and budget for six cabinet agencies. (Housing and Urban Development, Treasury, Commerce, Transportation, Justice, and Homeland Security) "DUSP's Briggs joins Obama administration". MIT News Office. January 20, 2009.
- ^ "Xavier de Souza Briggs on Community Building". The Communication Initiative Network.
- ^ "Agency Review Teams". President-Elect Joe Biden. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ Smith, Larry (June 11, 2008). "Planning for a Sustainable Future in the Bahamas". Bahama Pundit.