RANDOLPH — County College of Morris (CCM) will present a talk on Citizenship and Homeownership as part of its “Citizenship Under Siege” project, which aims to investigate the theme of stratified citizenship.
The session, which is free and open to the public, takes place Thursday, November 3, 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the Learning Resource Center (LRC) Reading Room on CCM’s Randolph campus, 214 Center Grove Road.
Georgetown University sociologist Brian J. McCabe will speak on homeownership as it relates to notions and rights of citizenship. He will be exploring ideas from his recent book, “No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community & the Politics of Homeownership” (Oxford University Press, 2016).
McCabe is highly critical of the enduring ideology that presents homeowners as better neighbors, citizens and Americans. Instead, he claims that homeownership creates a stratified citizenry – of deserving homeowners versus underserving renters – often along lines of race, class and gender.
CCM was one of seven community colleges, and the only one in New Jersey, to have been awarded a $17,500 grant last year, through the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), to take part in the nationwide “Citizenship Under Siege” project.
Public forums, supported by the grant, are exploring critical questions about citizenship such as historic struggles for social justice and how the humanities can provide fresh understanding for contemporary issues involving equality, individual dignity, opportunity, liberty and happiness.
