Race, rhetoric, and participatory capture in U.S. housing: A critical discourse analysis of community building in HOPE VI

Abstract

Participatory capture refers to the manner in which institutions and organizations engaged in participatory projects deploy participatory methods, however unintended, in ways that further endanger or disempower the most vulnerable participants. To further articulate this phenomenon, this article presents a critical discourse analysis of key documents associated with HOPE VI, a federal public housing program in the United States known for its emphasis on community participation amid antiblack power structures. The result of the analysis are two models of participatory engagement—deficit and governance—that facilitated HOPE VI’s participatory capture. Deficit models rely on participants who are discursively rendered as “inferior,” while governance models prioritize “token” participants at the expense of more robust participant feedback. Moreover, these models, in the context of the U.S., carry with them particularly racialized predicates that demonstrate potential perils of participation for low-income, marginalized communities. With implications for organizational communication, diversity initiatives, and community engagement, the analysis presented in this article offers researchers, organizers, and policymakers ways to continually evaluate the efficacy of participatory methods, especially in racialized or hierarchical contexts.