Professor- Emeritus

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carolyn.adams@temple.edu Gladfelter Hall 1115 Polett Walk Philadelphia PA 19122 Expertise Urban Policy, Nonprofit Institutions, Economic Development, Infrastructure Planning

Professor Carolyn Adams has been a member of the faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia over 30 years, teaching courses in urban development, city problems, and government policies to address them.
She earned bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in political science from Washington University/St. Louis.
Dr. Adams has authored numerous articles and books, including many publications about Philadelphia. She wrote one book on the impact of municipal investments on housing values in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Her other studies of Philadelphia include two books on the city’s political and economic development during the second half of the 20th century, which she co-authored along with several Temple colleagues.

Her 2014 book from Cornell University Press was From the Outside In: Suburban Elites, Third-Sector Organizations, and the Reshaping of Philadelphia. It showed how major nongovernmental, nonmarket institutions are taking responsibility for reshaping Philadelphia, led by suburban and state elites who sit on boards and recruit like-minded colleagues to join them. During the opening decade of the 2000s, Dr. Adams served as a co-principal investigator for the Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project, securing over $2 million to fund data collection, mapping and analysis for Philadelphia and hundreds of townships located in its Pennsylvania and New Jersey suburbs.

In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Adams has consulted with non-profit organizations in the Philadelphia region on issues ranging from community development and human services to land-use planning. She has served as a director of the William Penn Foundation and as a trustee of Moore College of Art & Design. She has chaired the board of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, and currently chairs the Institutional Review Board of Public Health Management Corporation.

While at Temple University, Dr. Adams has held a number of leadership positions including: Department Chair, President of the Faculty Senate of the University, and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, a position in which she served on three separate occasions –one term in the 1980s, one in the 1990s, and again in the 2000s.

Selected Publications

(2014) From the Outside In: Suburban Elites, Third-Sector Organizations, and the Reshaping of Philadelphia. Cornell University Press.

(2012) “Industrial Suburbs: Environmental Liabilities or Assets?” in Brian Black & Michael Chiarappa, eds., Nature’s Entrepot; Philadelphia’s Urban Sphere and its Environmental Thresholds. University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 117-135.

(2009) Where We Stand: Community Indicators for Metropolitan Philadelphia , 5th ed. Temple University , Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project.

(2008) Restructuring the Philadelphia Region: Metropolitan Divisions and Inequality. Co-authored with David Bartelt, David Elesh and Ira Goldstein. Philadelphia : Temple University Press.

(2007) “Urban Governance and the Control of Infrastructure,” Public Works Management and Policy , Vol. 11, No. 3, January, pp. 164-176.

(2003) “The Meds and Eds in Urban Economic Development,” Journal of Urban Affairs , Vol. 25, No. 5, pp. 571-588. (1997) “The Philadelphia Experience,” in David Wilson, ed., Globalization & the Transforming U.S. City, special ed. of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May 1997.

(1995) Carolyn Adams and Felice Perlmutter, “Leadership in Hard Times: Are Nonprofits Well Served?” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 3, Fall 1995, pp. 253-262.

(1995) Donald Kramer, Felice Perlmutter & Carolyn Adams, “Nonprofits, Government, and the Economy,” in J.B. Toll & M.S. Gillam, eds., Invisible Philadelphia. Phila.: Atwater Kent Museum, pp. 15-21.

(1994) Carolyn T. Adams, “Race and Class in Philadelphia Mayoral Elections” in George Peterson, ed., Big City Politics, Governance and Fiscal Constraints. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press, pp.13-36.

(1991) Carolyn Adams et al, Philadelphia: Neighborhoods, Division and Conflict in a Postindustrial City. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

(1991) “Philadelphia: The Slide Toward Municipal Bankruptcy,” in John C. Thomas & Hank Savitch, eds., Big City Politics in Transition. Beverly Hills: Sage Pub., pp. 29-46.

(1991) “Urban Regions as Educational Laboratories,” Metropolitan Universities, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 37-46.

(1991) Carolyn Adams and Felice Perlmutter, “Commercial Venturing and the Transformation of America’s Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 2O, No.1, pp. 25-38.

(199O) “Philadelphia: The Private City in the Post-Industrial Era,” in Richard Bernard, ed., Snowbelt Cities. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.

(199O) Arnold Heidenheimer, Hugh Heclo, & Carolyn Adams, Comparative Public Policy: The Politics of Social Choice in Europe and America, 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press. [1st American ed.: St. Martin’s Press, 1975; 1st British ed.: Macmillan, 1976; 2nd American ed.: St. Martin’s Press, 1983; Winner of the 1976 Kammerer Award of the American Political Science Association for best book on national policy published in 1975.

(1990) “The Decentralization of Housing: Introduction,” in Willem van Vliet & Jan van Weesep, eds., Government and Housing: Developments in 7 Countries. Beverly Hills: Sage Pub., pp. 25-3O.

(1989) Felice Perlmutter and Carolyn Adams, “The Voluntary Sector and For-Profit Ventures: The Transformation of American Social Welfare?” Administration in Social Work, Vol.13, No. 4, pp. 1-13.

(1989) “Spending Cuts and Central/Local Relations under Reagan and Thatcher,” in Harold Wolman, ed., Constitutional Regimes and the City: The US, Britain, and Canada, Wayne State Univ. Center for Urban Studies.

(1988) The Politics of Capital Investment: The Case of Philadelphia. Albany: State University of New York Press.

(1987) “The Politics of Privatization,” in Bengt Turner, Jim Kemeny, & Lennart Lundqvist, eds., Between State and Market: Housing in the Post-Industrial Era. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, pp. 127-155.

(1986) “Homelessness in the Post- industrial City: Views from London and Philadelphia,” Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol.21,No. 4, June.

(1982) “The Flight of Jobs and Capital: Prospects for Grassroots Action,” in John Raines et al, eds., Community and Capital in Conflict. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Courses Taught

  • Urban Dynamics
  • Cities
  • World Urban Patterns
  • Urban Policy Analysis
  • Geographic Basic of Land Use Planning
  • Economic Development Planning for Cities
  • Senior Seminar
  • Public Policy for Urban Regions