Brian An, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, recently authored an article published in the Journal of Planning and Research. The piece is titled “Self-Organizing Special Districts: A Tool for Community Change and Development.”

In it, An uses California as a case study for what happens when communities opt out of county service systems and instead reshape their government structure on their own. The goal of doing such a thing, An says, is better representation in their communities. He measures the successes of these endeavors using such things as single-family home sale prices, which he found increased by 16%.

The full article can be read at https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X211065496.