Critical Sociology 26,3 GROWTH MACHINE UP - LINKS: URBAN RENEWAL AND THE RISE AND FALL OF A PRO - GROWTH COALITION IN A U.S. CITY K evin F ox G otham Department of Sociology Tulane University Abstract Recent research examining post-Second World War urban renewal and redevel- opment programs acknowledges the pervasive inuence of progrowth coalitions and the ideology of “growth” in local politics and decision-making. Yet few researchers have examined the role of state structures, political interests of urban planners and city o Y cials, and the feedback e V ects of past growth initiatives and conicts in shaping subsequent growth strategies and the composition of growth coalitions. I draw upon archival data and newspaper articles, real estate industry documents, and planning reports to examine the key actors, important decisions, and political struggles surrounding urban planning and redevelopment e V orts in Kansas City, Missouri from 1940 through the 1960s. I use the narrative concepts of path depend- ency and policy feedback to illustrate how past events and actions, important decisions, and political conicts can delimit future growth strategies and policy options, alter- ing alliances between progrowth coalitions and local redevelopment agencies, and transforming the programmatic orientation of growth policy. Probing for the feed- back e V ects of past redevelopment conicts and institutional arrangements on sub- sequent growth strategies is useful for two reasons: First, it reveals how changing growth agendas and growth coalitions emerge not only in response to new socio- economic conditions but also on the basis of previous growth policies. Second, it highlights an important “up-link” dimension (Molotch 1999) in the growth machine heuristic that connects local processes with the macrostructures of the state and the economy. Introduction Much research has documented the pervasive inuence of growth coalitions in local politics and policy making and the powerful impact that growth ideology has on the formulation of local redevelopment drives. Yet only recently have researchers begun to document variations in the composition of growth coalitions, investigate the origin and implemen- tation of specic growth policies, and identify sources of opposition to progrowth ideology (see Logan, Whaley, and Crowder 1997 for a review). Using a case study of growth politics in Kansas City, Missouri, I exam- ine the impact of local institutional arrangements and political struggles between city o Y cials and business elites on the formulation and