THE COMMUNITY VOICE PROJECT

Atlanta, 2025

In July of 2025, CAP Lab will conduct field surveys in English Avenue and Vine City's West Atlanta Communities over the course of two weeks to learn more about how to advance political engagement, criminal justice and welfare reform, and urban renewal without displacement for low-income citizens. 

Individuals and communities who live below the poverty line are not accessible through conventional “representative sample” public opinion surveys by phone and online. As a result, these communities are excluded from public opinion and are politically silenced in the public sphere. Democratic inclusion of these populations requires that reach out and meet them where they are.  It also requires that political leaders and fellow citizens make space so that they can voice their concerns in their own words. Hence, the "Community Voice Project."

The field team consists of six members: two ethnographers; two computational public opinion scholars; and two non-profit outreach practitioners. By combining mixed methods researchers with outreach professionals that specialize in identifying critical needs and connecting citizens with resources, this project will expand the field’s ability to create rich, multi-dimensional data and restore agency in the production of knowledge to practitioners and the communities they serve.

Two of our five research projects are highlighted below in detail. 

Urban Renewal and Political Voice:  Social and Civic Life in Communities

“The Bluff” — encompassing the English Avenue and Vine City neighborhoods has long been stigmatized for its high crime rate, systemic disinvestment, and deep poverty. Predominantly home to Black residents, the area is now undergoing city-led revitalization, including incentive programs designed to attract working-class homeowners and renters. These shifting conditions make the Bluff a compelling case for examining how economically cross-cutting relationships influence not only the political knowledge and civic engagement of long-term low-income residents, but also the political attitudes and policy preferences of the newer working-class residents navigating life in a mixed-income neighborhood. One critical aspect of this inquiry is exploring how attitudes about the criminalization of poverty differ between residents of mixed-income versus non-mixed income neighborhoods. 

Police and Political Socialization

The criminal justice system is not simply a legal apparatus but a site of political socialization. When people are treated with violence, exploitation, disrespect, or denied dignity in interactions with the police and the criminal justice system, they may conclude that democratic institutions are unresponsive and unjust. Researchers have documented how low-income citizens, faced with humiliation and exploitation, sometimes engage in voluntary political disengagement as a way of reclaiming dignity. Rather than apathy, this withdrawal reflects an active moral judgment about the legitimacy of the political system. Yet the nature and trajectory of this process remain unclear: how do experiences of police harassment shape trust in police, perceptions of democracy, and political engagement among the poor and precariat? We hope to find out.

We will also be exploring:

 1) How information consumption via news and neighbors influences political behavior

2) How political knowledge is shaped by the politics embedded in the everyday realities of poverty

3) How inaccessibility to healthcare and social stigma in healthcare affects people's lives and their political beliefs

2025 Field Survey Objectives