Volume 49: Everyday Life and the Politics of Place
Carolina Planning Journal: Volume 49 / Everyday Life and the Politics of Place
The Carolina Planning Journal is the annual, student-run journal of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Funding for this publication was generously provided by the Nancy Grden Graduate Student Excellence Fund, which supports graduate students working directly with the department’s Carolina Planning Journal, the John A. Parker Endowment Fund, and the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association, and by our subscribers.
CAROLINA PLANNING JOURNAL
Department of City and Regional Planning University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB #3140, New East Building Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3140 USA
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Candela Cerpa
EDITORIAL BOARD
Ian Baltutis
James Collins
Abby Cover
Jordan Haber
Nicki Harris
Helen Klass-Warch
Lizbeth Woodby
Meredith Miklos
Annie Oommen
Nik Reasor
Bonnie Sullivan
Izzy Norman
CONTRIBUTORS
Eunice Amissah-Mensah
Matt Bond
Corey Bray
Rayshad Dorsey
Marcos Gregorio
Preston Janco
Sarah Kear
Helen Klass-Warch
Joungwon Kwon
Ivan Melchor
Samantha Pace
Dr. Chris Quattro
Lydia Rowen
carolinaplanningjournal@gmail.com
www.carolinaangles.com
SPECIAL THANKS
The Carolina Planning Journal would also like to thank the many people who have helped us all year long, These people and organizations include the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association; DCRP Chair Yan Song; DCRP staff members Melanie Ingold Whisnant, Diana Devereaux, Sandra Lazo de la Vega, and Sarah Ward; Mike Celeste and the entire team at A Better Image Printing; and, of course, all of our subscribers.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Candela Cerpa
COVER PHOTOGRAPHER
Marcos Gregorio
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of City + Regional Planning
Eunice Amissah-Mensah
Ivan Melchor 24 INDIGENOUS ECONOMIES AND PERIPHERIES OF QUITO, ECUADOR
Lydia Rowen
30 PLACEMAKING AS REFERENTIAL ENGAGEMENT
Corey Bray and Samantha Pace
36 PHILOSOPHIES OF BRAZILIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THE STAGNANT URBAN PROBLEMS IN FAVELAS
Marcos Gregorio
42 A SPECULATION ON THIRD SPACE
Rayshad Dorsey
50 PROPERTY RIGHTS, SIGN-VALUE, AND PLANNING FOR SELF-REALIZATION
Matt Bond
56 UNIFICATION THROUGH PLACEMAKING
Preston Janco 62 THE IMPORTANCE OF GROWING
Dr. Chris Quattro
FROM THE EDITOR
CANDELA CERPA is the Editor-in-Chief of the Carolina Planning Journal. She is a dual master’s student in City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill and Environmental Management at Duke University. After completing her B.S. in Environmental Science & Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, she worked as a GIS Specialist at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. She is interested in climate change resilience, community engagement, and social spaces. Originally from Uruguay, she focuses much of her work on Latin America.
DEAR READERS,
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, our sense of space, place, and daily experiences were severely restricted, and as such their importance became most apparent. Beyond the direct impacts of the pandemic, Volume 49 of the Carolina Planning Journal, Everyday Life and the Politics of Place, reflects on the meaning, politics, and experiences of space, place, and everyday life across disciplines, communities, and countries.
With some reflection, we can see space beyond a flat, empty backdrop for building structures. Space is social and political, a living relationship with nature and each other, and a place for community and festivity. Examining our conception of space allows us to question how capitalism, colonialism, racism, globalization, and more have diminished our relationship with space and one another. As the wonderful image that graces the cover of this Volume (photographed in Olinda, Brazil by Marcos Gregorio, an author in this issue), we put people’s use of and relationship to space at the forefront.
The articles within this Volume explore topics and approaches as varied as the spaces we build from a variety of voices, including undergraduate, masters, and PhD students, faculty, and a professional planner.
In “How Informal Dwellers Can Claim Their Rights To The City,” Eunice Amissah-Mensah draws on Henri Lefebvre’s concept of right to the city to guide our understanding of how informal dwellers claim urban space. In particular, Amissah Mensah explores this trend, with its struggles and takeaways, in the Global South through the examples of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, in Accra, Ghana.
In “The Economics Of Space,” Ivan Melchor explores the booming trend of warehouse development in the United States, using New Jersey as a case study for the negative externalities they produce. This article explores the conditions under which the spatiality of racism continues to be re-created, calling into question policy reforms that claim to address warehouse pollution before analyzing the limitations of environmental justice and the right to space in the ‘consumer society.’
In “Indigenous Economies And Peripheries Of Quito, Ecuador,” Lydia Rowen investigates the innovative and tactical ways in which Indigenous peoples navigate urban economies and peripheries of Quito, Ecuador.
Using her personal observations and external literature, she explores Indigenous peoples’ economic livelihoods and the peripheries that they occupy in and around the Metropolitan District of Quito.
In “Placemaking As Referential Engagement,” Corey Bray and Samantha Pace argue that placemaking is local, engaged, and personal. They informed their notion of placemaking by the Project for Public Space and their Place Diagram, developed an application of this framework with Guy Debord’s psychogeography and theory of the dérive, and incorporated Jean Baudrillard’s orders of value. Their descriptions of intentional wanderings, hiking to a glacier or meandering through a town, make their article tangiable and personal.
In “Philosophies Of Brazilian National Identity And The Stagnant Urban Problems In Favelas,” Marcos Gregorio discusses the misappropriation of lusotropicalism and positivism in Brazilian politics, particularly their impact on favela urban policy. It highlights how lusotropicalisms distorted to assert a false depiction of racial harmony- masking actual racial disparities, while a misconstrued positivism leads to ineffective governance.
In “A Speculation On Third Space,” Rayshad Dorsey presents a speculative proposal centered around the ideology of Third Space as a potential strategy to address gentrification in the South Atlanta community. Using ideas of Third Space and AI images, this project speculates a middle ground that looks at a space for social inclusion, a space for both existing community members and newcomers.
In “Property Rights, Sign-Value, And Planning For Self-Realization,” Matt Bond considers how exchange value, use-value, and sign-value alter our valuation of land. Through examples from Milan, Italy and New York City, he shows us how associating an area with certain cultural products can increase the sign-value, particularly through democratic and bottom-up mechanisms. These success stories could shape future planning practices.
In “Unification Through Placemaking,” Preston Janco presents the planning structures of Savannah (Georgia), Paris (France), and Forest City (North Carolina) to how the process of placemaking can lead to community unification.
In “The Importance Of Growing,” Dr. Chris Quattro intertwines the U.S. public’s disassociation from their food production and the underutilized open spaces across the country (sprawling lawns and parking lots) that could be used for food production but, instead, perpetuate the Urban Heat Island effect. The article discusses the importance of incorporating urban agricultural practices into underutilized spaces, the small changes individuals can make to become more acquainted with their food, regulatory shifts to support these efforts, and how households can incorporate food production from food waste into everyday living.
As always, we bring you book reviews addressing a few of the best work in the field from recent years. In particular, Joungwon Kwon reviewed “The Innovation Complex,” Helen Klass-Warch reviewed the “Justice And The Interstates,” and Sarah Kear reviewed “Billionaire Wilderness.” To conclude the Volume, we celebrate the achievements of DCRP and look to the next NC-APA Conference and Volume 50 of the Carolina Planning Journal. Online, you can dive deeper with our Angles blog, managed by the wonderful Kathryn Cunningham.
Thank you very much for reading, and thank you to our contributors and editors for making this possible.
Candela Cerpa
EDITORIAL BOARD
The following people are integral to the success of the Journal and its online platform, CarolinaAngles.com:
CANDELA CERPA / CPJ Editor-in-Chief
Candela is a dual master’s student in City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill and Environmental Management at Duke University. After completing her B.S. in Environmental Science & Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, she worked as a GIS Specialist at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. She is interested in climate change resilience, community engagement, and social spaces. Originally from Uruguay, she focuses much of her work on Latin America.
KATHRYN CUNNINGHAM / Angles Managing Editor
Kathryn is a second-year master’s student at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of City and Regional Planning whose interests include climate change adaptation, community development, and public space. She studied Environmental Studies at Williams College and before coming to graduate school, she was in the San Francisco Bay Area managing sustainability projects for a law school. When not in class, she enjoys reading, running, and checking out all of the many concert venues the Research Triangle has to offer.
IAN BALTUTIS / Editor
Ian is a multifaceted professional with a proven track record as an entrepreneur, civic leader, and urban planner. His entrepreneurial spirit shines through his involvement in numerous startups and ventures spanning diverse industries. Baltutis’s commitment to public service is evident in his three terms as the youngest Mayor in Burlington, NC’s history. As a systems thinker, he focuses on multimodal transportation design and safety. Outside of work, Baltutis pursues his varied interests which include flying, historic home restoration, woodworking, and mentoring young leaders. His relentless curiosity drives him to explore new fields, often leading to innovative business ideas and products.
JAMES COLLINS / Editor
James is an early-career environmental social scientist researching how communities adapt to emerging compound hazards through governance and population change. His doctoral work focuses on how adaptation governance shapes migratory responses to flooding in a range of geographies. He is training in mixed methods and informed by a professional background in applied spatial data analysis in local government planning and undergraduate degrees in environmental science and government.
ABBY COVER / Editor
Abby is a 2024 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s City and Regional Planning Master’s Program, and previously studied Sociology and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Her planning interests include climate adaptations, sustainable development, and fostering community engagement. Before coming to UNC, Abby could be found galivanting through her native Philadelphia (Go Birds!). Outside of planning you can find her grabbing a bagel sandwich, watching horror movies, and wishing for better public transit.
JORDAN HABER / Editor
Jordan holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and Biology from Dickinson College. He has gained valuable experience working with the New Jersey Forest Service, focusing on forest health, ecology, and invasive species biology. Currently, Jordan is pursuing dual master’s degrees in environmental management and city and Regional Planning at Duke University and UNCCarolina Chapel Hill. His areas of specialization include Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences and Land Use and Environmental Planning.
NICKI HARRIS / Editor
Nicki is a master’s student in City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is interested in housing policy and financing tools. Prior to graduate school, Nicki worked at a nonprofit affordable housing developer in DC. She is a graduate of Carleton College.
HELEN KLASS-WARCH / Editor
Helen is a first-year master’s student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is currently supporting research in freight equity with Dr. Allie Thomas and is part of Dr. Miyuki Hino’s Flood Lab working with the Climate Resilience Center Hazard Mitigation team. Born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Helen graduated with a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2018, and in the years leading up to her start as a graduate student at UNC, worked at a global public affairs firm in New York City, as a line cook in Boston, and for Oxfam America.
MEREDITH MIKLOS / Editor
Meredith is a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill specializing in land use and environmental planning. Previously, she came across planning topics while completing her Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability and Resilience, and in Writing at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Using her background in urban planning and environmental science, she hopes to either work in a municipality effected by climate change, or an organization that focuses on hazard mitigation after completing her master’s degree. In her free time, she enjoys reading fiction, listening to the oldies, crafting, traveling, and playing with her cat Maddox.
IZZY NORMAN / Editor
Izzy is a master’s student in the City and Regional Planning department at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is passionate about affordable housing, community and economic development, and multi-modal transportation. Isabelle is originally from Concord, NC. Before returning to graduate school, she was a Lead for North Carolina Fellow at the Foothills Regional Commission for a year.
ANNIE OOMMEN / Editor
Annie is a UNC-Chapel Hill class of 2020 alum who studied public policy and pursued a career in health policy after completing her undergraduate degree. She returned to Carolina to study transportation planning through the Master of City and Regional Planning. She is passionate about leveraging the built environment to promote social connectivity and community.
NIK REASOR / Editor
Nik is currently a transportation planner in Denver, CO. A strong advocate for pedestrian safety, access, and accessibility, he hopes to leverage his knowledge and experiences to make safer, accessible, and enjoyable communities. Nik also specializes in indigenous community integration, where his studies focus heavily on combatting climate change. Specifically, he studies the Sámi reindeer herders of the Arctic, a community that he is part of. Outside of this, he enjoys riding his bike, exploring cafes, boxing, and spending time with his two cats.
BONNIE SULLIVAN / Editor
Bonnie is a first year MCRP student in the transportation specialization. She works part time for the Town of Chapel Hill in the Public Works Department and does research with Dr. Palm on nighttime mobility.
LIZBETH WOODBY / Editor
Lizbeth is a master’s student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill. She will be interning with Inspire Placemaking this summer as a planning intern where she hopes to get more handson experience on writing and formatting documents. Lizbeth enjoys reading and playing volleyball in her free time.
HOW INFORMAL DWELLERS CAN CLAIM THEIR RIGHTS TO THE CITY
The Case of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, Ghana
EUNICE AMISSAH-MENSAH
As an Urban Planner, Eunice’s commitment to social justice influences her planning work, emphasizing a human-centered approach to advancing sustainable and equitable community development. She advocates for universal access to dependable, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable innovative solutions that can enhance overall quality of life. Eunice strives to empower communities and facilitate stakeholder dialogues to create thriving environments for all.
ABSTRACT
Urban growth in the 21st century will be happening in the Global South. It is evident the only way to deal with urban informality will be to embrace it and accept it as a way of life. This article draws on the right to the city by Henri Lefebvre as a guide in the claiming of urban spaces by informal dwellers and illustrates this idea in the informal settlements of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, in Accra, Ghana. It delves into the struggles informal dwellers face and how negotiation would provide a platform for dealing with their situation and the government as well as finding their voices through a discovery process. Planners and authorities must collaborate with informal communities to address the underlying issues leading to forced evictions. The right to the city provides a framework that has the potential to guide the decisions of inhabitants and authorities alike.
Keywords: Informalities, deliberative planning, local knowledge, right to the city.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I extend my sincerest gratitude to Professor Jane Rongerude for her invaluable mentorship and guidance throughout my research journey. I am also thankful to Isabelle Thoma-Bain Norman for her diligent editing expertise, as well as to the Carolina Planning Journal for their support and platform for sharing this work.
INTRODUCTION
Over the years, most countries in the Global South have been finding solutions to make their cities “slum-free” through mitigating economic, social, and environmental impacts as well as promoting overall quality of life through inclusive and sustainable growth. Planning scholarship and practice struggle with inculcating the ideas of informality in the process of planning. However, informal settlements have been a topic of discussion in the Global South for years. The policies, laws, and regulations governing countries in the Global South create an avenue and a platform for the emergence of these informal settlements.
Informal settlements are a combination of squatter settlements and slum formations. The term “informality” is usually used to show the disparity between slums and elitist communities. Hart, writing in the context of Accra, created the idea of informality, which has been commonly interpreted as “the relationship of economic activity to intervention or regulation by the state” (Roy, 2012). This serves to differentiate between what is deemed “formal” and “informal.” Urban informality is no longer only a target for critics, but a chance to redefine the planning process to address diversity and minority inclusion. Unfortunately, there has not been a substantial change in the urban planning field. City planners and policymakers continue to criticize informality as a barrier to healthy urban growth and a source of economic and structural disadvantage.
The word ‘slum’ is defined by UN-Habitat is defined as “one in which the inhabitants suffer one or more of the following ‘household deprivations: lack of access to an improved water source, lack of access to improved sanitationfacilities, lack of sufficient living area, lack of housing
durability and lack of security of tenure” (UN-Habitat, 2016). Out of these five components, the lack of security tenure is the only condition that does not deal with the physical aspect of housing conditions. Slum dwellings, due to the definition of the concept, are usually read in tandem with the term “informality.” The emergence of slums in Ghana has been attributed to rapidly growing cities and the inability of successive urban governments to invest sufficiently in the provision of sustainable housing, services, and infrastructure that meets the population’s demands (Adarkwa & Post, 2001). Over 30% of Ghana’s urban population lives in slums, and more than half of the world’s urban population, 61.7%, live in slums in Africa (UN-Habitat, 2013).
This paper aims to advocate for the integration of Henri Lefebvre’s right to the city agenda through collaborative and deliberative planning in politics and policy decision-making in the Global South. This paper will look at the importance of stakeholder involvement in the mitigation of the continuous cycle of slum clearance and evictions, and advocate a concrete policy framework that guides development and achieves the objective of providing quality of life to all. This case study will be situated in Accra, Ghana, and will look at Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, an informal settlement that has borne the brunt of constant evictions and clearance that have yielded no results, and how their resistance to evictions and ideal of placemaking account for this. This paper stands to make an argument for the inculcation of the right to the city notion through collaborative means, deliberative planning, and the use of local knowledge by urban planners, which in turn will produce results that address the problems of urban informality and the issues of urban informal dwellers.
RIGHT TO THE CITY
Henri Lefebvre, a French sociologist, introduced the concept of the “right to the city” in his 1968 book, Le Droit à la Ville. He defines the concept as “the right of urban society to participate in the qualities and benefits of city life.” He talks about the social and economic segregation of urban dwellers, and how some of them have been forced to live in estrangement and ghettos. David Harvey makes a claim on what the right to the city should entail. He states, “The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights” (Harvey, 2021).
The Lefebvrian right to the city argument has become a rallying cry for those opposed to neoliberal urban governance and the growing social and spatial divide. Lefebvre lays the groundwork for a new urban thought that is essentially political by articulating the notion of a right to liberation through the urban lens. His ideas have contributed to the views on how cities should be built and how they should be inhabited attesting that the production of space should include the input of residents, for this would be an indicator of the embodiment of the right to the city. However, he points out the fact that there lies a problem in defining what inclusivity is and what it must entail. He proposes there should be transformative political action taken in the creation of spaces. This can arise in the form of a digital space or social networks that serve as a platform for participation. A city should not just be based on its form and structure but should imbue the social dynamics and relationships within it as a means of enhancing its possibilities and opportunities to achieve change. If done properly, this could slow down the process of the destruction of informal communities (Lecoq, 2020).
In the right to the city context, Lefebvre considers the relevance of resident intervention by articulating how residents of informal settlements produce meaning in the use of the space that they occupy through their daily economic and social activities. For example, urban dwellers influence their neighborhoods and the use of space through trade and in the context of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, the burning of electronic waste to retrieve copper for sale. Through tactical urbanism and a desire to change the outlook of their communities, informal inhabitants organize their initiatives to improve their situation and require going beyond the physical to look at what practices define these urban spaces. Finally, informal dwellers can engage in participatory procedures by joining institutional efforts where they are lobbied for their comments on projects or self-organize which would serve as a counter to governmental projects. If done properly, it could slow down the destruction of informal communities (Lecoq, 2020).
Mark Purcell, a political theorist inspired by Lefebvrian principles, believed the right to the city creates an avenue to shift power from the state into the hands of the citizens themselves. He understands the need to place human life as the central focus and dissect the intersectionality that exists within the human and social aspects of life (Beebeejaun, 2017). Purcell provides an emphasis on what the right to the city invokes, which is more focused on the inhabitants of urban places and the activities they partake in. While building off of Lefebvre’s right to the city concept, he quickly reminds his audience that Lefebvre did not just want the inclusion of the people by the state, he also wanted people to pursue and draw their power from beyond the workings of and with the state (Purcell, 2014).
The participation process takes time, for it requires room for relaying information, ensuring that information is
understood and that the people involved are deliberately listened to and allowed to speak. Participation needs space to ensure accessibility to the entire community. This brings on the lens of “invited” and “invented” spaces as an exercise for inhabitants’ right to the city (Miraftab, 2016). According to Lefebvre, creating a participatory and deliberative process takes a significant amount of institutional investment and often faces extensive pushback, thus institutions cannot guarantee people’s right to the city. Economic and political liberalization, as well as increased knowledge of key environmental challenges, have moved responsibility for urban policy to city residents in recent years. In an urban framework under environmental and social limitations requiring us to collectively rethink our position, the right to the city must be modified at all levels, from the household to the neighborhood to the city, or be left unable to respond to the difficulties we face.
URBAN INFORMALITY FRAMEWORK
Literature, articles, newspapers, and media coverage usually push the negative narrative of desolate places in the Global South. Slums and informal areas are often blamed for the rot, discord, and disinvestment that cities face. Depending on the country, slums, favelas, ghettos, or banlieues are referred to as “informal” spaces and places. Informalities as a term has come to be associated with unplanned, non-conforming concentrations of poverty, disorder, and crime that have been put together by a patch of strong-willed and close-knit people or communities. Regardless of the description that is given, urban informal settlements have come to be understood as a contradiction to the planned and formal city (Roy, 2012).
Urban informality is a term coined by Keith Hart in 1973 to embody the activities of the “informal sector.” He iden-
tified the relationship of these activities as they relate tothe regulation and interventions of the state. Ananya Roy (2012) points out how Hart in his later interpretation of the informal economy did not attribute it to “a place or a class or even whole persons.” He instead argues that many informal residents seek to forge diverse livelihoods and income opportunities and that has become the norm in urban places.
Urban informality in the Global South has become an essential component of urban development. It has been attached to the negative aspects of the urban environment due to its informal economy, social nonconformities, and physical form. Today, approximately 5.5 million people are living in slums worldwide and non-governmental organizations are working with communities to address issues of service provision and evictions from the government (Awal & Paller, 2016). Ghana has seen its fair share of increased urban informality since its independence in 1957, primarily due to increased migration from rural communities to urban communities. Urbanization in the 21st century has taken a different form and has brought to light a renewed interest in informal cities. Mike Davis’ Planet of Slums provides an account of how “informal urbanization is a stark manifestation of “overurbanization” or “urbanization without growth” which has been influenced by the world debt crises and the IMF-led restructuring of Third World economies in the 1980s” (Davis, 2006). For the Global South, much of this manifestation is the result of nations adopting state-led initiatives that explicitly cite doing away with slums and their particularly associated status as poverty indicators. This, as Davis alludes to, does not only happen in the Global South but also occurs in the Global North with Europe and America utilizing similar rhetoric. In doing so, slum clear-ance and evictions are sold to the public as the only means of paving the way for better service
provision, affordable housing, and a better life altogether.
Nezar AlSayyad and Ananya Roy (2004) argue that “urban informality is not a distinct and bounded sector of labor or housing but, rather, a “mode” of the production of space and is a practice of planning.” Urban renewal and upgrading projects take over informalized spaces, and formalized spaces are given recognition and attached value through legitimation. There is also the issue of urban form as it has been shaped by planning approaches that emerged in Europe and the United States. The urban form focuses on aesthetics, efficiency, and modernization as they relate to slum clearance, skyscrapers, connectivity, and open green spaces. These ideologies stem from the influence ofearly modernists who used master planning and zoning as tools to promote what they deemed as the “good city” (Watson, 2016).
Informal settlements for the urban poor provide them with affordable shelter and provide an avenue for political manipulation by the state in exchange for much-needed services (Miraftab, 2016). Organized inhabitants performing their universal citizenship mobilize in informal settlements, which are the manifestation of poor citizens’ resistance, to assert their entitlement to the city and urban livelihood (Holston, 2008) and in doing so, urban informal dwellers’ existence is an expression of Lefebreve’s right to the city. Urban planners would have to reevaluate the spatial, social, and political value of informal spaces to help eliminate segregation and exclusion.
RIGHT TO THE CITY AS SITUATED IN AGBOGBLOSHIE AND OLD FADAMA, GHANA
The government of Ghana has dealt with informal settlements over the last two decades through evictions and slum upgrading which usually brings up the issue of land-tenure rights among inhabitants (Oppong, 2016). Upgrading seeks
to improve the living conditions, while evictions usually mean informal residents or settlers are forcibly removed and their settlement is replaced (OHCHR, 2014). The Slum Almanac by UN-Habitat states that forced evictions take priority over upgrading projects in informal communities. These governmental actions are usually justified by the importance and desire of economic growth, and dealing with environmental and health issues that come with such growth. Puttkamer suggests affected citizens can claim their right to the city through protest, litigation or negotiation, and contestation (Puttkamer, 2019).
The strategies adopted by Slum Dweller International provide a good example of tackling the negotiation aspect of the eviction prevention process. This process is usually based on enumeration data, which is often met with skepticism and criticism. This form of cooperation often becomes a trade-off of sorts. In as much as these local grassroots organizations can provide housing and meet other objectives, one must be politically connected to receive the benefits that come through such exchange. Contentious politics through protests have become the predominant way informal dwellers demand their right to stay or to everyday life. They have to find their means to shape the city, and in so doing become political actors themselves. Residents of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama have managed to create a new space by repossessing the conservation of their settlement and reclaiming their name. This is one of the many steps that have been taken by the community toward resistance.
Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama is one of the largest known informal settlements in Accra. Since 2001, the area has commonly been referred to by the nickname “Sodom and Gomorrah,” which is a reference to the Biblical story of the city destroyed by God due to their sinful actions. (Grant 2006). The nickname has since been used by the
press, citizens, and politicians alike. Accra’s Mayor, Oko Vanderpuije, has not failed in expressing his concern with Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama and has made evicting the settlers one of his top priorities. He continuously uses the term “Sodom and Gomorrah” and expresses his disdain for the community. He calls the community a national security threat and a high-risk area for criminal activities to thrive.
The “twin disasters” of flooding and fire served as the basis for the June 20, 2015 evictions carried out against residents of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama. It was at that moment residents of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama pushed against using the term “Sodom and Gomorrah,” hence the use of quotation marks to point out Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama as the appropriate name in addressing the community. This change in public perception can be attributed to civic engagement on the part of community members, with an emphasis on cooperation between residents, local organizations, and media outlets. This
initiative highlights the achievement of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama through the communicative exchange as a means to garner inclusion and respond to exclusion. The change in public perception of Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama is one of the steps residents have taken in (re)claiming their right to the city. Despite this achievement, it does not mean that the fear of eviction has been eradicated, instead, this has created an awareness that there is a possibility of finding alternative solutions to the problems faced by the community. Slumdwellers need to be properly recognized as citizens. The government needs to be reminded of what being a “citizen” means and extend its meaning to imbue a set of rights and ways to achieve them. Citizens are all entitled to housing, security, utilities, services, sustainable development, and participation in decision-making processes that affect them.
FIGURE 1 -Chasant, Muntaka (2021). Aerial photo (11 June 2021) of the Agbogbloshie scrapyard before it was demolished 20 days later. African Arguments. (https://africanarguments.org/2022/07/agbogbloshie-a-year-after-the-violent-demolition/
CONCLUSION
Friedmann (2016) makes a powerful statement in advocating for places like Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, for he states:
“In relation to place-making, centering, and acknowledging that certain sites are endowed with a sense of the sacred are much the same thing…By whatever name, whether it’s slum clearance or gentrification, the results are the same: the erasure of places is a violent act, as established patterns of human relationships are destroyed.”
Urban growth in the 21st century will continue to occur in the Global South, even if we fail to acknowledge it. The optimal approach to addressing urban informality lies in embracing and acknowledging it as an inherent aspect of urban life. This will require taking a critical and positive outlook on what informality has to offer. Policies should attempt to recognize the agency of slum laborers and include them creatively in the upgrading process. Instead of awarding upgrading contracts to contractors, local officials may assemble a group of informal artisans, train them, and hire them to oversee the process. Such techniques may help to regularize informal employment and, with oversight, relieve the cityscape’s informality concerns.
Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama are good examples of how to mitigate forced evictions through negotiation, adding the political and economic dimensions to the mitigation process and aligning them with the interests of the residents. Their insistence on the end of the use of the derogatory term for their communities is one of the ways that communities have shown how it is possible to change the perception of the public towards the settlement and its inhabitants. This was achievable through the media connection they garnered as a community.
Empowering citizens with the right to the city is not just a mere notion; it is a fundamental entitlement deeply ingrained in their rights and aspirations. Now is the time for citizens to not only assert their rightful claim to the city but also to fervently strive toward its realization. While the journey ahead may pose challenges, it is an honorable pursuit worth fighting for—a continuous endeavor to uphold their beliefs and ensure that government entities acknowledge their duty to provide a dignified quality of life. Embracing collaborative dialogues, especially in locales like Agbogbloshie and Old Fadama, could illuminate pathways forward. However, it necessitates a shift in governmental approach—moving beyond mere demolition tactics towards crafting sustainable solutions that honor the homes and livelihoods of community members. Drawing inspiration from global examples such as Brazil’s statute on safeguarding the rights of informal settlers, offers a beacon of hope. Though imperfect, it signifies the potential for transformative outcomes and an equitable urban landscape.
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THE ECONOMICS OF SPACE
Warehouse Development and Environmental Justice in the Consumer Society
IVAN MELCHOR
Ivan Melchor is a research assistant with the VizE Lab for Ethnographic Data Visualization at Princeton University. His research focuses on public policy and environmental justice, using ethnographic and quantitative methods.
ABSTRACT
Warehouse development has exploded in the past 20 years in the United States. This phenomenon has been driven by the shift to online consumption, a shift further exacerbated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Research has shown that warehouses produce negative externalities such as air and noise pollution and environmental degradation. This article explores warehouse development in New Jersey as a microcosm of the country, using both dasymetric mapping and a race prediction algorithm to show how racial and economic disparities worsen the closer one lives to a warehouse. This article explores the conditions under which the spatiality of racism continues to be re-created, calling into question policy reforms that claim to address warehouse pollution before analyzing the limitations of environmental justice and the right to space in the ‘consumer society.’
In the United States, warehouse development has been a profitable venture for state and private actors for decades but has spiked in recent years. New Jersey has become a popular site for development due to its proximity to major markets and port and highway systems. It is estimated that there are 1,900 warehouses in the state, a 36% increase since 2000 (Moffatt 2023). Policy experts attribute this phenomenon to land-use incentives. Local governments rely on property taxes to fund local services such as schools, but residential properties often generate more costs than revenue, whereas industrial and commercial properties raise revenue and cost comparatively less. This has led to a preference for non-residential wealth generators, i.e. warehouses, who benefit from this recursive loop. The legal system has also enabled warehouse developers; once they submit applications for warehouse sites on land designated for industrial use, there is little that municipalities can do to stop construction without risking litigation.
Congruent with the growth of warehouses has been a growth in research on their negative health externalities. Warehouses generate hundreds, sometimes thousands of daily truck trips (NJSPC 2022). This constant activity leads to the release of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide exposure from diesel trucks, increasing the risk of cancer and respiratory diseases such as asthma for those in close proximity (e.g., Lena et al. 2002; Kozawa, Fruin, and Winer 2009). Often, they are sited adjacent to each other in industrial zones, thus amplifying their effects. The areas surrounding warehouses are “sacrifice zones,” part of a constellation of communities where “lives and lands are bound to ecologies of death to free other lives and lands to sustain themselves and flourish.” (Juskus 2023) Researchers have found that nationwide, warehouses are sited disproportionally in areas with both low-income populations and high Black and Latino populations; New Jersey is no exception (Nowlan 2023). Building on previous research, this paper seeks to study how racial and economic inequality materializes in relation to these sites. I hypothesize that racial and economic inequality increases the closer one resides to a warehouse. To test this hypothesis, I produced population estimates at the neighborhood and individual levels.
METHODOLOGY
To perform this analysis, I used a dasymetric model to account for land use coverage and population distribution. Dasymetric mapping is a geospatial technique that uses information such as land cover types to distribute data more accurately to selected boundaries like census tracts (EPA 2023). To disaggregate the population, I created a dataset of investigatory variables measuring population, race, voter eligibility, age, and population below the poverty level, ranging from 50% to 500% based on American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates from 2016 to 2020 at the census tract level. I obtained impervious coverage and land use/land cover data from 2015 from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and cross-matched both datasets to identify all residential buildings in New Jersey. I applied weights according to building type (rural single unit, low density, medium density, high density) to control for variance in building density among rural and urban areas. I then distributed the ACS population dataset and ran an analysis in ArcGIS, identifying 2,547,827 residential buildings. Using a sample dataset of 517 warehouses obtained from a Simple Analytics database, I estimated a sample population of those residing within 1 mile, 0.5 miles, and 0.25 miles of a warehouse.
To supplement the dasymetric model, I analyzed the spatial distribution of individuals in addition to neighborhoods. Voter records allow one to examine the distribution of registered voters across the state and map out their proximity to warehouse sitings as a proxy for the total population. I filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request with the NJ Department of Elections to obtain a dataset of 6.44 million voters containing first and last names, residential addresses, ages, and party registration. Voter gender and race are not recorded in voter list records. To predict the race of voters, I used a fully Bayesian Race Predictor Algorithm (fBISG) that uses an individual’s first and last name, county of residence, and party registration to impute demographic characteristics using the wru package in R (Imai et al 2022).
A probability score was assigned to each individual in five categories: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Other. Each voter’s residential address was then geocoded in ArcGIS. Rather than assign race to individual voters, I summed the mean probability of each race category for the total voter population and compared it to that of voters residing within 1 mile, 0.5 miles, and 0.25 miles of a warehouse.
RESULTS
The dasymetric model confirms the hypothesis that racial and economic inequality increases the closer one resides to a warehouse. Table 1 shows the model results, comparing the statewide population to our sample populations at different distances. Racial disparity increases at each marker for Black and Latino populations. The Black population makes up 13% of the state population, but 21% of residents within 0.25 miles of a warehouse.
The share of the White population decreases from 66% at the state level to 48% within 0.25 miles of a warehouse. The Latino population makes up 20% of the state population, but 37% of residents within 0.25 miles of a warehouse, the largest spike of any measured group. Using the sample population, it is estimated that approximately 52% of all Hispanic/Latino residents in New Jersey reside within one mile of a warehouse.
Regarding poverty level indicators, the greatest jump in disproportionality is observed for those living below 150%, 200%, and 300% of the federal poverty level. As these measures increase in percentage, overrepresentation also increases before holding steady at 400% and 500% below the federal poverty level. The model shows that, regarding class, warehouse siting is not a phenomenon that afflicts the poor exclusively (Yuan, 2021); rather, it is actively sited away from the wealthy.
TABLE 1 - People living near a Warehouse in NJ (2023).
The fBISG model reaffirms the findings of the dasymetric model. Using the NJ voter list, an estimated 1,061,787 registered voters reside within 1 mile of our warehouse sample population. The mean probability of being White drops from 0.61 to 0.36 within 0.25 miles of a warehouse. The probability of being Black or Hispanic rises to 0.16 and 0.35, respectively. The findings are shown below in Table 2.
POLICY INTERVENTIONS
In 2020, New Jersey passed the Environmental Justice Law, mandating that the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) reject applications for facilities that pose an environmental risk if they disproportionately impact “over-burdened communities” (Redd, 2020). These facilities included incinerators, power plants, sewage treatment plants, landfills, and major sources of air pollution as defined by the federal Clean Air Act. The state defined an over-burdened community as any census block in which 35% of households qualified as low income; 40% of residents identified as a minority; or at least 40% had limited English proficiency (N.J.S.A 12:1D-158).
In 2022, the NJ Office of Planning Advocacy published a report confirming that warehouses did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Justice Law because they were not a direct source of air pollution (NJSPC 2022).
Instead, the NJDEP adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks Rule (ACT). The ACT rule requires that manufacturers sell and deliver pollution-free zero-emission trucks to New Jersey beginning in 2025 and requires 40-75 percent new zero-emission truck sales by 2035. In addition, the NJDEP adopted the Omnibus rules, mandating a 75 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from the engines in new gasoline and diesel trucks sold between 2025 and 2026 and a 90 percent reduction for trucks sold beginning in 2027 in the state. (Environment America 2023).
The Advanced Clean Trucks and Omnibus Rules were designed to address the ‘burden’ of diesel trucks on residents via supply-side interventions. Notably, however, these rules did not mandate that warehouses use zero-emission vehicles nor adopt a timeline for their onboarding (Miles 2021). Rather than evidence of the technocratic state’s ability to address social problems “within the confines of capitalism” (Mattick 1972), the NJDEP rules revealed an intent to bring warehouse development “into the future” and preserve the network of economic actors dependent on its proliferation. Thus, the state’s warehouse policy signaled an inflection point, not in how the state governed ‘burdened’ communities but in how it sustained growth. That today, warehouses are zoned for industrial land use by municipalities is symbolic that an internal substitution has taken place in a system that remains “in all essentials unchanged” (Baudrillard 1998).
New Jersey’s legal tradition as a “home rule” state means that municipalities dictate land-use decisions, limiting the state’s authority over zoning. In view of this, planners and policymakers continue to advocate for technology-based policy solutions such as the electrification of trucks, the vertical scaling of warehouses, and the installation of rooftop solar panels. Such techno-managerial policy solutions promise a ‘green future.’ Still, without a redistributive justice mechanism for communities presently impacted by environmental injustice, they serve only as a “technological veil that conceals the reproduction of inequality and enslavement” (Marcuse 1964). Proposals for regionalization of land use decisions hold promise due to their ability to involve more municipalities in the siting process. But without a reparative dimension, such policy proposals will only mask the racist and classist zoning laws that segregate the communities presently afflicted, making it appear as if “time has vanished from space” (Lefebvre 1974).
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND THE RIGHT TO SPACE
As marginalized communities experience alienation from the state, there has been a renewed appeal for a ‘right to space’ that, like the ‘right to clean air,’ originates from a deontological (rights-based) environmental justice paradigm and aspires to reform via the recognition of the individual’s rights. Henri Lefebvre defines space as “more than just a container; rather, space is social morphology; it is to lived experience what form itself is to the living organism” (Lefebvre 1974). According to Lefebvre, society has been colonized by abstract space, which “facilitates capitalist production, distribution, and consumption, but that is itself transformed into a commodity, pulverized and sold off in parcels” (Stanek 2011).
If, in fact, space has been commodified and “there is no right to space until there no longer is space for everyone” (Baudrillard 1998), then one is left with a different question altogether. Rather than framing the ‘right to space’ as that which might yet arrive, is it possible it has arrived too late? An inversion is required, from using the individual as the locus of consumerism and reform towards the social production of space that preconditions consumption and environmental injustice. Such an inversion would denaturalize the warehouse as a societal ‘fact.’ Thereby revealing it as purely “our own creation; alienated labor—dead labor—set in motion” (Thompson and Nishat-Botero 2023) far removed from the production of social well-being.
CONCLUSION
Although this paper focuses on warehouse development in New Jersey, the methods applied can be used to investigate the demographic makeup of communities impacted by environmental injustice elsewhere. This paper sheds light on how commonplace racial and economic disparities have become in warehouse “sacrifice zones” while also illustrating how New Jersey planning and public policy initiatives have failed to address uneven siting patterns. The rising popularity of “smart” and “green” growth initiatives has revealed an appetite for continued growth and investment in the logistics economic sector. Still, it has yet to address the alarming rates at which warehouses are sited in low-income communities that are unable to contest their arrival. In the case of warehouse development, environmental justice movements have been subjugated by “smart” and “green” growth policies that “promote new forms of inequality, marginality, exclusion, and environmental hazard” (Kaika et al., 2023). If environmental justice is to become a social transformer, then planning must challenge the presupposition of economic growth as a function of the city.
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Nowlan, Aileen, “Making the Invisible Visible: Shining a Light on Warehouse Truck Air Pollution.” Environmental Defense Fund. April 2023. https://globalcleanair.org/wpcontent/blogs.dir/95/files/2023/04/EDF-ProximityMapping-2023.pdf
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INDIGENOUS ECONOMIES AND PERIPHERIES OF QUITO, ECUADOR
LYDIA ROWEN
Lydia Rowen is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She studies Environmental Science and Geographic Information Sciences. Since her first year at Carolina, Lydia has volunteered as a mechanic and community organizer at the ReCYCLEry NC, a bicycle cooperative in Carrboro. After graduating, Lydia hopes to work in the public transportation planning space.
ABSTRACT
This article investigates the innovative and tactical ways in which Indigenous peoples navigate urban economies and peripheries of Quito, Ecuador. I rely on external literature, as well as observational information from my time living in Quito (Spring of 2023). Spanish colonial rule and neoliberal policy agendas have resulted in high levels of poverty amongst Ecuador’s Indigenous population. Within the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ), Indigenous peoples have carved out livings for themselves through avenues such as begging, vending, and shoe shining—occupations which are being threatened by modernization discourse. In addition to economic livelihoods, this paper explores the peripheries that Indigenous peoples occupy in and around the DMQ. Some of these peripheries can be defined as semi-autonomous communities that often practice communal property rights and collective labor. This work intends to shed light on the innovative and tactical ways Indigenous peoples negotiate their existences in the face of ongoing state oppression.
This article investigates the innovative and tactical ways in which Indigenous peoples navigate urban economies and peripheries of Quito, Ecuador through a mixed-methods approach. The analysis relies on existing literature as well as personal observations from my time spent in the city in the Spring of 2023. Before we evaluate these channels, we must understand the complex social and historical environment that influences Indigenous life.
Ecuador has fourteen Indigenous nationalities, amounting to approximately one million people. These indigenous populations span across the country, with 68.2% residing in the Sierra (Andean region), 24.06% in the Amazon, and 7.56% along the coast. In the 2010 Census, residents could self-identify with the following Indigenous nationalities: Tsáchila, Chachi, Epera, Awa, Kichwas, Shuar, Achuar, Shiwiar, Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Zápara, Andoa, and Waorani (Jaouen 2023).
There are permanent and temporary Indigenous residents of the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ, referring to the Spanish acronym), with the former primarily belonging to ancestral communities within the DMQ, and the latter to ancestral homelands outside of the DMQ. This paper will discuss both populations and attempt to situate each within the themes of urban labor and living. Inspecting the foundational Spanish colonial systems of exploitation and the compounding agendas of neoliberal policies can shed light on the economic situations of many Indigenous Ecuadorians.
The Spanish colonial economy was “based on the forced labor and debt bondage of the Indigenous population,” where people between the ages of eighteen and fifty were subjugated (Middleton 2003). In fact, church finances heavily relied on this source of labor in agricultural and textile industries in order to accumulate mass amounts of wealth. Fast forward to the 20th century: Ecuador’s government agrees to Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) amidst an economic crisis in order to secure loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Oswaldo Hortado’s administration (1981-1984) signed the first Letter of Intent to the IMF and in doing so, “committed itself to the implementation of further adjustment measures” (SAPRI 2001). Similar to the implementation of many SAPs, the negative impacts disproportionately burdened Indigenous
peoples. In the first rounds of the program, “there [was] a focus on large scale, export-based agriculture, and [had] left the small-scale rural agriculturalists in the dust” (Swanson 2007). Consequently, many rural Indigenous peoples chose to leave their ancestral lands to pursue non-agricultural activities—such as shoe shining in the urban informal sector. Since the 1980s, many administrations have pursued this orthodox agenda, which has wrought major economic and social consequences. This agenda includes the elimination of subsidies, inflation, and the increased costs of inputs, transportation, and fuel. Perhaps most significantly, this type of agenda “has had a direct impact on further deterioration and poverty” in Indigenous and agricultural communities (Jaouen 2023).
The history alongside these policies has left the Indigenous peoples of Ecuador in a majorly disadvantaged state. Many have been forced to leave their homelands due to declining agricultural income, or in extreme cases, have faced intimidation by groups seeking illegal mining and oil extraction (Jaouen 2023). Ecuador is a resource-rich country, with poor regulation and oversight of legal and illegal extraction operations. Indigenous peoples have suffered continued impoverished conditions due to this composition of displacement and governmental neglect. 60% of Ecuadorians live in poverty, “while this figure rises to almost 90% among Indigenous peoples” (Swanson 2007).
Indigenous communities have not been silent in the face of these injustices. Ecuador is known for having one of the strongest Indigenous political movements in Latin America, with the main organizing body being the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE, referring to the Spanish acronym). Contesting neoliberalism is foundational to the group’s existence. Indigenous nationalities organize independently and collectively, depending on the scope of their grievance. During the spring of 2023, my friend’s college class visited Yasuní National Park in the Amazon, which is the ancestral homelands of the Waorani Nation. On their way back to Quito, they were traveling the roads built by oil companies and were impeded by a blockade of Waorani people. These blockades are commonplace on Amazonian oil roads, and most often the people blocking the road require fuel in exchange for removing their barrier.
These Indigenous communities are situated in one of the most oil-richgeographies, yet struggle to afford fuel. This is due to more than just ownership over the oil companies: it reflects the multiple dimensions of harm that communities must endure at the hands of the state.
Indigenous communities face discrimination and harm inside Quito’s boundaries, as well. For many of the current Indigenous residents of the DMQ, begging, vending, and shoe shining are their primary occupations in the informal economy. However, these occupations are precariously positioned in the face of government-sponsored modernization. Ecuador, much like other developing countries, aspires to become an international tourist destination. Ecuador seeks to modernize its cities to match the attraction of its
incredible natural environments. Quito’s modernization discourse often conflates cleanliness and hygiene with progress. Cities such as New York and Miami are models of modern urban form for the governments of Quito and Guayaquil (the most populous city in Ecuador). In 2002, the city of Guayaquil contracted former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton to “help shape the city’s urban regeneration strategy” (Swanson 2007). In this proposed strategy, it is apparent that Indigenous street vendors and beggars do not conform to the global city ideal.
The DMQ strives for this global city ideal by utilizing policy, planning, and the police force in order to regulate—or more often, remove—Indigenous street workers. There
FIGURE 1- Officers patrol the Plaza de la Independencia. Source: Lydia Rowen.
is a perception amongst the planners and city officials that those street workers who support local exchange systems “are a barrier to the modernisation of the historic city center and to its economic regeneration” (Middleton 2003). However, many non-Indigenous residents of the city, such as my host mother, Marti, view these people in a different light. These workers are situated in heavy transportation corridors (sidewalks and streets), so they can offer convenient goods and services to people at low prices. Sitting at an intersection, you have a variety of options, such as having your windshield cleaned or purchasing cheap produce. The DMQ does not want these workers to tarnish the perceived image of Quito as a modern city, so it has implemented tactics to formalize this type of labor. By May of 2003, the municipality had removed 6,900 informal workers from the streets of the city’s historical center. Many were relocated to ten alternative municipal markets, “most of which were far removed from the city center and, consequently, the tourist’s gaze” (Swanson 2007).
In tandem with disrupting their sources of income, the state employs police power against Quito’s street workers. One informal vendor has said “[t]hey hit or throw gas at us men and they call women daughters of [whores]... We have to hide like we’re thieves” (Swanson 2007). When walking around the historic district on a typical day, there are men in uniform with large guns and dogs (as seen in Figure 1). Policing the street vendors is not their sole purpose in these spaces, but they seemingly keep a keen eye out for the informal workers.
In contrast to the recent work of Indigenous peoples selling goods and services in the city, there is documented history of state sanitation and infrastructure workers being people indigenous to the DMQ. These communities have played a crucial role in the construction, maintenance, and sanitation of Quito during the first half of the twentieth century. As Quito expanded its boundaries, these communities were absorbed into the political-legal fabric and were subsequently overlooked in the public sphere. These Indigenous communities “represent a significant contingent of indigenous labor that built public works and provided the conditions necessary for the urban space to exist” (Turiano 2023). Indigenous peoples helped build the city that government officials now deem too
beautiful to be touched by their hands. A hygienic racism that “pathologizes indigenous bodies as sick, contaminated, and dirty” continues to inform urban neoliberal revitalization strategies (Swanson 2007). This brand of racism is evident in former Ecuadorian President General Rodríguez Lara’s speech in 1972: “There is no more Indian Problem. We all become white when we accept the goals of national culture” (Swanson 2007). Here, the goals of national culture are to become a white, westernized, and global nation far removed from its Indigenous identity.
Stepping outside of the urban economies of Quito, I am interested in how Indigenous people engage with urban peripheries. There are various forms of informal settlements, many of which are defined as barrios ilegales (illegal neighborhoods) by the municipality. This status means they do not have official approval or urbanization licenses. Since these barrios exist outside of the law, they receive few to no public works services, such as roads and telecommunication lines. It is important to note that these poor, illegal neighborhoods are comprised of Indigenous peoples, immigrants, impoverished mestizos (descendents of Europeans and Indigenous Americans), and other disadvantaged groups.
In addition to these settlement forms, there are Indigenous comunas (communes) within and around the DMQ. The comunas “refer to pre-Columbian settlements and to what later became known as colonial reductions” (Turiano 2023). The reductions were part of a socio-spatial reorganization promoted by the Spanish authorities in 1549. From the ‘urbanize to civilize’ logic, the reorganization consisted of concentrating and relocating Indigenous populations. Eventually, the city “ended up incorporating the communes that were settled in the central and peripheral areas of Quito” (Turiano 2023).
In 1937, the Law on Commune Organization and Regime was passed, which gave rise to the legal incorporation of civil society organizations. These were regularly linked to Indigenous and peasant communities, under the label of comunas. There are an estimated forty-six rural and three urban comunas in the DMQ. As stated earlier, these comunas provided the raw source of labor for the city’s growth and development. Residents worked as masons, brick layers, domestic servants, and day laborers.
The comunas of Ecuador are characterized, to varying degrees, by property relations featuring usufruct rights to unalienable lands, participatory democracy, shared Indigenous nationalities, collective practice of communal labor, and community celebrations. Comunas are contested spaces, both internally and externally, to the community itself. In external relations, the comunas are clearly “peripheral to the state project, which emphasizes the more ‘neo-structuralist,’ developmentalist goal of a robust, technically competent national state” (Rayner 2017). These semi-autonomous communities that often practice communal property rights and collective labor are in direct contradiction to the state whose neoliberal agenda pushes for greater privatization and individualism. Given this fact, the comunas face real pressures of dissolution from all levels of government. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were efforts to dissolve the co-
munas by presidential decree. Municipal planning often threatens comunas through projects, like the Mariscal Sucre Highway (as seen in Figure 2). Constructed in 1976, this busy highway divided the Santa Clara comunas into upper and lower sections and resulted in infrequent movement between the two sections due to dangerous conditions (Rayner 2017).
These communities not only contend with challenges from the outside, but must mediate their own residents’ conflicting desires for the land. As the city expands in its geographic extent, the main tensions in comunas evolve around property rights. Some residents wish to divide up the land into individual property rights and sell their parcels to wealthy developers. In contrast, there are community members who fight for traditional forms of
FIGURE 2 - Comuna Santa Clara de San Millán. Source: Esri. “Imagery” [basemap] & Fernández 2018.
property such as communal land rights.
Although the comunas face serious internal and external negative pressures, they also have several opportunities as a result of their unique legal and political-economic frameworks. The 1998 Ecuadorian Constitution included a clause on collective rights that declared communal lands to be “inalienable, immune from seizure, [and] indivisible,” which greatly strengthened the legal basis of communal property (Rayner 2017). Similar language was reiterated in the plurinational 2008 Constitution and included a list of rights to self-organization, the administration of justice, and consultation. Comunas have used these legal frameworks to protect their way of life. For instance, in 2016, a coalition of seven comunas put a halt to a municipal environmental ordinance which threatened their autonomy and long-term survival.
These newly-granted legal rights are powerful tools and will be increasingly vital as comunas fight to preserve their rights and identities. The leaders of comunas are also younger and more formally educated than past leaders, and can therefore navigate the municipal bureaucracies with greater ease. To me, the very existence of the comunas is a powerful act of resistance against neoliberal and neocolonial forces. The ways in which Indigenous peoples navigate urban economies and peripheries of Quito are innovative and tactical in the face of state oppression. In my research, I found the contradiction between hygienic racism and the historic Indigenous sanitation workers particularly frustrating. Indigenous workers from comunas were municipal employees working as street sweepers and garbage collectors, arbiters of fundamentally cleaner livelihoods, yet continue to be discriminated against on the basis of ‘uncleanliness.’
While reading on this topic, there were limited academic papers that specifically engaged with Indigenous labor and livelihood in Quito. Non-academic sources from the region allowed for deeper analysis, such as the work from Jaouen produced for The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. Research in these critical spaces matter because it helps us recognize and support Indigenous ways of life. The forms of adaptation and resistance that we have observed in this paper carry important lessons for other marginalized groups threatened by their states.
WORKS CITED
Fernández, Ilyak & Gómez-García, Antonio. (2018). Evaluación de la vulnerabilidad sísmica de 97 edificaciones de la “Comuna Santa Clara de San Millán”, Quito. Eidos. DOI: 11. 10.29019/eidos.v0i11.417
Jaouen, Morgane. “El Mundo Indígena 2023: Ecuador.” IWGIA. https://www.iwgia.org/es/ecuador/5086-mi2023-ecuador.html
Middleton, Alan. Informal traders and planners in the regeneration of historic city centres: the case of Quito, Ecuador. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S0305900602000612
Rayner, Jeremy. The Struggle For Quito’s Communes: Negotiating Property And Citizenship In Plurinational, Post-Neoliberal Ecuador. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/45172862?seq=1
SAPRI. The Social Impact Of Basic Social Subsidies In Ecuador. University of Cuenca. http://www.saprin.org/ ecuador/research/ecu_soc_sub.pdf
Swanson, K. (2007), Revanchist Urbanism Heads South: The Regulation of Indigenous Beggars and Street Vendors in Ecuador. Antipode, 39: 708-728. DOI: 10.1111/j.14678330.2007.00548.x
Turiano, 2023. “The National Archive of Communes and the Issue of Urban Development in the City of Quito (19371973).” Archival City, https://archivalcity.hypotheses. org/4434
Turiano. “Quito’s Urban Development and Indigenous Labor Force: The Case of the Llano Grande Commune (First Half of the 20th Century).” Archival City, https:// archivalcity.hypotheses.org/5127
PLACEMAKING AS REFERENTIAL ENGAGEMENT
Affirming Placemaking Values in Dérives
COREY BRAY
Corey Bray is a PhD student in the School of Education at UNC Chapel Hill. He studies Public Pedagogy, or learning outside of schools, and cultural studies around discourse, affect, and games. His work centers on the everyday experiences of learning that surround us, and the affirmative implications of immanence.
SAMANTHA PACE
Samantha Pace is a dual master’s student in City and Regional Planning at UNC Chapel Hill and Environmental Management at Duke University. After receiving her undergraduate degree in Industrial Design from North Carolina State University, she worked at a biotechnology start-up in Research Triangle Park for 3 years. She is interested in equitable resilience planning, urban design, and green space.
ABSTRACT
Using three theoretical backgrounds, we argue that placemaking is local, engaged, and personal. Our notion of placemaking is informed by the Project for Public Space (PPS) and their Place Diagram, which assesses a sense of place. We develop an application of this framework with Guy Debord’s psychogeography and theory of the dérive. Our intentional wanderings, or dérives, are reflective of PPS placemaking goals, be it hiking to a glacier or meandering through a town. Finally, we incorporate Jean Baudrillard’s orders of value to claim that our placemaking through dérives is always based in referents. Referents cannot be abstract, but are mutually active, wherein they act on us and we on them. Denying abstraction means denying dereferentialization, where meaning is baseless. Instead, the permanence of referents in our placemaking means it must be something local, engaged, and personal, where people in the space make it a place.
INTRODUCTION
If institutions and power structures are the creators of places, then placemaking is permanent, hierarchical, and even authoritarian. However, we argue that placemaking is never as such because it is necessarily local, engaged, and personal. It is local, meaning relevant to immediate surroundings; engaged, meaning users are active and have some influence on the space; and personal, meaning the presence of a bond with the space and users. To illuminate our thinking, we bring three theories into conversation and use them to demonstrate the experiential power of place. These fields are the Project for Public Spaces’ (PPS) placemaking, Guy Debord’s psychogeography and dérives, and Jean Buadrillard’s orders of value.
PPS views placemaking as an intentional, community driven process, and created the Place Diagram to evaluate places. The diagram includes four quadrants: (1) access and linkages, (2) comfort and image, (3) uses and activities, and (4) sociability. To apply their assessment strategy, we engaged in our own placemaking processes by making intentional wanderings, or Debord’s dérives, to reflect on how we think about our movement in space and the influence we and the space have on each other. When we think about placemaking as PPS does and when we enact placemaking through dérives, we find a referential process. A referent is based in the real, as opposed to the abstract, and basis in the real requires us to be in proximity, actively participate, and share a connection. That is to say, our placemaking is local, engaged, and personal. It requires and rewards the involvement of people operating in and with the space.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
PLACEMAKING
Placemaking, in the most straightforward terms, can be defined as “the process of creating quality places that people want to work, live, play, and learn in” (Wyckoff, 2014). The notion of placemaking has roots in the work of urban activists and thought leaders William H. Whyte and Jane Jacobs, whose criticism of top-down planning processes aimed to recenter the human scale in urban environments (Kent, 2019). After collaborating with the New York City Planning Commission on a comprehensive
plan in 1969, Whyte was interested in evaluating the new public spaces, which led to his work on the Street Life Project (“William H. Whyte,” 2010). This project examined pedestrians and their engagement with public spaces in New York City and other urban settings. Whyte and his team directly observed spaces and their users, interviewed people, and used timelapse videos and photography to understand these spaces (Whyte, 1980). Whyte’s book and associated film The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980) highlighted observations from the Street Life Project, new ideas about how people use public space, why some places work well for their inhabitants while others do not, and recommendations on how to better design public spaces for people. This work is fundamental to placemaking.
After working as a researcher on the Street Life Project, Fred Kent founded Project for Public Spaces (PPS) in 1975 (“About — Project for Public Spaces,” n.d.). The intention was for PPS to be a three-year endeavor to utilize and build upon Whyte’s findings in the Street Life Project and to “get public spaces to be planned as if people mattered” (“About — Project for Public Spaces,” n.d.). As PPS rounded out its third year, Kent and co-founders Kathy Madden and Steve Davies determined their work was far from complete and the organization continued to facilitate the process of making public space more people-centered.
Over the following years, PPS grew their public space expertise and research and in 1995 began to use the word ‘placemaking’ to describe their process of facilitating the empowerment of users to transform public spaces. PPS realized that community members and users of the place are the experts of the space, and the organization’s role lies in facilitating the realization of the communal vision.
Today, PPS describes placemaking as an approach to communally re-envision the public spaces that bond the community together (“What Is Placemaking?,” n.d.). Since its establishment, the organization has consulted with more than 3,000 communities across the globe to help transform their public spaces (“About — Project for Public Spaces,” n.d.).
DÉRIVE THEORY
As an investigation of placemaking, we decided to engage our own experiences and implement the practice of the dérive. The dérive is a psychogeographical technique theorized by Guy Debord and the Situationist International, an artistic and intellectual collective. Psychogeography is a study of the mental, emotional, and behavioral effects of a geographical environment on people (Debord, 2006). In other words, it is the affect of place and the ways our thinking and movement are influenced by our physical surroundings. The dérive is a specific way of engaging this affect, wherein a small group of people, perhaps two or three, have a “playful-constructive” goal to make them aware of psychogeography (Debord, 1956). The participants are meant to “drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there” (1956). For example, “get to that landmark” or “pursue paths accented with green.” By arbitrarily drifting through a space, participants reflect on the psychological influence of placemaking on their engagement with the place.
ORDERS OF VALUE
To further theorize placemaking, we orient both PPS and the dérive through Jean Baudrillard’s orders of value. These orders champion experience and connection over empty signification, what Baudrillard names dereference. The first value is “natural,” the second “exchange,” and the third “structural” (Baudrillard, 1993). For Baudrillard, natural value reflects things valued for themselves, like affection from a loved one or a useful tool. The second value, exchange, is based in reference, and requires understanding and agreement to function well. Modern economic systems ostensibly run on exchange value (1993). However, Baudrillard warns of the third value, structural, wherein the worth of something is determined by its place in a system. For example, money becomes dereferentialized when it ceases to reference anything natural and is solely valuable because we claim it to be so. Without reference or natural value, things become signs alone and everything loses meaning (1994).
APPLICATION
PLACE DIAGRAM
Project for Public Spaces created the Place Diagram model to help users understand the quality of a space (“What Makes a Successful Place?,” n.d.). According to PPS, great public spaces generally demonstrate four important qualities: that the
place should be well-connected/accessible, comfortable, lively with activities, and host socializing. These qualities are summarized in the four quadrants of the Place Diagram: (1) access and linkages, (2) comfort and image, (3) uses and activities, and (4) sociability. Each attribute is then further elaborated with seven to nine “intangible qualities” like proximity, walkability, and neighborliness, and further still with four or five measurements, like volunteerism, pedestrian activity, and property values.
These quadrants also pertain to the local, engaged, and personal nature of placemaking. Locality is addressed in the access and linkages quadrant, with consideration to walkability, visibility, convenience, and connections between this place and nearby places. Engagement pertains to the quadrant of sociability and the quadrant of uses and activities in the Place Diagram. Engagement highlights the interactive nature of people in the space and their decision to be present in the space, relating to sociability. The uses and activities quadrant demonstrates the engaged nature of placemaking by considering the availability and choice of things to do in the space and which groups of people and individuals choose to do an activity in the space. The personal nature of placemaking is characterized in the sociability quadrant, through relationships grown through welcomed interactions, and in the comfort and image quadrant, when users feel attracted to the place and feel safe and welcome in it.
OUR DÉRIVES
We conducted three dérives, each in a different place with a different goal. First, we looked for the highest point in a small Italian town, Tarquinia. Then we used public transit to reach the river in Stockholm, Sweden. Finally, we hiked to the glacier in Tarfala, Sweden. During each dérive we made a timelapse of our progress to document the place, the people in it, and our movement through it (see Figures 1 and 2). The relations between the places and our goals augmented the placemaking we experienced and enacted, but the local, engaged, and personal qualities remained constant.
The first dérive through Tarquinia contained a semi-abstract goal, to always be moving towards the highest point in the town, in a dense tourist area. At each junction of the paths, we chose the one that seemed to slope upward, but our final destination was not in sight until the very end
of our journey. Our dérive began in more public spaces with retail and commercial uses. As we continued to take the higher paths, we were moving out of public spaces and into residential areas, and we began feeling that we were encroaching which led us to double back and take another path. The dérive through Tarquina exhibits the Place Diagram’s component of accessibility through its walkability and well-connected and continuous paths. Tarquina’s historic aesthetic and the comforts of safety and cleanliness contribute to the quality of the space.
The second dérive in Stockholm, Sweden was the most abstract, as we used street signs, bus routes, and landmarks to guide us to the river in a bustling urban environment. There were many ways to travel, from foot to bus to car, and an abundance of information about locations and paths. Our dérive was ‘interrupted’ by visiting a cafe, sightseeing, and getting lost. This dérive was interactive and engaging for participants and the streetscape created
City of dérive Link to timelapse video
Tarquinia https://youtu.be/Ulh4GM3eORU
Stockholm https://youtu.be/NSTJ4M_oAyU
Tarfala https://youtu.be/4uVCuY4uXGs
a welcoming atmosphere, demonstrating the Place Diagram’s sociability quality. From a coffee shop to views of the river, the urban nature of this dérive highlighted the many activities, uses, and motivations to visit and experience this space.
The final dérive was the most immediate as we could see our destination for the duration of the hike. We simply had to overcome the terrain to reach the Tarfala glacier. The path crossed streams, snowbanks, and rock piles. There was evidence of other people’s placemaking in cairns and footprints in the snow, but otherwise we forged our own path. The clean and natural views of Tarfala contribute to a memorable image of the space and, per the Place Diagram, contribute to a quality sense of place. The experience of hiking to the glacier is an enjoyable and active use, which inspires people to visit this place and partake in this special experience.
ANALYSIS
In each of our journeys, we recognized elements of PPS’ placemaking and acted in local, engaged, and personal ways. We were steeped in the locality of place in our choices of travel, from navigating busy sidewalks to learning bus routes to hiking icy cliffs. The access we had
FIGURE 1 - Compilation of screenshots from the three dérives. Left to right: Stockholm, Tarfala, Tarquinia.
FIGURE 2 - Timelapse videos of the dérives.
and the physical paths we chose is dependent on the specific locales, rather than generalizable norms. Each dérive created engagement by allowing us to talk with other placemakers and enjoy the spaces’ opportunities. We do not pass by like ghosts, but instead acted on and were acted on in return. We would spot a restaurant to visit later, have a conversation on a bus, and communicate with future travelers via footprints. All of this was based in personal experience, as our relation to public/private space alters our course, our lack of knowledge of the city allows us to explore it as outsiders, and our interest in geography and climate leads us to a remote glacier. The placemakers before us planned for the comfort of walking, for the accessibility of exploration, and the sociability of interpersonal connection.
In terms of placemaking practices, we can experience dereferentialization. For example, when we are in a new place and follow signs without knowing their origin or purpose, we are engaging in dereferentialized practice. Perhaps a barrier is placed across half an alleyway, and so we do not enter it. There may be a gate into a park or a path without footprints which each deter us. We do not know the reference of these signifiers, but we operate as if we do. Perhaps the barrier was from an earlier parade and was set to the side, the gate is unlocked during daylight hours, or the path is washed each day. The point is that we do not know the meaning of the signs, but are still psychogeographically impacted by them in a derefentialized manner.
However, the use of a dérive and the analysis of placemaking gives us access to referents in all of our movements. First, the dérive helps us recognize how our decisions are related to our goals. Without a predetermined goal statement, we would still be making decisions, but their purpose would be less clear. The dérive process creates a focus for us to analyze placemaking, though we assert it would happen even without the predetermined goal. If we seek to “go uphill,” we are more likely to bypass an ambiguous barrier than if our goal was to follow our habits.
Second, when these goals combine with situational and local placemaking, our reading of geographical markers is rooted in the lives of people around us rather than unknown systems and policies. The wandering takes us into tracks left by others or pathways full of people or a group queue for a bus. The signs around us are always based in the meaning of their engagement, which is co-produced by the signs, the
people nearby, and ourselves.
The three dérives, as read through the paradigms of PPS, demonstrate the natural and referential value of placemaking. As discussed, the four paradigms are imbricated with local, engaged, and personal qualities: local in access and linkages, engaged in both sociability and uses and activities, and personal in both sociability and comfort and image. Local, engaged, and personal places must be referential. The locality demonstrates points of reference, if not natural value, engagement creates references where they might not have previously existed, and the personal makes references meaningful to prevent the creation of empty signs. This also means placemaking is natural and/or referential. Access and linkages require or allow direct involvement, which is natural or referential. Sociability pulls on the references of relationships and the engagements requisite to make them. Uses and activities are founded on natural value for their immediate embodiment in the space. Comfort and image rely on our understanding of a place, which is to say our reference with it.
To illustrate our thinking, we developed a Referential Placemaking Diagram (Figure 3). Centered in the image is placemaking practices, which for our purposes was the dérive. However, all placemaking practices are situated
FIGURE 3 - Centers DeBord’s idea of dérives in the middle with our concepts of local, personal, and engaged at each point in yellow boxes. Our concepts have arrows pointing to
in this triangle. Extending from the center are the three qualities we believe are necessary for placemaking, namely local, engaged, and personal. These tenets of placemaking can be connected to the four quadrants of place quality as assessed by the PPS Place Diagram, which are (1) access and linkages, (2) comfort and image, (3) uses and activities, and (4) sociability. While the qualities of placemaking could each extend to multiple quadrants, we illustrated how we think of those connections forming, from local to access and linkages, from engaged to uses and sociability, and from personal to comfort, image, and sociability. All of these connections are located within referential placemaking, as they require real, rather than abstract, relation to the place. The reciprocal connection between place and person radiates from the center of the diagram. If the connection is lost, meaning that the placemaking ceases to fulfill the four quadrants or is somehow discontinuous with local, engaged, and personal practice, the placemaking becomes deferential. However, we draw a solid line between referential and dereferential space, as we claim that any placemaking practice must be deeply integrated with the space it inhabits. The act of operating in and with place must be local, engaged, and personal, and it cannot be purely abstract.
CONCLUSION
Engaged experience through placemaking helps ground us in the referents of our everyday lives. Without these referents, place would be pure abstraction without meaning. However, our dérives and subsequent analysis using the PPS model can only occur with referents, and therefore must be local, engaged, and personal. The PPS model helps reinforce our understanding of geographies as lived experience, and our psychogeographical dérives remind us that we are affected, and thereby referenced, in our movement through our environment. Placemaking and movement through place must therefore always be something local, mediated by personal engagement, and imbricated in reference. Our referents only appear when people engage with that space, which must be a local and personal experience. It is the individuals and groups that make the place, and are made by it, existing in a mutually constructive relationship. From the social vantage of PPS or the theoretical lens of orders of value, it is the connection people have with their space that results in meaningful placemaking.
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PHILOSOPHIES OF BRAZILIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THE STAGNANT URBAN PROBLEMS IN FAVELAS
MARCOS GREGORIO
Marcos Gregorio is a junior at UNC Chapel Hill. He is on track to complete bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science and Portuguese with a minor in Urban Planning. He is deeply interested in sustainable architecture, transportation, the sustainable intensification of the agricultural industry, and an equitable transition to renewable energy. Marcos is also the treasurer of UNC Club Judo and loves baking bread.
ABSTRACT
This article discusses the misappropriation of lusotropicalism and positivism in Brazilian politics, particularly their impact on favela urban policy. It highlights how lusotropicalism is distorted to assert a false depiction of racial harmony-- masking actual racial disparities, while a misconstrued positivism leads to ineffective governance. The study examines historical and contemporary policy failures, the problematic role of mayors, and the need for genuine community involvement in policymaking. It exposes the gap between the philosophical ideals and their practical application, revealing systemic issues in Brazilian politics and the urgent need for the implementation of more inclusive, community-driven approaches.
INTRODUCTION
Brazilian politics have transformed lusotropicalism and positivism into problematic philosophies of national identity, hindering policies’ effectiveness in solving the favelas’ problems. Politicians twist the meaning of lusotropicalism to assert racial harmony, even in the face of the issues spawned by racial inequality, and uphold a new definition of positivism, contradicting its original purpose. Former president Bolsonaro is quoted describing descendants of enslaved peoples as “good for nothing, not even to procreate” while using the slogan “My color is Brazil” to deflect from his divisive use of race in politics. Positivism, which prioritizes meritocracy and rationality, has become politically nonviable in addressing the issues of the favelas because it creates governmental power structures and non-participatory planning schemes that fail to address complex problems. Images of squalor, crime, and police violence contrast the cultural and communal epicenter that favelas genuinely are. The source of these problems is not the nature of those living in favelas, but rather the fundamental and perpetual problems in Brazilian politics, specifically how they have depicted the favelas.
BACKGROUND
The philosophies most influential in Brazilian politics are Lusotropicalism and Positivism. These ideologies have a long history in Brazil, dating from colonial times to modern Brazilian society. Lusotropicalism in Brazil, as conceptualized by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre, is an ideology that emerged from the unique colonial history of the country under Portuguese influence. The racial and cultural mixing that began during the Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula and its proximity to Africa characterized Portuguese colonization as a level above other European colonial practices. Freyre claimed that the Portuguese were inherently more tolerant and adaptable, which led to a more humane form of colonialization marked by a higher degree of “miscegenation” and “cultural synthesis” (Bastos 2019). Brazilian culture does in fact exhibit racial harmony in many ways, notably in the celebration of Yemanjá, a deity from the Yoruba religion, introduced to the Americas by African slaves and revered as the Queen of the Ocean. The veneration of Yemanjá,
along with other cultural events like Carnival, exemplifies something akin to contemporary Lusotropicalism. These celebrations, rooted in the cultural heritage of enslaved peoples, have been recontextualized as a unifying element of Brazilian identity.
Positivism is a philosophy created by Auguste Comte in the early 19th century; it claims that the only authentic knowledge is that which is derived from sense experience and positive verification. In other words, positivism relies heavily on empirical evidence and scientific methods, rejecting metaphysics and theology as valid sources of knowledge (Feigl, 2024). Brazil adopted this philosophy following its independence from Portuguese rule. It was inclined towards positivism as it provided an alternative to the papal and religious influence that the Portuguese government relied heavily on. This transition was marked by an emphasis on “order and progress,” brandished proudly on the Brazilian flag, reflecting a desire for stable, well-organized governance, rejecting metaphysical explanations, and a belief in the progressive improvement of society through science and reason. This approach was intended to represent a significant shift away from the traditional, top-down Portuguese approach to governance towards a more secular, rational, and scientific framework for organizing society (Rossen, 2005).
FAILURE TO LAUNCH
For decades, the Brazilian government has failed to create a policy that has truly changed the conditions in the favelas. The earliest policies attempted to “solve” what was described in 1937 through 1945 as breeding grounds for “disease, illiteracy, and crime, but also moral corruption and political radicalism.” The idea of “proletariat parks,” a small-scale favela removal project coined by Mayor Henrique Dodsworth, was the first of its kind and failed to reconcile the existence of racial harmony and uphold the true meaning of positivism (Green & Skidmore, 2021). It attempted to relocate and destroy these communities without acknowledging the history of disenfranchised enslaved people, which created the community in the first place, and instead followed a lazy and faulty string of logic that culminated in brute force policy and set the tone for policy in these communities for the near future. Again, in the 1960s and 70s, the federal government, the Housing Company of Guanabara,
and the Coordination of Social Interest of the Greater Rio Metropolitan Area followed this same structure of brute force policy and failed. Fast forward to contemporary Brazil and the proposed seen similar because they have failed to make the connection between race and wealth disparities. According to Oxfam International, despite being one of the world’s largest economies, Brazil is still marked by “extreme inequality”. For example, Brazil’s six richest men have the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the population, which makes up around 100 million people. According to the projections by Oxfam, it would take decades for Brazilian women and Black Brazilians to achieve wage equality with their white counterparts. It is no surprise that these connections exist. However, they continue to exist because of lusotropicalism. It is a counterintuitive philosophy in a country with a long history of slavery. It became more perplexing when a country that prides itself in positivist philosophy, touting the importance of factual analysis and evidence, would choose to employ brute force policies that have been proven to be ineffective over almost 100 years.
Recently, the brute force policies of favela clearance have shifted towards pacification efforts in favelas, which have failed on many levels. Not only have they been unable to address the crime in these neighborhoods, which politicians argue are best solved through pacification practices, but they have been unable to uphold this mythological idea of Lusotropicalism and philosophy of positivism. Increased
police presence has only worsened tensions between residents who, during the Olympics, expressed frustration with municipal governments trying to “clean up the streets” of Rio De Janeiro (Nolen, 2016). To this day, these neighborhoods are being controlled by the military using any means necessary, even violence (Richmond, 2019). Despite these attempts to reduce crime, the favelas remain much the same today, proving the ineffectiveness of pacification efforts, even when implemented at an intensity never seen before during the Olympics. Simple brute force policies like these continue to be used because they provide a short-term solution to an issue that the Brazilian government cannot solve until they are willing to acknowledge that significant racial inequality prevails and lusotropical ideas are not in fact not being upheld.
These policies are implemented city-by-city and overseen by mayors who control the municipal civil guards. Positivism, which rejects a large central government, encourages power being dispersed far from a central government and has created an effect like the idea of “mayorism”, present in many other Latin American countries. While mayorism looks different in a country like Brazil, compared to Chile for example (Bello, 2020), these mayors of major Brazilian cities are given almost exclusive power and responsibility over the Favelas and have little access to federal funding for these projects. A similar dynamic which Chilean and other Latin American mayors face. The lack of centralized power and minimal resources cause many of the projects and policies designed to improve the situation in the favelas to ultimately fail or dwindle, making pacification a tantalizing “solution”. It is easier to justify a budget of dwindling funds to be directed towards the police to “solve the crime” than it is to justify a complex urban planning and social safety net solution. Mayors also have direct control of “municipal civil guards” (Agência de Notícias IBGE, 2020), which makes solutions to these urban problems, such as community land trusts or economic revitalization plans, unattractive options to mayors who do not want to appropriate funds to projects that decentralize mayoral power. The point of Positivism, which
FIGURE 1 - Photographed by author in Olinda, Brazil.
sought to reject a strong central government, is actively being violated when solely funding the police and strengthening mayoral power structures, creating a pseudo-military rule that only feeds distrust between community and local government, a relationship that must be built on trust when solving issues on this scale.
Pacification as a remedy to crime fails repeatedly because the true root of crime in these neighborhoods is the massive wealth disparity and lack of economic opportunity. These issues are better solved by realizing the long history of disenfranchisement of the descendants of enslaved people and recognizing the failure of positivism as a core belief in Brazilian society when creating policy. When the problem of wealth disparity and race are so heavily intertwined, they must be accompanied by a racially conscious solution; however, with the current state of lusotropicalist political philosophy, the likelihood of a solution like this is, at best, unlikely, because Brazil views itself as tolerant and racially equitable.
What motives do politicians have to refuse to address the deep-seated connection between wealth disparity and race? First, it is because lusotropicalism creates a narrative in which the racially and economically disenfranchised people can be ignored. This makes politicians jobs much easier especially when faced with such a “wicked problem”. It is also essential to consider the ramifications of closing the wealth gap and what that would mean for the country’s elite who perpetuate this idea of racial “harmony”. Getting rid of the elite’s most expendable source of cheap labor, the descendants of enslaved peoples living in the favelas, would require the elite, including politicians, to willingly give up the economic gains they make by exploiting a workforce. These workers, often from poorer backgrounds and frequently belonging to racial minorities, enable middle and upper-class families to thrive.
“If you time-traveled to Brazil today from the 19th century, the race relations would look very similar” – Bianca Santana.
One of the most critical examples of this being how most domestic workers in Brazil are women who identify a black. More specifically, 61.6% of domestic workers are black and 38.4% are white. These disparities become more evident when looking at the options given to black
wome for employment are clearly skewed: 12% of white women with a job are domestic workers and the rates increase to 21% for black women (Bernardino-Costa, 2014). Often tasked with being on-call 24/7, living far away from their employers, and carrying the emotional burden of taking care of their employer’s children, these women do not receive a fair wage either for the difficulty of their work. This motif of racial injustice and history of slavery extends to the rest of Brazil’s job market when you consider the fact that there was never an effort to incorporate black people into the formal economy after the abolishment of slavery (Bennett, 2020). As a result, the way Brazilian society values black people’s role in the economy has seen little to no change and they continue to fill jobs that could only be described as unjust. This dynamic highlights the critical role of those living in favelas play in supporting the lifestyle of the wealthy. Politicians have held onto the notion of racial harmony, despite the country’s stark racial disparities, because it enables them and their constituents to reap benefits far too great to concede. Addressing this issue requires a multi-faceted approach focusing on economic reforms, re-evaluating the roles of lusotropicalism in Brazilian society, and acknowledging its implications in masking and perpetuating racial and economic disparities.
In recent years, some politicians have attempted to create policies focused on improving the urban and economic conditions in the favelas. The Favela Barrio Project, assessed ten years after its implementation by the Inter-American Development Bank, had promising results in revitalizing these communities, a step towards closing the wealth gap. Despite its attempts to improve housing and inject economic revitalization, it ultimately fell short due to funding issues (Libertun & Osorio, 2020). The lack of funding, however, comes from a fundamental lack of responsibility the Brazilian government has taken to improve these people’s lives. The government should enhance the situation of the directly disenfranchised people. Yet, these programs are treated as side-bar projects and receive no funding because they would require acknowledging the true history which penetrates the pretense of lusotropicalism. Returning to this idea of “mayorism”, positivism is used to reinforce the relationship between the federal and local government and creates a funding death spiral for many of these policies. Mayors simply do not have access to the funding they need for these
local projects to work in the long term. Thus, calling for a change in the organization of governmental powers requires first reconsidering how positivism is viewed in Brazilian politics as a mode of pushing for a more secular government. Positivism’s strong emphasis on scientific knowledge and expert opinions often leads to urban planning approaches that rely heavily on planners’ insights and marginalize the voices of local community members in the process. As a result, the current approach has been minimal or purely tokenistic. The Favela Barrio Project lacked public hearings and had no community-suggested plan amendments. They prioritize technical solutions and expert-driven designs, assuming that planners’ scientific and factual knowledge leads to more optimal outcomes than those of community-based approaches.
Rio De Janeiro’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, has begun a master planning project for the city. An improvement during the
creation of this policy in 2019 notably featured 26 public hearings in direct response to the criticisms of previous policy efforts lacking community input (Favela-CLT Project, 2023). It promised to be a comprehensive planning policy that used community input rather than reliance on the expertise of the urban planner. Community Land Trusts (CLTs), a form of collective land ownership where a non-profit organization holds the land, was at the forefront of what community members wanted for their communities. They rallied at these hearings and expressed how this policy would help their communities thrive. Finally, after the hearing process and almost 200-plus amendments to the master plan, the CLT policy pushed by residents was not considered at all. It seems the public participation that the master plan was being championed for was to appease the public during the master plan creation and ultimately excluded them in the end. It is abundantly clear that there is a positivist attitude in rejecting community members’ requests, the people who best understand the issues and requests of their community, for the opinions of a professional planner who has likely not stepped foot in a favela once. If proper public participation had been used, community members would have utilized these policies and may have flourished. This disconnect highlights the need for more inclusive, participatory approaches that value local knowledge and perspectives, ensuring that urban development projects meet the needs of those they are designed to help (Arnstein, 1969). However, this would require an altered perspective on the positivist philosophy that has remained relatively unchanged, as have the problems of infrastructure and economic development in favelas.
The popular belief amongst politicians and Brazilians alike is that the Favelas have unfixable problems. This attitude denies millions of people a future where they can live safely and build wealth. Instead of fostering genuine racial harmony by reconciling a long history of racial injustice and upholding scientific and progressive governance, Lusotropicalism and Positivism have been twisted to maintain the status quo, leaving the needs and voices of favela residents unaddressed. It has become apparent that changing or abandoning these philosophies is necessary to change a stagnant nation. Their meanings changed hundreds of years ago through independence from a paternalistic state, and I foresee they will change again.
FIGURE 2 - Photographed by author in Recife, Brazil.
WORKS CITED
Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A Ladder Of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35(4), 216-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944366908977225
Bernardino-Costa, J. (2014). Intersectionality and female domestic workers’ unions in Brazil. Women’s Studies International Forum, 46, 72-80. DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2014.01.004
Bennett, R. (2020, August 7). ‘I’m treated like a slave’: Black domestic workers in Brazil suffer abuse but now have a way out. Time. https://time.com/5867784/black-domesticworkers-treatment-brazil/
Bastos, C. (2019). Luso-tropicalism debunked, again. Race, racism, and racialism in three Portuguese-speaking societies.
Favela-CLT Project. (2023, April 15). Rio de Janeiro Mayor Heavily Amends City’s 10-Year Master Plan In Final Phase, Prompting Intense Criticism from Civil Society. RioOnWatch. https://rioonwatch.org/?p=74585
Libertun, N., & Osorio, R. (2020, July 17). Favela-Bairro Upgrading Program: Assessing results 10 years later. Inter-American Development Bank. https://blogs.iadb.org/ ciudades-sostenibles/en/favela-bairro-upgrading-programassessing-results-10-years-later/
Richmond, M. A. (2019, October 3). The pacification of Brazil’s urban margins: how police and traffickers co-produce insecurity. LSE Latin America and Caribbean. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2019/10/03/thepacification-of-brazils-urban-margins-how-police-andtraffickers-co-produce-insecurity/
Feigl, H. (2024, March 1). positivism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/positivism
Martin, R. (Host). (2015, August 30). Rio’s Favelas Feel The Peace — And The Pressure — Of Pacification [Transcript]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2015/08/30/436402332/riosfavelas-feel-the-peace-and-the-pressure-of-pacification
Nolen, S. (2016, August 2). How Brazil’s big experiment in policing failed to make Rio safer for the Olympics. The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/ world/how-brazils-big-experiment-in-policing-failedto-make-rio-safer-for-the-olympics/article31283636/
Green, J. N., & Skidmore, T. E. (2021). Five Centuries of Change, published by Oxford University Press. Oxford University Press. https://library.brown.edu/create/ fivecenturiesofchange/
Rosenn, K. S. (2005). Federalism in Brazil. Duquesne Law Review, 43, 577-578
Bello, A. (2020, October 3). The growing importance of Latin America’s mayors. The Economist. https://www. economist.com/the-americas/2020/10/03/the-growingimportance-of-latin-americas-mayors
Agência de Notícias IBGE. (2020, December 2). Proportion of municipalities with armed Municipal Guard corps increases to 22.4%. Munic and Estadic 2019. Retrieved from https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/en/agencianews/2184-news-agency/news/29575-proportion-ofmunicipalities-with-armed-municipal-guard-corpsincreases-to-22-4
A SPECULATION ON THIRD SPACE
Situated In South Atlanta, the “Bottom Biennale”, Becomes A Celebration of the Dirty South, By Lifting the Veil, With Love and Care, We Pave Forward
RAYSHAD DORSEY
Rayshad Dorsey is a full-time lecturer at Clemson University school of Architecture and an architectural designer based in South Carolina. He is the founding partner of Studio Rayshad Dorsey and co-founding partner of the design collective Partners of Place. He holds a Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University. His research interest lies in the intersection of architecture, critical conservation, culture, community, and spatial planning, exploring how these intersections can inform the built environment.
ABSTRACT
The following article presents a speculative proposal centered around the ideology of Third Space as a potential strategy to address gentrification in the South Atlanta community. Using ideas of Third Space, this project speculates a middle ground that looks at a space for social inclusion, a space for both existing community members and newcomers. This space is about creating something different, a space negotiating both parties but embedding within it a space that houses and preserves the cultural fabric of South Atlanta. Situated on a 4.7-acre site in South Atlanta, this speculative project aims to bring art and architecture by proposing a “Bottom Biennale” for South Atlanta.
DISCLAIMER
This proposal grounds itself on conceptual and speculative ideas with a theoretical framework, and it has yet to undergo empirical testing or community consultation. The views, opinions, and suggestions presented in this journal entry are solely those of the author and do not represent an official or endorsed plan. Readers are encouraged to approach the content critically, recognizing the complexities and nuances associated with gentrification, community development, and cultural interventions. Before implementing any strategies or initiatives, comprehensive research, community engagement, and collaboration with relevant stakeholders is critical (ChatGPT, prompt “”write a disclaimer for a journal entry that looks at speculative proposal of third space Biennale to combat gentrification in the community of South Atlanta.”, February 22, 2024, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com). This speculative project began as a studio prompt at Harvard University Graduate School of Design taught by Professor Cory Henry, Creator and Founder of Atelier Cory Henry design studio, in collaboration with the South Atlanta-based non-profit organization Project South.
Situated in South Atlanta… The “Bottom Biennale… Becomes a Celebration of the Dirty South… By Lifting the Veil… With Love and Care… We Pave Forward.
“In that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from their roots to make room for the Medallion City Golf Course, there was once a neighborhood. It stood in the hills above the valley town of Medallion and spread all the way to the river. It is called the suburbs now, but when black people lived there it was called the Bottom.”
-Toni Morrison, Sula (1998)
INTRODUCTION
The Bottom is composed of neighborhoods designed by and for Black Americans. “At its core,” Ujijji Davis Williams writes, “the Bottom is a neighborhood with neighborhood things, like homes, shops, families, schools, churches” (2018). The Bottom, in its definition, has no one specific geographical location and no origination date. Its make-up varies across the country, but the Bottom is considered the first Black American urban landscape. Out of the Bottom came many “Black Firsts,” such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, dentists, small manufacturers, politicians, and community leaders. Often, these communities are considered disadvantaged, impoverished, dirty, unsafe, deteriorating, uneducated and situated in areas that are deserts of all essential needs. These Black Urban American landscapes have been constantly under attack throughout the country, particularly in the South, from race riots, Jim Crow laws, and urban renewal, to current day urban gentrification.
FIGURE 2 - Redlining + Beltline by Rayshad Dorsey (Person in image generated by author through AI generation using Midjourney, base map courtesy of Mapping Inequality Project, University of Richmond, 2024)
FIGURE 1 - Views from the Bottom by Rayshad Dorsey (Person in image generated by author through AI generation using Midjourney)
SITUATED IN SOUTH ATLANTA
“For me this space of radical openness is a margin—a profound edge. Locating oneself there is difficult yet necessary. It is not a ‘safe’ place. One is always at risk. One needs a community of resistance.” -bell hooks (Soja, 1996)
One of those communities in a constant battle with the inevitable plague of gentrification is South Atlanta, a land grant community where formerly enslaved African Americans settled after the Civil War. This Bottom neighborhood was and still is a prominent urban Black community, once home to Clark & Gammon Theological Seminary and cultural event spaces such as a movie theatre, and musical venues. Embedded in the urban fabric of South Atlanta is a cultural history subject to overt prejudicial tactics and discriminatory practices. South Atlanta was one of the grounds for the 1906 race riots, resulting in the death of twenty-five to forty African Americans (Kuhn & Mixon, 2022). South Atlanta played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement, contributing to the broader struggles for equality and justice.
Today, South Atlanta is rapidly changing due to gentrifica-
tion, resulting in a demographic shift, cultural and political displacement, and new urban socio-spatial segregation between newcomers and the existing community members. Projections of the $4.8 Billion Atlanta Beltline slated to be constructed through South Atlanta will only inflate these shifts. The Beltline is a 6,500-acre project funded by tax increment financing bonds that was launched in 2006 and is projected to be completed by 2030 (Immergluck, 2009). The project involves the redevelopment of an abandoned rail line that encircles the central area of metro Atlanta and includes the development of light rail, greenspace, and real estate. It has continued to be a catalyst of growing concerns regarding gentrification, racial inequities, and government spending (Merriman, 2019).
South Atlanta is just one of the neighborhoods in the path of the Beltline that will face concerns about gentrification and racial inequities. With a median household income of $21,804, an unemployment rate of 12%, and 28.8% of its residents living below the poverty line, this community urgently needs strategies to equip its residents with the necessary tools to contest gentrification (https://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.html, n.d.). According to the Urban Displacement Project, South Atlanta is considered an “Advance Gentrification” community with its median home value from 2000 to 2018 having a 28.1% increase. The spatial relationship between gentrification and the Beltline is becoming extremely evident in nine Census Tracts along the eastern portion of the Beltline. These tracts have traditionally housed majority low-income, Black, and Latinx communities but are experiencing increasing housing costs, and changing neighborhood character that have led to displacement (https:// www.city-data.com/neighborhood/ South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.html, n.d.). For South Atlanta it is essential to strategize approaches to fight against displacement and capitalize on the anticipated gentrification projected in this community.
FIGURE 3 - A Community Biennale by Rayshad Dorsey (People in image generated by author through AI generation using Midjourney)
THE “BOTTOM” BIENNALE…
As a response, this proposal aims to speculate on an event to help preserve and celebrate the existing fabric of South Atlanta using the ideology of a Third Space to create a middle ground for social inclusion, a space for the cohabitation of both existing community members and newcomers. This space is about creating something different, negotiating room for both parties but embedding within that space the cultural and historical roots of South Atlanta while also becoming a space of welcoming. A community that focuses on the integration of newcomers instead of being gentrified by newcomers.
Situated on a 4.7-acre site in South Atlanta, this speculative project aims to bring together all the arts by proposing a “Bottom Biennale” for the area. A biennale is a large-scale event typically focusing on art, architecture, design, music, or other creative fields. It takes place every two years in a specific location. These events are often organized by institutions, cities, or countries and serve as a platform for showcasing creative fields to help foster cultural exchange, dialogue, and collaboration for creatives globally.
The center site of this speculative biennale is home to “Project South,” which is an organization that has positioned itself in the South Atlanta neighborhood as a defense against the effects of gentrification, structural racism, and other forms of oppression. They cultivate resident and youth power to transform the South Atlanta neighborhood towards their vision of economic and racial justice (About Us, n.d.). Borrowing from their mission, the biennale would take a grassroots approach that nurtures community empowerment; creating spaces for economic opportunity, collaboration, creativity, innovation, justice, and inclusivity. To realize this grassroots vision, the biennale would have to transcend a single location, extending its reach across the entire community of South Atlanta. Collaborations between artists and residents would help to enable installations and exhibits to emerge in diverse spaces, from private yards and homes to vacant lots, local businesses, parks, and other spaces. As a result, visitors are encouraged to venture throughout the South Atlanta community, fostering meaningful interaction with its inhabitants.
FIGURE 4 - Dirty South Art Wall by Rayshad Dorsey (Art wall imagery and foreground people generated through AI generation using Midjourney)
BECOMES A CELEBRATION OF THE DIRTY SOUTH…
“…But it’s like this though: I’m tired of folks, — them closed-minded folks. It’s like we got a demo tape and don’t nobody wanna hear it. But it’s like this, the South got somethin’ to say. That’s all I got to say.” - André 3000 (Outkast, 2019)
Once the existing community of South Atlanta becomes empowered with the necessary tools to capitalize on gentrification and preserve the fabric of South Atlanta through the “Bottom Biennale,” it becomes essential to evolve the Biennale to attract a larger audience. With South Atlanta now serving as a blueprint for other Black and Latinx communities in low-income areas facing gentrification, the focus of the Biennale would transition from one solely focused on the local community to one that celebrates the entire region and communities like South Atlanta. The Biennale becomes a celebration of “the Dirty South,” showcasing the vibrant arts and cultural scene not only of the community of South Atlanta but also of similar communities that make up the entire Dirty South region.
The Dirty South movement that emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a significant cultural and musical spectacle within the South. It was embraced in cities like Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, and Memphis, this movement was rooted in the region’s rich history and diverse cultural influences. The Dirty South movement challenged traditional hip-hop norms and introduced a distinctive, raw, and gritty sound integrated with heavy-bass and soulful melodies. Artists like OutKast, UGK, and Three 6 Mafia played a pivotal role in shaping this unique musical landscape in the South that resonated and became a reflection of Southern Black Culture (Miller, 2008). The movement gave marginalized communities a voice to bring attention to the social and political issues that Blacks in the South faced. Through truthful authenticity, innovative mixing, and an unapologetic embrace of Black Southern Heritage; the Dirty South
movement reaffirmed the region’s cultural significance on the global stage by revitalizing and revolutionizing hip-hop (ChatGPT, prompt “write a paragraph that talks about the dirty south movement and how it came about”, February 22, 2024, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com)..
Bringing the cultural significance of the Dirty South to South Atlanta and the Biennale would celebrate the region’s Black heritage, creativity, resilience, and community spirit. Centering the Biennale in South Atlanta creates a model for other marginalized communities facing gentrification to learn from. The Biennale would challenge standard conventions, provoke thoughtful conversations, and inspire a dialogue while embracing the raw, gritty, get it by any means, and authentic essence of the Dirty South and the South Atlanta community.
FIGURE 5 - Dirty South Art Wall by Rayshad Dorsey (Art wall imagery and foreground people generated through AI generation using Midjourney)
BY LIFTING THE VEIL…
“Without knowing the other’s ‘world,’ one does not know the other, and without knowing the other one is really alone in the other’s presence because the other is only dimly present to one.”
-Maria Lugones
(1987)
In the collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B Du Bois, he states, “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in the American world” (1903). The veil is a term coined by Du Bois explaining the entity that separates Blacks from whites; it is the very thing that establishes the color line. Throughout The Soul of Black Folks, Du Bois weaves negro spirituals within the essays as a way of uplifting the spirits of Black people, connecting them to their ancestorial roots and ultimately expressing to others the joy and pain of the Black experience.
The Biennale, like Du Bois’s essays is a speculation that addresses the contestation of gentrification through integration. By bringing Black art to the forefront, the cultural identity of South Atlanta becomes a layered veil that gets lifted to create spaces for gentrifiers to experience what it means to be from South Atlanta. The Biennale becomes an event that reinvigorates the existing community economically and culturally while becoming a memorialized process that enlightens and integrates newcomers into the community. This speculation seeks to display and recognize the local pride of South Atlanta while also seeking to become the center for Dirty South Art. By lifting the veil in essence, the biennale empowers the South Atlanta community to welcome gentrification and newcomers with open arms. This outcome is possible because South Atlanta’s rich culture, narrative, and voice are preserved through the Biennale creating a defense that is strong enough to adverse some of gentrification’s negative effects and harms.
FIGURE 6 - Dirty South Art Wall by Rayshad Dorsey (Art wall imagery and foreground people generated through AI generation using Midjourney)
WITH LOVE AND CARE…
“It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
-Audre Lorde, The Audre Lorde Compendium (1984)
The essence of The Dirty South Biennale is positioned on Bell Hooks’s theory of “Love” and “Care,” by creating a space of collectivization, ultimately allowing others in, contributing to the betterment of people and society (1998). This theory is centered on the idea that love is a verb and not a noun. Through the action of “Love” and “Care” we can begin to heal. Through “Love” and “Care” by way of a Biennale of Dirty South, art, architecture, music, and even conversation will create the power to invest within the local and existing community of South Atlanta and embrace the inevitable changes of gentrification. Exposing the gentrifiers to the
cultural roots of the place, South Atlanta, will hopefully instore a sense of pride in the existing community. Instead of becoming the “other” the gentrifiers become a part of the fabric which makes up this rich loving community. To subvert the expectation that gentrification destroys the cultureof gentrified communities, it is essential to rethink the paradigm of the gentrifier and the gentrified and expose everyone to the culture, fabric, and soul of existing communities. As a society, we must break down the dichotomies of gentrification and focus on conversations, spaces, places, the “Love” and “Care” that could bring us closer together.
WE PAVE FORWARD.
In a world where change is inevitable, and ideologies of progression are ever present, it is crucial to think about how we empower progression to all classes, races, nationalities, identities, and genders. Planners, designers, and creatives of the built environment must find approaches that employ the inclusion of all. If these professions incorporate ideas of third spaces into all their design practices, it will enable diverse spaces that are accessible, adaptable, and culturally relevant. Third spaces are safe spaces meant to foster dialogue and conversation, ultimately exposing people to the souls of others. Often, third space gets misconstrued as just a public space, but we live in a society that has always designed public space, and often, those spaces have only existed for a select few. We must think beyond the notions of just creating public space and ask the questions of who we are creating space for, how we are promoting inclusivity, how we are fostering dialogue, and how we are preserving and exposing the existing fabric of communities. If we ask these questions, our values as people and as a society will be uplifted. Simply through engagement, dialogue, and conversation we can foster a society that respects, engages, supports, and encourages one another. Resulting in a community, a region, and an urban typology whose state of mind and way of life is preserved and not denied.
FIGURE 7 - We Pave Forward by Rayshad Dorsey (Person in image generated by author through AI generation using Midjourney)
WORKS CITED
ChatGPT, prompt “write a paragraph that talks about the dirty south movement and how it came about”, February 22, 2024, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com
Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1903.
Edward W. Soja, Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
hooks, bell. Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. New Press, 1998.
Immergluck, Dan. “Large Redevelopment Initiatives, Housing Values and Gentrification: The Case of the Atlanta Beltline.” Urban Studies 46, no. 8 (2009): 1723–45. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/43198502
Kuhn, Clifford and Gregory Mixon. “Atlanta Race Massacre of 1906.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Nov 14, 2022. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/ history-archaeology/atlanta-race-massacre-of-1906/
Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 110-113. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 1984
Merriman, David. “IMPROVING TAX INCREMENT FINANCING (TIF) FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.” Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2019. http://www.jstor.org/ stable/resrep22080
Miller, Matt. 2028. “Dirty Decade: Rap Music and the US South, 1997–2007.” Southern Spaces (blog). June 10, 2028. https://southernspaces.org/2008/dirty-decaderap-music-and-us-south-1997-2007/
Nelson, Robert K., LaDale Winling, et al. “Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America.” Edited by Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers. American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History, 2023. https:// dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining
Outkast Winning Best New Rap Group at the Source Awards 1995 03, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyxaYc9F48Y
Ujijji Davis, “The Bottom: The Emergence and Erasure of Black American Urban Landscapes” in the Avery Review 34 (October 2018), https://www.averyreview.com/ issues/34/the-bottom
“https://Www.City-Data.Com/Neighborhood/South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.Html.” n.d. Accessed February 18, 2024. https://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.html
“https://Www.City-Data.Com/Neighborhood/South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.Html.” n.d. Accessed February 18, 2024. https://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/South-Atlanta-Atlanta-GA.html
“Atlanta – Gentrification and Displacement – Urban Displacement.” n.d. Accessed February 18, 2024. https:// www.urbandisplacement.org/maps/atlanta-gentrification-and-displacement/
“About Us,” Project South: We All Count, We Will Not be Erased, accessed January 7, 2024, https://projectsouth. org/about/
PROPERTY RIGHTS, SIGN-VALUE, AND PLANNING FOR SELF-REALIZATION
MATT BOND
Matt Bond is a second-year master’s candidate with the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC. His academic interests include planning theory, planning for equity, and how space influences the production of culture. Matt received his undergraduate degree from UNC in Political Science and in his free time enjoys reading, writing, and supporting New York sports teams.
ABSTRACT
Land has different forms of value that can be altered through mechanisms such as property rights regulations, economic development, and community development. These changes can create mutually beneficial improvements in value for neighborhoods, cities, and regions between stakeholders such as homeowners, business owners, and even tenants. The two forms of value most considered in this paper are exchange value, which is the value for which land can be sold, and use-value, which is what the land can be used for and is dependent on the intended zoned use. But a third form of value, sign-value, (the value of the land as a social signifier), should also be taken into consideration. Associating an area with certain cultural products can increase the sign-value. This can be done through democratic and bottom-up mechanisms, with examples coming from Milan, Italy, and New York City. These success stories could shape future planning practices. I argue that by increasing the sign-value of an area, increases in other forms of value such as exchange-value soon follow.
GLOSSARY
Exchange-Value: The quantitative aspect of value. This is the value at which a commodity can be exchanged in the marketplace.
Use-Value: The qualitative aspect of value. This represents the value that a commodity has in meeting an individual’s needs. Use-value can be subjective and context-dependent.
Sign-Value: The social aspect of value. This represents the prestige or social status that a commodity passes on to the possessor. Similar to Use-Value, this is also context-dependent, as a commodity can signify different things to different communities of people.
Everyday life is intrinsically linked with social space, or, the spaces in which people inhabit and interact with the world. These spaces do not exist as passive entities, but are produced and reproduced by power relations, social structures, and societal norms. The spaces we produce then recreate and mold our own behavior (Lefebvre 2014). Commodifying land makes it subject to certain rights, which are determined by social relations and collectively conceived values. Commodifying land also imbues it with certain values that interested parties want to defend and expand upon. In a consumer society, these values are entirely relational, depending on the properties’ access to other amenities and through cultural symbols that signify certain status markers or prestige. One of the fundamental goals of planning is to work to increase the values of local properties to the mutual benefit of the community and property owners.
In this paper, I will briefly describe the nature of property rights in America, how property value is determined, and the goals of planning related to these natures. Then, I will hypothesize possible alternative solutions that planners could use to plan for these values through a more equitable and bottom-up framework.
SOCIALLY PRODUCED PROPERTY RIGHTS
Property ownership is commonly conceived as complete dominion over the land, with any regulations or limits being a hindrance to liberty and freedom. But this is a reductive analysis of how property rights are formed and utilized (Singer 2000). Modern property rights are produced by social relations and maintained by social institutions that address the interdependent nature of property. Property inherently generates disputes, as the interests of one property owner will conflict with another. Does one owner have the right to use their property in a way that would damage the ability of another to use their property? (Singer 2000) Even within a parcel of land there can be disputes over rights, such as the rights given to a bank that owns the mortgage, the rights of an insurance company to demand certain actions be taken, and the rights of a tenant who has a lease. To solve these problems,regulation from state and non-state sources is needed. Legal theorist Joseph William Singer proposes that property rights are formed by the law of democracy, which addresses our collective desire to use our
property as we wish, but also choose laws that protect our property from the actions of others. These laws are conceived through the collective norms and values of the populace (Singer 2014).
But this definition of property rights given by Singer is missing a key variable - property is a commodity with unique use-values and exchange-values. It provides a variety of possible uses, such as agriculture, commercial, and residential, and also provides access to additional use-values like businesses, communities, and schools (Logan and Molotch 1988). The exchange-value for property is also unique among commodities, as it is a fixed supply and significantly affected by the surrounding commodities/property. From this framework, regulation can be viewed as a tool to limit the use-value of one property owner to benefit both the use-value and exchange-value of another. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court originally sustained zoning laws to prevent a slaughterhouse from damaging neighbor land values (Warner and Molotch 2001); and in 2005, it was decided in Kelo v. City of New London that eminent domain could be used to transfer land from one private owner to another for local economic development. Property’s interdependence also leads to coalitions, as individuals share common characteristics and wants with other property owners within a community. These coalitions will partake in collective action, such as voting or political action committees, where property owners seek beneficial regulations that protect their assets from others who possess opposing wants. Zoning for different land uses and intensities is one example of such regulations. An additional form of collective action is through non-state mechanisms, such as homeowners’ associations, which can promote regulations that they view would benefit the community. In summary, property rights and regulations are created through social relations, as property owners try to seek regulatory policies that would benefit and increase the use and exchange value of their property.
FIGURE 1 - How tenants and homeowners experience the values.
PROPERTY AND SIGN-VALUE
Another way that property owners attempt to maximize the monetary value of their property is through increasing access to amenities, such as shops and schools, and also by creating growth. The 2023 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Home Buyers and Sellers Trends Report found that proximity to amenities was among the most important factors influencing neighborhood choice for home buyers, such as: convenience to shopping, convenience to entertainment and leisure activities, and the quality of school district (Yun 2023). Property entrepreneurs, like developers and landowners, also value the increased access to amenities and growth, because the increased desirability for their land can result in larger profits. Business owners also like growth as it raises the use-value of their property, and more people means more opportunities to conduct business. American sociologist Harvey Molotch calls this system of growth-oriented development “the growth machine.” The growth machine is administered by a land-based elite who compete with the elite of other municipalities for resources that can produce growth. This competition creates economic profits for the elite, sometimes at the expense of those who live within the community (Logan and Molotch 1988). But, the theory of the growth machine denies the democratic nature of this growth, and additional work needs to be done to account for not only the seller of land but the buyer and consumer.
Molotch’s theory of the growth machine has faced recent scrutiny, in that it does not always play out in reality. Los Angeles from 1980s to the 2000s was dominated by an antigrowth elite, resulting in a chronic housing shortage going against the very nature of a growth machine (Whittemore 2012). His mistake was that he defined “growth” only through direct population growth, rather than economic growth or growth of values. Just as advertising does not solely target the use-value of an object, but also its sign-value, so do cities and towns in their pursuit of economic growth (Baudrillard 1998). Growth can be seen as a way to maximize the signvalue of a property.
In the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard’s analysis of the consumer society, consumption is about manipulating signs to distinguish oneself as a member of ideal or high-status groups (Baudrillard 1998). Individuals attempt to do this with property, due to property’s dual characteristic of being a
commodity and a means to connect to more commodities. Property is both a sign and can be further manipulated as one, such as through interior/exterior decoration, increasing house size, and having a pool. Another way to signify membership to an in-group is through manipulating the surrounding area to build a commodity culture. A commodity culture can differentiate those who live in the community and build the identity of community members. Visible examples of this are the status given to those living in a gated community, or those living in an area with luxury stores and restaurants. A less visible example is how a city with a professional sports team has an elevated status above other cities without teams. This manipulation does not necessarily correlate with use-value or exchange-value (although it will most likely affect these values), but rather the sign-value (Baudrillard 2019).
In the 2023 NAR Home Buyers and Sellers Trends Report, of all the factors to influence neighborhood choice, the most important was neighborhood quality (Yun 2023). Defining what makes a quality neighborhood is entirely subjective and can be subsumed under the umbrella of commodity culture. And with commodity culture, differentiation is key. There must be a variety of options to consume so that people can socially define themselves as individuals. While prestige is a fundamental concept as a signifier, commodity culture promotes a variety of options which people will want to identify with. To differentiate themselves (to promote economic growth through use as social signifiers), cities will define themselves as artsy cities, as family-oriented suburbs, tech-hub cities, destination cities, etc. This process is democratic in nature - consumers want and need these commodities (options), and producers want and need to profit so they can in turn become consumers, who then define themselves through social signifiers. Strategies that can increase the sign-value of a community, such as producing certain cultural products or establishing an elite culture, should be key components of city planning.
PLANNING FOR VALUE AND SELF-REALIZATION
City planning as a field is made up of a variety of different practices, all managed through a social and political process featuring many actors, each representing different interests (Friedman 1987). Local actors trying to maximize the values of their property, whether through
property rights disputes or consumer-oriented development, make up the bulk of local planning. Significant status and prestige are given to those who own detached homes with a yard. Because of the status and prestige related to this style of home, many urban areas have essentially become a mass agglomeration of single-family homes. This leads to a constraint of housing supply and disputes between developers who want to maximize the exchange-value of the land they own, homeowners who want to maintain the status of their neighborhood (sign-value), and those who cannot afford to live where jobs are located (use-value). Even those who do not own property, such as tenants, play their part in the system, as they reap the benefits stemming from increases in the use-value or the restructuring of the sign-value. However, increases in use and sign-value can enable increases in exchange-value that can hurt these tenants, such as through gentrification - where increased amenities and services in previously low-value communities (and the formation of a desirable culture) benefits homeowners and displaces renters (Qiang, Timmons, and Wang 2020).
To most equitably maximize the values of a town, city, or region, we must use alternative planning strategies. One of these alternative strategies is to plan for increasing access to self-realization opportunities. Self-realization is the active actualization and externalization of the powers and abilities of an individual. For example, actualization involves transforming a potential into an actuality, where an individual develops a certain ability, such as painting or cooking. Externalization involves demonstrating these new abilities to an external audience (be that other individuals or a community) (Elster 1986). Self-realization could serve as a partial replacement of commodities for ways that people can define themselves. Rather than defining oneself through what they consume, they can define themselves by what they can do and who they do it with. Relatedly, grounded culture is the culture that emerges out of face-to-face interactions that is intended to create meaning, moral boundaries, norms, values, and beliefs. Grounded culture can be created through a process of collective self-realization, where individuals attain self-realization through community projects or endeavors. Commodity culture, where all culture is based on seducing an individual to buy a product, is directly counter to grounded culture (Koch and Elmore 2006). Grounded culture, formed through self-realization, can
occur in places where people do not have access to the same levels of consumption due to relative economic disadvantage, or as a form of active resistance against certain powers they feel neglected by. Two examples of this are: the development of art culture in 1970’s Milan, Italy and the development of hip-hop culture in New York City from the 1970’s to 1980’s.
MILAN AND NEW YORK CASE STUDIES
In Milan in the 1960s and 1970s, there was active antagonism between the working-class and the planners/city government. The 1953 comprehensive plan called for the “deportation of proletarians to the periphery” and for them to be replaced with luxury apartments and offices. As a form of resistance, the inhabitants’ response was to actively reappropriate the use-values of urban spaces in Milan. This was done by utilizing abandoned buildings and public spaces to engage in activities of collective leisure and creativity (Sevilla-Buitrago 2021). These activities of collective creativity led to the development of the Arte Povera movement. By allowing for art to be a part of lived space, this movement transformed the ways in which the public could interact with artists and experience art (Galimberti 2013). Forming outside the machinations of commodity culture, Milan became a symbol of art culture; but this resulted in a growth of exchange-values that was reinforced by new stores, excessive policing, and a commodification of the grounded culture. Those who originally contributed to this movement were slowly pushed out of Milan by the combined forces of increased policing, rising property values, and the commodification of their culture, and they could not experience the material benefits created by their movement (Sevilla-Buitrago 2022).
1970s New York also faced antagonisms between the city inhabitants and the planners/city government. The Bronx neighborhood was targeted for municipal disinvestment where public amenities, such as hospitals and fire stations, were continuously defunded. This, combined with landlord arson and destructive urban renewal projects, led to the Bronx becoming a symbol of urban decay. Between 1953 and 1980, the total number of housing units lost is estimated to be around 108,000 (Ansfield 2020). Out of this neglect came a new cultural movement - hip-hop, which was formed by young res-
idents of the south Bronx externally from consumption models of cultural production. Hip-hop had its own codes, norms, and values which, similarly to the Arte Povera movement, involved a reclamation of the right to the city. Public spaces and vacant buildings were used as grounds for cultural production, whether through music or dancing, and led to the development of rap as a musical genre and breakdancing as a style of dance. Trains, buildings, and bridges also became canvasses for the new Graffiti art movement developed through hip-hop (Chang 2005). While vilified at the time, rap, breakdancing, and Graffiti art have become mainstays in urban culture throughout the world. Formed through grounded culture, hip-hop has been absorbed into commodity culture and now represents a multi-billion-dollar industry.
ADDITIONAL ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES
Third places, areas such as libraries, malls, and coffee shops, are on the decline throughout the United States. These places excel at producing social interactions and a sense of community that can lead to the formation of a grounded culture, and add to the sign-value of a certain area. If one of the fundamental goals of local planning is to maximize values, then planning for self-realization and the restoration of these third places can lead to the formation of a groundedculture that could create new sign-value for a community.
To create this new sign-value, planners should allow for
alterations to property rights. These alterations could include allowing vacant buildings to be used for projects of self-realization or cultural production, as that would result in an increase in sign-value for the community. However, an important caveat is that planners need to enact policies that would allow for the communities responsible for the cultural production to reap the social or monetary benefits of their actions. In both the Arte Povera movement in Milan and the hip-hop movement in New York, local residents were not able to receive the benefits of their products, and faced displacement due to the gentrification caused by the sign-values that they produced. A possible solution that would at least offset the potential process of gentrification is to fund the building of affordable housing through the increase in taxes that would arise from increased property values.
CONCLUSION
Different mechanisms exist that facilitate the production of space, including property rights and their disputes, economic structures, and cultural production/consumption. Planning acts to insert direct human agency within these mechanisms to increase the values of property on both a collective and individual level. One way planning seeks to increase these values is through property law and regulations to property rights - both defend the values of collective property from individual meddling in an increasingly interdependent community of property. An additional way is through increasing access to amenities such as schools and jobs. The third way is by forming a local commodity culture that increases the sign-value of local properties (the sign-value being a marker of status or prestige tied to the relational status of commodities). Understanding this framework of central goals and mechanisms of city planning can help us understand alternative strategies to produce values in ways we may have viewed counterintuitive in the past, such as restoring third places or using vacant buildings for cultural production. These strategies may not directly increase the use-value or exchange-value of a community, but instead increase the sign-value, which would eventually bleed into other forms of value.
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UNIFICATION THROUGH PLACEMAKING
PRESTON JANCO, MPA, CZO
Preston Janco is the Town Planner/Zoning Administrator for the Town of Forest City. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in political science and a minor in history from Coastal Carolina University. He earned his Master of Public Administration degree from Liberty University and is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in international relations. Preston has close to 5 years of local government experience and takes pride in advocating for the betterment of his community.
ABSTRACT
Unification through Placemaking focuses on placemaking as a tool for unifying the community. The world is becoming increasingly divided and is leading to conflict and violence. By researching the planning structures of Savannah, Paris, and Forest City, and analyzing how the act of placemaking can lead to unification within the community, division can disappear. These three municipalities were able to create a unified community by following proper steps to placemaking. Savannah was created to be a grid-like city where urbanism and nature exist in harmony. Paris has invested heavily in an art based society and has been consistently implementing modern planning techniques. Forest City has embraced its Hallmark movie like appearance and invested heavily in a landscaped Main Street, the Thermal Belt Rail Trail, and an outdoor amphitheater named Pavilion of Parks Square (POPS). For that success to occur the community entered a realm of social cohesion that is only possible through placemaking.
INTRODUCTION
Communities across the globe are experiencing a great amount of division that appears to be worsening each day. What if communities could be united by a notion as simple as the redefinition of the word “place?” The word “place” may be understood by most as a general location of average importance. However, what if the word was interpreted differently? Let’s substitute the word “place” with the “placemaking” which is defined as the process of designing and shaping public spaces in a way that enhances their overall quality, functionality, and appeal to the community. It involves transforming various types of spaces, such as parks, streets, squares, and waterfronts, into vibrant and engaging environments that encourage social interaction, cultural expression, and a sense of belonging.
Placemaking should be used such that it incorporates all community members regardless of political beliefs, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identification, or other identity. When one thinks of Savannah, Georgia, Paris, France, or Forest City, North Carolina they likely do not imagine an average city. Savannah is viewed as a distinguished and historic city, the film location for the movie Forrest Gump, and a well-planned city where history, nature, and urbanism exist in harmony with one another. Paris is a historic European city with a modern planning structure that contains some of the greatest culinary minds of the world, world-renowned art, and historic structures. With a population of 7,000 people, Forest City is not nearly the size of Paris or Savannah. Despite its size Forest City has been a stand out town with heavy investment in its placemaking status. The town has earned the title of “Christmas Town” and it has a beautifully landscaped Main Street that is reminiscent of Hallmark movies.
Placemaking is one of the most important tools planners can use. Successful placemaking may be different for every community but one thing that stays consistent in their accomplishments is that the community is united. The art of placemaking can be wielded to create community unification despite its political, economic, and cultural differences, ultimately creating a future worth fighting for.
COMMUNITY DIVISION
It is no secret that the world is facing an unprecedented amount of divisiveness, so much so that it feels as if the sense of community has been lost (Wrobel, 2016). The average American can see how political division increasingly leads to violence. Families and friends are at odds with each other, which has caused a rift in the community. According to Dimock and Wike:
“Eight-in-ten registered voters in both camps said their differences with the other side were about core American values, and roughly nine-in-ten – again in both camps – worried that a victory by the other would lead to “lasting harm” to the United States.” (2020)
This kind of thinking is difficult to reverse. If someone truly believes that opposing ideals threaten their very existence, how do you convince people to be united again?
The United States is not the only country facing division. The international order is facing an increase in division and conflict. According to the United Nations, “conflict and violence are currently on the rise” (United Nations, n.d.). This conflict and violence is different from the conflict of the past. The world is not faced with multi-national conflicts where every developed and developing country is mobilized for war. Instead, fragmented conflicts and crime rates are causing most of the violence around the world (United Nations, n.d.). This is a terrifying fact to accept because there is not just one war that needs to end for the conflict and violence to be resolved. Instead, there is a sickness within communities around the world that needs to be addressed in a variety of methods. Placemaking could be one of those methods.
PLACEMAKING COMMUNITIES
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
To truly understand the placemaking structure of Savannah, one must go back to the roots of this exceptional southern city. General James Oglethorpe, the founder of Savannah and one of the original urban planners in the United States, intelligently designed Savannah (Erwin, 2003). General Oglethorpe designed a grid-like system where every block had its own town square and parks, a perfect blend of urbanization and nature, a grocery store, pharmacy, and any other daily necessity. The design was exceptionally different from other colonial towns because it focused on a repeated block pattern to connect neighborhoods, city squares, and streets (American Society of Engineers, n.d.). This early planning led Savannah to be known as one of the most pedestrian-friendly cities in the world while preserving its one-of-a-kind history.
Savannah is not just known for its planning structure, but also for its focus on the arts and historical preservation. Savannah is home to one of the top art schools in the United States, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). This
city also has a strong historical preservation foundation, the Historic Savannah Foundation. This organization was started by a group of seven women who were disturbed by the number of historic buildings being torn down for lackluster developments such as parking lots (Historic Savannah Foundation, n.d.). These seven women rallied together with their own capital to buy up historic properties (Historic Savannah Foundation, n.d.). In 2024, this organization acts as a non-profit to mobilize consistent community funding to continue the original mission of preserving Savannah’s history by further expanding its portfolio of 400 saved historic buildings. Without this organization the history of Savannah may have been lost and their exceptional locality that revolves around history may not exist (Historic Savannah Foundation, n.d.).
PARIS, FRANCE
Paris is by far the largest and oldest city in this article. The Paris that everyone knows and loves today grew out of the modernization of the Second Empire (Choi, 2023). This was a period where they truly started to recognize their historical importance and began to implement modern planning techniques to preserve their history while modernizing the city. Paris is also known for its distinguished culture and art. This is due to the federal government’s funding of the art industry, which they have committed to invest in since World War II (Berman, 2019). This investment has led to the flooding of Paris with “art studios, galleries, theaters, and interdisciplinary spaces” (Berman, 2019). Having these types of spaces to entice social cohesion is one of the most important aspects of placemaking.
The city is also known for its success in placemaking triangulation. Paris layers land uses in such a way that they complement each other in public areas (Project for Public Spaces, 2008). Some examples of these triangulation areas include the location of cafés next to parks, walkable areas, and small retail shopping establishments (Project for Public Spaces, 2008). This is
Belt Rail Trail which connects to all of its surrounding communities.
Forest City is also known as a “Christmas Town” due to its annual Christmas light ceremony which lasts the whole month of December. Leah Heather described the event as follows:
“Their historic downtown is like something from a Christmas movie -- including carriage rides, ice-skating, hot chocolate, and boutiques with illuminated windows full of unique gifts. They offer classic Americana like a soda fountain, vintage decor and charming architecture.” (2022)
represented in Figure 2, with chairs being placed around a park. This provides an enriched culture that residents and tourists can thrive on and generates a small-town feel despite its population of more than two million permanent residents.
FOREST CITY, NORTH CAROLINA SMALL TOWN, DEEP ROOTS
To most, Forest City, North Carolina may appear to be a typical small Appalachian town. However, this is a community that has distinguished itself through placemaking. Despite its small stature, it should be viewed as a competitor to Savannah and Paris. Forest City is renowned for its historic mill town society that has a beautifully landscaped Main Street reminiscent of the small towns in a Hallmark movie. When you enter Main Street, the historic and well-preserved buildings stand out, the colors from the perennials lining the center of the street are exceptional, and the picturesque brick smokestack from the abandoned Florence Mill can be seen towering over the historic buildings. As you approach the mill you will notice an outside amphitheater called Pavilion On Park Square (POPS) as well as a section of the 13.5 mile Thermal
Forest City has been successful so far in its placemaking structure but placemaking is always evolving. The municipality is looking to apply for a grant to fund a housing needs assessment and to establish a redevelopment commission. If this is accomplished, Forest City will be able to address its housing crisis by bringing affordable workforce housing and repairing blighted properties. They are also looking to establish a social district on its Main Street. A social district is a legal area in which a customer can carry alcohol from store to store, which has been shown to increase economic development opportunities. None of these feats would be possible without the unification of the Forest City community. Community groups, social groups, nonprofits, businesses, local government, state government, and the federal government all came together with their individual resources to create the Thermal Belt Rail Trail and Pavilion on Parks Square. Additionally, the community works with each other every year to update the landscaping on Main Street and bring new resources forward such as the idea of a social district, establishing a redevelopment commission, and applying for grants to bring affordable housing to the area.
FIGURE 3 - Main Street, Forest City, North Carolina. (Stansberry, 2019) https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forest-City-Main-St-block-nc.jpg
PLACEMAKING AS A TOOL FOR UNIFICATION
Division and the placemaking methods of three notable municipalities have been discussed. How can we use placemaking as a tool for unification? Akbar & Edelenbos (2021) say:
“‘Place-making’ (as a process) is defined as an activity of integrating various actors’ viewpoints and functions in order to transform urban spaces; by not only viewing place as static spatial aspect and designing the physical form but also taking into consideration the social processes that construct places.”
By this definition, placemaking can only occur through the integration of differing viewpoints. That is a significant step towards unification. Society views opposing ideas in a negative way. The rise in violence and conflict throughout the world can be attributed to divisive ideas. The standards of implementing placemaking requires opposing ideas to be up for discussion. Opposing viewpoints are a strength whenever community members are discussing the future of their town. An influx of ideas can form placemaking structures that may have never been considered otherwise.
Placemaking can peak anyone’s interest in a community because it can be centered on “economic development, community development, transportation, healthcare, and other
fields to advance local growth” (Vey & Love, 2023). Characteristics like these affect everyone. Everyone needs quality healthcare, a strong job, and reliable transportation to get to work and amenities. These are three undeniable characteristics that can unite anyone in a community. It is proven that placemaking increases the likelihood for community empowerment (Akbar & Edelenbos, 2021). The community can feel empowered when they work with each other to plan for the betterment of their future. The Historic Savannah Foundation empowered the community to preserve its own history. The Forest City community felt empowered to channel strong investment to projects such as Pavillion on Parks Square and the Thermal Belt Rail Trail. Additionally, making your community a destination, supporting small businesses, promoting the arts, and encouraging innovation and tourism can all be aspects of a community with a successful placemaking structure (SOAR, 2022). Savannah, Paris, and Forest City all have these characteristics. The act of placemaking in these locales led to the unification of their respective citizens.
CONCLUSION
Savannah, Paris, and Forest City are all great examples of how society can embrace placemaking to create community unification. When placemaking is used as a planning tool the community must unite to be prosperous. Successful planning can bring amenities that can empower a community such as an outdoor amphitheater, a rail-trail, preservation of history, and preservation of the arts. Savannah, Paris, and Forest City have also encouraged social cohesion, encouraged civic structures, and built a welcoming environment. Considering the impacts of placemaking on the local-level, as demonstrated here, imagine the strides toward social unity that could be made if placemaking was scaled up even more. Division would be a thing of the past and everyone would realize that their differences are what unites them into something great and unbreakable. Listen to your urban planners because we may be able to get us close to world peace.
WORKS CITED
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THE IMPORTANCE OF GROWING
Agriculture in Communities
DR. CHRIS QUATTRO
Dr. Chris Quattro is an Assistant Professor of Community and Regional Planning at Appalachian State University. They received their doctorate in City and Regional Planning, focusing on land use planning and planning law, from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Quattro’s research looks at the implications of regulatory systems on planning objectives and community outcomes. They also currently work as the Lead Land Development Researcher for a private law firm and previously served as the Director of City Planning and Development for San Antonio City Council District 1.
ABSTRACT
Concerns over the sustainability of the global food market have highlighted the problem of people’s disassociation from their food in the United States. Meanwhile, underutilized open space across U.S. communities perpetuates the Urban Heat Island created by sprawling lawns and parking lots that occupy land that could be used for food production. This article discusses the importance of incorporating urban agricultural practices into underutilized spaces, the small changes individuals can make to become more acquainted with their food, regulatory shifts to support these efforts, and how households can incorporate food production from food waste into everyday living.
INTRODUCTION
Planners worldwide recognize the importance of incorporating urban agricultural practices as infill into existing community spaces. By engaging in small changes, publicly and privately, individuals can become more acquainted with their food and involved in urban ecology. With minimal allocations of land for growing, households can incorporate food production from food waste into everyday living. While small efforts for food production are unlikely to meet complete nutrition demand, they can provide supplementary produce and diet education for communities. Both are important for manifesting a sense of place through the development of third spaces, fostering an awareness of our food systems, building relationships with natural resources, and reclaiming the rights of residents to grow food within their communities.
Throughout history, cities across cultures engaged in small-scale horticulture incorporated into existing urban fabrics. Historic examples can be observed by studying allotment gardens in Europe, use of fruit or nut trees as street-scaping in ancient North Africa, Xuanhua vineyard gardening in China, Aztec floating gardens, U.S. war-time victory gardens, and terrace farms in the Incan Empire. Through policy and planning, these communities purposely integrated these practices into ancient urban areas.
Today, much of the land area not occupied by buildings in existing towns and cities becomes parking lots or grassy areas (Fransen 2023, Jordan 2023). This is largely because of regulatory systems like zoning that discourage farming within urbanized areas and mandate high parking requirements (Gray 2022, Shoup 2018, Speck 2018). Green spaces comprising solely of grass have no benefit for reducing the urban heat island (Armson et al 2012). Parking uses extensive hardscaping and concentrates air pollution from cars in ways that impact environmental quality.
Instead, cities can capitalize on the productivity opportunities offered by green spaces that extend beyond being mere open areas. Research shows that community members, particularly in low-income and underserved areas, are more likely to utilize green spaces with a structured purpose, more amenities, and landscaping beyond lawns (Fransen 2023). Supporting communities’ right to use
public spaces for important activities, like agriculture, reinforces the significance of individuals’ right to work, live, play, and produce.
Regulatory and cultural shifts could support urban agricultural development in both public and private spaces. Existing regulatory systems do not support food production within city and town limits. For example, some regulations require that certain sex or species of trees be planted to avoid fruit and food production. Reasons for these regulations link to concerns about additional sanitation needs from rotting or un-maintained growth. However, capturing these opportunities to support food growth and ensuring the product makes its way into the hands of those who need it would be a higher use of land with a more urgent public purpose.
HIGHEST AND BEST USE OF LAND
The goal of most land use planners is to encourage and regulate development of the land throughout their jurisdiction for the highest and best use (Berke and Godschalk 2006; Levine 2005; Hirt 2014). What could be a more important land use than food production? Humans rely on food every day, and unlike most other land uses, we could not survive without it. Yet, agricultural land uses and food production are often excluded from city footprints altogether by land use regulations, and are instead relegated to exterior rural areas (Gray 2022; Mees and Stone 2012).
The current use of open space in built environments across the U.S. is predominately for parking, which contributes to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) and is not the highest and best use of that land. The UHI effect is when the ambient air temperature in an area is higher than what is typical for other surrounding areas. The UHI is one of the leading concerns for sustainability and human health, and perpetuated by exclusion of plant growth from cities in favor of flat surfaces like lawns and pavement (Estoque et al 2017; Heaviside et al 2017; Li et al 2023; Shahmohammadi et al 2011; Zhao 2018). Using those spaces for urban growth can be much more effective at reducing UHI island effects (Loughner et al 2012), while also improving land productivity. Table 1 lists policy and regulatory changes for planners that
support transferring the use of land away from hardscaping or lawns to food production.
Table 1: Potential Strategies for Planners to Support Community Agriculture
1. Include support for agricultural practices communitywide in comprehensive and strategic planning documents
2. Reassess zoning codes to allow for community gardens, greenhouses, and livestock
3. Public land leasing programs for private and community garden space
4. Revise building codes to allow for green roofs and rooftop gardens
5. Offer stormwater fee or property tax waivers for food producing land or buildings
6. Reduce restrictions on individuals’ rights to access publicly available land
7. Offer grant programs to community organizations that engage in agriculture
8. Underused city land for food producing landscaping
9. Transfer sheriff-sale abandoned or vacant property to community land trusts focused on agriculture
1) Many cities are enacting planning documents that support urban agriculture practices, such as Philadelphia’s Greenworks Plan (2009). Food-based policies are recommendations that form the legal framework in which urban agriculture regulation may exist, but local governments must be proactive about effectuating those policies through implementation (Berg 2014).
2) Implementation mechanisms include relaxing zoning regulations to allow community gardens and other urban agriculture land uses. In Philadelphia, this took the form of adding Urban Agriculture land uses to the permitted use table, adopted in 2012, that include “Community Garden,” “Market or Community Supported Farms,” “Animal Husbandry,” and “Horticulture, Nurseries, and Greenhouses,” (City of Philadelphia Unified Development Code, Section 14-602). The scale of these land uses is reflected by which zoning districts they are permitted in, with community gardens permitted by-right across residential, commercial, and special districts but more intense Animal Husbandry and Horticulture focused in industrial areas. Additional regulations include items like required fencing for community garden spaces and appropriate storage of compost material.
3) Park departments are also beginning to create garden-leasing programs to allow private individuals use of otherwise unproductive parkland for gardening. Minneapolis, St. Louis, St. Paul, and Fairfax County are among the jurisdictions offering opportunities for residents to lease unused or designated public lands for gardening purposes.
4) Relaxing regulations to allow green roofs supports mitigation of urban heat, while also employing otherwise underutilized space for food production and growth. Boston, for example, allowed rooftop gardens by-right in residential, commercial, and industrial zones beginning in 2009 (Good and Moccia 2009). They are also permitted as a conditional use in other zoning districts. For a city like Boston with limited open space, this maximizes land use potential while improving environmental outcomes.
5) Some cities waive stormwater impact fees for gardening or green roofs, motivating property owners to repurpose their buildings or lots. Landowners are capitalizing on the potential of their rooftops or lawns by leasing for agricultural uses, thus taking advantage of fee relief programs.
6) While some areas are supporting regulatory change to allow agricultural practices on private land, they may continue to maintain restrictions that prevent a more productive use of public lands through urban agriculture. Take, for example, the City of Boston’s Code Section 16-19.1: Use of Public Grounds prohibits occupying grassy public areas at all. Focusing efforts on how to increase access and utilization of public lands by amending codes such as these, and engaging in community-organized efforts for urban agriculture, can revolutionize the role of public space for a lasting positive impact on community access to food and land.
7) Grassroots efforts that engage in large programmatic efforts to repurpose vacant or underutilized parcels operate almost exclusively with volunteer labor and grant funding. A legal review issued by Duke School of Law argues that urban agriculture programs, like that in Detroit, require federal financial support similar to what is available for rural farming in order to modernize our food production systems for sustainability and availability (Mersol-Barg 2013). Detroit Future City, a non-profit
city planning organization, drafted a strategic plan in 2013 that includes recommendations for increasing the already growing number of urban farming enterprises within the city. Their efforts produced a Field Guide, available for anyone looking to maximize land use on a lot through agriculture, as well as an interactive map on their website indicating the locations and details of existing community farms.
8) Cities often landscape along city-owned right-of-way’s, storm water features, or other easements. However, selections of landscaping and trees rarely include those which are food producing. Choosing food-producing plants like berry bushes and fruit trees can be a simple way to transition the space for food production (Figure 1). Engaging with non-profits and other community organizations can reassure individuals of their right to this food to reduce waste.
9) In addition to public lands, unused private land can also be repurposed for food production. Allowing temporary use of abandoned property by community garden group
returns this land to productive use while legal standing of the property is in flux. Depending on the property’s legal status, this can lead to permanent transfer of land to entities like a community land trust through mechanisms such as Pennsylvania’s squatter’s rights laws which grant legal ownership to 501c3 stewards of land after 21 years of abandonment by the property owner.
Combined, these approaches would allow planners to transform the landscape in their jurisdictions to ensure the highest and best use of land. By repurposing vacant or underutilized spaces for food-producing infill, planners would support improvements to the health and wellbeing of their constituency. Increasing plant growth in developed areas, particularly that which is food-producing, will have long-term improvements on urban heat, air quality, access to fresh produce, and community knowledge of food systems. To expand on these benefits, planners can also work with legislators and policymakers to dismantle other barriers to agricultural development, such as HOA deed restrictions and brownfield sites.
FIGURE 1 - LEFT: Lemon trees with ripe fruit planted in the city right-of-way between the sidewalk and curb (King William Historic District, San Antonio, TX); Source: Dr. Chris Quattro (2023); RIGHT: Lime tree ripe with fruit similarly planted (Garden Street, Santa Barbara, CA): Source: Dr. Chris Quattro (2024)
PEOPLE AND THEIR FOOD
With growing concerns about environmental sustainability and a globalized food market, the disassociation between people and their food is an issue within the United States. An annual survey conducted by Michigan State University shows that Americans are interested in improving their food consumption practices, but struggle with understanding their food and what is best practice (Food@MSU 2023). Learning about food production and systems through active participation is a primary way to improve the relationship between people and their food.
Engaging in hands-on food growth is a fundamental way that individuals can better understand the food production process. There are many small ways that individuals can engage in this, including home gardening of food-producing plants (Figure 2). Additionally, supporting CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture) can provide a household with
with produce while also learning about what foods are in-season and grown locally. Taking part in community gardens and local planting initiatives can further the appreciation of the grown environment. Learning the history of food products is also important to understanding the intricacies of our current food markets and the climate adaptations of plant life.
Planners possess a unique advantage in enabling activities that enhance the community’s comprehension of the effort, process, and risk related to our current food systems. Cities can generate policies that relax regulatory restrictions and financially support community-based efforts for urban agriculture. Effective programmatic efforts would provide opportunities for residents to answer the questions: How does our food grow? How does our food get from the producers to our plate? How do risks and impacts vary between products on supermarket shelves?
FIGURE 2 - Tomatillo plant on a kitchen windowsill (left) and bell pepper blooms in a pot (right). Source: Dr. Chris Quattro (2023).
FOOD FROM FOOD WASTE
80 million tons of food is wasted in the United States annually (Feeding America 2023). One of the most effective ways individuals can contribute to reducing food waste is by constructively utilizing unused food products. The availability of food supply today is far superior to what was available to our ancestors, thanks to technological advances in refrigeration, transportation, and food preservation. However, the seemingly endless supply available at grocery stores today may be a major contributor to the lack of resourcefulness for the various components of produce in U.S. culture. Food that touches the floor is thrown away. Seeds, stems, and peels are considered useless. However, these cultural norms disregard the value of food, are disassociated with the reality of the food production process, and ultimately lead to an increase in food waste. Instead, portions of food not utilized immediately in cooking can be repurposed productively.
Food that drops on the floor, begins to overripen, or waste (stems, peels) that would otherwise be thrown away can be repurposed in recipes, germinated for growth, or as compost. Some food products, like bananas and peaches, are ideal for baking once they overripen. Many other plants, like pumpkins and tomatoes, are more likely to have fertile seeds if the fruit itself can overripen beyond what is typically used in cooking. As a last resort, unus-
able portions of food can be composted to produce rich soil for additional growth. Small portions of food can be composted easily by baking it for a short time, then mixing it into the bottom soil of pots. Compost bins come in various sizes for different living situations, and can be offered as a city service. Dropped produce can still be used for seeds or compost (Figure 3).
Seeds from produce are often fertile, particularly if they are locally grown. The fertility of a seed can be tested by placing it in a clean container with a moist paper towel for 3-5 days. Using containers with a clear lid, boiling the water used inside, and placing them in a sunny location (like a window) will help prevent mold. Most everyday produce, like peppers, tomatoes, legumes, and citrus will quickly germinate in this environment if the seeds are viable. If seedlings begin to develop, they can be transferred into the soil for home gardening. Plants like peppers also self-pollinate, making them ideal for food-producing house plants. Growing from seeds in small spaces or indoors is possible by using large pots with a hole and rocks at the bottom for drainage, and placing these pots near a sunny window or on a porch (Figure 4). Many other food products, beyond fresh produce, can also be used productively to support food growth. Coffee grounds and tea leaves are excellent pest deterrents while supporting the growth of citrus or other acidic foods. Egg shells contain high protein and calcium
FIGURE 3 - Plants grown from dropped food. Left and Middle: Black bean plants grown from beans that overflowed when soaking. Right: Raspberry bush grown from a berry smashed by a toddler. Source: Dr. Chris Quattro (2023).
stores valuable for vegetable and legume growth. Brown paper bags or unpainted cardboard from food storage can also be shredded and mixed in with soil. Small portions of purchased garlic, onions, and potatoes can be placed into soil to grow (Figure 5).
CONCLUSION
Many jurisdictions recognize the challenge of ensuring that all land within their boundaries is utilized for the highest and best use. While infill for housing and services is certainly necessary to reduce sprawl, some land must be left unoccupied by structures to generate urban design with satisfactory light and air flow. Open spaces throughout cities can be better utilized by repurposing land use away from lawns and parking to food production.
The UN Office of the High Council for Human Rights (2010) recognizes the right to access and grow food as a fundamental human right. Planners looking to support the rights of communities through food growth from food waste should collaborate with municipal departments to facilitate largescale programs for composting and community gardening. This would offer opportunities for individuals, particularly in high-density housing, to use saved seeds and move organic waste for productive use.
Small scale food production throughout cities has many benefits for its residents. This includes better engagement with their food, and access to fresh produce. Maximizing the growth potential in cities through land, rooftops, and household gardening significantly improves air quality and reduces urban heat island. Limited access to land for urban gardening is a justice concern when those least likely to have access to open space for personal food production live in higher density housing or on smaller lots. Planning programs can directly, or through supporting the work of individuals and community organizations, improve opportunities for small scale food production throughout their jurisdictions.
FIGURE 4 - Seedlings grown from grocery-store-purchased produce. Left: Bell pepper seeds germinated and used for seedlings. Middle: Bell pepper seedlings. Right: Meyer lemon tree grown from seed germinated from store-bought lemon. Source: Dr. Chris Quattro (2023).
FIGURE 5 - Sprouting garlic clove, replanted into soil to allow for future growth; Source: Dr. Chris Quattro (2023).
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BOOK REVIEW | THE INNOVATION COMPLEX:
Cities, Tech, and the New Economy
BOOK AUTHOR/ SHARON ZUKIN
Book Review by JOUNGWON KWON
Oxford University Press. 2020. 320 pages.
In the last decade, cities have been impacted by “innovation” in both positive and negative ways. Zukin dives deep into this complex relationship, using New York City as a case study, where the booming tech sector plays a pivotal role in shaping the urban landscape. She challenges the view that innovation is advantageous for the common good of cities. The author upends the assumption that urban innovation serves the common good, presenting compelling evidence against presuming its universal benefit.
Zukin first introduces the historical and conceptual development of innovation. She paints a vivid picture of the evoling concept of innovation from its origin in the 1940s to the current innovation complex in New York City. Her research delves into the bustling world of startups, hackathons, and meetups. These events serve as potent illustrations of the current state of innovation in the city. Through interviews and case studies, Zukin untangles the complicated relationships between innovators, manufacturers, and government officials.
“They [city leaders] build multiple sites or ‘complexes’ of buildings for innovation to emerge, and they manifest a psychological ‘complex’ or cultural anxiety about technology and power” (4).
While innovation is often defined as an economic boost, the innovation complex is made up of both elements of instrument and ideology. Zukin argues that the psychological “complex” is often masked by the physical “instruments” like incubators and co-working spaces. These spaces, fueled by the ideology of progress and economic growth, prioritize attracting tech companies
JOUNGWON KWON is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of City and Regional Planning. With a Statistics and English Literature background, she received her M.A. in Computational Media at Duke University. Her academic interests include visualizations in plans, urban technology, and sustainable cities. She has been part of Carolina Planning Journal since 2019.
over the needs of existing communities. She mentions how city leaders create spaces for innovation to emerge, revealing a hidden “anxiety about technology and power.” This anxiety stems from the fear of being left behind in the tech race, leading to policies that incentivize innovation without considering its potential negative impacts on equity.
…innovation is a political category” (200).
Zukin critiques policies like tax breaks and zoning changes that favor tech companies without ensuring equitable outcomes such as affordable housing, public transportation improvements, and investments in local businesses. These policies often lead to gentrification, displacing existing residents and small businesses. For example, Zukin mentions how the Brooklyn waterfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint changed their zoning to allow residential use to drive up property values, making it impossible for local businesses and residents to afford rent. She argues that cities must prioritize policies promoting inclusive innovation instead of simply chasing big tech.
“Pipelines to train tech talent and bring it to the workplace do not level the playing field for the best tech jobs; they create and sustain a tech meritocracy” (197).
Zukin warns that pipelines intended to train residents for tech jobs are not leveling the playing field for tech positions. They simply reinforce a “tech meritocracy” that advantages the already privileged and widens the wealth gap. These pipelines, perpetuating existing social
hierarchies in various cities, are ultimately short-sighted. Instead of using immediate solutions, cities should pursue broader economic development, prioritize affordable housing, promote equitable education, and advocate for fairer national policies. By embracing this comprehensiveapproach, cities can create an inclusive ecosystem where everyone thrives, rather than perpetuating displacement.
While the book provides an in-depth analysis specific to New York City, future editions could benefit from including case studies from other cities. Since its publication in 2020, tech companies and their impact on cities have undergone significant shifts due to the pandemic. Revisiting specific examples like the closure of DogSpot (now Dog Parker) by the Department of Transportation through a deeper lens would be valuable. Analyzing this event and its impact on the relationship between innovators and government officials would further enrich this discussion.
While Zukin proposes solutions, outlining more concrete strategies would enrich their implementation and equip readers with a clearer understanding of how cities might navigate the challenges of the innovation complex. However, it is crucial to recognize that a singular, definitive solution to address all facets of this issue is unlikely. Therefore, it remains an ongoing challenge for urban planners and policymakers to thoughtfully develop and refine approaches to navigate the complexities of the innovation complex. To truly harness the power of innovation for the common good, cities must adopt a holistic approach that prioritizes equitable development. From urban planners and policymakers to business leaders and consumers, this book offers valuable insights for those navigating the changing landscape of cities.
BOOK REVIEW | JUSTICE AND THE INTERSTATES:
The Racist Truth About Urban Highways
BOOK EDITORS/ RYAN REFT,
AMANDA PHILLIPS DE LUCAS, REBECCA RETZLAFF
Book Review by HELEN
KLASS-WARCH
Island Press. 2023. 254 pages.
The Rondo neighborhood in Saint Paul, MN lies less than a mile north of my childhood home. It was once the heart of the Black community in Saint Paul, home to 85% of the city’s African American residents and a thriving cultural hub. But, between 1985 and 1968 it was severed in half by the Interstate 94 (I-94) construction. The choice to build directly through the neighborhood, rather than a less disruptive northern route, destroyed over 700 homes, 300 businesses, and numerous community institutions. The story of Rondo mirrors a quintessentially American tale; The Federal Highway Act of 1956 spurred the construction of the U.S. Interstate system, and many of those highways were intentionally routed and rerouted through Black, Brown, and immigrant communities across the United States. Between 1957 and 1977, over 1 million people were displaced by Interstate construction and the repercussions from that period continue to reverberate in communities across the country.
Edited by Ryan Reft, Amanda Phillips de Lucas, and Rebecca Retzlaff —each of whom authored chapters — Justice and the Interstates delves into the impact of the U.S. Interstate Highway System’s construction had on vulnerable communities over the past 70 years. Posing the overarching question, “How can a highway be racist?”, the book’s chapters intricately unravel this query by revisiting historical injustices, exploring the urban renewal period, delving into the civil rights era, and demystifying neoliberal analysis of the federal highway system’s intended and unintended effects.
The collection unfolds as a historical constellation organized in three sections, with each chapter written by a different expert on the case’s historical relationship with the interstate highway system and their racial, social, and political contexts. In Mythologies, the opening of Piece 1, Sarah Jo Peterson gives a historic uncovering of the myth that many of us have taken as a belief system. This played out in Montgomery, AL where the racist rerouting of I-85 destroyed African American communities and the homes of many significant civil rights leaders and organizations. Shifting focus, Ryan Reft writes of the racial and class politics of environmentalism, historic preservation, and the highway construction that dominated the 1950s and 60s. He focuses on Overton Park in Memphis, a pivotal case marking the inception of the environmental movement’s legal victories against the anti-freeway movement. The movement and its successes exposed discriminatory practices embedded in highway route design and construction, drawing connections to similar cases in San Antonio, TX and Nashville, TN.
Methods, Part 2, explores how transportation laws and agency rules and
HELEN KLASS-WARCH is a master’s student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill. Currently, she supports research in freight equity with Dr. Allie Thomas and is part of Dr. Miyuki Hino’s Flood Lab working with the Climate Resilience Center Hazard Mitigation team. Born and raised in Saint Paul, MN, Helen graduated with a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 2018. Before graduate school, she worked at a global public affairs firm in NYC, as a line cook in Boston, and for Oxfam America.
policies directly led to the racial impacts of the highway system and its deliberate segregationist practices. Ruben L. Anthony Jr. and Joseph Rodriquez document highway opponent and proponent groups and the power of collective action in Milwaukee, WI. Amanda Phillips de Lucas examines the potential and the limits of participatory practices and techniques in Baltimore, MD, while Kyle Shelton explores how Houston, TX makes the case for not collecting constituents’ input on roadways and their impacts but incorporating them into the designs so community members can see their needs reflected in their streets. He calls for adaptability in the face of a durable, and often impenetrable, infrastructure planning pipeline. Methods concludes with a study of Greater East Los Angeles by Gilbert Estrada and Jerry Gonzalez. They showcase how the arrival of the freeway resulted in massive displacement for the Mexican and Hispanic communities living there and contributed to the suburban geographic expansion of Latino Los Angeles.
Momentum, Part 3, offers a window into how to address past wrongs and provide reparative justice for communities. Tierra Bills writes about the Rondo neighborhood within Saint Paul, MN and the success of ReConnect Rondo, a community-based nonprofit initiative in advancing the revitalization of a “vibrant African American culture enterprise district in Saint Paul.” Since its formation in 2009, ReConnect Rondo has focused on remediation efforts to address the destruction caused by the I-94 construction. The group has recently embarked on its most ambitious reconnection project: a Land bridge to literally and physically reconnect the community with amenities and opportunities they are cut off from by I-94. This aims to address housing disparity that has persisted since the highway’s construction. Lastly, Amy Stelly uses a mix of experimental prose and her experience working as an advocate in New Orleans, LA to describe a public awareness and tactical urbanism campaign called Paradise Lost | Paradise Found. This group designed and displayed posters focusing on the realities and perils of working and living near urban highways under the Claiborne Expressway overpass (part of I-10). The group’s efforts ignited a frenzy of the media and national attention that
has begun to turn political tides and the advance the removal of the expressway.
Its concise format makes for a digestible read that should be a prerequisite for any city planning, particularly transportation planning students and professionals. While the book’s final section, “Momentum,” is somewhat less robust compared to the preceding sections, it does impart a sense of hope. It suggests that communities can employ creative solutions to restore connectivity and forge a path toward reformation, although I yearned for a more extensive exploration of this theme. This potential shortfall may underscore the challenging realities confronting those in the planning profession: the scarcity of major, successful revitalization stories for communities that have borne the severe impacts of interstate highway construction.
Justice and the Interstates is a call to action and an honest reevaluation of history. It is a thoughtful and thought-provoking examination of the history and reconciliation of transit practices and the many agencies and policies responsible for the harm that has persisted. It implores engineers, urban planners, transportation professionals, and policymakers to account for, acknowledge, and repair the damages done by these past and present practices. To work towards a better future, we must first recognize the realities in which we work. This process begins with what the book calls “truth-telling,” bringing these hidden histories of displaced peoples and communities to light. Steven Higashide concludes the book with suggestions for a path forward and how to learn from reparation movements, writing: “we must recognize that our failure to grapple with the racist harms associated with highway construction has left us with laws and political structures that doom the United States to replace them” (p.176).
All transportation infrastructure projects have tradeoffs; winners and losers; affected communities, and those that are spared. This book asks us to evaluate, as a moral test, how we have treated and continue to treat those who are forced to sacrifice. Justice and the Interstates starts this crucial discussion and encourages its readers to take it forward into their studies and practice.
BOOK REVIEW | BILLIONAIRE WILDERNESS:
The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West
BOOK AUTHOR/ JUSTIN FARRELL
Book Review by SARAH
KEAR
Princeton University Press. 2021. 392 pages.
The gap between the ultra-wealthy, the middle-class, and the working poor continues to increase in the United States. In Billionaire Wilderness, Justin Farrell highlights this gap by analyzing an ultra-wealthy community located in Teton County, Wyoming. In the last thirty years, Teton County has become one of the richest counties in the United States due to the migration of one percenters. Instead of analyzing the wealth gap through the lens of the working class, Farrell takes a unique approach by intentionally spotlighting the ideas and thoughts of Teton County’s ultra-wealthy. Through interviews with the ultra-wealthy, Farrell evaluates their behaviors towards environmentalism and philanthropy, their assumptions about how the working poor and locals perceive them, and how they perceive themselves. Ferrell determines that the ultra-wealthy in Teton County use environmental philanthropy as a vehicle to protect their wealth, further exacerbating the wealth gap in Teton County.
Teton County is a fascinating setting for Farrell’s analysis. Only three percent of Teton County’s land is available for development while the remaining land is restricted and owned by the Federal Government. It draws vacationers and residents alike as the area has one of the largest intact natural ecosystems with astonishing landscapes. Additionally, Wyoming is a haven for the wealthy as the state lacks an individual state income tax. These compounding factors of income inequality and surging demand for nature-based recreation led to the disappearance of Teton County’s middle class. The working poor are increasingly housing insecure and live along the fringes of the county, often working multiple jobs to survive.
Farrell coins the term “Connoisseur Conservation” to describe how the ultra-wealthy relate to and use nature in Teton County. Connoisseur Conservation has three aspects: land conservation as a way to protect nature is a selfless act; nature conservation assists in preserving nature’s therapeutic benefits for hard-working professionals; and lastly, environmental science for the benefit of the
SARAH KEAR is a dual Master’s student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill and in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in political science, gender & women’s studies, and Chicanx & Latinx studies. In her free time, Sarah enjoys reading and collecting pottery.
ultra-wealthy’s initiatives. An example of Connoisseur Conservation that often impacts local and working poor communities is wealthy homeowners restricting development through private conservation easements. Private conservation easements are long-term legal agreements that conserve the natural resources of privately owned, designated land. These easements offset income tax and preserve wealth through tax deductions while preserving land for its environmental and therapeutic benefits. Although a noble goal, private conservation easements only increase Teton’s County housing scarcity, including affordable housing, by limiting the already limited developable land and by increasing real estate prices.
The Tetons also cast a long shadow in Farrell’s narrative with their inspiring landscapes vividly illustrating rural gentrification. Ironically, many of the ultra-wealthy cling to the Western tropes evoked by these mountains. Farrell repeatedly notes that his wealthy interviewees try to blend in by donning Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, driving pick-up trucks, and are unlikely to disclose their elite status among locals. Some interviewees are quick to point out that they consider service workers and other locals they employ (primarily the working poor) as friends and colleagues. Although these actions seem harmless on the surface, they are used as “vehicles for personal transformation” allowing the ultra-wealthy to create more “authentic” and “virtuous” versions of themselves. These versions of the ultra-wealthy are modeled on an idealist perception of the rural working class in the West: ski bums with modest careers, more focused on community in nature than striving for success and material comfort. Farrell argues that this romanticized version of the rural West is harmful as it is used to justify natural resource consumption and exacerbate inequalities by the ultra-wealthy.
In the last section of Billionaire Wilderness, Ferrell extends the analysis by interviewing the working poor about their experiences living and working in Teton County. Here,
Ferrell reveals how extreme the wealth gap is in Teton County. Many of the working poor are undocumented immigrant families from South America. Family units often live together along the edge of the county, driving narrow, windy roads to reach their service jobs in the Tetons. While there is high demand in the service industry, the jobs are low-paying and allow workers minimal time to enjoy the precious natural environment nearby. With the increase in ultra-wealthy landowners, conservation- and art-related organizational funding has boomed, whereas organizations focused on human services do not receive similar financial support, despite surging needs among the working poor. Additionally, the locals and working poor interviewed were readily able to identify the ultra-wealthy, even in their Western disguises, and did not view them as friends, especially because they are often their employers.
Billionaire Wilderness provides a thorough overview of the expansive wealth gap in Teton County, Wyoming, and shows how too often, the beliefs, values, and opinions of the ultra-wealthy overrule those of the middle and working classes. Farrell amplified the voices of local and working poor community members, working with local organizations to conduct interviews. He is cognizant of this and seeks to maintain objectivity while also remaining critical of the ultra-wealthy. Overall, it was fascinating to see how rural gentrifiers view themselves, their actions, and their relationships with others in their community. Billionaire Wilderness shines a light on rural gentrification under the guise of nature conservation, opening the door for more in-depth investigation.
BEST MASTER’S PROJECTS
CLASS OF 2024
SAM HAYES
PRESERVING THE PEOPLE USING HISTORIC PRESERVATION
AS A TOOL FOR COMBATING COMMUNITY CHANGE IN GENTRIFYING AREAS
Best Master’s Project
This report takes an introspective approach to analyzing the field of historic preservation. Historic preservation has historically been associated with elitist, white preservation efforts, but it has also evolved over the past 40 years to become a powerful economic development tool for communities through the introduction of historic tax credits. The economic development that historic preservation can create has also led to preservation commonly being indicted as a cause of gentrification, displacement, and a lack of affordable housing. To better understand how preservationists think about their influence in these topics, I conducted a content analysis of writing done by preservation professionals. I identified various themes for how the preservation field perceives itself. Throughout the report, I argue that the field of historic preservation must strive to make itself more relevant in the face of our changing communities. The second part of this report consists of four examples of organizations that are doing work to break into previously untapped spaces –affordable housing production, housing retention efforts for low-income homeowners, and the preservation of naturally occurring affordable rentals. This report seeks to contribute to the growing body of literature on preservation’s role in changing communities. It also seeks to show that preservation can and should take an active role in combating gentrification and displacement.
ELIZABETH MITCHELL
PREPARATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS: STRATEGIES FOR PRE-EMPTIVE MANAGED RETREAT
IN VULNERABLE COASTAL MUNICIPALITIES
Best Master’s Project and People’s Choice Award Master’s Project
As climate change increasingly affects communities, vulnerable coastal municipalities are bolstering their planning toolkits with climate adaptation actions. One tool, managed retreat, involves moving people and property out of harm’s way, usually through voluntary government-funded property buyouts and acquisitions. Communities have traditionally implemented managed retreat programs after disasters to move people out of their damaged homes, but some forward-thinking municipalities are beginning to plan proactively for managed retreat. Pre-emptive managed retreat allows communities to identify at-risk areas where people are more likely to be exposed to future flooding, which can reduce people’s exposure to flood events and prevent property damage. These programs may not be designed to be implemented in the near term but can be deployed when climate risks reach a threshold in the community, necessitating community action. However, pre-emptive managed retreat programs face significant hurdles including project financing, community engagement, and implementation. Some communities have overcome these hurdles, and studying these successful programs can reveal trends among pre-emptive managed retreat programs. This project focuses on pre-emptive managed retreat case studies in Hull, MA; Nantucket, MA; Newport News, VA; Norfolk, VA; Monroe County, FL; and Punta Gorda, FL. The project’s case study analysis included qualitative plan analysis and interviews. Though the specific pre-emptive managed retreat strategies vary across case study communities, there are common themes among municipalities’ programs, including program financing issues, framing of retreat programs, and coordination gaps between communities.
Carolina Planning Journal: Volume 49 / Everyday Life and the Politics of Place
CLASS OF 2024 MASTER’S
PROJECT TITLES
ERIN ANDERSON Art from Coast to Mountains: Public Art and Placemaking in SmallTown North Carolina
RACHEL AUERBACH
Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinators: Assessment of Roles and Needs
DWITI BAGADIA Happy Stations: Understanding the Social Notions of Transit Stop Design
IAN BALTUTIS
LAURINA BIRD
MATTHEW BOND
Low-Cost Traffic Calming Measures: Modular Traffic Calming Strategy Study in Chapel Hill, NC
Defining Transportation Burden: Identifying Environmental Justice Communities Across North Carolina Metropolitan Planning Organizations
Have Plans Become More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive? A Longitudinal Analysis of Comprehensive Plans in Research Triangle from 1986-2023
LAUREN CAFFE A River Runs Through Where the Mountains Meet the Sea
ZHIYUAN CHEN Color Preferences of Different Ethnic Groups in Street Aesthetics
NINA CLARK
Economic Development For Whom? A Critical Case For More Equitable Economic Development in Kansas City, Missouri
ABBY COVER The Inevitable Land Use: A Legal Review od Cemetery and Burial Practices in North Carolina
ABIGAIL COX
Comparative Analysis of Geospatial Transportation Disadvantage Assessment Tools: N.C. Equity and Transportation Disadvantage Screening Tool vs. ETC Explorer
KATHRYN CUNNINGHAM
Classifying Urban Space Types in Carrboro, North Carolina
JASMINE DAVIDSON
ASHER ESKIND
JEN FARRIS
Climate Adaptation Plan Use and Barriers to Adaptive Action in Two U.S. Cities
Finding Suitable Locations for Bicycle and Scooter Parking Facilities in San Francisco
Evaluation of North Carolina's Statewide Vision Zero Collaborative Support Model
RYAN FORD
E-bike Rebate Policy Analysis
KIMMY HANSEN
SAM HAYES
ACTON HENLEY
Build-out Analysis of Bald Head Island: Scenario Analysis of the Impacts of Future Development and Zoning on Bald Head Island's Maritime Forest
Preserving the People Using Historic Preservation as a Tool for Combating Community Change in Gentrifying Areas
Land Back as a Way Forward: The Return of Stolen Public Lands as Adaptation in the Alaskan Climate Crisis
RYAN HUTTON
SARAH KEAR
CAROLYN KLAMM
Comprehensive Resiliency: A Comparison Between Coastal and Social Vulnerability on the Jersey Shore
Charging Forward: A Comprehensive Analysis of New York State's Electric Vehicle and Clean Energy Goals
Make Better Maps for Transportation Planning and Communication
CLASS OF 2024 MASTER’S
PROJECT TITLES
BRAEDON KOERWITZ
LUCY KRUEGER
KATIE LOCKHART
ISABEL MALETICH
ELIZABETH MITCHELL
ZOE NICHOLS
Considerations of mining impacts in hazard mitigation planning efforts for Central Appalachia coal communities: a review of plans
Equitable Housing or Reparations? Unpacking Evanston's Approach to Reparations
Eliminating Parking Minimums: Lessons from around the US
Investigation of North American Traffic Calming Processes and their Impact on Equitable Engagement and Safe Mobility
Preparation is the Key to Success: Strategies for Pre-Emptive Managed Retreat in Vulnerable Coastal Municipalities
Public Engagement and Plan Success: The Relationship between Engagement and Comprehensive Plan Outcomes in Portland, Oregon
MIKYUNG OH Aging population and Regional Economic Growth
MICHELLE PENDERGRASS
An Analysis of the Use of Parkland Dedication Ordinances in Rapidly Growing Municipalities: Case Studies and Recommendations for the Town of Apex
MITCHELL PINSKY East Versus West: Old and New On Franklin Street
LUKE PULLO
NIK REASOR
Nuórahtu: The North Wind Will Endure Utilizing Biophilic Urbanism and Bioregionalism as a Framework for TEK Integration to Combat Climate Change Carolina Planning Journal: Volume 49 / Everyday Life and the Politics of Place
Collective Action and Affordable Housing Solutions in Park City, Utah
MERRILL ROBINSON
ARI SCHWARTZ
METRA SHESHBARADARAN
A Suitability Analysis for Bioretention Retrofit Site Selection in Lower Booker Creek's Roadside Rights-of-Way
"The Green Divide": An Analysis of Gentrification Impacts of Green Stormwater Infrastructure in Philadelphia
Rail to Trail & Green Gentrification: A case study exploring the impact of the rail trail in the South End neighborhood of Charlotte, NC
MAGGIE SIMON
Affordable Housing Policy and Challenges on the Outer Banks
SERENA SINGH
ISABEL SOBERAL
NICK STOVER
Equity in Motion: Assessing the Implications of Vehicle Taxation on Transportation Accessibility in Orange County, North Carolina
Myth for Sale: A Critique of the Housing Tenure Binary Through Zines
An Analysis of Charlotte, North Carolina's Municipal Buildings Transition to Clean Energy
SIJIA WANG
AMY GRACE WATKINS
YUE ZHANG
Effects of Bus Rapid Transit on Surrounding Neighborhoods: Case Study of Pittsburgh's West Busway
Case Studies of Equitable Transit-Oriented
Development: Assessing the "E" in ETOD
An Analysis of the Relationship Between Neighborhood Air Quality and Urban Vegetation in Los Angeles, CA
YEAR IN REVIEW
An Update From New East
The Department of City and Regional Planning had another wildly successful year of growth, change, and student accomplishments. The following snapshot highlights just a few of the wins at DCRP in Academic Year 2023-24, some of which were adapted from Dr. Yan Song’s end-of-year message.
GLOBAL URBANIZATION FELLOWSHIP: Sam Hayes and Wani Pandey were awarded the fellowship this spring. This scholarship connects MCRP students and faculty who are interested in learning about global urbanization issues, and on incorporating these issues into the MCRP curriculum. Both students presented their research at the end of the semester.
PLANNERS’ FORUM: Co-Presidents Laurina Bird and Maggie Simon shepherded Planners’ Forum, the umbrella organization for DCRP student committees, through the calendar year and have now turned their positions over to first-years Izzy Norman and Wani Pandey.
PIONEERS: This year, DCRP graduated its first cohort of students who completed the Dual Master’s Program in Environmental Management (Duke University) and City & Regional Planning (UNC), Elizabeth Mitchell and Sarah Kear. After graduating the first cohort of students pursuing a Bachelor-to-Masters program last year, our engagement with undergraduate students continues to grow with Dr. Roberto Quercia’s leadership in starting an undergraduate planning club called BuildUp.
HONORS AND AWARDS: Many of our students received numerous prestigious fellowships, honors, and admissins to programs. Laurina Bird, Abigail Cox, Jen Farris, Ryan Ford, Sarah Kear, Carolyn Klamm, and Amy Grace Watkins received the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship. Kimmy Hansen was awarded the Johnston Graduate Student Fellowship in Coastal Sustainability. Abigail Cox was also honored with WTS Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship and the NCSITE Emily Blount Honorary Scholarship. Sam Hayes was awarded an APA Diversity Scholarship. Serena Singh was inducted into UNC’s prestigious Order of the Golden Fleece Argonaut and gave a presentation at the NCAMPO conference. Amanda Ullman was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Saumitra Sinha received the Royster Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Isabel Soberal was awarded the Weiss Senior Fellow. Amy Grace Watkins was awarded the WTS Legacy Leadership Award for 2024. Zhiyuan Chen gained admission to a PhD program. Jasmine Davidson was honored to hold the position of Director of Environmental Affairs for the UNC Graduate and Professional Student Government.
CANDELA CERPA
NC-APA CONFERENCE: Many students and alumni attended the North Carolina chapter of the American Planning Association in Winston-Salem. The CPJ presented a panel on the role of media in advancing planning practice.
APA NATIONAL CONFERENCE: A dozen DCRP students traveled, again, to the nation’s capital for the national conference of the American Planning Association.
NEW FACULTY HIRES: Dr. Ashley Hernandez and Dr. Matthew Palm are the most recent additions to our faculty. Dr. Hernandez’s groundbreaking work on urban inequality and anti-gentrification in East Los Angeles is trailblazing, earning her the Distinguished Dissertation Award at the Engaged Scholarship Consortium’s annual conference. Dr. Palm is leading crucial work on transportation planning and its societal impacts, aiming to create more inclusive societies.
FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS: Dr. Danielle Spurlock was promoted to Associate Professor, and won the Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award in 2022. She was recently awarded two grants through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “Radical Parks: Transforming Systems for Equity, Climate Change, and Local Economies” and “Overcoming Structural Racism in Housing Stability and Wealth-building: Laying the foundation for community health and well-being.” Myrick Howard, who has taught DCRP’s historic preservation course since its inception, retired from Preservation NC after 45 years of service. The latest edition of his book, “Buying time for Heritage” is out now. Dr. Miyuki Hino was awarded a prestigious K01 grant from the NIH that will support her growing her research in new and different areas over the next five years. Dr. Meenu Tewari leads the center for Modern Indian Studies at UNC, and the Global Planning Education Committee at ACSP. Under her leadership, DCRP is developing a focused strategic plan to cultivate a culture of inclusion and offer a curriculum that prepares students for impactful service to the field that expands diversity, equity, inclusion and opportunity in their communities. DCRP won 2 grants from the College of Arts and Sciences to support diversifying the curriculum and the pipeline. Dr. Yan Song started her first term as Chair of the Department and began her role as Editor in Chief for Journal of American Planning Association on January 1, 2024.
GLOBAL URBANIZATION FELLOWSHIPS
SPRING 2024
SAM HAYES
MODERN IMPLICATIONS FOR URBANIZATION OF ATHENS, GREECE
My work delves into the evolution and impact of Athens’ polykatoikia apartment buildings, a defining feature of the cityscape born out of post-World War II housing needs. Beginning with the historical backdrop of Athens from the 19th century, it traces the city’s transformation, influenced by Northern European neoclassical architectural principles. The introduction of the polykatoikia in the 1920s and 1930s marked a shift in urban development, catalyzed by a burgeoning population and refugee influx. The financing model, termed “flats-for-land,” emerged as a collaborative effort between landowners and developers, facilitating the rapid construction of these multi-story apartment buildings. Architecturally, regulations shaped the design of polykatoikias, emphasizing height, density, and functionality. Despite their utilitarian appearance, these structures symbolized modernity and improved living standards for the burgeoning middle class. However, their impact was not without social and economic consequences, contributing to vertical segregation and reflecting gender norms in domestic life. By analyzing the polykatoikia phenomenon, this paper provides insights into Athens’ urban history, housing policies, and societal dynamics, offering lessons applicable to contemporary urban contexts.
WANI PANDEY
CLIMATE AND WORK, AN EXPLORATION INTO THE INTERSECTION
This project sought to understand the ways in which climate change has affected the labor market. To delve into such a complicated question, I utilized case studies to parse out the different ways in which labor markets are affected. Due to prior knowledge and work done in India, I focused on labor markets in that region. Underpinning all this work is the idea of just transitions—that the pathway to sustainable futures will affect the most vulnerable in our societies. As such, in my cases, I hoped to understand not only the implications on the labor market, but how these effects replicate or mitigate marginalization and social order as well. Through research of “exposed markets”— markets that are primarily outdoors, and require intense physical labor, I sought to understand the intersections of labor organizing and climate change. Through manufacturing industries, and thus more indoor labor markets, I explored the intersections and impacts of climate on productivity, as well as climate controls. Understanding that climate change has pushed people out of their homes, I also explored the roles that climate refugees and migrants have in our labor markets.
Carolina Planning Journal is accepting abstracts for papers relating to:
DESIGN IN PLANNING AND THE ENVIRONMENT
At its core, design can be conceptualized as intentionally creating for a purpose. In doing so, we demonstrate and communicate our values and priorities. The origins of the modern planning profession have its roots in public health, social work, and architecture. Primarily through architecture, design has always been an essential thread of planning. The disciplines of design and planning are intertwined through their overlapping impacts and focus on urban form and the environment, as well as their approaches for defining and addressing challenges. Analyzing planning and environment-related strategies through the lens of design makes space for both critique and creativity.
We invite students, faculty, researchers, and professionals from a broad range of disciplines to submit proposals that explore design and design frameworks in planning and the environment. We encourage creative approaches (written pieces, visual components, or a combination of the two). For multimedia-based ideas, please consider our more flexible web-based format, the blog Angles.
TOPICS OF INTEREST INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:
URBAN DESIGN, and the analysis and (re) imagination of urban form, and how it shapes the experiences, uses, environment, and perceptions of a place;
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABLE DE -
SIGN, analyzing or creating holistic, and perhaps circular, interactions between human and ecological systems;
SYSTEM AND INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN, highlighting networks, and how they affect the built environment and ecological systems; and how more iterations could function;
POLICY DESIGN, and how the impact of a policy compares to the challenge it set out to address, and how the policy could be better designed; and
DESIGN THINKING IN PLANNING, by applying a design lens through problem framing, ideation, or other design techniques to a specific circumstance or problem. Consider “how might we” style questions.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
By September 30, 2024, submit a two-page proposal. Proposals should include a title, a description of the proposed topic and its significance, a summary of the literature or landscape (if appropriate), and a preliminary list of references (not counted toward the page limit). Submit proposals and questions to CarolinaPlanningJournal@gmail.com
By October 21, 2024, the Editor-in-Chief will notify authors regarding their proposals. Authors will submit the 3,000-word draft in early January along with a short biography, an abstract, and any relevant graphics. Student editors will work with authors on drafts over the winter.
The Journal will be published at the end of Spring 2025. Carolina Planning Journal reserves the right to edit articles accepted for publication, subject to the author’s approval, for length, style, and content considerations.
Carolina Planning Journal is accepting abstracts for papers relating to:
REFLECTIONS: 50 YEARS OF CAROLINA PLANNING
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its publication, the Carolina Planning Journal is also accepting submissions for Reflections: 50 Years of Carolina Planning
We invite students, faculty, alumni, researchers, and professionals to write a piece that reflects on or is in conversation with an article published in any of the previous 49 volumes of the Carolina Planning Journal.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
By September 30, 2024, authors should submit a one-page proposal that includes the title of the chosen Carolina Planning Journal article referenced or reflected on and its volume, an abstract for the reflection piece, and a preliminary list of any additional references.
By October 21, 2024, Carolina Planning Journal will notify authors regarding their proposals. Final reflections should be between 1000-1500 words and will be due early January 2025.
Submit proposals and questions to CarolinaPlanningJournal@gmail.com.
The Journal will be published at the end of Spring 2025. Carolina Planning Journal reserves the right to edit articles accepted for publication, subject to the author’s approval, for length, style, and content considerations.
