Isabelle Anguelovski, UAB-ICTA Urban dimensions of environmental and spatial inequity

Urban dimensions of environmental and spatial inequity

Isabelle Anguelovski, UAB-ICTA

07 July 2012

“If in the Forat, you let them lay down four bricks, then it will be a terrace as well. It is then a space that you deprive people of.

What we really wanted was a green space, because if you give concessions and you

cede, there ends up being terraces.” (Local organizer, Barcelona)

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Environmental Injustices

• Community organization in marginalized neighborhoods against long-term abandonment and degradation• Growth of urban farms and community gardens in Detroit or Los Angeles in place of

foreclosed abandoned houses or vacant dirty lots

• Creation and enhancement of green and recreational spaces in the shantytown of Villa Maria del Triunfo, Lima;

• Community initiatives for improved waste collection and composting in Mumbai.

• Challenges to arguments and policies:• Poor residents are eager to move to wealthier areas

• Need to de-concentrate and disperse poverty

• Need to move residents to neighborhoods with greater “opportunities” and diversity (Goetz 2003; McClure 2008; Turner 1998)

• Challenges to conventional thinking and media reports about distressed neighborhoods:

• Do not have the power to organize

• Are not committed to the long-term livability of their place

• Do not unite beyond fights against contamination

Recent Community Organization

Problem

How do underlying demands and goals shape community organization across a variety of cities? How do concerns for health play out in projects for greater urban livability?

Problem

Approach

Comparative study of neighborhoods: Dudley (Boston), Casc Antic (Barcelona), and Cayo Hueso (Havana)

Problem

Thesis

Approach Comparative study of neighborhoods: Dudley (Boston), Casc Antic (Barcelona), and Cayo Hueso (Havana)

Building on place connection and attachment, residents use environmental revitalization to remake a broken community, build safe havens and refuges, and control land & borders in the neighborhood

Problem

ThesisBuilding on place connection and attachment, residents use environmental revitalization to remake a broken community, build safe havens and refuges, and control land & borders in the neighborhood

Approach Comparative study of neighborhoods: Dudley (Boston), Casc Antic (Barcelona), and Cayo Hueso (Havana)

ImplicationsNeed to reframe traditional environmental justice to encompass physical and psychological health dimensions with strong emphasis on holistic community development

Traditional Meaning of Environmental Injustice

• Disproportionate exposure of poor and minority residents to environmental toxics, poor environmental services, and intensive resource extraction (Bryant and Mohai 1992; Bullard 1990; Downey and Hawkins 2008; Pellow 2000, 2007; Schlosberg 2007, Hastings 2007, Martínez Alier 2002)

• Causes: Lack of recognition of identity and difference between people and lack of attention to unequal distribution of power at the intersection of environmental quality & social hierarchies (Pellow 2000, Schlosberg 2007)

• Growth of EJ Movements demanding environmental equality and using a variety of strategies (Bullard, 2005, Martínez Alier 2002; Pellow 2007, Newell 2001, Cashore 2006, Macey 2004, Bandy 2005).

• Connection of EJ to Right to the City and Spatial Justice studies (Soja 2009, Connolly and Steil 2009)

What are the missing pieces?

• A broadening of traditional understandings of environmental justice and livability (notable exceptions Agyeman and Evans 2003, Gottlieb 2005 and 2009, Evans 2002)

• Role of historic marginalization, sense of place, collective identities, and broader political agendas on community initiatives and claims

• Impact of political contexts and place connection on local neighborhood strategies, especially for proactive environmental revitalization

+ Cross-national and longitudinal variation

How do underlying demands and goals shape community organization across a variety of cities?

How do concerns for health play out in urban livability projects?

Casc Antic Dudley

Cayo Hueso

Before

Environmental Revitalization in Dudley

Dudley, Boston

Environmental Revitalization in Casc Antic

Casc Antic, Barcelona

Environmental Revitalization in Cayo Hueso

Cayo Hueso, Havana

Community Rebuilding and Place Remaking

Place-Remaking, Trauma, and Community Flourishing

Holistic Environmental Revitalization

Action

From contamination to clean business practices

Action

Clean-up and safe farming

Action

Nutrition and economic savings

Action

Sports with educational benefitsHolistic

Environmental Revitalization

Action

Sports with educational benefits

Outdoor play, safety, and environmental goods

Action

Environmental spaces and learning

Action

Environmental spaces and learning

Healthy and affordable habitat

Action

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• [The Forat] was a completely devastated area, and […] the neighborhood had to swallow all of this filth and the whole day bearing it. […]. It was a real degradation, like a bomb attack, you know, as if a war had gone through. It was an infect thing really.” (Joan, Barcelona)

Place Remaking

• You have a lot of places where there is not enough play or green space. Children are playing out in the streets. [...] we really didn't have any large, multi-purpose facilities, no large community centers. So we had our whole campaign about expanding both indoor and outdoor play spaces, safe havens, where we can expand the positive opportunities for youth in the neighborhood.” (Mike Kozu, Boston)

Place Remaking

• It was about “giving people a place, a sanctuary, you know, and giving people a place to go. I think that is related to environmental justice in a very weird way […]. Why shouldn't everybody have a place to go where there would be a sense of possibility and community? There aren't plenty of places that are nourishing. Nourishment like on a lot of different levels I think is what I connect with the environmental just”. (Bing Broderick, Boston)

Place Remaking

• [The Callejón de Hamel] is a landmark and gives legitimacy to the neighborhood. It helps legitimatizing the culture of the neighborhood. […].It is a pride for the identity of people from African origins. […]. It also inserts the African cultures within the society and help the socialization of culture” (Elias, Havana)

Place Remaking

• “If in the Forat, you let them lay down four bricks, then it will be a terrace as well. It is then a space that you deprive people of. What we really wanted was a green space, because if you give concessions and you cede, there ends up being terraces.” (Paco, local organizer, Barcelona)

Place Remaking!

Finding 1

Community activists use environmental revitalization projects as a tool and stepping stone rather than an end per se, and this because environmental justice and local community development are deeply intertwined

Finding 1

Finding 2Building on deep place connections, residents use environmental revitalization as a tool to remake a traumatized community, and build safe havens and refuges

Finding 1

Finding 3 Right to the City is also a Right to the Neighborhood with attempts to rebuild a dignity, security, and nurturing to residents while ensuring spatial equity

Finding 1

Finding 3

Right to the City is also a Right to the Neighborhood with attempts to rebuild a dignity, security, and nurturing to residents while ensuring spatial equity

Environmental mobilization used as a tool and a segue for land control and constructing physical, social, & symbolic borders in a marginalized neighborhood

Finding 4

A Proposed New Framework for Environmental Justice

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Further Theoretical Contributions

• More refined understanding and analysis of environmental justice action, with bridges between planning and public health

• Ecosystem health perspective• Physical and psychological dimensions (with new measures for safety)

• Holistic view on the environment

• Further development of the “spatial justice” concept:• Construction of local identities, new uses of space, and place-remaking• Creation of safe havens and places for protection and nurturing• Community rebuilding oriented both towards the inside and the outside• Use of spatial capital

• Community identity fulfills multiple roles: a motivator for action, a tactic to gather support, and a goal to be reshaped over time

Policy and Planning Implications

• Rethinking what urban sustainability and environmental justice encompasses: social dimensions include reference to community rebuilding, rootedness, and cohesiveness

• Balancing needs for urban sustainability WHILE considering memory and rootedness

• Balancing civic demands for protection and place re-making without falling into self-segregation patterns

• Re-thinking neighborhood revitalization in ways that address gentrification, encroachment, and affordability issues: What diversity is good? What land tenure is best? How to combine various types of housing?

• Avoiding fragmentized and sectoral planning to privilege comprehensive action on a specific territory, multi-year investment, and well-coordinated projects

• Privileging public investment as a booster and control of private investment, not reverse

Thank you!

Isabelle Anguelovski, UAB-ICTA Urban dimensions of environmental and spatial inequity

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