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

Text


Recent Community Organization

• 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


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

4


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

4



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

4



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

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

4

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).





• 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





• Impact of political contexts and place
connection on local neighborhood
+ Cross-national and
strategies, especially for proactive
longitudinal variation
environmental revitalization


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?


Before
!

Casc Antic Dudley

!
Cayo Hueso

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

Holistic
Environmental
Revitalization
Action



business practices

Clean-up and safe farming

Holistic
Environmental
Revitalization
Action



business practices


Nutrition and economic savings

Holistic
Environmental
Revitalization
Action



business practices



Holistic
Environmental Sports with educational beneﬁts
Revitalization
Action



business practices



Holistic
Revitalization
Action Outdoor play, safety, and
environmental goods



business practices



Holistic
Revitalization
environmental goods

Environmental spaces and learning



business practices



Holistic
Revitalization
environmental goods

Environmental spaces and learning

Healthy and affordable habitat



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Place Remaking
!

• [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)


Community activists use environmental revitalization projects as a tool and
Finding 1 stepping stone rather than an end per se, and this because environmental
justice and local community development are deeply intertwined

4


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

4


havens and refuges

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

4


havens and refuges

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

Finding 4 Environmental mobilization used as a tool and a segue for land control and
constructing physical, social, & symbolic borders in a marginalized neighborhood

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





• 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



cohesiveness

• Balancing needs for urban sustainability WHILE considering memory and
rootedness



cohesiveness

rootedness

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



cohesiveness

rootedness


• 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?



cohesiveness

rootedness



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



cohesiveness

rootedness



• 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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