piecemeal investigations on the built environment
Some thoughts during the course Exclusion and Inequality.
Where data is present, it witnesses subjectively. Where it’s silent, it overlooks. These subjective points of view can have a level of intersection with others, or none at all. A point of view by itself, without intersection, has intrinsic bias. If held by a large enough body, that’s an intrinsic bias in the knowledge infrastructure
Some of my thoughts while the paper, Environmental Apartheid: Eco-health and rural marginalization in South Africa. This was my first time reading a scientific paper regarding the South African apartheid. I will be doing a lot more as my current plan for the Futures project is related significantly.
Rural marginalization of Black South Africans began as a tool through which to leverage increased power and privilege for the white colonial population, as a tool through which the apartheid could remain steadily within the reins of the oppressors. Yet, the effects it had, the reality it presented, to this day continues the effects of apartheid – even if, legally, it has ceased. Continue reading “8.”
Since the latter half of the 20th century but more increasingly since the turn of the millennium, there has been an increasing focus on sustainable development and the creation of ecocities as a response to environmental challenges. There are two main approaches to the ecocity – transitioning existing build, and new build.
Transitioning ecocities tend to be more sustainable than new build ones, as they have the advantage of building upon existing infrastructure and systems.This allows for a more efficient use of resources and a smoother transition towards sustainability. New build ecocities, on the other hand, incite a greater cost in terms of financing, energy, and carbon footprint for construction.They have the advantage of starting from scratch and implementing innovative and cutting-edge sustainable technologies and designs, however, and these cannot be overlooked.
This post will investigate the efficacy of ecocities through the lens of community participation – does the ‘sustainability’ of an ‘ecocity’, so to speak, increase or decrease, depending on whether the planning of the area has in some way involved, or evolved due to, community participation? Alternatively, is community par- ticipation essential to the success (sustainable or otherwise) of an ecocity?
To analyse the data and answer the question, however, another question may arise:“What is sustainability in this context?” A leadup, “For that matter, what is an ecocity?” Perhaps even, “On what foundations is ‘com- munity participation’ being defined?”
For clarity on these terms and the base concepts this report will discuss, the definition section may be found below.
In the first semester, for Evaluating SLC, I wrote a paper on ‘bubbles’ under urban sprawl, and connections to racial segregation. Each person lives in a bubble – not perfectly spherical, but long and winding, tracing paths of travel and social activity. These bubbles have, I outlined, different dimensions – bubbles of opportunity for social movement, bubbles of career progression possibilities, bubbles that, through health, extend temporally and set limits on longevity. And all these bubbles could trace their existence to geography/urban setting/the location pin on the map that shows where you were born. Because, more likely than not – at least in the States – where you were born begins to dictate where you will spend the rest of your life. And where you spend the rest of your life shapes how you live it, thanks to the teeming inequalities of both opportunities and outcomes, in the ‘world we live in’.
