Instigating Communities of Solidarity: An Exploration of Participatory, Informal, Temporary Urbanisms
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Date
2021-11-23
Authors
Meier, Briana
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This dissertationexamines the potential for participatory, informal urbanisms to buildcollaborative relations across ontological, cultural, and political difference. This research contributes to thefield of urban, environmental studies by emphasizing four often underdevelopedaspects of participatory urbanisms. First, I examine the unique affordancesoffered by temporary, informal urban interventions. Second, I focus on the roleof the material artifacts and places of participatory urbanisms in thedevelopment of communities of solidarity. Third, the project addresses theongoing colonial legacy of North American and European cities by foregroundingalternative conceptions of place and emphasizing how the development of NorthAmerican and European cities is inherently tied to colonization anddispossession. Fourth, this project forms relays between theory and practice toexcavate the typically unexamined ontologies that inform urban design,building, and dwelling. I analyze recentscholarship and social activism at the intersection of North American,Indigenous philosophies of and Euro-Western, posthumanist, new materialisttheory. I argue that these emerging fields neglect community participation inthe built environment, despite their emphases on social justice, relationality,place, and material conditions. I test my hypothesis that informal, urbanpractices are critical spaces of social theory production through two casestudies. First, “The Kitchen on the Run” is a project in Germany that supportsrefugee and local resident community-building through group cooking events heldoutdoors in public squares by way of a mobile shipping container kitchen.Second, “The Lummi Nation House of Tears Carvers Totem Pole Journey” is anIndigenous approach to building solidarity through public events in towns andcities centered around a totem pole temporarily installed at event sites. I argue that, at smalland momentary scales, collective urban design interventions are experimentsthat test various methods for the co-production of space and subjectivity. Particularlyin situations of disaster and disruption, engagement with the places ofeveryday life in experimental or novel activities creates moments that escapethe confines of expectation. These activities can instigate cultures ofsolidarity that include urban places and the more-than-human world in supportof urban resilience in the face of increasing social-environmental instability.