Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

Operation Summer Care: Territories Of The Stewardship-Hospitality Complex, George Papamattheakis

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

Operation Summer Care studies the expanding interest that the hospitality industry takes in the biogeophysical environment. Natural surroundings have long been an essential operational precondition of tourism in the global sunbelt, but contemporary environmental anxieties increasingly motivate different strata of hosts to take a more active role in environmental management. Usually the domain of the state, biogeophysical entities and their spaces—plants and animals, sand formations, wetlands, entire ecosystems and protected areas—are measured, ordered, and managed by actors adjacent to the tourism industry. At the same time, the socio-technical mechanisms of environmental intervention and calculation are conveniently framed as practices of …

Examining Housing Experiences Among International Students At The University Of Tennessee, Knoxville (Utk), Rosemary Achentisa Ayelazuno

Masters Theses

As more students from across the world enrol in higher education to take advantage of the opportunities it offers, schools and universities are starting to address a problem that an increasing number of their students are experiencing, namely housing insecurity. With an increase in the number of students due to growing interest in higher education institutions, student housing has become a significant area of concern. More overseas graduate students are pursuing their degrees without regular access to their housing needs due to a lack of inexpensive and accessible housing, high tuition prices, and insufficient financial help. To better understand the …

Land Tenure And The Urban Institutional Politics Of Sustainability: How Sustainability "Lands" In The Relationships Between Global North And South Contexts., Lindsey Connors

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability is not simply a moral concept but is essential for human survival, and the tensions inherent in sustainable development bear repercussions that are increasingly placed onto the poor and powerless (Redclift 1987). While sustainability has become a relevant concept for urban knowledge and research especially in the global South, much of our urban sustainability knowledge is shaped by research and typologies from the global North (Nagendra et al. 2018; Parnell & Robinson 2017; Roy 2005). This dissertation considers the spatial transferability of sustainability knowledge from a relational perspective (Massey 2002). Sustainable development can be understood from this perspective as …

Still Got The Blues - No Time But Here, No Place But Now: Geographies Of Art & Activism In The Work Of Clyde Woods., Jake Mace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The fight against displacement and dispossession in the increasingly inequitable process of reterritorialization is arguably the most pressing struggle of the modern city – and it is articulated through cultural production as much as through political debate and economic development. Yet research that is at the nexus of critical, urban, and cultural studies and which explores the resistant potential of countercultural production rather than the hegemonic impact of mainstream cultural production is underdeveloped. Clyde Woods’s blues epistemology offers a guide to reading cultural production of marginalized groups as maps of meaning that offer alternative visions of the past, the present, …

Planning, Preserving, And Increasing Accessibility: A Reflection On Going “Car-Free”, Abigail J. Weizer

City and Regional Planning

This paper studies the accessibility of car-free areas to those with mobility impairments by examining three car-free and car-lite experiments in California. Whether slowly converted to car-free with long-term, careful planning, or expeditiously changed to car-free during the COVID-19 pandemic, these three car-free experiments show the shortcomings of planning for accessibility in car-free spaces, and how instead of improving accessibility, current planning practice often hinders it. This paper offers a deep-dive into the drawbacks and benefits of going car-free and the ethical and legal reasons why urban planners, designers, and policymakers must consider the accessibility of a space before planning …

Nannies And Public Space: Reproductive Labor In Richmond, Va, Hannah D. Woehrle

Theses and Dissertations

In the realm of urban planning, the gendered and spatial dynamics of childcare as a field of labor have been historically overlooked. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the geographies shaped by nannies in Richmond, VA, and their implications for urban planning in the context of the evolving neoliberal "new" economy. Existing research focuses on the geographies of children and burgeoning sectors of gig work in the neoliberal city. This study positions itself at the intersection of these areas, focusing on nannies as long standing gig workers within the childcare network, uniquely positioned to be affected by economic transitions. …

Quantifying The Carbon Stored And Sequestered By The Trees On Pomona College’S Campus, Paola A. Giron-Carson

Scripps Senior Theses

We are experiencing a climate crisis that must be confronted with strategic mitigation. Pomona College contributes to the climate crisis through its emissions for which there is a baseline record. However there is no baseline record of the climate mitigation currently performed by the trees on Pomona’s campus through carbon storage. This study seeks to determine a current baseline quantity of carbon stored and sequestrated by Pomona’s trees as well as possible courses of climate mitigation for Pomona College to take. Initial information gathering was conducted through interviews with several stakeholders. This study was conducted using data collected prior to …

Water Stories: An Exploration Of Human-Water Connectedness In Ontario And The Implications For Water Sustainability, Tracey Ehl

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Water is the great connector. Water connects people, health, wellness, culture, spirituality, nature, and the economy. Clean, safe water (potable water) and sanitation were recognized over a decade ago by the United Nations General Assembly (UN) as a basic human right, and more recently the UN has also identified water sustainability and management as one of 17 sustainable development goals for all people in all countries. Water is inextricably connected to humans. Yet, in Ontario, Canada, a place with access to some of the largest freshwater reserves in the world, robust regulatory frameworks, involvement, some investment by all levels …