Doctoral Dissertation Research: Re- Conceptulizing Havana: The Role of Public Space in Urban Transformation

经过几十年的善意忽视，这是革命政府反城市发展政策的结果，哈瓦那的城市景观正在改变，因为政府和其他公司和团体正在(物质上和象征性地)对城市的建成环境和公共空间进行再投资。城市重建和经济复兴是建立在城市助推主义和场所营销的基础上的，它们与文化经济以及表现、形象生产和身份认同等问题有着内在的联系。古巴通过城市重建、遗产保护和旅游业发展，积极推销哈瓦那的文化经济，可以被视为试图根据整个西方正在采用的新自由主义战略，将空间和地点作为一种创造资本的手段。这一博士论文研究项目通过历史、实践和话语地考察城市殖民中心的空间生产，特别关注20世纪90年代经济危机引发的变化，考察了空间形式的变化，以及公共空间在哈瓦那重新概念化中的作用。该项目关注以下问题：1)谁的历史和集体记忆将在重建过程中得到保存？2)谁是参与重建的机构行为者和利益相关者，他们通过什么模式和方法行使权力？3)公共空间在城市转型中扮演什么角色？对机构行为者、当地居民和游客的正式和非正式访谈，以及对殖民核心公共空间的民族志观察，将提供必要的数据来解释哈瓦那目前正在发生的转变。这项研究的结果将有助于理解国家塑造哈瓦那公共空间的方式，以及这些过程不仅在城市的主题和空间上培养新的时间和空间意义，而且还提供了机会，通过这些机会，公民的空间实践可以挑战强加的空间秩序。这一研究项目试图通过调查哈瓦那城市景观和公共空间的变化，提出当代社会理论有助于理解政治、经济、社会和文化进程如何重新概念化哈瓦那的一些方法。通过审查这些调查途径，这项拟议的研究不仅可以提供对理解城市转型和哈瓦那这样一个历史城市的未来至关重要的历史背景，还可以洞察古巴目前正在发生的政治变革，这些政治变革在现有的政治经济研究中并不明显。因此，这个项目也将增加后共产主义过渡研究的文献。除了提供哈瓦那日益分散的城市管理的证据外，这项研究还将增加研究新自由主义文化生产、城市重建、遗产保护和旅游发展战略的文献，这些战略是世界各地的城市在竞争日益激烈的全球城市差异化环境中采用的。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

After decades of benign neglect, a consequence of the anti-urban development policies of the Revolutionary government, the urban landscape of Havana is being transformed as the government and other corporations and groups are re-investing (materially and symbolically) in the built environment and public spaces of the city. Urban redevelopment and economic regeneration are predicated on urban boosterism and place marketing, which are inherently connected to the cultural economy and issues of representation, image production, and identity. Cuba's efforts at aggressively marketing the cultural economy of Havana, through urban redevelopment, heritage preservation, and tourism development, can be seen as an attempt to marshal space and place as a means of capital generation in line with neo-liberal strategies being employed throughout the West. This doctoral dissertation research project examines the changing forms of spatiality, and the role of public spaces in the re-conceptualization of Havana by examining historically, practically, and discursively the production of space in the colonial core of the city with particular attention being paid to changes initiated by the economic crisis of the 1990s. The project focuses on the following questions: 1) Whose history and collective memory will be preserved in the redevelopment process?; 2) Who are the institutional actors and stake holders involved in the redevelopment, and through what modes and methods do they exercise power?; 3) What is the role of public space in urban transformation? Formal and informal interviews with institutional actors, local residents, and tourists; and ethnographic observation of the public spaces of the colonial core will provide the necessary data to interpret the current transitions occurring in Havana. The findings of this research will aid in understanding the ways in which the state has shaped the public spaces of Havana, and the ways these processes are not only fostering new temporal and spatial meanings on the subjects and spaces of the city, but are also providing openings through which the spatial practices of citizens can contest imposed spatial orders. This research project seeks to suggest some of the ways in which contemporary social theory can contribute to understanding how political, economic, social, and cultural processes are re-conceptualizing Havana through investigating the transformation of its urban landscape and public spaces. Through examining these avenues of inquiry, this proposed study can provide insight into the political transformations that are currently occurring in Cuba that are not readily apparent in existing political-economic studies, in addition to supplying a historical context that is crucial to understanding urban transformation and the future of such a historic city as Havana. Therefore, this project will also add to the literature of post-communist transition studies. In addition to providing evidence of the increasing decentralization of urban governance in Havana, this research will also add to the literature that is examining neoliberal strategies of cultural production, urban redevelopment, heritage preservation, and tourism development that cities world-wide are employing in an increasingly competitive global environment of urban differentiation. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.