Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic Study of Urban Redevelopment.

城市是社会、政治、经济和环境系统的复杂集合，所有这些都依赖于人们生活和工作所在的建成环境。当建筑恶化，基础设施崩溃时，其影响可能会加剧当代问题，如去工业化、人口流失和环境退化。但是，当对环境有害的建筑被拆除时会发生什么呢？问题解决了吗？城市人口，特别是以前处于不利地位的人口的生活是否得到了改善？为了回答这些问题，该奖项支持的研究将检查美国城市中心计划大规模拆除的前后情况。研究人员将记录拆迁过程，绘制城市空间形态变化图，探索已建立的新经济安排，并将它们与人们生活、健康和机会的变化联系起来。通过加强对复杂系统如何塑造城市生活的社会科学理解，这项研究的发现将为负责改善城市生活的官员、规划者和科学家提供关键信息。这项研究将由密歇根大学博士生尼古拉斯·卡弗利在密歇根州底特律进行，由埃里克·米格勒博士指导。卡弗利将专注于大规模建筑拆除计划的案例，该计划预计到2020年拆除5万栋空置建筑，以改善公共健康和安全、财产价值和市政预算。凯弗利将收集关于搬迁过程、工人再培训、危险管理以及空间、环境和经济结果的数据。他将使用多种社会科学方法，包括参与者观察法、与广泛利益攸关方的半结构化访谈、机构人种学和扩展案例研究、档案研究和制图学。利用这一机会来了解建成环境在其创造过程中以及在其之后如何影响城市生活，这项研究将对社会科学理论以及改善城市社会政策做出独特的贡献。

Cities are complex assemblages of social, political, economic, and environmental systems, all of which are dependent on the built environments in which people live and work. When the buildings deteriorate and the infrastructure breaks down, the effects may exacerbate contemporary problems such as deindustrialization, population loss, and environmental degradation. But what happens when the environmentally hazardous structures are removed? Are the problems cured? And are the lives of urban populations, particularly previously disadvantaged populations, improved? To answer these questions, the research supported by this award will examine the before and after of a planned massive demolition of an urban center in an American city. The researcher will document the process of demolition, map the changes in the configuration of urban space, explore the new economic arrangements that are established, and connect them to changes in people's lives, health, and opportunities. By enhancing social scientific understanding of how complex systems shape urban life, findings from this research will provide critical information for officials, planners, and scientists charged with improving urban life. The research will be carried out in Detroit, Michigan, by University of Michigan doctoral student Nicholas Caverly, under the supervision of Dr. Erik Mueggler. Caverly will focus on the case of the large-scale building demolition program, which anticipates demolishing 50,000 vacant buildings by 2020 in order to improve public health and safety, property values, and the municipal budget. Caverly will gather data on the removal process, worker retraining, and the management of hazards, as well as the spatial, environmental, and economic outcomes. He will use a mix of social science methods including participant observation; semi-structured interviews with a wide range of stakeholders; institutional ethnography and extended case studies; archival research; and cartography. By taking advantage of this opportunity to see how the built environment affects urban life in the process of its creation as well as in its aftermath, this research will make a unique contribution to social science theory as well as to improved urban social policy.