Local Reponses to Urban Development in New York City

这个项目是对纽约市布鲁克林四个相邻城市社区的环境行动主义进行比较民族志研究。该项目由纽约大学的一位文化人类学家负责，将研究种族、阶级和民族差异如何相互作用，影响当地社区对城市重构的反应。这些社区是海湾岭、日落公园、卡罗尔花园/公园坡和红钩，它们都位于西布鲁克林，但由社会和种族多样化的人口组成。通过两年多的参与观察，调查人员将研究四个社区对发展项目的反应，包括在海滨选址废物转运站；高速公路的重建；建设铁路货运隧道，以及私人开发大型商场、多厅电影院和其他私人设施。该项目的重点是建立跨种族、文化和阶级的联盟。这项研究将提供有价值的信息，说明地方子社区如何组织起来，在共同关心的问题上进行合作。对这种联盟如何发挥作用的分析将有助于纠正这样一种普遍看法，即这种城市社区由于无法合作和弥合内部分歧而无法建立一个文明社会。即将收集的新信息将引起纽约市以及其他类似城市地区的规划者和政治家的兴趣。

9816118Gregory This project is a comparative ethnographic study of environmental activism in four adjoining urban neighborhoods in Brooklyn, New York City. The project, by a cultural anthropologist from New York University, will study how race, class and ethnic differences interact to influence the responses of local communities to urban restructuring. The neighborhoods are Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Carol Gardens/Park Slope, and Red Hook, all located in West Brooklyn yet composed of socially and ethnically diverse populations. Using participant observation over two years the investigator will examine how the four communities respond to development projects including the siting of a waste-transfer station on the waterfront; the reconstruction of an expressway; the construction of a rail freight tunnel, and the private development of large malls, multiplex cinemas and other private facilities. The focus of the project will be on the creation of coalitions across racial, cultural and class lines. This research will provide valuable information on how local sub-communities organize to cooperate over issues of common interest. The analysis of how such coalitions function will be a valuable corrective to the common view of such urban neighborhoods as unable to construct a civil society because of the inability to cooperate and bridge internal divisions. The new information to be collected will be of interest to planners and politicians in New York City as well as in other similar urban places.