Doctoral Dissertation Research: Urban Environmental Inequality and Community Participation: The Case of Walnut Way Neighborhood in Milwaukee

城市中的自然是社会生产的，因此也是不平等地维持的。因此，城市绿色空间是城市自然的一个关键组成部分，必须将其作为一个社会环境正义问题加以认识。早期的研究表明，城市绿色空间对维持健康的社会、经济和生态城市环境至关重要，但在美国城市中，沿着阶级和种族分布不均。虽然有关于城市内部绿色空间不平等的文献，但缺乏关于导致这种不平等形成的社会经济、文化和政治进程的讨论。使用城市政治生态学透镜，本研究试图揭示负责不平等生产的绿色空间的内部城市密尔沃基的非洲裔美国人社区的基本过程，重点核桃路附近。以下问题将被调查：1）如何当前的社会经济和政治条件的市中心非洲裔美国人社区影响他们获得绿色空间？2)不同的公众和民间社会团体如何调解城市绿色空间生产过程？3)这种管理过程对边缘化社区有何影响？4)基层组织，如核桃路保护公司，如何成功地动员以社区为基础的绿化工作？ 而现有的城市绿地在非洲裔美国人社区的社会经济影响将使用人口普查和城市冠层覆盖数据，地理信息系统和统计技术进行分析，如何不均匀的城市绿色空间的生产过程将通过半结构化的深入采访进行适当的公共，私人和民间社会代理人透露。此外，还将在核桃路保护公司内部进行参与性观察，以检查基层绿化工作的作用。 研究结果将使我们能够理解为什么以及如何形成环境不平等，以及公共部门和社区组织在加强或改善这种不平等方面发挥的作用。本研究的意义在于寻找社会正义关切和城市环境管理问题之间的共同点。通过将社会正义研究超越其传统的污染和废物处理设施的重点，该项目将增加新的实证工作，积极的城市设施，如城市绿色空间。此外，这项研究将有积极的影响，以确定和改变目前不公正的过程中，密尔沃基和其他美国城市的城市绿化。在揭示城市绿色空间生产过程的同时，研究将展示社区参与作为为少数群体创造更公平的城市环境的手段的潜在优势和局限性。

Nature within cities is socially produced and thus maintained unequally. Thus, access to urban green space, a key component of urban nature, must be recognized as an issue of socio-environmental justice. Earlier research has shown how urban green spaces, crucial for maintaining a healthy social, economic and ecological urban environment is unevenly distributed along class and race lines in U.S. cities. While literature exists on inequality of green spaces within cities, discussion is lacking on socio-economic, cultural and political processes that give rise to the formation of such inequalities. Using an urban political ecology lens, this research attempts to uncover the underlying processes responsible for unequal production of green spaces for inner-city Milwaukee's African-American community, with a focus on Walnut Way neighborhood. The following questions will be investigated: 1) How do current socio-economic and political conditions of inner-city African-American communities influence their access to green space?; 2) How do various public and civil society groups mediate the process of urban green space production?; 3) What are the implications of such management processes for marginalized communities?; 4) How successfully do grassroots organizations, like the Walnut Way Conservation Corp. mobilize community-based greening efforts? Whereas socio-economic influences on existing urban greens in the African American neighborhoods will be analyzed using census and urban canopy cover data, geographic information systems, and statistical techniques, the processes of how uneven urban green spaces are produced will be revealed through semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with appropriate public, private and civil society agents. Furthermore, participant observation within Walnut Way Conservation Corp. will be conducted to examine the role of grassroots regreening efforts. Research results will enable us to understand why and how environmental inequalities are formed and what roles public departments, as well as community based organizations, play to enhance or ameliorate such inequalities. The significance of this research lies in finding a common ground between social justice concerns and urban-environmental management issues. By taking social justice studies beyond its traditional focus on pollution and waste facilities, this project will add new empirical work on positive urban amenities, like urban green space. Furthermore, this study will have positive implications for identifying and transforming present unjust processes of urban greening in Milwaukee and other U.S. cities. While uncovering the processes of urban green space production, the research will demonstrate the potential strengths and limitations of community participation as means for producing more equitable urban environments for minorities.