Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants: Finding Blight: Code Enforcement in Post-Katrina New Orleans

加州大学欧文分校博士生肖恩·马林（Sean Mallin）将在威廉·m·毛雷尔（William M. Maurer）博士的指导下，进行建筑法规执行方面的研究，通过该研究观察灾后环境下财产、恢复和社区意义方面的辩论。特别地，Mallin将研究与代码执行相关的法律程序与重建命令相结合的命题，以制定话语和对财产和所有权含义的理解。在之前的研究中，已经观察到一些居民将法规执行视为一种受欢迎的机制，将空置房产从没有重建的不负责任的业主转移给那些将致力于社区恢复的人。另一方面，仍在努力返乡的居民可能对这一过程更加不满，因为这似乎把他们的不幸变成了犯罪。这种情况在世界各地的灾后环境中都有发生，这使得这项研究既及时又有意义。为了这项研究的目的，Mallin将在卡特里娜飓风后的新奥尔良进行12个月的民族志研究。新奥尔良是一个合适的地点，因为当地的反枯萎运动通过全面的法规执行来针对空置的房产，因此财产和所有权的重新概念化可能正在进行中。马林将在四个地点收集数据并进行半结构化访谈：代码执行部、城市经营的房地产拍卖、一个帮助业主的组织，以及在居民和当地组织的社区。马林将采用多种社会科学方法，包括直接观察、参与观察、半结构化访谈、档案文件和报纸文章分析（为当代重建活动提供社会和历史背景）。这些数据将被分析，以解决四个首要的研究问题：(1)疫病的命名是如何制定、支持、解释或争议的，特别是与卡特里娜飓风有关的？(2)通过疫病和负责任所有权的概念，居民与财产之间建立了什么样的社会、道德和物质关系？(3)市政法律和房地产市场是否通过新的财产类别（受损或未受损）创造经济和非经济价值？(d)社会包容和排斥的标准是否以财产和所有权类别作为中介？这项研究很重要，因为它有助于了解新的城市动态。研究结果还应推广到其他灾后环境，如受当前止赎危机影响的社区，以及因气候变化而预计会出现与财产相关问题的沿海城市，因此将对规划者和决策者有用。资助这项研究也支持了研究生的教育。

University of California-Irvine doctoral student Sean Mallin, supervised by Dr. William M. Maurer, will undertake research on building code enforcement as a lens through which to observe debates over the meaning of property, recovery, and community in post-disaster contexts. In particular, Mallin will investigate the proposition that legal processes tied to code enforcement coalesce with rebuilding imperatives to enact discourses and understandings of the meaning of property and ownership. In previous research, it has been observed that some residents see code enforcement as a welcome mechanism to transfer vacant properties from less responsible owners who have not rebuilt to those who will commit to neighborhood recovery. On the other hand, residents still struggling to return may be more critical of the process in that it appears to turn their misfortune into a crime. This scenario plays out in post-disaster contexts throughout the world, which makes the research both timely and significant.For the purposes of this study, Mallin will conduct 12 months of ethnographic research in post-Katrina New Orleans. New Orleans is an appropriate site because a local anti-blight campaign has targeted vacant properties through comprehensive code enforcement and thus the reconceptualization of property and ownership may be underway. Mallin will collect data and conduct semi-structured interviews at four sites: the Department of Code Enforcement, city-run property auctions, an organization assisting property owners, and in neighborhoods with residents and local organizations. Mallin will employ a mix of social science methods including direct observation, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of archival documents and newspaper articles (to provide social and historical context for contemporary redevelopment activities). These data will be analyzed to address four overarching research questions: (1) How are designations of blight made, supported, interpreted, or contested, especially in relation to Hurricane Katrina? (2) What kind of social, moral, and material relationships between residents and property are framed through the concepts of blight and responsible ownership? (3) Do municipal laws and real estate markets create economic and non-economic values through new categories of property (blighted or non-blighted)? and (d) Are criteria for social inclusion and exclusion mediated through categories of property and ownership?This research is important because it contributes to knowledge about new urban dynamics. Results should also generalize to other post-disaster contexts such as communities affected by the current foreclosure crisis and coastal cities anticipating property-related issues because of climate change, and thus will be of use to planners and policy makers. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.