"DIY Urban Design" Headed to ASA

A paper presenting the results of my dissertation research pilot study has been accepted for presentation at the American Sociological Association's annual conference in Las Vegas this August. I'll be in the regular session on Popular Culture, organized by Dr. Terry McDonnell. This is an abstract for the paper.


Do-It-Yourself Urban Design
Making Local Improvements Through Unauthorized Alterations of Urban Space

All manner of unauthorized alterations and occupations of the built environment can be seen in the city, from juvenile bathroom graffiti to organized political demonstrations. Indeed, practices like graffiti and street art, guerrilla gardening, and the unauthorized use of particular spaces for unconventional purposes have become relatively common features of urban life in recent decades. Limited existing social science research on these alterations (which I collect for shorthand as "spatial interventions") tends to group these practices into one of two basic categories: as strategies of radical political protest and even "resistance," or as little more than concept art, self-promotion, juvenile acting out, or criminal vandalism. Yet in new research I have found many cases that do not fit comfortably with either perspective. These practices are better described (and thus distinguished) by a third logic: intentional but small-scale, ground up, creative "improvements" to particular spaces. This paper briefly reviews the existing literature to draw out its core assumptions, and then presents the findings from a six month study of spatial intervention practices in New York, Los Angeles, and London that suggests an alternative understanding of unauthorized alterations as D.I.Y. urban design contributions.