My Work on DIY Urban Design Making Some Waves

As I grind out the final pieces of my dissertation, which I'll be defending in Chicago at the end of this month, it has been exciting to see my recent article (and video) stemming from this research getting some attention. In addition to the many kind words I've received from friends, colleagues, and fellow sociologists, several cool blogs have picked it up.

First among these was the very neat online magazine Ideas Arcade, who did a great write-up on DIY urban design, my work, and the video. Their passion, they say, is "finding and showcasing great projects and ideas which help better sustain us as people, cities, collectives and countries." I'm very pleased they feel my work fits the bill! (They were also really great about giving credit to everyone involved in the video!)

Then, Barbara Ray of the University of Chicago's Urban Network penned a more analytical piece emphasizing how my work revealed some of the potentially elitist aspects of DIY urban design, which is one of the focuses of my dissertation work. Ray also connected my findings (as I do) to the emerging urban planning trend known as "tactical urbanism," which has been popularized by my friend Mike Lydon.

This article then inspired a short piece by James Brasuell on the popular urban planning website Planetizen: "Questioning the Privileges of Tactical Urbanism."

In truth, it is incorrect to conflate DIY urban design and tactical urbanism as the same thing. While there is considerable overlap, there are also important differences (tactical urbanism includes and in celebrates official, above-the-board planning interventions that embrace the tactical approach of 'short term action / long-term change'; what I call DIY urban design is explicitly unauthorized and frequently one-off sorts of informal improvements). This is a discussion Mike and I have had often, and something I take up explicitly in my dissertation. Nonetheless I am pleased that my critical perspective on the aspects of privilege and inequity in DIY urbanism has gained some traction. I believe the phenomenon has great promise as an activator of critical awareness and engaged citizenship around urban planning issues, but my research shows that it unfortunately has the potential to perpetuate socio-spatial inequality and exclusivity as well. It's important to bring some healthy skepticism to anything that alters the lived spaces of urban communities, but while we are generally quick to deride the failings of planning bureaucracy or unhinged private development, this sort of discussion has largely been missing from the fanfare around all of these "informal," "spontaneous," "tactical," and "DIY" urbanisms. So I'm glad to have helped get it started.