Overall, the Hayden reading and Townsend lecture have forced me to begin to think of cities from a more theoretical and academic standpoint that I have never really done before. Common themes within populations like marginalization and structuralism never really appeared so connected to space and place. Marginalization through exclusion to space (e.g. Jim Crow Laws) and the ways that such production of space can be explained through structuralism (e.g. casitas in Harlem1) demonstrate some of the deep ways that our societies are shaped by the spaces around them, whether or not these spaces are anthropogenic or “natural”. I have certainly begun to think more about how place and space can affect society than about how society produces places and spaces. This was most evident in class when we looked at tourist maps of New York City and as much as we can consider how inequalities within the NYC urban community have made some villages more prominent and some more forgotten, but we must also consider how maps created are a reflection and perhaps reinforcement of these socially constructed ideas.
Despite such interest in some of the social theory that can explain the production or use of space, I would have to say that I am most interested in taking part in the infrastructure research group. When drawing my map of Portland, I was most easily able to recall important streets like Franklin and Congress and of course 295 was one of the first things I drew. Thus, it seems like I am interested in transportation and how we could improve that in Portland. Admittedly, I am really interested in how transit could be tied to more cultural ideas and come from a more society based approach (e.g. working transportation from within a city).
That being said, transportation, regardless of how it was developed, can limit people from important aspects of the community in the same way that some groups have been marginalized in the past. For example, the lack of affordable ways to commute into the city could hinder job seekers from pursuing a job there and let only those who can afford a car to take advantage of such opportunities. I am also certainly interested in how other kinds of infrastructure within a city (e.g. telecommunications) can prohibit or provide advantages to certain groups.
Honestly, I am not entirely sure why my own experience of cities has made me interested in this research topic. Perhaps it has been because I have spent so much of my life commuting from suburban Connecticut to New York City and noting the kinds of the people I encounter on MetroNorth Commuter trains and who has reasonable access to this transportation. Essantially. I would just say that I am most interested in this topic out of the three possible topics we have to choose from.
1. Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.