- Project Summary:
My research project will consist of a 20-page research paper. My research paper will focus on the privatization of San Francisco’s public resources and infrastructure. My main question is: who are some of the powerful actors in San Francisco and how do they extend their hegemony over public infrastructure and resources? My research involves uncovering the boundaries of a public good as it serves a private group and private interests. In my paper, I hope to find how resources that were once public or are currently ‘public’ have become privatized and exclude groups but also further marginalize them. I’ll be studying aspects of the public transportation system, recreational parks, and sidewalks that serve multiple purposes but are built to benefit an urban elite. Private interests include increased consumerism and tourism, increasing property values, higher rents and housing costs, and high growth technology companies. I will unravel how the urban elite including big tech companies, big landlords, the government, growth coalitions, etc. work together to consolidate more power. Additionally, I will find out what exclusion looks like on a day-to-day basis. In exploring exclusion I will find out more about displacement, homelessness, policing, falling wages, and discrimination. Lastly, I will provide a brief discussion on resistance to the elite and working alternatives.