Year: 1995
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Do revived systems of local control have the potential to resolve modem social and ecological crises?This study assesses the revolutionary potential of place through a detailed look at the Strathcona Community Gardens (located in Vancouver, Canada).While presenting modem place relations as complex and contradictory, involving conflicts of interest structured by class, gender, and other divisions, the theoretical approach outlines structural bases through which place-based movements might counter capitalist and patriarchal social and natural relations.Chosen as an example of local land management, the Gardens serve as a basis for analyzing the outcomes of renewed communal structures.The methodology mirrors the complexity of local relations.Analysis is conducted in three general areas: social relations, natural relations, and senses of place.Within each area, the aim is to assess the degree to which the Gardens manifest tendencies contrary to those of dominant, capitalist relations.Research tools include a survey (returned by 53 Gardens members), key informant interviews, archival data, and texts and maps produced by Gardens members.Observed outcomes are related to what are suggested to be structural causes (e.g., production for use rather than exchange), but also to related processes and particularities of the locality.The research reveals the Gardens project as strikingly successful in promoting cooperative relations, enhanced senses of place, and ecological revival.Social processes have gone hand in hand with ecological regeneration-diversity of species, soil health, wildlife habitat.Key factors in this reclamation of place, it is argued, are production for use, communal control, attention to power relations within the group, and direct democratic decision making.Together, these factors have begun to produce both a diverse and revitalized ecology and a powerful community.But social divisions have not simply disappeared.Contradictions of "race", of gender, and of class linger beneath the surface, affecting intra-group relations and shaping who has effective access to decision-making power.The persistence of such tensions suggests that limited.local politics can challenge but cannot, in itself, resolve contradictions in the broader society.To do so, it would need to be woven into a broader revolutionary project.I am grateful to my family and friends for their encouragement and advice in the course of this research.My partner, Rosemary Mann, provided critical support, and was remarkably patient through my long hours of reflection, hesitation, and revision.My son, Sasha, was the best incentive not to waste time, and was, on occasion, a helpful research assistant.My two moms, my dad, my siblings and grandparents and aunts all offered encouragement, as did many friends, particularly Phil Tarnrninga.Although, at first, a few wondered what I was up to, the members of the Strathcona and Cottonwood Community Gardens were of great and indispensable help at all stages of the research.At the July, 1993 meeting of the society, members formally expressed support in principal for the research and gave me access to organizational records.Support for the research was suggested in the high response rate to my survey.My own enthusiasm for the research was continually renewed as I became acquainted with more Gardens members.I am particularly
Source: Summit (Simon Fraser University)
Author: Nedjo Rogers
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W184401611