Karen Falconer Al-Hindi

The Hidden Histories and Geographies of Neotraditional Town Planning: The Case of Seaside, Florida

The neotraditional resort development of Seaside, Florida merits special attention from geographers and urban planners because of the normative claims made by its designers and because it has garnered widespread attention from practising architects, planners, anti social critics, Under the banners of ‘neotraditionalism’ and ‘community planning’ the principles implemented in Seaside have also been employed in numerous other developments in North America. Central to Seasides appeal and normative content is the deliberate attempt to resurrect an idealised past of uniquely American communitarianism through the skillful manipulation of urban form. We develop our critique of neotraditionalism through a deconstructive analysis of the physical and ideological spaces of Seaside. Specifically, we discuss the origin and development of Seaside, the centrality of its urban and architectural codes, the paradoxical deployment of public and private spaces, and the emergence of a distinctively neotraditional subject. Our basic claim is that neotraditionalism is actually a carefully veiled form of what Foster has called “postmodernism of reaction”.

THE NEW URBANISM: WHERE AND FOR WHOM? INVESTIGATION OF AN EMERGENT PARADIGM

New Urbanism has diffused rapidly, transforming landscapes across the United States. This paper is primarily an empirical examination of what the New Urbanism is, where these developments are found, and for whom they are being built. The empirical focus is contextualized by an analysis that emphasizes the timeliness of the New Urbanism movement but cautions against its uncritical adoption. Three maps that show the prevalence of New Urbanism by region, state, and individual project are discussed with the objective of explaining, in part, its geographical distribution. Advocates claim that New Urbanism “is good for everyone.” In contrast, I argue that it may benefit many people in the long run, but that in the short term, it favors design professionals, developers, and upper-class homebuyers. [Key words: New Urbanism (NU), urban landscape, residential development.]

(RE)PLACING THE NEW URBANISM DEBATES: TOWARD AN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AGENDA

New Urbanism (NU) is a complex planning paradigm and social movement that has recently become influential in planning, residential development, and government housing circles. To introduce this special issue on NU, we describe the history and important figures of the movement and provide a brief literature review of popular, academic, and professional presses. Because NU is a multifaceted phenomenon, we advocate an interdisciplinary approach to understanding it, one that would promote constructive dialogue and a range of perspectives (and choices) within and between disciplines, professions, and communities. From the vantage point of the academic community (in particular, geography), we argue that various theoretical and methodological perspectives can contribute to a more progressive understanding and implementation of NU practices at various scales. We conclude by outlining three areas for future research: documenting how NU is understood and implemented by urban professionals, analyzing urban infill projects, and conducting ethnographies of neotraditional towns. [Key words: New Urbanism (NU), neotraditional towns, residential communities, interdisciplinary research.]

A collective biography of joy in academic practice

Changing working conditions at many universities over the past decade have meant longer hours, intensified record-keeping, and more precarious employment. Despite these changes, many academics still insist that we enjoy our jobs. Our inquiry is oriented toward spaces and practices that bring us joy in our daily work and help us withstand the negative effects of working in academia. This article reports on our exploration of some moments of joy at work as part of our own academic practice. Through a feminist methodology known and developed as collective biography, we wrote individual memories of joy in our teaching, publishing, and collaborating, together at a writing retreat. As we analyzed these recalled moments, we came to realize that joy emerges through a turbulent process fueled by a cocktail of emotions. In fact, we came to understand joy as affect, with affect seen as a certain sort of excess, generated around and through sensations that might contribute to feelings such as celebration, happiness, or surprise as well as fear, anger, or embarrassment. We conclude that joy does things, that it can be transformative, and that cultivating joy in academia is part of a radical praxis.

Women in geography in the 21st century. Introductory Remarks: Structure, Agency, and Women Geographers in Academia at the End of the Long Twentieth Century

This paper provides an introduction to the set of articles presented in the focus section Women in Geography in the 21st Century. The paper argues that feminist geographers should view their professional biographies in a structure-agency context. Such a theoretical perspective views events that are commonly thought to be unique and attributable to individual merit or foible as the outcome instead of interactions between actors and social structures. Creating genuinely equal opportunities in geography departments for women and others who are different from the able-bodied, middle-class, white heterosexual male model of “the geographer” depends upon challenges to and transformations of the structures which bear on the discipline, rather than solely upon individual initiative.

Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism

Every laborer in a market economy is disposable. This book argues that globalization renders some workers so vulnerable that their disposability is scripted, told, and retold in the form of a myth ...