Feminist Theory in Participatory Mapping Methods of Resident Resources and Mobility in a

Housing Project

Natasha BoydeCalifornia State University, Long Beach - Geography

March 17, 2015

~800 households-Market rate + low income + apartments-75% of population under 18 years old-Median Household income <14,000 annually

-WorkSource office, health clinic, Housing Authority office

STUDY SITE: SALISHAN

1) Do Salishan residents feel they have access to the resources they need to move up and out of poverty?a) Is development of social network(s) an important

resource to enhancing mobility?

2) Can ethnographic and mental map methods reveal one’s personal geography and map of resources?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1) Despite theorized benefits of Mixed-Income housing, the experience of residents say otherwise.

2) Qualitative methods capture that experience, and help to evaluate housing policy design.

Goal: to demonstrate that participatory mapping methods can get at new kinds of data on identity, socio-spatial, and socio-political contexts within a city.

ARGUMENT AND PURPOSE

-Negative effects of typical income-based housing design;

“stuck in place”

-Shift toward Income Integration design

Little evaluation of results

-Measuring housing satisfaction:

-access to essentials

-sense of community

-acceptance of neighbors; ”people here are like me”

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Cabrini Green, Chicago, Il

1 hour Mental Map InterviewRecruit homeowners and rentersAudio-record interviewsTranscribe and code interviews

METHOD: THE MENTAL MAP INTERVIEW

Den Besten (2010)

Less visual, more analytic-places of importance-socialization -sense of neighborhood and belonging -aspects of livelihood-experience within housing system-impressions and interpretation of the

housing authority

Empowered or downtrodden ~ bootstrap” mentality

ANALYZING RESULTS

Little social interaction between housing and homeowners

Vast differences among just 6 participants

-nomenclature

-knowledge of resources

-family/financial history

Ideas about self-motivation

Mapping + interview = substantial data that inform policy

Project is not working, but explanations are not simple

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

Axhausen, K.W. “Social Networks, Mobility Biographies, and Travel: Survey Challenges.” Environment and Planning B, Planning and Design, Vol. 35 (2008): 981-996.

Briggs, Daniel. “Emotions, Ethnography and Crack Cocaine Users.” Emotions, Space and Society, (2011)

Brophy, Paul C. and Rhonda N. Smith. “Mixed-Income Housing: Factors for Success.” Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, Vol. 3 No. 2 (1997): 3-31.

Den Besten, Olga. “Local Belonging and 'Geographies of Emotion’: Immigrant Children's Experience ofTheir Neighborhoods in Pars and Berlin.”. Childhood, 17: 181 (2010).

Gieseking, Jack Jen. “Where We Go From Here: The Mental Sketch Mapping Method and Its Analytic Components.” Qualitative Inquiry, 19(9) (2013): 712-724.

Gillespie, Carol Ann. “How Culture Constructs Our Sense of Neighborhood: Mental Maps and Children’s Perceptions of Place.” Journal of Geography, 109 (2010): 18-29.

Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1960.

Schwartz, Alex F. Housing Policy in the United States. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Further References Available on Request

KEY REFERENCES