Neighborhood As Refuge ― Community Reconstruction, Place Remaking, and Environmental Justice in the City

Environmental justice as studied in a variety of disciplines is most often associatedwith redressing disproportionate exposure to pollution, contamination, and toxic sites. InNeighborhood as Refuge, Isabelle Anguelovski takes a broader view ofenvironmental justice, examining wide-ranging comprehensive efforts at neighborhood environmentalrevitalization that include parks, urban agriculture, fresh food markets, playgrounds, housing, andwaste management. She investigates and compares three minority, low-income neighborhoods thatorganized to improve environmental quality and livability: Casc Antic, in Barcelona; Dudley, in theRoxbury section of Boston; and Cayo Hueso, in Havana. Despite the differing histories and politicalcontexts of these three communities, Anguelovski finds similar patterns of activism. She shows thatbehind successful revitalization efforts is what she calls "bottom to bottom" networking,powered by broad coalitions of residents, community organizations, architects, artists, funders,political leaders, and at times environmental advocacy groups. Anguelovski also describes how, overtime, environmental projects provide psychological benefits, serving as a way to heal a marginalizedand environmentally traumatized urban neighborhood. They encourage a sense of rootedness and ofattachment to place, creating safe havens that offer residents a space for recovery. They also helpto bolster residents' ability to deal with the negative dynamics of discrimination and providespaces for broader political struggles including gentrification. Drawing on the cases of Barcelona,Boston, and Havana, Anguelovski presents a new holistic framework for understanding environmentaljustice action in cities, with the right to a healthy community environment at its core.

Isabelle Anguelovski is Marie Curie Fellow and Senior Researcher at the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.