Academic Approaches

These last two papers cover my look into urban planning/life, focusing on the intersection of academic approaches

The last topic of my work I’d like to discuss is work I’ve done on urban planning/life. Within these writings I also focused on research methodologies and how methodology needs can change with intersectional lenses. My writing about urban planning/life surrounds race, particularly the black community being affected by development projects that claim to be for the betterment of the community as a whole, further exemplifying this theme of false sanctuary in society. However, I look to studies about urban planning/life with the queer community to highlight methodology as I discussed before, highlighting intersectional approaches. We see the same themes as before where government projects expanding transportation access is heralded as beneficial to the community increasing public transportation, decreasing travel times, and generating wealth while the reality is that these projects prioritize white communities leaving minority communities as food deserts or plain evict folx to have the project cut through their neighborhoods. So while these projects position themselves as being progressive and beneficial to the community at large, it often means those privileged in the community, exemplifying this false sanctuary, or false progress as we benefit one class of folx. These ideas are solidified by my discussion on methodologies and queer identity as I mostly discuss that the nuances of the queer community require a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods to garner more nuanced and intersectional positions and understanding of topics and to help combat this image of false sanctuary/progress. For example, while quantitatively an urban development project might, overall, be beneficial to the community, the inclusion of qualitative data or additional quantitative data of various communities and identities could show the harm that the project has on specific identities and might just be beneficial to the majority privilege holders.

These last two papers, while the subject is looking at the intersection of identity and urban planning/life, I think it shows how the intersection of approaches and methodologies can contribute to providing more social justice and discussions in line with the intersectional approach. Essentially showing how intersectional approaches leads to more intersectional approaches. As I discuss in the left paper, a mix of methodologies by various academic authors can lead to painting a greater, more complete picture of the intersection of queerness and urban planning/life, showing how an intersectional approach goes beyond identity and can apply in any number of areas, leading to increased intersectionality in the discussion. The same line of thinking can be applied to the right work as I, essentially, discuss what I am arguing here, that intersectional approaches enhances work done and discussions held. While this paper was written very early in the program, it shows me arguing that the intersectional approach of identity and space as well as the breadth of approaches and combination of urban planning, economic, and social justice perspectives.