highlights:
Participants largely favored environmental action and believed environmentalism is important. They suggested that their style and scale of living was more green and more desirable than large, dense urban areas. The size of the urban area, sense of community, and connection to the land were central to their green imaginary. Participants identified the community as the key driver of the change, emphasizing individualized and performative actions.
abstract:
Contemporary mainstream accounts of sustainability in the United States increasingly emphasize the importance of large, dense urban areas and nature within the metropolis, a hybrid that brings the “green” into the urban. Here, we demonstrate that many people believe neither that such areas are greener nor that these are desirable places to live. Through brief photo elicitation interviews and a focus group, we examine the imaginary of “green city” in a politically conservative area. Our findings suggest residents do support environmentalism, and believe their local area embodies much of what it means to be “green”, including a strong sense of community, a lifestyle deeply connected to the local environment, and a desire to take part in sustainability initiatives. Big cities, in contrast, are imagined as both less green and less desirable places to live. We suggest that the dominant US American urban environmental imaginary remains alienating to many and reflect on the implications of these divergent imaginaries for environmental politics. Emphasizing the multiplicity of environmental imaginaries helps us to understand conservative areas not necessarily as anti-environmental but as articulating views that do not accord with dominant perspectives; this might also point us towards more diverse possibilities for sustainable futures.
highlights:
An increasing number of plantation museums are transitioning away from whitewashing slavery to interpreting it. Transitioning plantation museums’ access to a traditional visitor base provides educational opportunities. To successfully transition, plantation museums must take into account a range of considerations. Key considerations are narrators’ epistemic positionality and capacity to guide visitors through discomfort.
abstract:
Against the backdrop of increasing public scrutiny, a growing number of plantation museums seek to transition their historical interpretation from erasing slavery to narrating it. Due to these sites’ access to their “pre-transition” visitor base, they are uniquely positioned to “call in” visitors who tend to avoid the facts of slavery. Nonetheless, we argue that for these sites to be truly transformative, they must account for a range of factors. These include the role of epistemic self-reflection in narrative construction (to help avoid the reproduction of white innocence), and the ability to guide visitors through the discomfort generated by the new narrative (to prevent backlash and to keep visitors open to the narrative’s message). To make this argument we examine the case of the Oak Alley plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana, and offer brief instructive comparisons to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation in Virginia.
highlights:
Receptivity plays out at different scales and most places are characterized by mixed receptivity. Race/ethnicity is not necessarily a predictor of receptive behavior. Receptivity is, for the most part, experienced differently amongst Latinos and non-Latinos. Documentation status is a recurring barrier to positive receptivity. Individuals and institutions seek guidance in making places more receptive to Latinos.
abstract:
Given the charged political climate around Latino immigration, understanding receptivity dynamics is critical for leaders in Southern cities experiencing growing Latino communities. Throughout 2016, 863 residents of Charlotte, North Carolina visited a museum exhibit and participated in a community dialogue program about Latinos in the “New South.” Drawing on survey data and participant observations collected from these individuals, this paper investigates what Latino and non-Latino participants’ comments tell us about individual and institutional receptivity landscapes. While Latinos and non-Latinos shared concerns about stereotyping and prejudice, receptivity is often experienced and understood differently amongst Latinos and non-Latinos. Still, immigration status and race/ethnicity are not necessarily predictors of receptive behavior. Receptivity plays out at different scales; people can perceive themselves as receptive and, at the same time, perceive institutions as unwelcoming or having mixed receptivity. Within this, documentation status is a recurring barrier to receptivity. Since receptivity is malleable, intentional initiatives and spaces created with Latinos can help Latinos feel more welcomed. Charlotte and the South can be more receptive by suggesting specific individual actions, ensuring our institutions reflect the populations they serve, and building Latino and non-Latino alliances. Our findings further the understanding of how to conceptualize, measure, and shape receptivity.
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