Community Reflections (Asynchronous Session)
Fifty Greenspace Dumpsites View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christine Holtz
Illegal dumping in Pittsburgh is widespread; however, it is a problem that many locals don’t even know about. The culture of dumping is boundless, affecting almost every neighborhood and socio-economic area in the city. We contacted Allegheny CleanWays, a local non-profit that organizes neighborhood clean-ups and fights illegal dumping, they granted us access to their statistical and GPS data, which was integral to developing this project. We delved into the data, mapping known coordinates. Over 300 documented dumpsites, many exist on the sides of steep hills and in the woodsy perimeters of residential neighborhoods. More disturbing, many sites are in proximity to greenspaces used for outdoor recreation. This aspect of the data stood out so much, that we chose to document fifty of these specific locations, including public parks, little league fields, cemeteries and playgrounds. The photographs appear to be landscapes of public spaces, but when coupled with data about the space as a dumpsite, the multiple layers of information present viewers with a new perception of these places. By creating a bridge between the unsuspecting landscape image and the truth about what happens there, we are attempting to bring a new level of significance to these sites.
The Up-scaling of Clean Energy Communities: Applying Mechanismic Thinking to Strategic Niche Management View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Daniel Petrovics
The pressing nature of the climate crisis is placing scalable sub-national action at the forefront of discussions surrounding climate mitigation. Clean energy communities are an instance of such action. Over the past decades, these communities were characterized as local-scale and citizen-led. Nonetheless, the past years’ developments signify a shift – namely towards more diversity in terms of actors (municipalities, companies, citizens, etc.) and a diversity in types of technologies (P2P energy trading schemes, demand response, storage, etc.). This added complexity makes it relevant to view energy communities as socio-technical innovation - or niches. This opens up the vexing question of what mechanisms are at play in scaling them for global-scale and aggregate impact. To this end this study tests a number of propositions set out by the strategic niche management approach by examining empirical examples of successful clean energy communities. This is done through a systematic literature review of energy community literature. Scaling mechanisms emerging from this review are then contrasted with propositions of the strategic niche management approach. Two key results surface: firstly, at the empirical level a diversity of pathways to scaling exist, however the reviewed energy communities carry common characteristics on three dimensions. These include scaling mechanisms internal to communities, ones which point towards interaction between communities and ones, which describe supportive contexts for community initiatives. Secondly, at the theoretical level, the strategic niche management approach could be enriched by focusing on actor interactions. This could assist in better connecting local scale innovation to global scale impact.
Religious Building over Public Open Spaces?: Mapping Sustainability Factors of Housing for Low-income Families from the Stakeholder Perspective View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kurniawan Saefullah, R Mahelan Prabantarikso Mahelan
Indonesia has struggled with a housing backlog problem for the last decades. In 2020, about 7,6 million Indonesian households do not own houses to maintain their livings. Most of these families are coming from low-income families which are relying on their livings from informal sectors. They are not only unable to provide themselves with affordable houses, but moreover, they could not have a shelter which fulfills sustainability criteria. This paper aims to reveal empirical evidence of how sustainable housing in Indonesia is identified by its stakeholder. Using a quantitative analysis of Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) this research provides a perceptual map of how stakeholder values sustainable housing from several indicators of sustainability, based on the authors’ adaptation to some previous researches’ measurement. Data were collected from 100 samples from Rural Bandung District of Indonesia, represented respondents from local governments, housing developers, mortgage providers, academia, communities, and non-government organizations. The result reveals that, while housing quality is still below stakeholder’s expectation, it is interesting to find that that religious building, i.e. mosque is more preferable than public spaces such as green open spaces and playgrounds for children.
