Abstract
This paper explores affective relations in more-than-human spaces of gentrification through an examination of greening and environmental development in a de-industrializing part of downtown Toronto. Focusing on two interconnected projects, Galleria on the Park and the Green Line, I examine how the assemblage of texts that emerges around greening initiatives – including proposals, presentation slides, advertisements, blueprints and designs – acts as a site of conjuring. It brings to life a particular imaginary of urban living through the production of an affective sensorium of nostalgia and optimism in which both gentrified natures and naturalized gentrification circulate prominently. Drawing on a combination of archival analysis and ethnographic work, I explore this assemblage, its entanglement with the lived experiences of local residents and its role in the social construction of space, asking what the more-than-human implications of such an imaginary might be. I conclude that thinking through affect enables us to understand complex, relational and more-than-human geographies of gentrification, and that affect constitutes an important dimension of how gentrification takes place.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Affect, More-than-human cities, Greening, Parks-led planning, Environmental gentrification
