Democracy in Retreat? Master Planning in a Warming World (Panel 2)
Channel: Columbia GSAPP
Date: 2019-10-01

The climate crisis is changing the world. Some people are moving in the face of rising seas and extreme weather, and others are redesigning the places they live. But those making such plans and those most affected by them are not always the same. The challenges posed by climate change thus force architects, planners, engineers, and others charged with imagining the future of their communities to contend with enduring questions of democracy and justice.

This conference foregrounds Louisiana’s experience with these challenges, because on the Gulf Coast, the climate has changed. New designs and infrastructures have reshaped how Louisianans live, just as evacuation, eviction, and emigration in the face of rising seas have redefined where they live. All the while, as the United States confronts climate change it is already riven by stark inequalities. Escaping critical interrogation, technocratic plans promulgated in the name of “resilience” can not only reproduce, but exacerbate existing injustices across the country and beyond its borders. Many policies that promise security for some cause suffering for others. But must there be winners and losers in the pursuit of safety, justice, and democracy?

This event brings together architects, planners, scholars, artists, and others whose work engages with the challenges of planning for climate change. Using Louisiana as the case to “think with,” participants will work comparatively to evaluate the perils and promises of risk and retreat, given the imperatives of justice and democracy.

Panel 2: Evacuation, Emigration, Eviction
Jay Arena, Sociology, CUNY College of Staten Island
Monica Farris, University of New Orleans Center for Hazard Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART)
Farrah Cambrice, Sociology, Prairie View A&M University
Andreanecia Morris, Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance
Respondent: Zaire Dinzey-Flores, Sociology, Rutgers
Moderator: Fallon Samuels Aidoo, Jean Brainard Boebel Chair in Historic Preservation, Assistant Professor of Planning & Urban Studies, University of New Orleans