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The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism
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When local governments neglect public services or community priorities, how do concerned citizens respond? In The Help-Yourself City, Gordon Douglas looks closely at people who take urban planning into their own hands with homemade signs and benches, guerrilla bike lanes and more. Douglas explores the frustration, creativity, and technical expertise behind these interventi
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Hardcover, 264 pages
Published
February 1st 2018
by Oxford University Press, USA
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Instead of complaining about local government inaction, this DIY Urbanism book showcases example after example of regular citizens making their local neighborhoods better. Residents take it into their own hands to improve life around them.
As the author states, "the real ideal behind DIY urbanism is people improving their own communities" and not relying upon big government to do it.
"Urban places and public spaces are closely tied to identity, and it is no wonder that people are possessive and d ...more
As the author states, "the real ideal behind DIY urbanism is people improving their own communities" and not relying upon big government to do it.
"Urban places and public spaces are closely tied to identity, and it is no wonder that people are possessive and d ...more
A solid look behind the what and how of informal urban interventions to the who and in what context are they judged. Beyond just the ethnographic investigation into legitimacy and community embeddedness, Douglas asks what promise lies in the often unknown or misunderstood direct actions taken out of a feeling of necessity that ultimately lie mostly barren in front of an apathetic populace going about their lives.
Really interesting book, not at all what I was expecting. I had never considered the impacts and attitudes to diy interventions in different communities
Christmas present from Diana.
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Gordon Douglas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of the Institute for Metropolitan Studies at San José State University. He is a multidisciplinary urbanist whose research sits at the intersection of sociology, critical studies, and urban planning and design. In addition to his work on DIY urbanism and creative placemaking, other recent publicat
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