The Help-Yourself City : Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism

When cash-strapped local governments don’t provide adequate services, and planning policies prioritize economic development over community needs, what is a concerned citizen to do? In the help-yourself city, you do it yourself. __The Help-Yourself City__ presents the results of nearly five years of in-depth research on people who take urban planning into their own hands with unauthorized yet functional and civic-minded “do-it-yourself urban design” projects. Examples include homemade traffic signs and public benches, guerrilla gardens and bike lanes, even citizen development “proposals,” all created in public space without permission but in forms analogous to official streetscape design elements. With research across 17 cities and more than 100 interviews with do-it-yourselfers, professional planners, and community members, the book explores who is creating these unauthorized improvements, where, and why. In doing so, it demonstrates the way uneven development processes are experienced and responded to in everyday life. Yet the democratic potential of this increasingly celebrated trend is brought into question by the privileged characteristics of typical do-it-yourself urban designers, the aesthetics and cultural values of the projects they create, and the relationship between DIY efforts and mainstream planning and economic development. Despite its many positive impacts, DIY urban design is a worryingly undemocratic practice, revealing the stubborn persistence of inequality in participatory citizenship and the design of public space. The book thus presents a needed critical analysis of an important trend, connecting it to research on informality, legitimacy, privilege, and urban political economy. 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 interventions, but also the position of privilege from which they often come. Presenting a needed analysis of this growing trend from vacant lots to city planning offices, The Help-Yourself City tells a street-level story of people's relationships to their urban surroundings and the individualization of democratic responsibility. 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 interventions, but also the position of privilege from which they often come. Presenting a needed analysis of this growing trend from vacant lots to city planning offices, The Help-Yourself City tells a street-level story of people's relationships to their urban surroundings and the individualization of democratic responsibility. Book jacket Introduction -- Constructive deviance: what is DIY urban design? And what is it not? -- Individualizing civic responsibility: DIY urban design in the help-yourself city -- "I'm an expert on public space": professional and scholarly knowledge at work in DIY urbanism -- The spatial reproduction of inequality: social privilege and hubris in creative transgression -- Pop-up planning: from park(ing) day to parklet dining, DIY goes official -- Conclusions : Inequality, legitimacy, and the momentary potential of participation -- Appendix 1. List of all projects in the study for which interviews were conducted ; Appendix 2. Research design and methodology. Introduction -- Constructive Deviance: What Is Diy Urban Design? And What Is It Not? -- Individualizing Civic Responsibility: Diy Urban Design In The Help-yourself City -- I'm An Expert On Public Space: Professional And Scholarly Knowledge At Work In Diy Urbanism -- The Spatial Reproduction Of Inequality: Social Privilege And Disadvantage In Creative Transgression -- Pop-up Planning: From Park(ing) Day To Parklet Dining, Diy Goes Official -- Conclusions. Gordon C.c. Douglas. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In 'The Help-Yourself City', Gordon Douglas looks closely at the people who take urban planning into their own hands, dubbed 'do-it-yourself urban design' and exposes the ways that DIY urban designers are increasingly celebrated and appropriated into economic development efforts that perpetuate cycles of inequality for disadvantaged communities