Reimagining Urban Spaces and the Processes that Shape and Create Them

By Abbey Chambers

Cities across the United States are full of “unfreedoms,” which manifest in the form of poverty and other infringements on people’s abilities to do things they value in their lives. These unfreedoms affect already-disenfranchised populations more than others. To maximize freedoms, overcome unfreedoms, and move toward the shaping and creating of more inclusive social and physical urban spaces, and more equitable social and economic outcomes, we must design different ways of producing urban spaces. This article describes a theoretical framework for imagining our relationships with and in urban spaces and the processes that shape and create them. It presents a case study observed through an ethnographic research project in a disinvested neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana, to illustrate how defined and abstract forms of power can accumulate and operate in ways that suit the values and priorities of individuals and organizations that are well networked and well resourced, edging existing residents out of decision-making processes. Finally, it provides a solution toward rebalancing the power between those well-networked and well-resourced decision makers and existing residents.