Using Community Geography and PhotoVoice to Understand Public Perceptions of Environmental Features in Shrinking Cities

Keywords: community geography, public participation, participatory planning, shrinking cities, environmental justice, photovoice, geovisualization
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 17

Abstract

The United States is dotted with post-industrial cities that many researchers refer to as shrinking cities. These cities are characterized by crippling losses in population and job opportunities and the overpresence of abandoned or dilapidated building stock, poorly maintained or outdated physical infrastructure, brownfields in need of remediation, and poverty. The city of Camden, New Jersey is one such shrinking city because of its ongoing struggle with interrelated issues of social, political, and environmental injustice, despite a population of residents and stakeholders who are committed to improving their neighborhoods. This presentation is founded on the research conducted by a team of local researchers in 2020 who utilized the concept of community geography to design and implement a series of community engagement strategies within the Waterfront South neighborhood of Camden. The team aligned these strategies with the goal of better understanding residents’ perceptions of their built and green environments. One strategy that proved particularly useful in generating sentiment/perception data was the team’s series of PhotoVoice activities, wherein participants photographed various built and natural elements throughout their neighborhood and identified each photograph as an asset, challenge, or opportunity. Utilizing the raw PhotoVoice data, we identified eleven themes to organize the 900+ photos from the 18 exercise participants. With these themes in mind, we developed a series of maps in ArcMap to illustrate how residents rated aspects of their community; how the eleven themes were geographically distributed; and how residents’ perceptions connected with local environmental justice and social issues.