A city with no Spirit? Overcoming fear in search of fun in the South Salina Street of Syracuse, New York

Keywords: Right to the city, Syracuse, fun and fear
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This Participatory Action Research (PAR) project will target the relationship between the capitalism and race in Syracuse, New York, with regard to the concept of right to the city. Focusing on the South Salina Street, I will aim to vocal the fun aspect of the street as opposed to fear aspect assigned to there. The deliberate usage of the terms, fun and fear, is aimed to serve the mismatch between use value and exchange value that Henri Lefebvre dwells his discussion about right to the city; “city and urban reality are related to use value. Exchange value and the generalization of commodities by industrialization tend to destroy it by subordinating the city and urban reality” (Lefebvre, 1996, p. 67-68). In order to further concretize the theoretical framework, I will link these two terms, fun and fear, through his method of rhythmanalysis through which I, together with the dwellers, will claim the rights of urban dwellers (citadin) in South Salina street; “right to the city is the appropriation of lived time” (p. 34).

In this regard, in order to overcome the vague usage of the term race, I will consult to Du Bois (1935) in order to understand the larger problem; how does the notion of race relate to capitalism and right to the city? And to what extent the concept right to the city enables communities in South Salina to challenge re-production of racism (Fields, 1990).