Courtney Knapp | Pratt Institute (original) (raw)
Papers by Courtney Knapp
Planning Theory and Practice, 2021
is a senior lecturer and programme leader in Urban Planning at UWE, Bristol. Recent projects incl... more is a senior lecturer and programme leader in Urban Planning at UWE, Bristol. Recent projects include UK and international research council funded work that uses creative methods to explore cemeteries in multifaith and multicultural urban settings and examine the unspoken and intangible values community assets.
Planning Theory & Practice, 2022
her research explores the intersections of trauma, race, and planning. As a certified planner, he... more her research explores the intersections of trauma, race, and planning. As a certified planner, her work is rooted in planning practice and community engagement. Her recent publications include "Theorizing communal trauma: Examining the relationship between race, spatial imaginaries, and planning in the U.S. South," Planning Theory (2021). Long interested in planning in the face of power and conflict, the politics and ethics of planners's work, John Forester continues to study practices of listening and context-responsiveness, recognition and improvisation, mediation and deliberation. His best known known books include The Deliberative Practitioner:
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2020
This exploratory study discusses the results of a nationwide survey of planning directors, design... more This exploratory study discusses the results of a nationwide survey of planning directors, designed to understand whether local agencies understand and actively engage with reentry and social integration efforts targeting formerly incarcerated people. The results suggest agencies play administrative-bureaucratic roles facilitating environments that affect housing and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated populations, yet many appear unaware of how regulatory and policy frameworks translate into local infrastructures of inclusion and exclusion. These knowledge gaps are exacerbated by engagement practices that tend to privilege security and incarceration stakeholders over those connected to reentry, including formerly incarcerated people themselves.
Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie, 2018
Chapter 2 explores the rooting of Chattanooga’s Black communities through the late nineteenth cen... more Chapter 2 explores the rooting of Chattanooga’s Black communities through the late nineteenth century. Black labor and placemaking have been central to urbanization and economic expansion in Chattanooga since before the modern arrival of white settlers. Despite these substantial contributions, Black city-building has never been treated with the same level of admiration as exhibited toward the Cherokee. Nor have the centuries-long legacies of exploitation, violence, and marginalization been treated with the same levels of remorse or repentance. The chapter traces popular discourses of urban progress to illustrate how Black urban placemaking and community development were portrayed historically as antithetical to progressive urban cosmopolitanism.
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2018
Planners are bound up in the reproduction of racialized exclusion. This fact inspires demands for... more Planners are bound up in the reproduction of racialized exclusion. This fact inspires demands for equity, cultural competency, and anti-racism within the profession. This study examines the impacts...
Progressive Planning “front matter,” p. 3 in most issues: “Reprinting and distribution of portion... more Progressive Planning “front matter,” p. 3 in most issues: “Reprinting and distribution of portions of this magazine for non-commercial purposes are encouraged.”
<p>This chapter explores the stereotype-defying histories of Black and multi-ethnic placema... more <p>This chapter explores the stereotype-defying histories of Black and multi-ethnic placemaking in two historically significant Black neighborhoods: the Big Nine and Lincoln Park. East Ninth/Martin Luther King Street (""the Big Nine"") is a corridor which for more than a century served as a premiere destination for African American commerce, social life, and artistic/creative production. Lincoln Park is one of the oldest and most historically significant Black neighborhoods in Chattanooga, described by many locals as Black community's ""backyard".</p>
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dis... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, Assessing the potential for integrating community benefits agreements into brownfield ...
<p>What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the po... more <p>What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the potential for urban equity and social justice in the future? Courtney Elizabeth Knapp chronicles the politics of gentrification and culture-based development in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by tracing the roots of racism, spatial segregation, and mainstream "cosmopolitanism" back to the earliest encounters between the Cherokee, African Americans, and white settlers. For more than three centuries, Chattanooga has been a site for multiracial interaction and community building; yet today public leaders have simultaneously restricted and appropriated many contributions of working-class communities of color within the city, exacerbating inequality and distrust between neighbors and public officials. Knapp suggests that "diasporic placemaking"—defined as the everyday practices through which uprooted people create new communities of security and belonging—is a useful analytical frame for understanding how multiracial interactions drive planning and urban development in diverse cities over time. By weaving together archival, ethnographic, and participatory action research techniques, she reveals the political complexities of a city characterized by centuries of ordinary resistance to racial segregation and uneven geographic development.</p>
<p>This chapter describes the evolution of Chattanooga Organized for Action as they transit... more <p>This chapter describes the evolution of Chattanooga Organized for Action as they transitioned from a popular protest group into a 501-C3 non-profit who initiates, supports and connects place-based social justice movements across downtown Chattanooga. It also discusses two components of a participatory action research initiative related to this research project: the Sustaining People and Reclaiming Communities (SPARC) Initiative and the Planning Free School of Chattanooga. Both were experimental community planning processes, designed to offer alternatives to mainstream citizen engagement and capacity building in the city.</p>
<p>Chapter 5 assesses the historic rise, 'decline', and ongoing revival of the East... more <p>Chapter 5 assesses the historic rise, 'decline', and ongoing revival of the East Ninth Street/Martin Luther King Blvd. corridor and neighbourhood. The work contends that public and institutional actors involved with the ongoing revitalization of the Martin Luther King Blvd. corridor and neighborhood stand to miss crucial opportunities for realizing the equitable redevelopment of the district. The potential damage wrought by this absence is particularly acute because of the neighborhood's long history of creative, cooperative Black placemaking and community development.</p>
<p>This chapter introduces the reader to 'diasporic placemaking' as an alternative ... more <p>This chapter introduces the reader to 'diasporic placemaking' as an alternative conceptual frame for understanding the cultural and socio-spatial politics of planning and development in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It also describes current demographic and housing trends to demonstrate how the racialized stratification influences the city's housing, economic, and placemaking infrastructures. An overview of the book chapters are also provided.</p>
<p>Chapter 7 extends this conversation by examining the politics of racial recognition and ... more <p>Chapter 7 extends this conversation by examining the politics of racial recognition and reconciliation happening vis-à-vis public space, art, and cultural tourism planning within the revitalized urban core today. The Tennessee Riverfront and areas immediately surrounding Ross's Landing are sites of multiracial diasporic placemaking—spaces where different people have worked with and against one another to carve out communities of security and belonging. While these diasporic placemaking efforts have occasionally produced new collaborations and deeper affinities, they also ignite conflict and contestation over physical space and cultural place in the city. To this end, the work explores planning and placemaking elements of the Tennessee riverfront's revival to show how community leaders have used urban planning and placemaking to acknowledge and, arguably, reconcile, with the city's exploitative colonial past.</p>
<p>Chapter 9 discusses the politics of public space and neighborhood self-determination in ... more <p>Chapter 9 discusses the politics of public space and neighborhood self-determination in the historically Black, working class neighborhood of Lincoln Park. The work describes a thirty-year history of neighborhood-level community building and planning, including the present struggles of the Coalition to Save Lincoln Park, an advocacy group that emerged in 2013 after the city announced its plans to extend Central Avenue through the historic park space and neighborhood.</p>
<p>This chapter explores the politics of public participation in the context of Chattanooga... more <p>This chapter explores the politics of public participation in the context of Chattanooga's 35-year, citizen-driven return to the Tennessee riverfront. Though the city has won numerous awards for its citizen-driven planning initiatives, the success of early revitalization programs such as Chattanooga Venture and the Vision 2000 process remains contested.</p>
<p>Chapter 1 charts the historical relationship between Native dispossession and early city... more <p>Chapter 1 charts the historical relationship between Native dispossession and early city planning and development in downtown Chattanooga, to understand more deeply the complex relationship that many contemporary Chattanoogans have with the legacies of Cherokee dispossession that took place within their hometown's borders. The chapter focuses on the construction of historical narratives of people and place during the pre-removal and Removal periods, and argues that a paternalistic, yet quasi-reverent and nostalgic, popular framing of Native culture and removal has profoundly impacted how many people today relate to, and represent, Chattanooga's early history. Tracing the genealogy of race, property, and Native removal in the context of early city-building prepares the ground for later discussions of contemporary Native American placemaking activities along the Tennessee riverfront.</p>
Journal of Planning Education and Research
Planners and librarians work in complementary fields with common civic engagement and empowerment... more Planners and librarians work in complementary fields with common civic engagement and empowerment goals. This essay argues that urban planners and librarians stand to benefit mutually from interdisciplinary collaboration in four key areas: democratic access and participation, information literacy and capacity building, trust and social capital, and evolving institutional relevance. My commentary draws from a review of relevant literature, personal experiences collaborating with librarians on the Planning Free School of Chattanooga, and the perspectives of participants who joined the initiative.
<p>Chapter 3 continues this analysis through the 'Jim Crow' and Civil Rights eras. ... more <p>Chapter 3 continues this analysis through the 'Jim Crow' and Civil Rights eras. The chapter reveals critical double standards with respect to city planning and cultural development in Chattanooga; contradictions and inequalities that persist today. It also argues the historical conceptualization of black culture and community development as antithetical to urban progress was promulgated during and after the Reconstruction Period so that whites had a rationale to justify their ongoing subjugation and exploitation of Black labor across all areas of the Dynamo of Dixie's rapidly expanding local economy. The long history of de facto and de jure Jim Crow laws and structural inequalities explored in this chapter are testament to these legacies of oppression.</p>
Planning Theory and Practice, 2021
is a senior lecturer and programme leader in Urban Planning at UWE, Bristol. Recent projects incl... more is a senior lecturer and programme leader in Urban Planning at UWE, Bristol. Recent projects include UK and international research council funded work that uses creative methods to explore cemeteries in multifaith and multicultural urban settings and examine the unspoken and intangible values community assets.
Planning Theory & Practice, 2022
her research explores the intersections of trauma, race, and planning. As a certified planner, he... more her research explores the intersections of trauma, race, and planning. As a certified planner, her work is rooted in planning practice and community engagement. Her recent publications include "Theorizing communal trauma: Examining the relationship between race, spatial imaginaries, and planning in the U.S. South," Planning Theory (2021). Long interested in planning in the face of power and conflict, the politics and ethics of planners's work, John Forester continues to study practices of listening and context-responsiveness, recognition and improvisation, mediation and deliberation. His best known known books include The Deliberative Practitioner:
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2020
This exploratory study discusses the results of a nationwide survey of planning directors, design... more This exploratory study discusses the results of a nationwide survey of planning directors, designed to understand whether local agencies understand and actively engage with reentry and social integration efforts targeting formerly incarcerated people. The results suggest agencies play administrative-bureaucratic roles facilitating environments that affect housing and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated populations, yet many appear unaware of how regulatory and policy frameworks translate into local infrastructures of inclusion and exclusion. These knowledge gaps are exacerbated by engagement practices that tend to privilege security and incarceration stakeholders over those connected to reentry, including formerly incarcerated people themselves.
Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie, 2018
Chapter 2 explores the rooting of Chattanooga’s Black communities through the late nineteenth cen... more Chapter 2 explores the rooting of Chattanooga’s Black communities through the late nineteenth century. Black labor and placemaking have been central to urbanization and economic expansion in Chattanooga since before the modern arrival of white settlers. Despite these substantial contributions, Black city-building has never been treated with the same level of admiration as exhibited toward the Cherokee. Nor have the centuries-long legacies of exploitation, violence, and marginalization been treated with the same levels of remorse or repentance. The chapter traces popular discourses of urban progress to illustrate how Black urban placemaking and community development were portrayed historically as antithetical to progressive urban cosmopolitanism.
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2018
Planners are bound up in the reproduction of racialized exclusion. This fact inspires demands for... more Planners are bound up in the reproduction of racialized exclusion. This fact inspires demands for equity, cultural competency, and anti-racism within the profession. This study examines the impacts...
Progressive Planning “front matter,” p. 3 in most issues: “Reprinting and distribution of portion... more Progressive Planning “front matter,” p. 3 in most issues: “Reprinting and distribution of portions of this magazine for non-commercial purposes are encouraged.”
<p>This chapter explores the stereotype-defying histories of Black and multi-ethnic placema... more <p>This chapter explores the stereotype-defying histories of Black and multi-ethnic placemaking in two historically significant Black neighborhoods: the Big Nine and Lincoln Park. East Ninth/Martin Luther King Street (""the Big Nine"") is a corridor which for more than a century served as a premiere destination for African American commerce, social life, and artistic/creative production. Lincoln Park is one of the oldest and most historically significant Black neighborhoods in Chattanooga, described by many locals as Black community's ""backyard".</p>
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dis... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, Assessing the potential for integrating community benefits agreements into brownfield ...
<p>What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the po... more <p>What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the potential for urban equity and social justice in the future? Courtney Elizabeth Knapp chronicles the politics of gentrification and culture-based development in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by tracing the roots of racism, spatial segregation, and mainstream "cosmopolitanism" back to the earliest encounters between the Cherokee, African Americans, and white settlers. For more than three centuries, Chattanooga has been a site for multiracial interaction and community building; yet today public leaders have simultaneously restricted and appropriated many contributions of working-class communities of color within the city, exacerbating inequality and distrust between neighbors and public officials. Knapp suggests that "diasporic placemaking"—defined as the everyday practices through which uprooted people create new communities of security and belonging—is a useful analytical frame for understanding how multiracial interactions drive planning and urban development in diverse cities over time. By weaving together archival, ethnographic, and participatory action research techniques, she reveals the political complexities of a city characterized by centuries of ordinary resistance to racial segregation and uneven geographic development.</p>
<p>This chapter describes the evolution of Chattanooga Organized for Action as they transit... more <p>This chapter describes the evolution of Chattanooga Organized for Action as they transitioned from a popular protest group into a 501-C3 non-profit who initiates, supports and connects place-based social justice movements across downtown Chattanooga. It also discusses two components of a participatory action research initiative related to this research project: the Sustaining People and Reclaiming Communities (SPARC) Initiative and the Planning Free School of Chattanooga. Both were experimental community planning processes, designed to offer alternatives to mainstream citizen engagement and capacity building in the city.</p>
<p>Chapter 5 assesses the historic rise, 'decline', and ongoing revival of the East... more <p>Chapter 5 assesses the historic rise, 'decline', and ongoing revival of the East Ninth Street/Martin Luther King Blvd. corridor and neighbourhood. The work contends that public and institutional actors involved with the ongoing revitalization of the Martin Luther King Blvd. corridor and neighborhood stand to miss crucial opportunities for realizing the equitable redevelopment of the district. The potential damage wrought by this absence is particularly acute because of the neighborhood's long history of creative, cooperative Black placemaking and community development.</p>
<p>This chapter introduces the reader to 'diasporic placemaking' as an alternative ... more <p>This chapter introduces the reader to 'diasporic placemaking' as an alternative conceptual frame for understanding the cultural and socio-spatial politics of planning and development in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It also describes current demographic and housing trends to demonstrate how the racialized stratification influences the city's housing, economic, and placemaking infrastructures. An overview of the book chapters are also provided.</p>
<p>Chapter 7 extends this conversation by examining the politics of racial recognition and ... more <p>Chapter 7 extends this conversation by examining the politics of racial recognition and reconciliation happening vis-à-vis public space, art, and cultural tourism planning within the revitalized urban core today. The Tennessee Riverfront and areas immediately surrounding Ross's Landing are sites of multiracial diasporic placemaking—spaces where different people have worked with and against one another to carve out communities of security and belonging. While these diasporic placemaking efforts have occasionally produced new collaborations and deeper affinities, they also ignite conflict and contestation over physical space and cultural place in the city. To this end, the work explores planning and placemaking elements of the Tennessee riverfront's revival to show how community leaders have used urban planning and placemaking to acknowledge and, arguably, reconcile, with the city's exploitative colonial past.</p>
<p>Chapter 9 discusses the politics of public space and neighborhood self-determination in ... more <p>Chapter 9 discusses the politics of public space and neighborhood self-determination in the historically Black, working class neighborhood of Lincoln Park. The work describes a thirty-year history of neighborhood-level community building and planning, including the present struggles of the Coalition to Save Lincoln Park, an advocacy group that emerged in 2013 after the city announced its plans to extend Central Avenue through the historic park space and neighborhood.</p>
<p>This chapter explores the politics of public participation in the context of Chattanooga... more <p>This chapter explores the politics of public participation in the context of Chattanooga's 35-year, citizen-driven return to the Tennessee riverfront. Though the city has won numerous awards for its citizen-driven planning initiatives, the success of early revitalization programs such as Chattanooga Venture and the Vision 2000 process remains contested.</p>
<p>Chapter 1 charts the historical relationship between Native dispossession and early city... more <p>Chapter 1 charts the historical relationship between Native dispossession and early city planning and development in downtown Chattanooga, to understand more deeply the complex relationship that many contemporary Chattanoogans have with the legacies of Cherokee dispossession that took place within their hometown's borders. The chapter focuses on the construction of historical narratives of people and place during the pre-removal and Removal periods, and argues that a paternalistic, yet quasi-reverent and nostalgic, popular framing of Native culture and removal has profoundly impacted how many people today relate to, and represent, Chattanooga's early history. Tracing the genealogy of race, property, and Native removal in the context of early city-building prepares the ground for later discussions of contemporary Native American placemaking activities along the Tennessee riverfront.</p>
Journal of Planning Education and Research
Planners and librarians work in complementary fields with common civic engagement and empowerment... more Planners and librarians work in complementary fields with common civic engagement and empowerment goals. This essay argues that urban planners and librarians stand to benefit mutually from interdisciplinary collaboration in four key areas: democratic access and participation, information literacy and capacity building, trust and social capital, and evolving institutional relevance. My commentary draws from a review of relevant literature, personal experiences collaborating with librarians on the Planning Free School of Chattanooga, and the perspectives of participants who joined the initiative.
<p>Chapter 3 continues this analysis through the 'Jim Crow' and Civil Rights eras. ... more <p>Chapter 3 continues this analysis through the 'Jim Crow' and Civil Rights eras. The chapter reveals critical double standards with respect to city planning and cultural development in Chattanooga; contradictions and inequalities that persist today. It also argues the historical conceptualization of black culture and community development as antithetical to urban progress was promulgated during and after the Reconstruction Period so that whites had a rationale to justify their ongoing subjugation and exploitation of Black labor across all areas of the Dynamo of Dixie's rapidly expanding local economy. The long history of de facto and de jure Jim Crow laws and structural inequalities explored in this chapter are testament to these legacies of oppression.</p>