Coercing the Delta. The French Grammar of Control in the African Landscape of Colonial Louisiana, 1699-1732

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-563
Author(s):  
Nicholas Paskert

The long-term transformation of the Louisiana delta beginning in 1699 has been primarily understood as a French colonial struggle for the control of nature. Yet, in order for French colonisers to control nature, they first sought to control enslaved Africans. While slave coercion was a daily problem for French inhabitants, documentation of the 'routinized violence' of chattel slavery is predictably absent in records of the built environment. As a result, the building of colonial New Orleans, beginning in 1718, has become a story of French design, not of enslaved African labour. This paper examines the accounts and correspondence of French colonisers who veiled their own dependence on indigenous, indentured and enslaved people by adopting a performative language of mastery as they projected or described labour projects essential to the 'control of nature'. What colonisers could not master in person they performed on paper via pronouns, tenses, constructions and the passive voice. The 'French' Louisiana delta is better understood as an African-built landscape reinscribed on Indigenous territory under French coercion.

Author(s):  
Lauren Laframboise

French colonial Louisiana has long captured the imaginations of academic and amateur historians alike. However, the histories of French Louisiana and New Orleans have often been analyzed within the canon of American history, overlooking its transnational and transcontinental connections to New France and the French Empire. This paper mobilizes 18th Century court documents from French colonial New Orleans that detail an assault perpetrated by a plantation overseer against enslaved workers. Jacques Charpentier dit le Roy migrated to Louisiana from what is now known as Canada, and was employed as an overseer by plantation owner and Superior Council member Amyault d’Auseville. Charpentier’s violent conduct led to the death of an enslaved man by the name of Brunet, and perpetrated multiple physical and sexual assaults against enslaved women, including Brunet’s wife, Bizao. The d’Auseville vs. Charpentier case not only illustrates the violence of slavery within the French Empire, but also the ways in which class differences were mobilized to entrench racial hierarchies. Above all, the case shows that the institution of slavery was sustained by migrations within the French Empire in North America, and provides concrete evidence of the transnational and transcontinental nature of slaveholding. This paper problematizes historiographical arguments that slavery was ‘less brutal’ in the French Empire by bringing the d’Auseville vs. Charpentier case in conversation with the Codes Noirs and its patriarchal foundations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7629
Author(s):  
Haorui Wu

This study contributes to an in-depth examination of how Wenchuan earthquake disaster survivors utilize intensive built environment reconstruction outcomes (housing and infrastructural systems) to facilitate their long-term social and economic recovery and sustainable rural development. Post-disaster recovery administered via top-down disaster management systems usually consists of two phases: a short-term, government-led reconstruction (STGLR) of the built environment and a long-term, survivor-led recovery (LTSLR) of human and social settings. However, current studies have been inadequate in examining how rural disaster survivors have adapted to their new government-provided housing or how communities conducted their long-term recovery efforts. This qualitative case study invited sixty rural disaster survivors to examine their place-making activities utilizing government-delivered, urban-style residential communities to support their long-term recovery. This study discovered that rural residents’ recovery activities successfully perpetuated their original rural lives and rebuilt social connections and networks both individually and collectively. However, they were only able to manage their agriculture-based livelihood recovery temporarily. This research suggests that engaging rural inhabitants’ place-making expertise and providing opportunities to improve their housing and communities would advance the long-term grassroots recovery of lives and livelihoods, achieving sustainable development.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1420326X2110398
Author(s):  
S. R. Jensen ◽  
C. Gabel ◽  
S. Petersen ◽  
P. H. Kirkegaard

The paper explores potentials for increasing residents' wellbeing in multi-family social housing (MSH) undergoing energy renovation. The renovation measures needed to reach national and global climate goals are often not financially feasible when viewed in isolation. Therefore, it is relevant to identify potentials for added value, which can justify more extensive measures. This paper is based on the hypothesis that every renovation project holds potentials for added value in terms of increased resident wellbeing. Further, that it is crucial to extend current understandings of wellbeing beyond single, quantitative wellbeing parameters in order to promote more holistic, long-term sustainable renovation solutions. The paper sheds light on potentials for increased resident wellbeing based on an analysis of residents’ experience and satisfaction with gestures in the existing built environment and comparing these findings to their perceived health. The analysis is based on data collected through a mixed-methods approach in three MSH areas facing extensive renovation. The findings demonstrate and exemplify that energy renovation measures may influence a number of interrelated physiological, mental and social wellbeing aspects across scales. As such, the paper contributes with new insights, which can help promote previously neglected aspects of resident wellbeing in future energy renovation design processes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2110442
Author(s):  
Yunmi Park ◽  
Minju Kim ◽  
Jiyeon Shin ◽  
Megan E. Heim LaFrombois

This research examined social media’s role in understanding perceptions about the spaces in which individuals interact, what planners can learn from social media data, and how to use social media to inform urban regeneration efforts. Using Twitter data from 2010 to 2018 recorded in one U.S. shrinking city, Detroit, Michigan, this paper longitudinally investigated topics that people discuss, their emotions, and neighborhood conditions associated with these topics and sentiments. Findings demonstrate that neighborhood demographics, socioeconomic, and built environment conditions impact people’s sentiments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Staricco ◽  
Valentina Rappazzo ◽  
Jacopo Scudellari ◽  
Elisabetta Vitale Brovarone

There is great uncertainty about the transition from human to autonomous driving vehicles (AVs), as well as about the extent and direction of their potential impacts on the urban built environment. Planners are aware of the importance of leading this transition but are hesitant about how to proceed, and public administrations generally show a passive attitude. One of the reasons is the difficulty of defining long-term visions and identifying transition paths to achieve the desired future. The literature on AVs is growing rapidly but most of the visions proposed so far do not consider in detail how circulation and parking of AVs will (or could) be differently regulated in cities. In this study, three visions for the Italian city of Turin are proposed. The aim of these visions is to highlight how different forms of regulation of AV circulation and parking can impact on the sustainability and livability of the city. A focus group and a set of interviews with experts and stakeholders were used to validate the three visions and assess their advisability and sustainability. This visioning exercise is the first step in the development of a backcasting process.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (10_suppl) ◽  
pp. 145S-168S ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa Clarke ◽  
Erica Twardzik ◽  
Michelle A. Meade ◽  
Mark D. Peterson ◽  
Denise Tate

Objective: This study examined the environmental barriers and facilitators that hinder or promote participation among adults aging with physical disabilities. Method: Data come from an ongoing study of 1,331 individuals aging with long-term physical disability ( M = 65 years). Linear regression examined the association between individual and socioenvironmental factors and participation restrictions in work, leisure, and social activities. Results: Pain, fatigue, and physical functional limitations were significant barriers to participation for individuals aging with physical disability. Barriers in the built environment also reduced participation, net of health and functioning. Poor access to buildings was especially problematic for participation among individuals not using any mobility aid to get around. But for those using wheel or walking aids, environmental barriers had no adverse effect on participation. Discussion: These findings highlight the importance of disentangling the role of different environmental factors by distinguishing between assistive technology for mobility and the physical built environment, including their interactive effects.


Author(s):  
M. J. Kelly

Just under half of all energy consumption in the UK today takes place indoors, and over a quarter within our homes. The challenges associated with energy security, climate change and sustainable consumption will be overcome or lost in our existing buildings. A background analysis, and the scale of the engineering challenge for the next three to four decades, is described in this paper.


Facilities ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 531-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Conejos ◽  
Craig Langston ◽  
Jim Smith

Purpose – This paper aims to make the case for the development of an adaptive reuse rating tool targeted to new building design that maximises the embedded adaptive reuse potential of these buildings later in their life, thereby adding to built environment sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study retrospectively analyses successful adaptive reuse projects to establish and test a multi-criteria decision-making model for new design projects. This paper contains a report on the final stages of the research methodology (quantitative approach) used in the development of the adaptSTAR model that critically assesses the list of design criteria identified in the first stage of the study. Improvements to the case studies that would have further enhanced their reuse potential later in life are proposed. The results are compared to an established decision tool (adaptive reuse potential [ARP] model) to determine their level of consistency. Findings – The findings of this research show that design criteria can be identified and weighted according to seven categories to calculate a building’s adaptive reuse star rating. Both the adaptSTAR and ARP models exhibit a strong relationship and are positively correlated. Originality/value – The research demonstrates that by applying adaptSTAR to new designs, it will contribute to greater sustainability for the built environment in the long term via reducing the rate of building obsolescence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-446
Author(s):  
Lars Brinck

This article reports long-term fieldwork on jamming funk musicians’ interaction from a combined anthropological, ethnographic, and grounded theory perspective. The study draws from over 20 years of data collection through personal interviews with New Orleans funk musicians, personal experiences with jamming and second-lining, and participant observation of funk jam sessions and second line parades. Also the author’s personal funk jam teaching experiences are included. The article is in four parts to mark the historical phases in the longitudinal research process towards a theoretical, empirical argument for how funk musicians think and act when they jam. The final theory suggests funk jamming to be guided by overarching notions of “making the music feel good” and “making them dance” and in an iterative spiral process of “open approach,” “prioritized focusing,” “categorical reflection,” and “artistic realization.” Based on this, some educational implications for learning and teaching how to jam conclude the article.


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