Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.003.0002
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Chapter One provides an historical overview of urban America during the age of the Interstate, exploring the disparate impact of urban highway construction upon the diverse neighborhoods of the ...
More
Chapter One provides an historical overview of urban America during the age of the Interstate, exploring the disparate impact of urban highway construction upon the diverse neighborhoods of the American city. It reviews the history of the visible, organized expressions of the freeway revolt, contrasting the triumph of white middle class communities against the predicament of more marginal neighborhoods impacted by highway construction.Less
Chapter One provides an historical overview of urban America during the age of the Interstate, exploring the disparate impact of urban highway construction upon the diverse neighborhoods of the American city. It reviews the history of the visible, organized expressions of the freeway revolt, contrasting the triumph of white middle class communities against the predicament of more marginal neighborhoods impacted by highway construction.
Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.001.0001
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
The Folklore of the Freeway provides an alternative history of highway construction in urban America, emphasizing the cultural politics of fighting freeways in the inner city. Using the methods of ...
More
The Folklore of the Freeway provides an alternative history of highway construction in urban America, emphasizing the cultural politics of fighting freeways in the inner city. Using the methods of ethnic studies, cultural studies, and urban history, this book offers a revisionist history of the freeway revolt in urban America, that moment when neighborhood activists organized against state highway builders to defend the integrity of their communities. While historical accounts of the freeway revolt emphasize successful forms of grassroots mobilization within predominantly white, middle-class urban communities, the urban neighborhoods that bore the brunt of urban highway construction, lacking political and economic power, devised a creative set of cultural strategies to express opposition towards the routing of freeways through their neighborhoods. These expressions, taking shape through visual and literary cultural forms, iterates the destructive consequences of the Interstate highway program, helping to preserve communal integrity and identity and inventing new relationships between people and the urban built environment. This book thus considers the cultural dimensions of this freeway revolt, emphasizing the role of culture and identity in mediating the relationship between inner city communities and the disruptive process of infrastructural development. Losers, perhaps, in the fight against the freeway, these racially and ethnically diverse communities of working class men and women nonetheless innovated a genre of cultural expression that shapes our understanding of the urban landscape and influences the shifting priorities of urban policy since the 1960s.Less
The Folklore of the Freeway provides an alternative history of highway construction in urban America, emphasizing the cultural politics of fighting freeways in the inner city. Using the methods of ethnic studies, cultural studies, and urban history, this book offers a revisionist history of the freeway revolt in urban America, that moment when neighborhood activists organized against state highway builders to defend the integrity of their communities. While historical accounts of the freeway revolt emphasize successful forms of grassroots mobilization within predominantly white, middle-class urban communities, the urban neighborhoods that bore the brunt of urban highway construction, lacking political and economic power, devised a creative set of cultural strategies to express opposition towards the routing of freeways through their neighborhoods. These expressions, taking shape through visual and literary cultural forms, iterates the destructive consequences of the Interstate highway program, helping to preserve communal integrity and identity and inventing new relationships between people and the urban built environment. This book thus considers the cultural dimensions of this freeway revolt, emphasizing the role of culture and identity in mediating the relationship between inner city communities and the disruptive process of infrastructural development. Losers, perhaps, in the fight against the freeway, these racially and ethnically diverse communities of working class men and women nonetheless innovated a genre of cultural expression that shapes our understanding of the urban landscape and influences the shifting priorities of urban policy since the 1960s.
Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.003.0003
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Chapter Two explores the gendered politics of fighting freeways. In more established communities, white women—Jane Jacobs and her ilk–played a prominent role organizing community opposition to ...
More
Chapter Two explores the gendered politics of fighting freeways. In more established communities, white women—Jane Jacobs and her ilk–played a prominent role organizing community opposition to Interstate highway construction. The chapter situates their victories against a feminist critique of highway construction by women of color who witnessed the destruction of their communities.Less
Chapter Two explores the gendered politics of fighting freeways. In more established communities, white women—Jane Jacobs and her ilk–played a prominent role organizing community opposition to Interstate highway construction. The chapter situates their victories against a feminist critique of highway construction by women of color who witnessed the destruction of their communities.
Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.003.0004
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Chapter Three considers the role of historical memory in politics of fighting freeways. While some communities successfully blocked highway construction by insisting upon the historical significance ...
More
Chapter Three considers the role of historical memory in politics of fighting freeways. While some communities successfully blocked highway construction by insisting upon the historical significance of their neighborhoods, other communities were left to salvage memories from the rubble of destruction. This chapter thus shows how freeways ruptured not only a community’s experience of space, but also its sense of time.Less
Chapter Three considers the role of historical memory in politics of fighting freeways. While some communities successfully blocked highway construction by insisting upon the historical significance of their neighborhoods, other communities were left to salvage memories from the rubble of destruction. This chapter thus shows how freeways ruptured not only a community’s experience of space, but also its sense of time.
Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.003.0006
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Chapter Five explores how communities impacted by highway construction integrate the freeway into its local context. Considering a variety of cultural practices in disparate urban neighborhoods, this ...
More
Chapter Five explores how communities impacted by highway construction integrate the freeway into its local context. Considering a variety of cultural practices in disparate urban neighborhoods, this chapter surveys local strategies of adaptation and improvisation, emphasizing how a community asserts its presence upon the freeway landscape.Less
Chapter Five explores how communities impacted by highway construction integrate the freeway into its local context. Considering a variety of cultural practices in disparate urban neighborhoods, this chapter surveys local strategies of adaptation and improvisation, emphasizing how a community asserts its presence upon the freeway landscape.
Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.003.0001
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
The Introduction lays out the scope and aims of the book, situating this study within the scholarly literature. It defines the terms of the debate, emphasizing why existing histories of urban highway ...
More
The Introduction lays out the scope and aims of the book, situating this study within the scholarly literature. It defines the terms of the debate, emphasizing why existing histories of urban highway construction need to address the diverse cultural expressions that have amassed around the imposition of freeways upon diverse urban communities.Less
The Introduction lays out the scope and aims of the book, situating this study within the scholarly literature. It defines the terms of the debate, emphasizing why existing histories of urban highway construction need to address the diverse cultural expressions that have amassed around the imposition of freeways upon diverse urban communities.
Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.003.0007
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
The conclusion summarizes the main themes and argument of the book, arguing for the inculcation of cultural analysis within the broader history of modernization in the postwar American city. It ...
More
The conclusion summarizes the main themes and argument of the book, arguing for the inculcation of cultural analysis within the broader history of modernization in the postwar American city. It emphasizes the unexpected and unintended consequences of highway construction in urban America, and how it helped to sharpen local articulations of racial identity and difference.Less
The conclusion summarizes the main themes and argument of the book, arguing for the inculcation of cultural analysis within the broader history of modernization in the postwar American city. It emphasizes the unexpected and unintended consequences of highway construction in urban America, and how it helped to sharpen local articulations of racial identity and difference.
Eric Avila
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816680726
- eISBN:
- 9781452947860
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816680726.003.0005
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
Chapter Four explores the history of the freeway revolt through visual culture. It analyzes the image of the freeway in the history of American art since the age of the Interstate, identifying a ...
More
Chapter Four explores the history of the freeway revolt through visual culture. It analyzes the image of the freeway in the history of American art since the age of the Interstate, identifying a racial point of view structured by the uneven impact of highway construction upon the city’s diverse communities.Less
Chapter Four explores the history of the freeway revolt through visual culture. It analyzes the image of the freeway in the history of American art since the age of the Interstate, identifying a racial point of view structured by the uneven impact of highway construction upon the city’s diverse communities.
