From disorder to boundaries: Rethinking urban reputations

• In Event: 1150 - Place Making and Urban Spaces

Abstract

Urban researchers tend to understand perceptions of place as reflections of their disordered conditions, with crime, graffiti, and other negative characteristics underlying bad reputations. This study, using the case of a mid-sized United States city, challenges this assumption, arguing that perceptions of place – like all meanings – are not simply responses to stimuli. A process underlying urban reputations is powerful collective groups dividing themselves from the less powerful in order to gain or maintain status and benefits. In contrast to disorder-based views of urban reputations, this boundary-based approach shifts responsibility for disreputable places from the victims of these designations to their perpetrators. This perspective also suggests different solutions, instead of harsh interventions against disorder, to improve a place’s reputation.

Author

• Pepper Glass, Weber State University