Claiming the urban waterways in human-powered boats: Sustainability, placemaking, and gentrification amidst rising sea levels

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

This project investigates urban sustainability, placemaking, and gentrification from an understudied marine/coastal vantage point. Using innovative qualitative research methodology, I aim to answer three interrelated questions: (1) How do ideas about identity, citizenship, and belonging shape moral claims made by paddlers on the harbor waterways and visions of climate collapse mitigation? (2) How does the paddler habitus influence understandings of the urban in the Anthropocene, specifically with rising sea levels and storm surges predicted to devastate the city as we know it? (3) How do human-powered boating organizations contribute to the gentrification of the waterfront neighborhoods? I will report on preliminary results based on go-along interviews with leaders and members of human-powered boating organizations located in the New York harbor, supplemented by participant observation. Examining the growing phenomenon of organized human-powered boating in New York City opens possibilities for new ways of confronting the reality of climate collapse and reshaping our visions for harbor cities of the future.

Author

• Sofya Aptekar, CUNY - School of Labor and Urban Studies