2023 Theses Master's
Beyond The Built Environment: Making Space For The Well-being Of Bipocplanners
This thesis explores the spatial experiences of Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color planners as they negotiate the use of spaces in their personal lives and professional settings, especially as it relates to their mental health and well-being. Prior research has shown significant gaps remain for groups historically and structurally excluded from the planning profession, including those who are Black, immigrants, or LGBQT+.
Current urban planning practices fail to consider how workplace health and well-being are a continuous process that integrates conditions of traumatized landscapes. Planning literature has an opportunity to adequately address the role of a racialized planner, especially if they identify as queer, in actively participating in processes that help them navigate the emotional tolls which result from planning work. Such an examination offers an opportunity to explore the possibilities and challenges of healing-centered engagement.
This paper brings light to the creative avenues that BIPOC planners engage with as a means of self-preservation, advocacy, and liberation. It also argues that the connections between BIPOC planners' creative space-making practices and their role in workplace settings are inextricable from each other. Thus suggesting that it is urgent for urban planning to adopt alternative approaches to workplace culture and community engagement practices to cultivate spaces that are caring, affirming, and just. BIPOC mental health is a workplace issue and should be better integrated into efforts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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More About This Work
- Academic Units
- Urban Planning
- Thesis Advisors
- Dublin-Boc, Jenna L.
- Degree
- M.S., Columbia University
- Published Here
- August 16, 2023