Bibliograph

Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie, Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Courtney Elizabeth Knapp

Type

Label

Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie, Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Courtney Elizabeth Knapp

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Courtney Elizabeth Knapp

Sub title

Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Summary

What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the potential for urban equity and social justice in the future? Courtney Elizabeth Knapp chronicles the politics of gentrification and culture-based development in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by tracing the roots of racism, spatial segregation, and mainstream "cosmopolitanism" back to the earliest encounters between the Cherokee, African Americans, and white settlers. For more than three centuries, Chattanooga has been a site for multiracial interaction and community building; yet today public leaders have simultaneously restricted and appropriated many contributions of working-class communities of color within the city, exacerbating inequality and distrust between neighbors and public officials. Knapp suggests that "diasporic placemaking"-defined as the everyday practices through which uprooted people create new communities of security and belonging-is a useful analytical frame for understanding how multiracial interactions drive planning and urban development in diverse cities over time. By weaving together archival, ethnographic, and participatory action research techniques, she reveals the political complexities of a city characterized by centuries of ordinary resistance to racial segregation and uneven geographic development

Target audience

adult

Classification