Filling the metaphysical landscape
Name
51064976-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
10.36 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
0571aa1afba2eb792c67cd107bb05613
Author(s)
Sassa, Chikako, 1977-
Advisor(s)
Raul P. Lejano.
Date Issued
2002
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Currently a gap exists between the regulatory, technocratic approach to managing a municipal landfill and the unofficial narratives of the people who live near the landfill and face a multitude of unpleasant effects in their everyday lives. This fracture between "official" truth and empirical reality stems from divergent construals of landfills as enclosed compartments from the perspective of planners and policy makers on one hand, and as dynamic, multidimensional, even threatening elements in the landscape from the perspective of local residents on the other. Understanding this fracture will provide cues for modifying current planning practice to become more inclusive and responsive to local voice. Working from a case study of Chiquita Canyon Landfill and the community of Val Verde in Valencia, California, my thesis investigates ways to mend this fracture by examining cultural and symbolic artifacts indicative of the community's relationship to the landfill, and suggesting how this qualitative knowledge could then be linked to the practice of environmental planning. My qualitative research included inputs from a series of open-ended interviews, a stakeholder workshop, site visits, and drawings made by children and adults of their conception of the Val Verde landscape. I advocate for the endorsement of a more humanistic approach to planning by visiting sites, meeting the people, and incorporating nontraditional methods of data collection to augment quantitative data generated by environmental impact assessments and cost-benefit analyses in current environmental planning practice. As a new way to frame environmental justice issues regarding landfills, I suggest the possibility of creating a "trashshed" framework to regulate the input/output flow of trash in a given area.
Description
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-109).
Subjects
Urban Studies and Planning.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
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