Exploring Condominium Governance in Toronto and New York City
With Prof. Randy Lippert, University of Windsor, Canada; sponsor: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Since the introduction of North American condominium legislation in the 1960s, this form of ownership has grown at an astonishing rate in major urban areas such as Toronto and New York City, even during real estate market declines. Conventional wisdom is that as the population continues to age and urban space becomes even less affordable, more people will live in condominiums as either owners or tenants. Due to its distinctive mix of individually and commonly-owned property, the possibility of the condominium form depends on special arrangements of governance and social relations. However, even with the condominium's steadily growing pervasiveness in Canada and the United States, and more recently in China and elsewhere, surprisingly little is known about these arrangements and their social impact.
The objective of this research project is therefore to study condominium governance in two major North American cities where high rise condominium living is increasing: Toronto, Canada and New York City, New York. Our research questions are: 1) How is condominium life governed? and 2) What is the impact of condominium governance on the social relations of residents living in these private housing schemes? This project seeks to lend insight into this neglected realm of private governance and its social consequences.
“Working Group on Public Space and Diversity”
With Darshan Vigneswaran (Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute); sponsor: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
This working group, funded for three years by the Max Planck Institute, will study the increasingly complex forms
of migration and mobility, ethnic and cultural affiliation, and religious aspiration that determine how contemporary public
spaces are built, regenerated, controlled, and experienced. Following the success of the institute’s other working groups on
health and markets, this group will draw together leading scholars to develop groundbreaking collaborations and publications on
an increasingly important area of diversity research. It is expected that this investment will lead to a longer-term,
multifaceted research program. In particular, to acknowledge the extensive research that is ongoing in Western Europe and
North America, the group aims to forge new paths of research through the comparative analysis of less-studied public spaces
in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. See the
Inaugural Steering Group webpage for more information.
Moore Street Market Project (Brooklyn, NY)
In collaboration with: The Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
The purpose of the social and cultural impact assessment of the Moore Street Market project was to supplement the economic, political, design, and management assessment undertaken by the Project for Public Spaces (PPS). It also supplements the site assessment and on-site observations completed by PPS and contributes to the development of culturally appropriate vendor and place-making training workshops. The Public Space Research Group (PSRG) under the directorship of anthropologist Setha Low focused on gathering data to make an empirical case for the continuation of the Moore Street Market over the long-term, and a plan for its revitalization and greater sustainability that is responsive to its cultural context and socially diverse neighborhood. To accomplish this objective, this social and cultural impact study was organized and the data collected as a Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedure (REAP) focused on why the market should remain open and how it serves as an important social and cultural nexus for the community.
Private Governance In Co-ops and Gated Communities In New York City
Funded by: National Cooperative Bank, Research Foundation of the City University of New York
Building on earlier work on urban fear, this research involved 25 interviews with owners of housing co-ops within New York City about their experiences of safety, social isolation, racism, and rules and regulations in regards to the physical and social space of the co-ops and, in particular, their co-op boards. The outcomes of this research are being compared to the outcomes of the Urban Fear research on gated communities. Initial findings were presented at the Gated Communities Research Conference at the Universite Sorbonne in Paris, France, in May, 2007. We are taking special care to analyze the co-op research in regards to issues of legal consciousness (Low), participation and representation (Donovan), and laissez-faire racism and homophobia (Gieseking).
Urban Fear: Building the Fortress City
Partner and funded by: PSC-CUNY Grant, Research Foundation of the City University of New York, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
The goal of this research is to discover how the growth of gated communities is affecting urban life along dimensions of community and culture, and to explore the implications of gated communities for public space. Research into the lifeways of gated communities took place in San Antonio, New York City, and Los Angeles.
Ethnographic Overview of Fire Island and the William Floyd Estate
Funded by: U.S. National Park Service
Ethnographic Overview of Liberty Island (The Statue of Liberty Project)
Funded by: U.S. National Park Service
Impact of 9/11 on New York City Public Space (Battery Park City)
Funded by: Russell Sage Foundation, Research Foundation of the City University of New York, CUNY GC Office of Sponsored Research
User Study and Census, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
User Study and Census, Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay Parks, Bronx
Partner and funded by: City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation
The Park Department obtained federal Community Development Block Grant funds to conduct user studies of these three large urban parks. PSRG submitted separate proposals for Brooklyn and the Bronx and won both contracts. The work was intended as a complement to efforts at all three parks to increase user involvement and support through community outreach. It was PSRG's task to count annual usership, study the needs and preferences of park users, and to prepare ethnographies of the parks. In field work over the course of one year, PSRG conducted between 320 and 360 interviews with visitors in each park as well as participant observation in selected locations. A subcontractor was hired to conduct the census of visitors. Final reports on each park included statistical analysis and interpretation of the interview data, the park ethnographies, census reports, and policy and programming recommendations to park administrators based on the user needs PSRG had identified. Work was completed in June 1998.
Needs Assessment for Gateway National Recreation Area
Partner and funded by: U.S. National Park Service
Student members of the research group worked with a Senior Ethnographer at the National Park Service to produce an ethnographic needs assessment for the Jamaica Bay and Rockaways portion of Gateway National Recreation Area. The work involved defining and evaluating Gateway resources that have ethnographic significance for cultural groups in the area, then assessing the needs and opportunities for resource protection, development, and/or further research. The resources evaluated included Floyd Bennett Field, Jacob Riis Park, a public beach, and the fishing waters of Jamaica Bay.
General Management Plan for Independence National Historic Park
Partner and funded by: U.S. National Park Service
In Fall 1994 PSRG used REAP methods to report on park-community relationships at Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia. PSRG again used street interviews, focus groups, transect walks, and community meetings to explore the various cultural associatons between the national parks and certain cultural groups, focusing on specific neighborhoods in the vicinity of the park such as Society Hill, Chinatown, and South Philadelphia. The REAP was done in support of a new General Management Plan involving major changes to the park, now underway, which include moving the Liberty Bell from its pavilion facing Independence Hall to a new site.
Ellis Island Access Project
Partner and funded by: U.S. National Park Service
Prior to the formal organization of PSRG in 1996, the core members of the group worked together as consultants on several planning projects. The first was the Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Procedure (REAP) for the Ellis Island Access Project--a proposed bridge between Ellis Island National Monument and the mainland in Jersey City, New Jersey. The REAP was part of a federal environmental impact statement on the proposed bridge. PSRG conducted interviews with park visitors, focus groups, community meetings, transect walks, and behavior mapping in the summer of 1994 to determine and evaluate the potential cultural impacts of the proposed bridge on parks in New York City and New Jersey, on the users of those parks, and on the surrounding neighborhoods.
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