Poster / Soc 397a / 2017 Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop

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Though food is widely recognized as a basic necessity for humanity, disparate access to it highlights whose bodies, environments, health, nutrition, and utter existence has mattered most in American society—and whose has mattered the least. Through interviews with residents of the South Side of Chicago about the alternative food pathway they’ve forged for themselves, we learn that food becomes much more than just sustenance. Interviewees describe our present day food system as undeniably rooted in a history of enslavement and exploitation of Black and Brown bodies; they regard food justice work by communities of color as an important source of empowerment as it not only is an act of survival, but also an act of reclamation of spaces they’ve long been historically denied. For them, community gardens are safe spaces for neighbors of all ages to congregate, discuss issues happening in the neighborhood, and ultimately keep the community alive and healthy; they are transformative spaces for community building, learning, and collective healing. Residents become better stewards to the earth and to each other. Ultimately, community-led urban agriculture has the power to transform urban communities and their relationship with food, land, the environment, and each other. Ineffective public health initiatives often fail to sufficiently historicize and contextualize the relationship between social factors, unhealthy urban landscapes, and poor health outcomes. By placing the agency of the affected community at the center of research, however, we might better understand the relationship between positionality, food access, adverse health outcomes and any efforts we make to improve them.

Les édifices médiévaux du Midi rhodanien apparaissent souvent comme dépourvus de charpente ou simplement couverts de structures en bois sans grand intérêt technique. Cette idée s’appuie sur un constat indubitable : le paysage architectural de la région est essentiellement minéral. Très tôt, l’art du maçon a été favorisé par un sous-sol inépuisable en pierre à bâtir et des forêts relativement limitées dans la production de bois d’œuvre de qualité. Longtemps passés sous silence, les ouvrages charpentés existent et dénotent une singularité méconnue. L’objectif de ce travail est donc de mettre en lumière les charpentes de toit et de plancher réalisées dans ce territoire peu propice à leur réalisation. Il vise à apporter des éléments nouveaux permettant de nuancer l’idée d’une architecture sans bois. Il cherche à mettre en évidence une autre manière de concevoir les charpentes, sans doute moins monumentales que celles des régions riches en forêts mais tout aussi innovantes. La démonstration s’appuie sur des vestiges appartenant principalement aux XIVe et XVe siècles, dont la réalisation indique l’existence d’un secteur du bâtiment particulièrement actif et révélant des savoir-faire particuliers. Les charpentiers ont ainsi su pallier certaines difficultés d’approvisionnement en mettant en œuvre des formes et des techniques originales. / Most of the medievial buildings on the south side of the Rhone Valley turn out to be without roof frameworks or simply covered by wooden structures showing little technical interest. This idea is supported by an unmistakable observation: the architectural landscape of the region is mostly mineral. From early times, masonry work developed thanks to an unlimited building-stone reserve in the subsoil, and furthermore forests produced little high-quality lumber. Even though they have long been ignored, timber roof structures exist and (they) bring out remarkable singularities. The purpose of this study is to bring to light roof frameworks and floor frameworks which were built in an area little suited to their construction. It aims to bring new evidence that allows to moderate the notion of a wooden- free architecture. The study seeks to point out another way of designing of roof frames, undoubtedly less monumental than the ones built in areas with extensive forests, and yet equally innovative. The theory is based on remains dating back from the 14th to 15th centuries, the study of which proves the existence of a particularly active building sector, and reveals specific skills. Carpenters thus managed to overcome wood supply difficulties by implementing original shapes and techniques.