The work of landscape architects has both positive and negative social impacts and landscape architects can strive to intentionally design for positive social impact. This paper utilizes mass incarceration as a lens for discussing the social impact of landscape architecture. The crossroads of mass incarceration and design offer a unique opportunity for Landscape Architects to examine the impact of many urban renewal efforts on marginalized communities, the benefits of landscape architectural involvement in prison design, and the use of design as protest against inhumane structures. This paper is separated into three sections, one detailing the history of social justice and injustice in landscape architecture, one explaining how mass incarceration developed and what landscape architects can do to respond to it and another detailing The Solitary Gardens in New Orleans, a landscape-based project that advocates against the use of solitary confinement and mass incarceration through collaborative design with incarcerated people. This research suggests that Landscape Architects can combat mass incarceration in a variety of ways: through collaboration with marginalized groups when designing urban spaces, through reformative prison landscape design, through work with ex-offenders and by lobbying against the use of inhumane designs. These findings beg further research into whether it is more appropriate for designers to lead socially progressive pursuits or respond to popular movements, what the best practices for navigating between marginalized and empowered stakeholders are, what the economic feasibility of social impact design as a profession is and how to prove the mental and physical benefits of inmates with access to green infrastructure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04062016-160949 |
| Date | 10 May 2016 |
| Creators | Phillips, Abigail P |
| Contributors | Allen, Austin, Sumell, Jackie, Boyer, Mark |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04062016-160949/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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