HOUSING AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: DEVELOPING A PATH FORWARD TO A RACIALLY JUST AND CLIMATE-READY PHILADELPHIA

Abstract

The research conducted for this dissertation was methodologically designed to explore human environments and the role of housing as a space that makes an integral difference in the livelihoods and well-being of residents facing environmental burden and climate risks. The research explores the following questions: 1) How does the contextual scale of the home serve as a support or detriment to well-being and climate-preparedness for residents living in neighborhoods that have undergone degradation in the urban environment resulting from Philadelphia’s history of racialized planning practice? 2) How can the housing structure be reconceptualized as the scale which holds the fullest potential of resilience mitigation and climate preparedness in the built environment? 3) How does analytically centering the focus on the “home” and housing environments within the geographical urban landscape fill a gap in understanding about what ties people to place physically and socio-economically connects people to communities? Focusing in on the “Home” as a scale of geographic and qualitative inquiry, deriving its significance from resident voice expands the body of literature that can bridge the theoretical and advocacy based analytical framings of Black feminist thought and environmental justice to highlight the importance of housing in the urban landscape to find solutions to equitable housing concerns in the city. The objective of the research is to understand how environmental neighborhood conditions resulting from racialized planning practice manifest in present day socio-environmental outcomes and influence resident well-being even within the context of the “home”. I argue that climate change vulnerability and environmental burden can be more holistically understood and mitigated by reframing the scale at which environmental justice claims and research is formulated and analyzing the home itself as an environmental site of struggle and/or resilience.