Abstract
This paper sets out to evaluate several common theoretical frameworks employed in critical studies of brownfield redevelopment. Specifically, it analyzes the relevance of governmentality, the post-political, and non-essentialist materialism in that context. To do so, it explores how these theoretical frameworks map on to Bridgeport, Connecticut’s BGreen 2020, and its approach to the redevelopment of vacant and underutilized land – and brownfields more specifically. It argues that these frameworks come up short when applied to this empirical case because they put forth untenable ontological claims regarding the constitution of the subject and political agency. Going further, it asserts that these frameworks fail to identify a way forward for those seeking emancipatory political interventions in the context of brownfield redevelopment and urban environmental politics. In closing this paper suggests that Jason W. Moore's recent writing on “capitalism as world-ecology” can provide a way forward where these other frameworks fail.
Highlights
When one thinks of urban environmental contamination and brownfields in the United States, Connecticut – the country’s wealthiest state by per capita income (Kuriloff & Martin 2015) – is almost certainly not the first place to come to mind
It will suggest that each of these theoretical frameworks comes up short in their analysis of BGreen 2020 because they put forth untenable ontological claims regarding the constitution of the subject and political agency – which limits their relevance for future emancipatory political projects
Developed by Michel Foucault in the late 1970s (Foucault 1991), governmentality “denotes the micropolitical practices through which a governing agency conditions people to act in specific ways and through which people govern themselves” (McConnell 2012, 78)
Summary
This paper sets out to evaluate several common theoretical frameworks employed in critical studies of brownfield redevelopment. It analyzes the relevance of governmentality, the post-political, and non-essentialist materialism in that context. To do so, it explores how these theoretical frameworks map on to Bridgeport, Connecticut’s BGreen 2020, and its approach to the redevelopment of vacant and underutilized land – and brownfields .
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