Select Publications by Rachel Brahinsky
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2020
Property is a story. We assign land and resources legal status, and we narrate this as ownership ... more Property is a story. We assign land and resources legal status, and we narrate this as ownership and power. The interlocking loans, credit, and debt from which housing markets are compiled are built through narratives about value and its origins. The urban landscape, which is made by those markets, is produced through a confluence of human decisions, made with information about conditions and access. This information is based in stories-stories about what will sell, whether risk is viable, and what constitutes risk itself. These interlocking stories produce processes such as gentrification, one of the key contemporary challenges of booming cities in the Global North. Stories about the value of property, the primacy of growth, the role of race in valuation, and the urgency to invest in the urban landscape all shape gentrification. Meanwhile, stories from below have power too, offering important reframing. This paper examines two gentrifying neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area, analyzes the role of narrative in framing urban change there, and identifies counter-narratives that offer tangible alternatives with the potential to drive decisions around urban development. In sum, this paper foregrounds the role of narrative and sto-rytelling in defining the economic forces such as property that shape urban places.
The Public Press, 2019
Re-print of a portion of a previously published book chapter -- edited and updated for Public Pre... more Re-print of a portion of a previously published book chapter -- edited and updated for Public Press anniversary issue.
Subject to Change, 2015
Short essay on the state of things in Oakland in 2015.
Public essay written for: Conversations On Jesuit Higher Education. Spring 2018 issue, Number 53;... more Public essay written for: Conversations On Jesuit Higher Education. Spring 2018 issue, Number 53; Jan 12, 2018.
Book chapter in: A Political Companion to James Baldwin (Susan McWilliams, editor, Univ. of Kentu... more Book chapter in: A Political Companion to James Baldwin (Susan McWilliams, editor, Univ. of Kentucky Press, 2017)
Boom California, Summer 2014 (Vol 4, No 2) - Click through from the Boom web site for a free PDF on JStor, Jul 2014
This article considers how the recent Bay Area turmoil spurred by the technology boom and its att... more This article considers how the recent Bay Area turmoil spurred by the technology boom and its attendant housing crisis has revived age-old tensions over regionalism and ethics in urban politics. The author looks at activist tendencies evident in the rise of an “ethical city” framework, which benefits from alternative uses of technology, and which offers a counter-narrative to the ways that tech wealth is also uprooting communities.
Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, Nov 2014
By Rachel Brahinsky, Jade Sasser, & Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern.
In this essay we put forth nested ... more By Rachel Brahinsky, Jade Sasser, & Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern.
In this essay we put forth nested arguments about the way that racialization remains a powerful force in contemporary society, contending that intersections with space and nature offer important lessons about the (de)construction of race. We argue that the pernicious character traits of racial constructs develop through spatial practices and intersect with ideas about “nature” and belonging. We trace these concepts through recent conversations in geography and environmental studies, and we call for a persistent, critical, and prominent engagement with racialization in the spatial social sciences. Finally, we introduce the papers that constitute this symposium, which engages these questions from a range of perspectives and across a variety of landscapes. We hope to spur the conversation about “race and geography”, broadly conceived, beyond studies conceptualized around race alone. We are hopeful that this work, and the larger body of work it contributes to, travels beyond academic conversations to engage broader social justice debates about the “nature” of racial inequality—to ultimately participate in its dismantlement.
Justice Spatiale / Spatial Justice, Dec 2013
By Rachel Brahinsky, Miriam Chion, and Lisa M. Feldstein
Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, Nov 2014
San Francisco is engaged in a redevelopment project that could bring millions in investment and c... more San Francisco is engaged in a redevelopment project that could bring millions in investment and community benefits to a starved neighborhood—and yet the project is embedded in an urban development process that is displacing residents. In trying to unsettle these contradictions, this paper achieves two aims. First, I unearth a little known history of redevelopment activism that frames debate around the current project. Second, I use this history to argue for a reframing of the language of race. To wit: although the social construction of race and racism is well established, race is still deeply understood in everyday life as natural. This paper offers a theoretical fusing of race and class, “race-class”, to help us think race through a vital constructionist lens. Race-class makes present the economic dynamics of racial formation, and foregrounds that race is a core process of urban political economy. Race-class works both “top-down” and “ground-up.” While it is a vehicle for capital's exploitation of people and place, race-class also emerges as a mode of power for racialized working-class residents. © 2013 The Author. Antipode © 2013 Antipode Foundation Ltd.
Social & Cultural Geography, 2013
In: Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978, edited by Chris Carlsson, 2011.
Geography Compass, Jan 1, 2011
‘Race’ is a socio-political construct whose meaning has been re-formed and defined in the context... more ‘Race’ is a socio-political construct whose meaning has been re-formed and defined in the context of urban development processes. At the same time, core definitions and understandings of the American city have racial connotations. These relationships are not only linguistic maneuvers: the intersecting political economies of race and cities impact each other to material effect in everyday people’s lives. This article uses an overview of post-World War II redevelopment to help frame a conversation about urban race–space intersections in US cities.
Green Energy, An A-to-Z Guide, edited by Dustin Mulvaney & Paul Robbins, May 2010
This initial volume in the SAGE Series on Green Society provides an overview of the social and en... more This initial volume in the SAGE Series on Green Society provides an overview of the social and environmental dimensions of our energy system, and the key organizations, policy tools, and technologies that can help shape a green-energy economy. Each entry draws on scholarship from across numerous social sciences, natural and physical sciences, and engineering. The urgency of climate change underscores the importance of getting the right technologies, policies and incentives, and social checks-and-balances in place. This reference resource will prepare those with a sparking interest in the topic to participate in what will hopefully become an equitable and intergenerational conversation about the impacts of our energy consumption and how to make it cleaner and greener. Via its 150 signed entries, Green Energy: An A-to-Z Guide provides students, professors, and researchers an invaluable reference, presented in both print and electronic formats. Its clear and accessible writing style, together with vivid photos, numerous cross-references, extensive resource guide, and other pedagogical tools make it a valuable tool for the classroom as well as for research purposes.
Radio and Podcasts by Rachel Brahinsky
Bonus segment: The troubled history of Redevelopment in SF
This piece aired on Oct. 27, 2015. http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/10/27/san-francisco-changes
Comedian and political organizer Nato Green has a regular podcast, published via 3200 Stories.org... more Comedian and political organizer Nato Green has a regular podcast, published via 3200 Stories.org. In March 2015, he published a rambling conversation about cities and justice that he and I had recorded in my office a few months earlier.
Academic Blog Posts by Rachel Brahinsky
This is a contribution to the Critical Sustainabilties research project, which seeks to disaggreg... more This is a contribution to the Critical Sustainabilties research project, which seeks to disaggregate and analyze sustainability rhetoric and practice, particularly in Northern California.
This is a contribution to the Critical Sustainabilties research project, which seeks to disaggreg... more This is a contribution to the Critical Sustainabilties research project, which seeks to disaggregate and analyze sustainability rhetoric and practice, particularly in Northern California.
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Select Publications by Rachel Brahinsky
In this essay we put forth nested arguments about the way that racialization remains a powerful force in contemporary society, contending that intersections with space and nature offer important lessons about the (de)construction of race. We argue that the pernicious character traits of racial constructs develop through spatial practices and intersect with ideas about “nature” and belonging. We trace these concepts through recent conversations in geography and environmental studies, and we call for a persistent, critical, and prominent engagement with racialization in the spatial social sciences. Finally, we introduce the papers that constitute this symposium, which engages these questions from a range of perspectives and across a variety of landscapes. We hope to spur the conversation about “race and geography”, broadly conceived, beyond studies conceptualized around race alone. We are hopeful that this work, and the larger body of work it contributes to, travels beyond academic conversations to engage broader social justice debates about the “nature” of racial inequality—to ultimately participate in its dismantlement.
Radio and Podcasts by Rachel Brahinsky
Academic Blog Posts by Rachel Brahinsky
In this essay we put forth nested arguments about the way that racialization remains a powerful force in contemporary society, contending that intersections with space and nature offer important lessons about the (de)construction of race. We argue that the pernicious character traits of racial constructs develop through spatial practices and intersect with ideas about “nature” and belonging. We trace these concepts through recent conversations in geography and environmental studies, and we call for a persistent, critical, and prominent engagement with racialization in the spatial social sciences. Finally, we introduce the papers that constitute this symposium, which engages these questions from a range of perspectives and across a variety of landscapes. We hope to spur the conversation about “race and geography”, broadly conceived, beyond studies conceptualized around race alone. We are hopeful that this work, and the larger body of work it contributes to, travels beyond academic conversations to engage broader social justice debates about the “nature” of racial inequality—to ultimately participate in its dismantlement.