The work under analysis is the article under the title “An Archeology of Fear and Environmental Change in Philadelphia” by Alec Brownlow. The source may be considered to be reliable and the research is promising because of the professionalism of the author, who works as an assistant professor of Department of Geography, and whose expertise covers Human Geography, Urban Geography, Political Ecology, and Social Control.
The article “An Archeology of Fear and Environmental Change in Philadelphia” is the evidence of the similarity of the topical problems that are analyzed by the previous author, Carolyn Whitzman, though her study covered the territory of Canada, mainly High Park. Thus, the similarity of the problems proves their common nature and global importance. The coincidence of the keywords of both articles (Fear, Gender, Race) is the evident proof of the similarity of the issues analyzed with the only difference concerning the territorial location of the problem.
From the very beginning, it is necessary to delineate the scope of the information studied in the article by Alec Brownlow. The scientist performed a multidimensional research that covered the study of the mechanisms of social control and the way this control can be applied in order to ensure the relationship and connection between people and environment. The environmental changes that occur in the cities are also subject of the investigation of Brownlow. On the whole, the author is concerned with the poorly maintained park grounds that may be considered a decisive factor in the creation of residents’ sense of fear and disorder (Brownlow, 2006).
As for the structure of the paper, it has been clearly structured by the author with the main argument being disclosed through the article. The paper consists of the following sections: Introduction; Urban political ecology and the nature of public space; Methods; Cobbs Creek: The Community, The Park; Ecology of Fear; Race and the politics of park decline; The role of gangs; The final straw, Conclusion.
Alan Brownlow initiates the reader into on the nature of urban political ecology, specifying its main area of functioning as the study of interrelation of political, economical, social factors with the processes that go on in the environment of municipal areas. The nature of public space is analyzed from two perspectives: the ecological one and as social space.
The factual material of the case study offered by the scientist covers the information about the Fairmont Park System of Philadelphia (Brownlow, 2006, p. 231). The factual martial presented suggests the conclusion that the park was abandoned by the citizen on the ground that it was nothing more than a place where people suffered from feelings of anxiety and fear, where the role of gangs also played an important role (Brownlow, 2006, 240).
The scientists produce and prove the argument about fear and environment on the basis of the investigation of the impact of the decisions that had racial motivation and were made during the period of 1960s-1970s. The creation of anxious perception of natural environment as the source of possible violence, abuse, and crime by women (especially African American women) was the reason of their alienation from public space. Thus, Alec Brownlow asserts that, in the light of such context, ecological changes in the city should be treated as the subject of social control instead of pure environmental problems.
Reference
Brownlow, A. (2006). An Archeology of Fear and Environmental Change in Philadelphia. Geoforum, 37, 227-245.