Toward People’s Budgets: Public Economic Geography for Movement Building

Abstract

In this article, we respond to Narayan and Rosenman’s call for a more public economic geography by considering the ways in which economic geographers could contribute to social movements. We do this in two ways. First, we reflect on our initial encounters with economics in the fields of geography and urban planning to consider how our disciplinary groundings shape and perhaps limit our imaginaries of the economy. Second, we consider how activist calls for “people’s budgets” present an opportunity for researchers to develop a more public economic geography as part of movement building. We see this as one way in which economic geographers might help forge alternative, life-sustaining economies.

本文思考了经济地理学家如何对社会运动做出贡献, 从而回应了Narayan和Rosenman的经济地理更加公开化的呼吁。我们展示了两种方法。首先, 反思了地理学和城市规划与经济学的最初接触, 思考了学科基础如何塑造和限制了我们对经济的假想。其次, 思考了活动家们的“群众预算”呼吁, 如何为研究人员提供了建立更加公开化经济地理的机遇, 并将其作为运动建设的一部分。我们将此视作经济地理学家帮助打造替代性的、维持生命的经济的一种方式。

En este artículo, respondemos al clamor de Narayan y Rosenman por una geografía económica más pública, al considerar los modos como los geógrafos economistas podrían contribuir a los movimientos sociales. Hacemos esto de dos maneras. Primero, reflexionamos sobre nuestros encuentros iniciales con la economía en los campos de la geografía y la planificación urbana para considerar cómo nuestra cimentación disciplinaria configura y quizás limita nuestros imaginarios de la economía. Segundo, consideramos cómo los clamores activistas por “los presupuestos de la gente” son una oportunidad para los investigadores de desarrollar una geografía económica más pública como parte de la construcción de movimientos. Vemos esto como una forma en que los geógrafos economistas podrían ayudar a forjar economías alternativas vitalmente sostenibles.

Key Words:

• economic geography
• people’s budgets
• public
• social movements

关键词:

• 经济地理
• 群众预算
• 公开
• 社会运动

Palabras clave:

• geografía económica
• movimientos sociales
• presupuestos populares
• público

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The coalition includes Black Lives Matter Nashville; Free Hearts; Gideon’s Army; Middle Tennessee Democratic Socialists of America; Music City Riders United; No Exception Prison Collective; Open Table Nashville; People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing, & Equity; Safer Schools Nashville; Southerners on New Ground Nashville; and Workers’ Dignity/Dignidad Obrera.

2 A full review of participatory budgeting literature, including the specificities of its global adoption, promotion by the World Bank, and resulting limitations, is beyond the scope of this article. We do want to note, however, that participatory budgeting provides a useful model for considering how emancipatory or liberatory economic imaginations are advanced through government institutions, as well as the conditions that make them ripe for cooptation. It is indeed deserving of ongoing engagement as the people’s budget movement both subtends and departs from its model.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emily Barrett

EMILY BARRETT is a PhD Student in the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include the politics of data-driven and participatory urban planning, the racial financial logics of urban development, and justice movements in the U.S. South.

Sara Safransky

SARA SAFRANSKY is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include land and housing justice, urban sustainability, social movements, and engaged scholarship.