Third space pedagogy and community-based park design in Austin, Texas

Abstract

The complex, diverse, and embodied nature of Latin(o/a/x) placemaking calls for place-based pedagogy that foregrounds intimate learning outside the confines of the classroom. A ‘third space’ approach to landscape pedagogy seeks to facilitate co-production with residents in a variety of outdoor learning spaces, thus fostering landscape literacy by encouraging students to grapple with the multiple meanings of Latin(o/a/x) landscapes while challenging top-down, expert-driven placemaking discourses. We assess the learning outcomes from a one-year, two-semester studio sequence that produced a community-based design proposal for a neglected city park in Austin, Texas. The outdoor learning spaces provided diverse opportunities for critical and creative engagement, relationship building, and co-production of research processes, cultivating critical awareness of the complex social contingencies of places, actors, and placemaking practices. Such a third space approach to landscape studio pedagogy can contribute to more just, participatory place-based landscape design in Latin(o/a/x) landscapes.

Keywords:

• Austin
• Latino landscape
• placemaking
• critical pedagogy
• place-based pedagogy
• landscape literacy
• third space
• participatory landscape design
• citizen science
• environmental justice

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the generous assistance provided by Preston Stewart, Kerstin. Johansson, Matt Hollon, Katina Bohrer, Susan Garnett and Christine Chute Canul from the City of Austin; Community Art Advocates Monica Maldonado and Filiberto Medieta; Ana Aguirre with the Southeast Neighbourhood Contact Team; Sydney Corbin with Urban Roots; and Carmen Llanes Pulido with GAVA. We also want to thank the UT students and Uriel Martínez with the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department for their invaluable contributions, and Blanca Ortiz, Elena Rodriguez and Enedina Sánchez for inviting us into their homes and teaching us about the park and the neighbourhood.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 https://www.goaustinvamosaustin.org/

2 https://urbanrootsatx.org/

3 https://sites.utexas.edu/environmentaljustice-austin/

4 See the project website at https://sites.utexas.edu/environmentaljustice-austin/.

Additional information

Funding

The course was funded in part by a Hogg Foundation grant via the School of Architecture, University of Texas.

Notes on contributors

Bjørn Sletto

Bjørn Sletto is Professor of Community and Regional Planning program at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include insurgent and decolonial planning, community-based research, and environmental justice. He has conducted research on Indigenous territoriality and participatory mapping in Venezuela and urban informality in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, focusing on the role of critical pedagogy for insurgent planning in neoliberal contexts. His latest book is Radical Cartographies: Participatory Mapmaking from Latin America (UT Press).

Samira Binte Bashar

Samira Binte Bashar is a doctoral student in the Community and Regional Planning program at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interest lies at the intersection of waterscape development and informal urbanism in the context of South Asia. Samira is eager to explore the tensions between local knowledge production and traditional development approaches in shaping planning discourses.

Frances Acuña

Frances Acuña has lived in southeast Austin for 25 years. She began advocating for the Dove Springs community in 2010. In 2012, she became a Texas Certified Community Healthworker to work on access to healthcare and started getting involved as a community leader. She also volunteered with fellow community members serving as first responders during the October 2013 and 2015 floods in Dove Springs. In 2017, Frances joined GAVA as a Community Organiser where she worked to increase access to healthy food and physical activity. Later with continued floods and residents being displaced due to flooding and infrastructure issues, she became the Climate Resilience Lead Organiser where she concentrates on bridging the communication gap between residents and stakeholders.