ABSTRACT

As cities increasingly look towards the promotion of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) in order to mitigate the effects of combined sewer overflows and stormwater pollution, the role of citizen labor is often expected and required for the success of these projects. Cities in the United States have come to rely upon such contributions from residents, however, very rarely do policies consider the impact of this request of labor. This paper aims to address this gap by employing Patricia Hill Collins’ theoretical framework of Othermothering in order to analyze qualitative data collected in 2017 with a Detroit city sponsored GSI educational program. Combined with ethnographic storytelling, I highlight the work Black Detroit women are putting into improving their city and argue for the application of a Black feminist social reproduction lens in understanding current race and gender divides in volunteer labor within GSI Initiatives. Together, analysis reveals how the labor contributed by Black women continues to be unfairly requested, unpaid, and essential to the success of GSI projects, while also becoming a site of resistance for larger structural inequalities in the surrounding urban landscape.

摘要

随着城市越来越多地寻求促进绿色雨水基础设施 (GSI) 以减轻下水道溢流和雨水污染的影响，这些项目的成功往往需要公民劳动力的作用。美国的城市已经开始依赖居民的这种贡献，但是，政策很少考虑这种劳动力要求的影响。本文旨在通过采用 Patricia Hill Collins 的 Othermothering 理论框架来解决这一差距，以分析 2017 年通过底特律市赞助的 GSI 教育计划收集的定性数据。结合民族志叙事，我强调了底特律黑人妇女为改善她们的城市所做的工作，并主张应用黑人女权主义社会再生产视角来理解 GSI 倡议内志愿劳动中当前的种族和性别差异。总之，分析揭示了黑人女性贡献的劳动力如何继续受到不公平的要求、无偿的劳动，并且对 GSI 项目的成功至关重要，同时也成为对周围城市景观中更大结构性不平等的抵制场所。