ABSTRACT

This article, at the intersection of urban anthropology and local environmental studies, offers a new and original perspective on the question of why low-income, marginalised urban communities might disregard local environmental concerns. Inspired by AbdouMaliq Simone’s [(2004). “People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg.” Public Culture 16 (3): 407–429.] seminal work on “people as infrastructure”, it proposes a new theoretical construct, “people as environment”, which sheds light on the processes whereby people perceive their urban environment primarily in relation to other people – while disregarding prominent environmental deprivations and risks. This conceptualisation is developed in two main dimensions: (1) People as environmental resource, referring to supportive social networks within marginalised urban settings, which help overcome (environmental) hardships; and (2) People as environmental threat, indicating the perception of “others” – most commonly, newcomers and “outsiders” – as hazards while downplaying the presence of actual environmental risks. This conceptualisation has been developed in relation to several research sites in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region characterised by ongoing urban marginality and environmental inequality. It is informed by a multimethod qualitative research on long-term residents’ concerns with their neighbourhood environment, which included street questionnaires, as well as focus groups in two lower-income neighbourhoods with a history of ethno-class discrimination. Our findings reveal that when long-term residents were asked about prominent environmental concerns, they generally ignored particular risks and, instead, evoked ideas about an idealised neighbourly past in contrast to a threatening present defined by “others” around them. Such recurring perceptions indicate both the theoretical significance and policy relevance of the people-as-environment concept.

摘要

本文在城市人类学与地方环境研究的交汇处，为为什么低收入，边缘化的城市社区可能无视当地环境问题提供了一个崭新的观点。受AbdouMaliq Simone [[（2004）。“以人为本的基础设施：约翰内斯堡相交的碎片。” Public Culture 16（3）：407–429。]关于“以人为本的基础设施”的开创性工作，它提出了一种新的理论结构，即“以人为本的环境”，阐明了人们主要将城市环境视为与环境相关的过程。其他人-同时不考虑重大的环境剥夺和风险。这种概念化主要在两个方面发展：（1）人们作为环境资源，指的是边缘化城市环境中的支持性社交网络，有助于克服（环境）困难；（2）人们是对环境的威胁，表明对“其他人”（最常见的是新来者和“局外人”）的感知是危险，而对实际环境风险的存在轻描淡写。这种概念化是针对特拉维夫大都市地区几个以城市边缘化和环境不平等为特征的研究地点而开发的。它是通过一项关于长期居民对其邻里环境的关注的多方法定性研究而获得的，该研究包括街道问卷以及两个有种族歧视历史的低收入社区的焦点小组。我们的研究结果表明，当长期居民被问到重大的环境问题时，他们通常会忽略特殊的风险，相反，引发了关于理想化的近邻过去的想法，与周围“他人”所定义的威胁性当前形成鲜明对比。这种反复出现的看法既表明了“以人为本”环境概念的理论意义，也表明了其政策相关性。