Austin, TX, was the site of a three-year debate between urban farmers and their supporters and local community activists about how to rewrite an outdated farm code. There was tremendous animosity between the two groups and, despite efforts at mediation, the two sides were unable to reach compromise. To understand more about how these two groups came into conflict, we interviewed 26 local stakeholders about their views and experiences during the farm code debate and found that issues of race and racial inequality were a key factor in the continuing mistrust. We found that farmers and their supporters attempted to frame the debate and its racial undertones by highlighting their racial–ethnic minority supporters, describing their businesses as reclaiming East Austin’s agricultural past, and arguing that the only issue that should matter in redrawing the farm ordinance should be how to best help farmers provide healthy food to the community. We argue that the farmers’ responses draw from a discourse of whiteness and color blindness that can be harmful to People of Color and link their views to larger critiques that the alternative food movement and individual alternative food projects can be exclusionary.
This note overviews a class activity and an assignment for engaging poetic transcription. Poetic transcription is an arts-based research method commonly employed in the analysis and representation of qualitative data. The discussion provides some background on arts-based research, poetic inquiry, and poetic transcription as research practices within the qualitative tradition. Furthermore, it shows how utilizing poetry in the classroom can help develop empathy and analytical skills as well as facilitate collaboration, creativity, and student engagement. This teaching note includes an examination of the students’ impressions using poetic transcription and links poetic transcription to critical pedagogical practices for teaching and learning sociology. I conclude with a discussion that offers considerations for future practitioners.
NOTICEThis report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. (Felts et al. 2000). Thus, RTU supply fans may provide air at rates that are much higher than those needed to meet most thermal loads, wasting the energy needed to move and heat or cool the excess air.To address this issue, some U.S. retailers have started to upgrade existing RTUs, retrofitting their constant-speed motors with stepped-or variable-speed functionality. Such retrofits may be more cost effective than replacing an entire RTU, particularly if the unit is in the middle of its lifespan. Other U.S. retailers, however, are uncomfortable pursuing this measure, as there is a lack of supporting data detailing the climate zone-specific energy savings potential associated with this upgrade. Building and portfolio energy managers have thus been unable to present a compelling business case for RTU fan motor upgrades.This study uses whole-building energy simulation to estimate the energy impact of stepped-and variable-speed RTU fan motor retrofits in the retail environment, across 16 locations in all 15 U.S. climate zones. The results allow retailers to estimate the building-level energy savings associated with this retrofit measure. This is a critical step in enabling retailers to determine whether a compelling business case can be made. Development ProcessEnergyPlus Version 6.0 (DOE 2010) was used to evaluate the whole-building energy savings associated with stepped-and variable-speed RTU fan motor retrofits as follows:1. Two prototype big-box retail EnergyPlus models were created: one with refrigeration systems and one without.2. Each prototype model was replicated across 16 locations, which encompassed all 15 U.S. climate zones, as defined by DOE (2005).3. Standard 90. 1-20041- (ASHRAE 2004a) was applied to the building envelope to create climate-specific baseline models.4. Custom sizing and control logic was used to modify a subset of the baseline models with stepped-and variable-speed RTU fan motor controls.5. EnergyPlus was used to simulate the energy performance of all models to determine the energy savings associated with these retrofits.v Results Table ES-1 through Table ES-3 present an overview of the simulation results 1 . Annual whole...
Alternative food supporters claim that food produced outside the corporate system can improve the wellbeing of communities. A closer look at these claims raises the question: How are members of the alternative food movement defining “community” and who is being included in and excluded from these definitions? We draw from in–depth interviews with (1) urban famers and their supporters and (2) neighborhood members of gentrifying East Austin to examine irreconcilable disputes on the process of rewriting Austin's urban farm code. We use Stanley Fish's concept of “interpretive communities” to understand competing definitions of “community” and theorize beyond this point by noting that when communities feel at threat, they come together as coalesced communities to gain support for their stance. The discussions in this paper can be situated within dialogues of critical geography, gentrification, alternative foodways, and public health to show how class, race, and ethnicity remain tied to environmental justice.
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