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In this paper, I examine an implementation of "gracious space" and its influence on student learning. "Gracious space" is a facilitation model for group meaning-making that promotes vulnerability and connectedness, "a spirit and a setting where we invite the 'stranger' and embrace 'learning in public'". The course in which "gracious space" was implemented was an undergraduate writing-intensive sociology seminar on arts-based research methods offered through the university's honours college. Drawing from students' reflections at the end of the semester, I examine how the students' impressions of "gracious space" speak to community development, vulnerability, taking learning risks, and socio-emotional awareness. The final discussion bridges the analysis to critical conversations about the importance of creating learning environments that increase dialogue and connection among diverse bodies, promote community-building, inclusion, and equitable learning opportunities.

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.

This paper explores the value of autoethnography in the context of student teaching and learning. The manuscript situates autoethnography within restorative and critical pedagogies and draws from students’ impressions to examine how autoethnography aids in developing self-awareness, empathy, and vulnerability as emotional resiliency. Further discussion brings attention to the potential of autoethnography for prompting the sociological imagination, igniting transformative learning, and engaging cultural therapy to promote cultural awareness and equity of learning opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine an implementation of gracious space and its influence on student learning. Gracious space is a facilitation model for group meaning-making that promotes vulnerability and connectedness, "a spirit and a setting where we invite the 'stranger' and embrace 'learning in public'". The course in which gracious space was implemented was an undergraduate writing-intensive sociology seminar on arts-based research methods offered through the university's honours college. Drawing from students' reflections at the end of the semester, I examine how the students' impressions of gracious space speak to community development, vulnerability, taking learning risks, and socio-emotional awareness. The final discussion bridges the analysis to critical conversations about the importance of creating learning environments that increase dialogue and connection among diverse bodies, promote community-building, inclusion, and equitable learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable research into the barriers to implementing urban agriculture projects in cities, and recent scholarship has examined the role of local policy makers and city planners in shaping cities' responses to urban agriculture. In this paper, we use the 2012-2015 debate over rewriting the urban farm code in Austin, TX as a case study for exploring the difficulties in governing urban farms. Drawing from in-depth interviews with twenty-six stakeholders involved in the debate, we use understandings of heuristics--unconscious mental shortcuts that help make fast and efficient decisions--to argue that, during the debates, ambiguity surrounding definitions of what an urban farm is, what it does, and how it operates resulted in important stakeholders relying on their memories and previous experiences when forming opinions about the urban farm policy. The resulting heuristic bias made it difficult for farmers to come together to create effective coalitions, exacerbated tensions within the community, and complicated the rewriting of the farm code. We conclude by suggesting that broader conceptualizations of farming must still be developed in the public's imagination along with more deliberate policymaking that accounts for the diversity of scope of urban agriculture projects and how municipalities govern them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both gentrification and street art are concerned with the conquest of urban space. Although historically, graffiti and street art have functioned to challenge the status quo, a growing appreciation for urban art unveils a far more collaborative attitude between some street artists and the elite. A familiar esthetic of gentrified terrains involves repurposing spaces that capture the urban experience. In some cities, urban redevelopment preserves original materials that capture that “urban feel” by highlighting exposed brick structures, rustic furnishings, industrial lofts, and urban art. In other cities, these styles are recreated consciously. This paper draws from in-depth interviews with street artists from Austin, Texas, one of the fastest growing urban landscapes in the U.S., to discuss street artists’ attitudes towards gentrification. Its examination of stories and personal narratives about gentrification shows the complexities of rapid urban expansion as perceived by Austin street artists, and concludes that street artists remain ambivalent towards gentrification. While street artists experience some negative effects resulting from gentrification, urban redevelopment also has another clear benefit for them: an expansion of their urban canvas. The growth of city space extends street artists’ creative playground, which advances the artists’ opportunities for paid work and exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]