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Host: Shalaka Jadhav

Robyn (Burns) Moran and Lisbeth A. Berbary are academic workers in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo.  In early 2021, they published their article “Placemaking as Unmaking: Settler Colonialism, Gentrification, and the Myth of “Revitalized” Urban Spaces”, taking up the example of Goudies Lane, a corridor in downtown Kitchener which stretches from Queen Street North to Ontario Street. 

Their work on Goudies Lane came out of Robyn’s dissertation research, where Robyn foregrounded her interest in anti-gentrification with support from her supervisor, Lisbeth, in thinking through the related theory and methodology.  Particularly during the pandemic, when public spaces have seen increased use, they have also seen increased surveillance as a consequence of placemaking: so how public are these public spaces? 

Together, Robyn and Lisbeth talk through the growing tensions between public space, public memory, and how colonialism engages at those intersections by walking through their methods, findings, and presenting key reflections.  

Read Robyn (Burns) Moran and Lisbeth A. Berbary’s Placemaking as Unmaking: Settler Colonialism, Gentrification, and the Myth of “Revitalized” Urban Spaces

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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.

Check out the archived versions of  this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.

You can  follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.

Music for this episode was courtesy of Dylan Prowse.