Tent City

Patterns of Informality and the Partitioning of Sacramento

Bibliographic Data

ID5081068
AuthorsCory Parker (0000-0003-3479-5334, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume44
Issue2
Pages329-348
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2427.12846
OpenAlexW2998974508
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited42

Unsanctioned tent cities are increasing in number in cities throughout the western United States. Scholars explain the phenomenon as homeless people asserting their 'right to the city' or as 'managed marginality'. These explanations capture much of the socio-political relationship between local government and homeless populations, but do not explain the long-term persistence of tent cities and the fluctuating nature of their visibility. A spatial history of informal encampments in Sacramento at three key moments-the founding of the city, the Great Depression and the Great Recession-reveals a long-term ebb and flow of tent cities occupying close-to-the-center, urban vacancies. Urban vacancies arise from the partitioning of the city into specific purposes, places and people, a taken-for-granted perception of how cities should be. The visibility of tent cities disrupts this aesthetic notion of stability and growth as homeless people use the tent to protest their isolation and exclusion

Economic geography · Geography · Perception · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Visibility · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Urban Planning and Governance

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