Seeking the Value of Loving Attachment in Planning Research

摘要

In 2009, the People of Color Interest Group (POCIG) sponsored a round table at the annual Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) meeting entitled, "Loving Attachment: Dilemmas of Researchers in Communities of Color". Leonie Sandercock and I initially proposed the round table to address the challenges that many scholars face who do research in and with communities of color. As academics engaged in community-situated research, we commonly come across two types of issues. One has to do with the relationships that we develop with individuals and groups while working in the communities that we study. The other has to do with how those relationships are viewed by our peers who have the job of evaluating the value and rigor of our scholarship and who may be skeptical about the validity of our findings from a more postivist-leaning paradigm. This Interface is part of an effort to continue the dialogue we began at the round table and that seemed to resonate strongly among those who attended. I restart this conversation with an illustration of loving attachment to a subject matter and community with whom I have a long-held relationship and personal history. I share this more personalized story as a point of entry to discuss the challenges and dilemmas faced by researchers working in communities, particularly communities of color, with which we may have developed an emotional attachment.