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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2780-8371
Access Type
Campus-Only Access for Five (5) Years
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Environmental Conservation
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2019
Month Degree Awarded
May
Abstract
Albuquerque, New Mexico, similar to many cities in the western and southwestern United States, continues to build large scale business and housing developments. In response, communities most affected by urban sprawl challenge local government decisions to approve such developments, citing concerns for environmental, cultural, and economic well-being. My thesis explores one such community effort to protect land and water resources within the historic Atrisco land grant, located southwest of the city of Albuquerque. In particular, I examine an event that occurred May 28th, 2015 when a group of concerned women and children disrupted a Bernalillo County special zoning meeting where a five member board of county commissioners denied community appeals to reject approval of a 14,000 acre development called Santolina. I employ ethnographic methods of in-depth interviews, participant observation, and secondary data collection to provide a rich description of the Women’s Action as an act of resistance. I situate my ethnographic account within the scholarship of Ewick and Silbey (1995; 1998; 2003) who empirically derive a theory of everyday acts of resistance as momentary reversals of hierarchical power relations embedded in institutional space. My research offers insights into how communities both engage in and disrupt public participation processes.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/13900458
First Advisor
Timothy Randhir
Second Advisor
Anita Milman
Third Advisor
Paul Barten
Fourth Advisor
Krista Harper
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Roberts, Michael, "The Women's Action: Participation through Resistance" (2019). Masters Theses. 870.
https://doi.org/10.7275/13900458
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/870