The affirming affects of entrepreneurial redevelopment: Architecture, sport, and local food in Oklahoma City. (March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sarmiento, Eric
• Is Part Of: Environment and planning. Volume 50:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 349
• Publication Date: 2018-03
• Subjects: Affect -- alternative food networks -- architectural geography -- territorialization -- urban redevelopment; City planning -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Periodicals; City planning; Regional planning; Periodicals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1177/0308518X17743506
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0308-518X

Abstract

This paper draws on assemblage thinking—especially Deleuze and Guattari's conception of territorialization—to analyze urban redevelopment processes in Oklahoma City, a mid-sized city in the central United States that has pursued a culturally led, "entrepreneurial" approach to redevelopment. Focusing on the linkages between architecture, sport, and local food in the city, I demonstrate some of the ways in which these realms were woven together in support of the territorial expansion of redevelopment. Following recent research on affect in human geography, I argue that the interweaving of these realms involved careful attention to the material capacities of buildings, athletic bodies, and foods to generate a sense of excitement, pride in place, self-worth, and above all movement in the city. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the implications of this analysis for the politics of redevelopment and some suggestions for future research.