I will be a student presenter at the:
56th Annual Conference of the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)
Part of the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences Congress
May 16–20, 2022.
Conference Theme: Igniting Change Through Sociology
https://www.csa-scs.ca/conference/2022-conference-program/
Race, Surveillance and Bureaucracy:
Race, surveillance and bureaucracy are terms widely used in sociology to capture how power operates in society. This session brings together qualitative and quantitative papers that critically explore these concepts, brings out their complexities and urges engagements with the issues they raise.
Presentation:
Cheryl-lee Madden, BA Human Geography, University of British Columbia
Thursday, May 19, 11:00 am to 12:30 pm (virtual platform)
The purpose of this symbolic interactionism study is to assess how having a place-based community in the form of a Hogan’s Alley Cultural Centre would be beneficial to displaced persons. A place-based community is a community of people who are tied together by where they reside or work. Place-based communities offer safety, familiarity, support, loyalty, and appreciation. In this case, that sense of place was lost by eliminating the Vancouver, BC, Hogan’s Alley site during the 1960s urban renewal. The Hogan’s Alley Society (HAS)-operated Nora Hendrix Place (NHP) tenant gardening group culturally grew food-based plants, which could further the HAS goal for a Cultural Centre. Addressing one of the most critical issues facing Vancouver diversity can begin by asking, “How could Black Canadian culturally grown food-based plants enable village-building events by building a sense of place?” The NHP gardeners answered a series of culturally significant food-based survey questions. Their answers could be representative of a cross-section of Vancouver’s Black Canadians. The NHP gardeners case study is based on those cultural assets that allow for generalizations to be made for a food-based plant inquiry creating a broader representation advocating for the creation of a Hogan’s Alley Cultural Centre on the 898 Main Street site because they share similar cultural assets with much of the rest of the Vancouver Black Canadian population. The NHP gardeners, originally from the African continent and the Caribbean, use food production practices inherited from their ancestors and passed on to younger generations, aided by music, dance, song, and storytelling traditions. Moreover, traditional cultural rituals during food preparation give meaning to their aesthetic art form during celebrations. These gardeners’ answers to my survey questions might explain how their food-based rituals uphold the cultural importance of imparting significant meaning to a “sense of place” answering, “How would a Hogan’s Alley Cultural Centre create a low-risk environment by encouraging symbolic-interaction village-building events?”
