Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee by Courtney Elizabeth Knapp

This exciting and innovative book envisions essentially a revolution in urban planning that recognizes and attempts to correct the heritage of racial oppression in contemporary urban environments. It begins by putting forward the author’s concept of “diasporic placemaking” which attempts to marshal “everyday practices, the collaborations and conflicts through which historically uprooted and migratory populations . . . forge new communities of security and belonging out of unfamiliar, and oftentimes stratified and unequal, yet shared local environments.” It ends with an exposition of what the author calls, “participatory action research” – “a set of dynamic methods with the potential for catalyzing social change.” Chapter One explores, “Settling Chattanooga: Race, Property and Cherokee Dispossession.” The next three chapters explore the role of Black citizens and racism in the history of Chattanooga’s urban planning. Chapters 5-7 “focus on interplays between formal, institution-backed a