The Geographical Bulletin

Transcription

1 The Geographical Bulletin May Vol No. 1 EDITOR Steven M. Schnell Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Kutztown, PA EDITORIAL BOARD Peter Amos Kyem Central Connecticut State University New Britain, CT Harry J. Jimmy Wilson Ohio Northern University Ada, OH Tracy Edwards Frostburg State University Frostburg, MD The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? By Matthew F. Pietrus... 3 Compassionately Hidden: The Church Telling Local Homeless to Come to Our House By Robert Oliver, Matthew Robinson and C. Theodore Koebel Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study By Kanika Verma Book Review: Global Information Society: Technology, Knowledge, and Mobility. Reviewed by Jessica Breen Brad Watkins University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK Tim Hawkins Shippensburg University Shippensburg, PA Leslie A. Duram Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL James Doerner University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO Jessie Clark University of Nevada Reno Reno, NV Copyright by Gamma Theta Upsilon 2015 Prnited in the United States of America Edwards Bros., Ann Arbor, Michigan ISSN i

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3 PRESIDENT Burrell Montz Geography Department A-228 Brewster East Carolina University Greenville, NC Gamma Theta Upsilon OFFICERS 2015 FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT Michael Longan Geography and Meteorology Department Kallay-Christopher Hall 201C Valparaiso University Valparaiso, IN SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT Susy Ziegler Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences Department 3001A New Science Facility Northern Michigan University Marquette, MI IMMEDIATE PAST-PRESIDENT Tom Wikle College of Arts and Sciences 225 Scott Hall Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK OMEGA OMEGA (ALUMNI) CHAIR Richard Earl Department of Geography Texas State University 601 University Drive San Marcos, TX EXECUTIVE SECRETARY James D. Lowry, Jr. Geography Department 2000 Lakeshore Dr. University of New Orleans New Orleans, LA RECORDING SECRETARY Juana Ibáñez Department of Geography University of New Orleans 2000 Lakeshore Dr., MH342 New Orleans, LA COMPTROLLER Michel LeVasseur New Liberty Rd. Piedmont, AL HISTORIAN Dawn Drake Department of History and Geography Missouri Western University 4525 Downs Drive St. Joseph, MO SENIOR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Graciela Sandoval Department of Geography Texas State University 601 University Drive San Marcos, TX JUNIOR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Bill Wetherholt Kansas State University Department of Geography 118 Seaton Hall Manhattan, KS EDITOR, THE GEOGRAPHICAL BULLETIN Dr. Steven M. Schnell (ex-officio) Department of Geography Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Kutztown, PA

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5 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? Matthew F. Pietrus Department of Geography DePaul University Chicago, IL ABSTRACT In the developing world, the vast majority of urban poor have been marginalized from their cities, denying them what Henri Lefebvre called the right to the city. In response to this denial, many turn to the informal sector as a means to claim access to space and to the economy. However, using interviews from citizens participating in the informal sector in Kampala, Uganda, this paper argues that while the informal sector provides access to socioeconomic benefits (which is positive), it cannot guarantee them as rights because all activity taking place within it is unprotected and therefore easily and often challenged. This essay then argues that the informal sector cannot and does not confer the right to the city. Finally, it advances that those participating in the informal sector can only achieve the right to the city if they are 1) able to claim rights to shelter and to the economy and 2) able to successfully challenge laws that infringe upon their pursuit of selfimprovement. Key Words: right to the city, informality, rights, urban development INTRODUCTION Before the warm, equatorial sun peaks and dries the red dirt road, a shoe vendor lays out his blue tarp, carefully displaying an immaculate array of used and counterfeit shoes. Considering the sandstorm of dust vehicles kick up as they speed by, the shoes gleam surprisingly brightly; an obvious image of constant care. Alongside the dozens of other vendors and scantily built shacks which boast permanent layers of amber dust, he continues meticulously aligning his goods. Yet these details are crucial when hawking shoes is the only source of income. Maintaining the cleanliness of goods can make the difference between a day when he earns enough money to feed himself and his family and a day when he does not. When he places his last pair of shoes, he sits above a stagnant drainage ditch polluted The Geographical Bulletin 56: by Gamma Theta Upsilon 3

6 Matthew F. Pietrus by green sludge and debris, waiting for the scarce customer that can afford fake Nikes after buying food for their family. But today that customer will not come. Even before this vendor was setting up, he was unknowingly being watched by a city policeman, easily disguised amid the densely urbanized streets of Kampala, Uganda s capital. As the policeman approaches the shoe vendor, an all-too-familiar interaction begins. The city official informs the vendor that he is illegally selling his goods and confiscates all of his shoes. Then, the vendor pleads with the policeman in order to regain his only source of livelihood, and finally offers him a bribe which will hopefully prove sufficient. Indeed, as Isaac, the shoe vendor along Kafumbe Mukasa Road told me after describing this event, Whatever money I make, it is just for protection; it is not for prosperity. Yet vulnerability does not end at economic activity. When many return home, they return to property on which they squat. Therefore they have no legal claim to their own private space. In slum areas like this, carpenters Charles and Thomas informed me, you find people in the lower level will come and settle there, and the moment they try and build a house the government comes and disorganizes [them] by pushing [them] away. Without lawful claims to a place or access to a source of livelihood, Kampala is certainly not a city to which citizens living in informality belong. They do not have that right. In a city like Kampala, where 60 to 85 percent of the population lives in informal settlements (Giddings 2009, 11; Mukiibi 2011; UN-HABITAT 2007, 10), factors that deny the lower class the right to the city undeniably marginalize the vast majority of the city s population (Fig. 1). The legacy of a complex land tenure system, poverty, and underdevelopment deny these citizens the right to space while corruption, poverty, political Figure 1. Population of Kampala. Sources: Giddings 2009; UBOS 2002; UBOS 2014; Giddings 2009 (85% estimate); Republic of Uganda 2008 (85% estimate); UN-HABITAT 2007 (60% estimate) 4

7 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? instability and legal restrictions on informal activity prohibit them from earning a livable wage. Without the necessary protection to legitimately claim rights to the economy and to a home, citizens living in informality cannot secure their place in Kampala because where they work, where they live, and where they exist is void of the inalienable civil liberties that are necessary to guarantee that right. This is the informal sector. Without resources or investment capable of producing adequate infrastructure, Kampala has been unable to accommodate its rapidly urbanizing population, which has created a city characterized by underdevelopment. Out of this inability to absorb the almost two million residents who seek housing and jobs, informal activity and informal settlements have emerged citywide. Despite granting access to space and the economy, however, the informal sector cannot secure this access because it is inherently outside of legal protection. What then, does the right to city look like in a place where residents have no legal claim to any types of rights? How should it look? This essay will begin by exploring literature on the right to the city. Next, it will explain the emergence of underdevelopment and the subsequent rise of informality in Kampala. Then, it will show how citizens participating in the informal sector do not have legitimate rights to socioeconomic benefits of the city because living in informality cannot secure access to space and the economy. Finally, this essay will demonstrate that the right to the city in the informal sector does not exist and can only be achieved if the rights to socioeconomic benefits are granted and if citizens living in informality are permitted the right to operate outside of the law should it infringe upon their strides towards self-improvement. For this research, I traveled throughout Kampala s informal settlements and conducted interviews with twenty-one individuals. Twenty of them participated in the informal sector, while one was a senior city planner in the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the governing body of the city operating on behalf of the central government. All of the interviewees were men, a definite limitation, but I found it difficult to find women willing to be interviewed. In order to represent parts of the city, I traveled to different settlements throughout the Central Kampala district to find participants as many citizens participating in informality travel to this region to work. I interviewed people in Katanga, Mulago, Kiseka Market, Old Kampala, Kisenyi, along Kafumbe Mukasa Road, Owino Market, and finally in Kibuli (Fig. 2). Once my translator and I arrived in these areas, we chose interviewees at random and conducted interviews in both English and Luganda, depending on the interviewees ability in English. I chose my translator based on recommendations from Ugandan colleagues in Kampala, his proven capacity in English and Luganda, and his understanding of the research project. To ensure anonymity, I have changed all of the interviewee s names, but have left their occupations and quotations unaltered. All quotes were taken in July 2012, and the corresponding interviewee, occupation, and date can be found in the works cited. Before delving into the nuances of the right to the city in Kampala, it is necessary to explain why this essay will not use the term slum or slum dweller. UN-HABITAT S 2003 report The Challenge of Slums recognizes that slums are multidimensional in nature but go on to describe them as having: lack of basic services, substandard housing, overcrowding and high density, unhealthy living conditions and hazardous locations, insecure tenure, informal settlements, poverty and social exclusion (UN-HABITAT 2003, 11). The same report also recognizes that the term slum is loose and deprecatory with many connotations and meanings (UN-HABI- TAT 2003, 9). Robert Neuwirth described these connotations and subsequently why he rejected the use of the term: Slum is a loaded term.[that] immediately creates distance. [It] establishes a set of values a morality that people 5

8 Matthew F. Pietrus Figure 2. Neighborhoods where interviews were carried out. outside the slum share and implies that inside those areas, people don t share the same principles.[slum] blurs all distinctions. It is a totalizing word and the whole, in this case, is the false (Neuwirth 2005, 16-17). While UN-HABITAT s characteristics that describe the physical space of a slum are correct in many cases many interviewees listed poor sanitation, low quality housing, and poverty among their major concerns Neuwirth s rejection of the use of the word because it creates distance between those within and those outside while implying a separation of principles is one notion which this paper seeks to support. Citizens engaged in many activities typical of informality do so to support themselves, their families, and their prosperity. While it is true that all occupations in the informal sector including informal housing (housing/land on which residents squat, or land which is outside of residential zones) and the informal economy (production and exchange of goods and/ or services that are not regulated by laws or policies) are illegal, they do not share the same connotation as criminality. Selling shoes without a permit because it is too expensive does not equate to holding up a shop at gunpoint. Driving a motorcycle taxi 6

9 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? without proper paperwork does not equate to recruiting children to distribute drugs. Buying and selling untaxed scrap metal does not equate to coercing women to prostitute themselves for individual gain. While negative examples like those mentioned can exist in informal settlements, they are not unique to such areas, since they are likely to exist in all areas stricken by poverty. In sum, I will not use the term slum because it creates boundaries between those inside and those outside. As Marie Huchzermeyer (2011) suggested in her work on informal settlement eradication and the right to the city in Africa, the term slum is not the main concern. While cloaked in negativity, and in urgent need of replacement with a more suitable term, it is not the word but an entire paradigm that needs to be confronted (Huchzermeyer 2011, 10). In confronting this paradigm, I will use the term informal settlement in place of slum. When referring to those living or working within slums, I will use the term citizens or citizens participating in informality rather than slum dwellers, because they are no different than anyone else: they are citizens. The usage of these terms attempts to shift the paradigm from one that creates separation and labels those within slums as different, lesser undesirables to one that more accurately describes the characteristics of the space and the resilience of those living and working within. THE RIGHT TO THE CITY The idea of the right to the city is based on the writings of Henri Lefebvre (1967) and has since been expanded upon by later authors (Harvey 2003 and 2012; Mitchell 2003; Marcuse 2009; among others). The right to the city challenges the implicit and explicit marginalization of those who are continually underrepresented socioeconomically, politically, and/or spatially in urban spaces. The right to the city advocates for this group s inclusion through political representation, equal rights under the law, and access to the economy and to space. The city has become a place designed for a specific group (usually the affluent) while neglecting the needs and ultimately the rights of another (usually the poor). From Brazil (Friendly 2013) to India (Weinstein and Xuefei 2009), from Northern Ireland (Nagle 2009) to Turkey (Kuymulu 2013), and from New York (Attoh 2012) to Southern Europe (Leontidou 2010), literature on who belongs and who is denied access to the city has emerged as a globally discussed phenomenon. Henri Lefebvre first wrote about the right to the city in the wake of the massive civil unrest that shook Paris in 1968, but the concept s ambiguity has allowed many to assert their own claims as to what that right is (Ablode Attoh 2012). Citing different inter-urban conflicts from Paris to Beirut to Los Angeles, Harvey (2003) asserts that the right to the city changes depending on who in the city is attempting to assert their right. Similarly, Marcuse (2009) contends that there is an inherent multiplicity, questioning whose right is it about? What right is it and to what city? (Marcuse 2009, 185). Despite these various possibilities, a simpler notion would be one that purports a sense of inclusivity. Citing Waldron (1991), Mitchell states that in a society where all property is private, those who own none (or whose interests aren t otherwise protected by a right to access private property) simply cannot be, because they would have no place to be (Mitchell 2003, 34 emphasis in original). In other words, an inclusive city is one that provides space to its inhabitants. Furthermore, it must also provide equal access to its benefits such as public services, mobility to different parts of the city through adequate infrastructure, and the ability to access the city s economy. In other words, it must allow its citizens the opportunity to prosper. Therefore, only through providing access both to space and to its benefits can a city become inclusive. Yet as Harvey pointed out, the right to the city is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change 7

10 Matthew F. Pietrus it after our heart s desire (Harvey 2003, 939). Harvey made this claim drawing on Robert Park s assertion that in making the city man has remade himself (Park 1967, 3), reasoning that the denial of this ability ultimately denies the right of self-improvement. A comprehensive and complete right to the city, then, would consist of one that is inclusive and also changeable. Despite successful examples of marginalized groups achieving inclusion through continued protests most notably the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and Indian independence the first half of the 20 th century it remains extremely difficult for groups to incite change when they are politically, economically, and spatially excluded. In other words, gaining any type of right be it political, economic, or the right to the city remains an enormous feat when battling from a position that is structurally and legally alienated as well as economically isolated. Living in informality would seemingly epitomize the denial of this right, but as some argue, the informal sector challenges that denial (Neuwirth 2005, 311) for it creates the opportunity to claim what has been denied: a home and a job. Those who have been denied homes build structures with scrapped materials while those excluded from the economy find innovative ways to generate an income. Finding different ways to create housing and gain access to the economy requires ingenuity (which is something worth celebrating), but the informal sector cannot guarantee the protection of that access because it is inherently outside of legal protection. Citizens living in informality can build a house, but then authorities can forcibly and legally remove them or they can begin vending miscellaneous items, but these can be confiscated on the grounds of selling without a license. In Kampala, the informal economy cannot and does not confer rights or the right to the city, but rather only provides insecure access to space and the economy. THE EMERGENCE OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT This insecure access to the city s socioeconomic benefits results because underdevelopment has created a city that cannot accommodate its growing population. With a GDP of just $22.6 billion and an ever-expanding population of 35 million, it is no surprise that Uganda ranks 204th out of 228 countries with respect to per capita GDP (CIA 2014; UBOS 2014). One in four (24.5%) people lives below the national poverty line ($1.20/day), 64.7% live on less than $2 a day, and two-thirds of the population are either poor or vulnerable to poverty 1 (World Bank 2009; Anguyo 2013; MGSLD 2012). After speaking with several citizens living in informality, it became evident that this meager income provides barely enough to feed oneself. You can come [to the informal settlements] and you can make 5,000 [shillings] (about $2), explained a motorcycle mechanic named Kenneth, Out of the 5,000 you can only have one meal in a day. While this estimate is above the national poverty line, a report by the Ministry of Labour, Gender, & Social Development states that the poverty line used in Uganda is set at a very low level by international standards, equivalent to extreme poverty or food poverty in other countries. This represents the very bare minimum level of consumption needed for survival (MLGSD 2012, xiii). Yet this extreme poverty is by no means uncommon or unknown. Okello, a senior city planner in the KCCA gave a similar testament: With the massive influx of people the concerns were certainly about fundamentals. It is about feeding. We are experiencing very poor people. Children are malnourished; we find that the quality of life they are living is not the best. We are getting people who are pressed; they don t have anything to feed on.they resort to petty, petty work. Hand to mouth. 8

11 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? This poor economic situation extends not just to Uganda s citizens; it affects the government as well. As in most developing countries, the Ugandan state is poor and they simply do not have enough money to implement many of the programs they have planned. In order to compensate for this lack of funding, planners in Kampala and officials in the national government seek private investment. In October 2012 the KCCA drafted the Kampala Physical Development Plan (KPDP) which dedicates a quarter of its 120 pages to financial needs, estimating that $6 billion will be required to implement desired infrastructural programs and $33 billion more would be needed to sustain them (KPDP 2012, 5). While ideally some of this will come from the local (KCCA) and national governments, about 70% would likely need to come from both NGOs and public-private partnerships (KPDP 2012, 12). Okello states that their development programs require public-private partnerships for most of the activities that we are doing in the city and that they are encouraging public-private partnerships [and] donor funding. And encourage they must. KCCA openly admits the realities of their fiscal difficulties in the KPDP, stating that the local government lacks an adequate financial base to provide basic services, let alone support development on any significant level (KPDP 2012, 6). For this reason, planners place the majority of the responsibility for funding development programs on institutions and corporations independent from the state, making implementation contingent on outside participation. However, given that all comprehensive plans to this date have not been implemented, this sentiment is an optimistic one. The most recent Investor Survey Report by the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) which analyzed investment projects from showed that only 46 percent of investment projects have started and remain operational (survival rate) and only 70,000 jobs have been created (UBOS 2012). This has attracted about $2.86 billion thus far which is far below what they require for the infrastructural development they outline in the KPDP (UBOS 2012). With a liberalized economy and vast natural resources, Uganda would appear to have a strong base for economic development and public-private partnerships, but as Ambassador Roberto Ridolfi, the head EU delegate to Uganda, contends, There may be potential investors with money but unpredictable corruption costs scare them away (Kimbowa 2013). While it is true that there has been investment from several international partners (India, Singapore, Britain, Sudan, and China are the top five), a report by the World Bank showed that: Despite various privatization reforms and the development of PPPs, public spending still finances the lion s share of infrastructure in Uganda. The private sector contributed an equivalent of 1.1 percent of GDP to annual infrastructure spending in By contrast, the public sector (on- and off-budget) provided 80 percent of total infrastructure spending-amounting to 5.2 percent of GDP (World Bank 2007, 39). Private investors only contributed 1.1% of Uganda s GDP in 2003 (about $70m) towards infrastructure (World Bank 2007, 39). Similarly, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade and accommodation have attracted the most investment, while strategic sectors such as energy and water supply, sewerage, and waste management attracted the least (UBOS 2012). In other words, even if investors are not discouraged by corruption, their investment does not go into physical infrastructure. Even still, corruption is pervasive in Uganda. From street vendors bribing police officers to accusations of officials in the executive office accepting bribes, corruption, as Okello explains, starts from the bottom, right in the village up to the institution. According to the anti-corruption research group Transparency International, Uganda ranks 140 th out of 177 countries analyzed and is the most 9

12 Matthew F. Pietrus Figure 3. Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Source: Transparency International. corrupt state in East Africa (Transparency International 2013; TI Kenya 2013). Considering Uganda s static political situation with President Yoweri Museveni remaining in power for the past twenty-nine years it is no surprise that levels of corruption have remained virtually constant (Fig. 3). In May 2013, the prime minister and other politicians were accused of taking bribes from oil companies in the wake of Uganda s newly found oil reserves (Matsiko 2013). In January 2013, Ugandan Member of Parliament Cerinah Nebanda died a day after challenging the president s authority concerning healthcare. After a pathologist collected samples suspecting foul play, he was arrested before he could leave the country to run tests, which led many to suspect that government officials had poisoned her (Kalyegira 2012; Kakaire 2012). Because the same political leaders for whom corruption has become commonplace remain in power, corruption levels have plateaued. As Jeffrey and fellow wheelbarrow pusher Moses explained, we don t hope for anything good so long as [there are] the same leaders we have been seeing for the past 25 years. We don t expect anything. And why should they? Corruption extends from the upper echelons of the executive office to lowly authority figures like the police and has created an environment that scares away the investment necessary to improve their lives. Corruption extends far down the political hierarchy. Citizens participating in the informal sector discussed a myriad of similar situations, most of which include the police, the institution which most Ugandans believe to be the most corrupt and which took the top position as the most bribery prone sector (TI Kenya 2013, 2; Transparency International 2012). Sitting on a milk crate in a fortress of recycled metal, Milton explained that siphoning funds reserved for public services was not uncommon: Those people who are supposed to be between [us] and the government, the mediators, they do not implement the services how they are supposed to. How they use the money that [the government] gives them is not monitored [and] the services which we need in our 10

13 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? area like [rubbish collection] we don t have it The government has funded and [the mediators] don t implement. While it is easy to condemn these officials for stealing money intended for public use, they too are confronted with poverty. They too have families to feed and children to send to school, and their incomes cannot fill those needs. Underneath a wooden awning that protects their work, carpenters Charles and Thomas articulated that very many people are selling off their land [and] the little they ve acquired in a long time in order for their children to study. Whether through corruption or other informal activities, the goal is the same: to protect one s family. Okello reiterates this notion: [The] politician is looking for money [and] not giving the service. The technocrat has come in and also has not [been] given probably enough money to take his children to school so everyone is trying to survive the system. They are using the system to survive which is extremely unfortunate. That is the corruption. People are trying to survive because of meager pay. Money obtained corruptly helps to feed families and pay children s school fees. Those who exercise their power dishonestly are not necessarily immoral but rather surviving by any means possible in a country where poverty is far-reaching. Low-level corruption is (generally) not the result of power-hungry, immoral actions, but rather a consequence of widespread poverty in which people do anything they can to improve their family s situation. Still, corruption diverts both the little funding that the government has for development as well as much-needed foreign investment which consequently diminishes any hope for citywide (or countrywide) development. While a lack of funding prohibits large projects, the small budget that does exist allows developmental bodies like the KCCA to implement micro-scale projects. As Okello described, KCCA uses this money for action area plans which have a seemingly straightforward process: You go into an area, you identify [its problems], you [make] an action area plan, you implement it and you finish. In the informal settlements of Kisenyi and Mulago, Okello told me, the KCCA and the World Bank have worked on rehabilitating and creating channels to help control flooding. Flooding continually ruins roads, spreads disease, and inundates housing. Thus, alleviating this problem would greatly improve the quality of life for citizens living and working in the informal settlements. Yet all of the residents interviewed in both Mulago and Kisenyi have not seen any positive change in their areas. In fact, when asked what physical changes had occurred while he has worked as a mechanic living in Mulago, Kenneth stated that I have been here over ten years but I don t see any great change and that I don t expect I will be better off [in] the future. Similarly, a bed sheet vendor named Joseph told me that the only changes he had seen were personal changes; nothing had changed in his neighborhood. Finally, leaning over his wheelbarrow Jeffrey expressed that I have never seen anyone take action in order to make the place clean or a fair environment. This inability to successfully implement even small-scale projects is the result of rapid urbanization, ineffective leadership, a resulting lack of trust in the government, and a complex land tenure system that impedes development. Kampala has experienced rapid urban growth and planners have been unable to accommodate the ever-growing population. This quick expansion (Fig. 4) is certainly multifaceted, but it is primarily due to ruralurban migration. Despite having the ninthhighest annual growth rate (3.24%) and third-highest birth rate (44.17 births/1,000 population/year) in the world (CIA 2014) as well as decreasing mortality and infant mortality rates (UBOS 2012), Uganda s urban centers are growing faster than its national average because urban economic opportunities exceed those in rural areas (UBOS 2002; Kisamba-Mugerwa 11

14 Matthew F. Pietrus 2013; Mulumba et. al 2009). Joseph traveled 300 miles to Kampala from Kisoro a town in the southwestern corner of Uganda hoping to gain from the city s economic benefits by selling bed sheets. His answer to why he came to Kampala most adequately sums up the most popular pull factor to the city: I came to work to make money. Since 1980, there has been over a 600% increase in the urban population, with 18.4 of the country now living in an urban center (UBOS 2014; Nyakaana 2007). Twenty five percent of the country s urban population lives in Kampala, and with its population over 1.5 million far surpassing the second largest urban center (Kira at 313,761), it is Uganda s primate city. Each year, the city is the destination for tens of thousands of Ugandans in similar situations as Joseph. Out of the inability to respond this growth, inadequate infrastructure and unplanned settlements developed throughout the entire city, and now, of the 1.5 million residents in Kampala, an estimated 1 to 1.3 million live in informal settlements (UBOS 2014; Giddings 2009; Mukiibi 2011). As prominent Ugandan periodical New Vision put it Kampala is one big slum (31 October 2012). Second, my interviewees felt that the major concern of many political leaders is not alleviating poverty, lack of adequate housing, and unemployment, but rather reelection. As Okello explained, that goal sometimes comes through the stigmatization of development: The politicians would use the poor people every opportunity, every chance they look at it from votes. Votes votes votes. I don t have to say that it is only the opposition that looks at it from this way. No. It [is] also from the central government. There are programs that are very impeded because the central government will say don t touch my people. And honestly you say, where are we going? In other words, during elections politicians perpetuate the notion that with development programs come negative consequences such as displacement and relocation and they promise to protect citizens from this threat. Similarly, with the agreeing nods of his fellow wheelbarrow pushers Moses and Amos, Jeffrey noted that politicians promises do not normally coincide with actual change: This situation we are living in is not something new we have been in it, we have just gotten used to it. We complain to the KCCA; they elect new leaders. They promise us all the good things to improve the [informal settlements] but we don t see any improvement. Another five years comes, they elect new leaders they come in the same way, but we see no improvement. They only come back to win our votes. Thus, the economically marginalized have lost faith in their government. Without that trust, planning will not be successful (Talvitie 2012), and development will not occur. Highlighting this negative citizen-state relationship, Kenneth and fellow motorcycle mechanics Patrick and Andrew stated that [we] have already lost trust in the government [they] are not doing anything for us. The government is not giving us some ways out to make money. Others believe that the government is not only idle, but actively hindering Uganda s prosperity. According to three young auto mechanics in Old Kampala named Kizza, Michael, and James, [The government] is providing little to the population of Uganda and [they don t] want any good thing in the country. When asked how the citizens participating in the informal sector react to any attempts to implement programs, Okello stated that they [consider] politics and they imagine that whatever program you are bringing is about displacing them and denying them anything. So their participation is limited. Even though planners like Okello continue to develop programs which strive to improve life in informal settlements, the pervasive distrust for the state constrains participation and hinders their implementation. 12

15 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? Figure 4. Urban area growth in Kampala,

16 Matthew F. Pietrus Third, Uganda s land tenure system (explained in more depth later) makes it extremely difficult for planners to implement their programs. In brief, Uganda has multiple land tenure systems under which many landowners do not have title to their property. According to the National Development Plan, individual land owners control 99% of land in Uganda s central region (where Kampala is located), and 95% [of them] do not have land titles (Republic of Uganda 2010, ). Thus, who owns what land is unclear and inhibits development plans because no one knows where they can build. As Okello states, the land tenure system here in Kampala [is] a complex one whereby in implementing most of these programs, we get resistance from many of the land owners. Moreover, with 99% of land owned by entities other than the state, where development can take place is extremely limited. In the KPDP (2012) they state that land tenure and private ownership of space impedes development because it [limits] the supply of developable land [requires] enormous financial resources to enable land acquisition significantly [complicates] and [delays] the planning and implementation of assorted projects [and deters] foreign investors (Kampala Capital City Authority 2012, ). Unable to understand who they must consult, where they can implement projects, and without available or affordable land on which they can develop, the KCCA and other developmental bodies cannot begin many of their projects: there is nowhere they can develop. Finally, although different organizations have created urban plans that have attempted to control the growing number of informal settlements, most have not been implemented and those that have were unsuccessful. Professor J.B. Nyakaana of Makerere University has argued that despite the existence of several comprehensive plans, developments in Kampala, especially housing, have continued to be haphazard, unplanned and located outside planned area[s] (Nyakaana et al 2007, 7). Exemplifying this failure to sustain adequate development, The First Urban Project, which was mostly funded by the World Bank and partly by the KCCA, has failed in its waste management project. Despite the deployment of some 550 skips and 30 transport refuse collection vehicles (World Bank 2000, 6) waste continues to pile up not only within informal settlements, but within waterways as well. Affecting the project s rehabilitation of the Nakivubo Channel which strove to alleviate flooding in Owino (World Bank 2000, 5), inadequate garbage disposal has forced residents to dump their waste in the channel, consequently forcing it to overflow (Keehan 2011). Finally, this plan aimed to rehabilitate about 45 km of asphalt roads and 27 km of gravel roads (World Bank 2000, 5). However, none of these was in informal settlements and adequate roads remain a major concern of development (Kampala Capital City Authority 2012; Republic of Uganda 2010). For citizens participating in the informal sector like Jeffrey, inadequate roads and constant flooding inhibit their ability to work. He explained that [the politicians] promise good roads, but we don t see anything and that in most cases now, we do community work. If we see [that] the city council does not respond to [flooding] very fast, we do community work. Where there is a heap of soil, we come and pour it in the potholes and we have to collect the rubbish here ourselves. Because navigable and maintained roads are essential to the livelihoods of a variety of workers in the informal sector like wheelbarrow pushers, boda drivers, and all those who rely on those professions they have no choice but to do this work themselves. Actual development is therefore like everything else in informal settlements: informal. Where the city fails to provide adequate infrastructure, citizens living in informality must develop their communities themselves. Other plans like the National Slum Upgrading Strategy and the Kampala Physical Development Plan which strive among other things to improve the number of housing units, create better drainage and 14

17 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? dispose of solid waste (Republic of Uganda 2008; Kampala Capital City Authority 2012) have brought about little change on the ground. None of the interviewees had seen any positive change in their living conditions and some have actually witnessed deterioration in their quality of life. Both Isaac and a matoke (cooking banana) vendor named Godfrey who works in Kibuli stated that the changes I see are not for the better; [they] are for the worst. As a result of a lack of resources, abundance corruption, and ineffective and unused funding, Kampala has become a city of informal settlements. In this environment, adequate housing and access to the formal economy seldom exist, causing many citizens to participate in the informal sector either through squatting on land they do not own or through participating in the informal economy. People create their own jobs in untaxed and unregulated money-making endeavors or they claim their own space by squatting. Whether it is through petty trade, taxi driving, jewelry bead-making, or manual labor, the informal sector provides a (usually meager) livelihood for millions. INFORMALITY AND INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN KAMPALA As the informal sector grows on a global scale informal settlements incorporate thousands more every day, and now include over one billion people worldwide (UN HABITAT 2003) it has attracted opinions as diverse as the activities that take place within it. Some scholars celebrate the magnificent spectrum of activities taking place in extremely densely populated environments (Brand 2009), while others believe that the informal economy is a haven for entrepreneurial freedom (Bennett et al. 2007). UN-HABITAT contends that informal settlements help to drive a city s economy because the informal activities within it extend beyond the scope of shantytowns and permeate entire cities (UN HABITAT 2003, vi). Yet the same report admits that these few positive attributes do not in any way justify the continued existence of slums and should not be an excuse for the slow progress towards the goal of adequate shelter for all (UN HABITAT 2003, vi). Indeed, while the informal sector does give rise to robust markets and extremely creative individuals who find innovative ways to survive, in many cases much of this activity takes place in informal settlements which are characterized by outbreaks of disease, unsanitary living conditions, and lack of adequate infrastructure. They represent the intense marginalization of the urban poor into massive enclaves of poverty, health hazards, and socioeconomic and political instability (Davis 2006). In these places, residents may find themselves amid piles of garbage along dilapidated roads and living in shanty homes that are ever-vulnerable to flooding and collapse. Such living conditions demonstrate the struggle of local authorities to respond to the demand for services, such as in Kampala: Kampala City Council acknowledges that the amount of garbage generated has overwhelmed its capacity to collect and dispose, given the enormous cost, leading to formation of heaps of uncollected solid waste, offensive odour, continuous environment pollution and repeated occurrence of sanitation related diseases like cholera and dysentery (UN HABITAT 2007, 1). Immovable mountains of garbage become hills on which children play. Improper or absent waste disposal, insufficient drainage, and inadequate housing foster the spread of disease and exacerbate health problems. While it requires innovation to create a home from recycled sheet metal, crude bricks, and foraged wood, shanty homes (or muzigos) struggle to serve as safe shelter in many cases. The mere density of residents living in such settlements is cause for concern. When asked how many people stay in one home, Milton, a scrap metal collector who lived in informal settlements for fifteen years, informed me that 15

18 Matthew F. Pietrus muzigos which are single room structures house up to seven people with one family 2 living in a single room. In the city of hills, Kampala s informal settlements often times sit in valleys, making them especially vulnerable to the dangers of flooding (Kiwawulo 2010). As shoe vendor Isaac said, You can spend a night standing because you will have nowhere to sleep because the water floods inside the house where I live. According to Jeffrey, a wheelbarrow pusher who transports goods in Owino Market whenever it rains, people tend to [drain] the sewer system and it runs in the running water and it causes a lot of sickness, like cholera, in the location. Without adequate infrastructure providing proper housing, potable water, or garbage disposal, residents in informal settlements are even more vulnerable to the spread of bacteria and disease. Although informal work can accommodate the economically marginalized by providing jobs (Nyakaana et al. 2007, 4), some of the work in the informal economy comes with inherent health risks. While many can participate in safer informal occupations like petty trading, urban agriculture, construction, and food production (World Bank 2005, 3), some resort to more dangerous activities like theft and prostitution (Rwabukwali 1991, 26-40). Primarily for women, prostitution brings with it extremely real and dangerous threats (although as customers men run the risks of contracting STDs as well) because economic pressures make it difficult for young girls to resist sexual advances especially from well-to-do but promiscuous adults (Otiso 2006, 36). In a country experiencing the tenth-highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the world (1.2 million or one out of fifteen Ugandans), prostitution is a dangerous occupation (CIA 2009). With this in mind, the informal sector plays two roles. On the one hand, it permits access to space and the economy to the normally alienated urban poor. At the same time however, it cannot protect this access because citizens living and working in the informal sector do so without claim to formal rights. This difference between gaining access to and claiming a right to socioeconomic benefits is an important one. The latter, while not immune from revocation, provides citizens a legitimate rights claim and is therefore harder (and in many cases illegal) for any authority or individual to contest or infringe upon that right. Mere access to socioeconomic benefits, however, is under constant threat of contestation from authorities (e.g., the state with regard to untaxed economic activity or landlords with regard to squatting) and can be legally revoked. While scholars have shown that informality and formality are not two separate entities but rather a series of intersecting transactions (Roy 2005; Moser 2009; Ward 2004), there is a stark difference between them regarding rights. Those participating in the informal sector do so void of legal entitlements while those participating in the formal sector can claim rights to shelter and the economy. Without this same claim to rights in the informal sector, the state can (and does) contest the access to space and the economy by citizens in the informal sector, enforcing the creation of enclaves of poor working conditions and health hazards. RIGHTS & THE DENIAL OF THE RIGHT TO THE CITY While understanding the context of informality in Kampala is useful, it remains difficult to comprehend the notion of the right to the city without first exploring different definitions of rights generally. Drawing on the conceptualization of legal rights (Hohfeld 2000 [1919]), generational rights (Waldron 1993), and the moral right to break the law (Dworkin 1977), Attoh (2011) provides a useful theoretical understanding of rights and how they help define the right to the city. Summarizing Hohfeld (2000 [1919]), Attoh (2011) states: all legal entitlements can be understood as either one or a combination of four basic rights: claim rights, liberty 16

19 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? rights, power, and immunities. Claim rights are rights that correlate with duties.to have a liberty right is to be free of any duty.to have a power is to have the ability to change a legal relation; and immunity is to be free of another s legal power (Attoh 2011, ). This understanding begins with the premise of legal entitlements as rights values or benefits which one can claim as their right to by law. However, the informal sector refers to that which operates outside of the law. Roy (2005) argues that informality is a state of exception in so far as it only exists outside of legal obligations because planners, government agencies, and policy makers (i.e. the state) label this place as informal; as out of their realm of control (Roy 2005, 155). He states that [Informality] is not, to [use] Agamben s (1998) terminology, the chaos that precedes order, but rather the situation that results from its suspension (Agamben 18) (Roy 2005, 149). Thus, informality is, as Roy argues, not the object of state regulation but rather produced by the state itself (Roy 2005, 149). This logic helps to dismantle the dichotomy of two distinct sectors informal and formal (Roy 2005) but in turn gives rise to two questions. First, what implication does that have on rights of those who live in informality? Second, with Hohfeld s understanding of legal entitlements as rights, how does this definition of rights function in a place the informal sector that is outside the law? Second, Attoh (2011) explores Jeremy Waldron s (1993) conceptualization of rights as generational and the relationship between these different generations. First-generation rights are those which pertain to the traditional liberties and privileges of citizenship: free speech, religious liberty, the right not to be tortured, the right to a fair trial, the right to vote, and many others (Attoh, 2011, 671). Second-generation rights pertain to socioeconomic rights which encompass rights to housing and a right to a fair wage (Attoh 2011, 671). Finally, third-generation rights are communal rights that serve to protect the economic well-being and customs of groups such as nations, communities, and peoples (Attoh 2011, 672). However, the priority of claiming these three generational rights changes in the context of informality. Attoh (2011) refers to Isaiah Berlin s (1969) work Four Essays on Liberty: It is true that to offer political rights, or safeguards against intervention by the State, to men who are half-naked, illiterate, underfed and diseased is to mock their condition; they need medical help or education before they can understand, or make use of, an increase in their freedom. What is freedom to those who cannot make use of it? (Berlin 1969, 124) It is this concept, Attoh argues, which leads many scholars (Waldron 1993; Berlin 1969) to advocate first for socioeconomic rights and then for others. Indeed, of what importance is the right to free speech when one cannot feed themselves or their family? Finally, Attoh analyzes Roland Dworkin s (1977) essay Taking Rights Seriously and the concept that when laws infringe upon our dignity or our equality, Dworkin argues, the language of rights not only allows us to challenge such laws, it allows us to break such laws and make our case to a jury of our peers (Attoh 2011, 673). This is an interesting assertion in the context of informality because in order to access the informal sector, one must break laws. Be it by squatting on property one does not own or hawking goods without a permit, those participating in the informal sector break the law in order to have shelter or access to a source of livelihood. The question then arises, if living in informality inherently means operating outside of the law, is this justified? Framing this conceptualization of the right to the city around these questions posits the first of two main themes at the heart of this essay: can citizens claim a right to the city 17

20 Matthew F. Pietrus through the informal sector? In brief, they cannot. Without legal protection, authorities are able to revoke access to informal housing and to the informal economy for citizens participating in the informal sector. The inaccessibility of space is the result of two phenomena. First, most citizens in the informal sector simply do not have enough capital to purchase land. Working as carpenters, Charles and Thomas informed me that 70,000 [shillings] (about $28) cannot sustain people to live for a month. [It s] not enough money. As a mechanic, Kenneth explained that I am a poor man and there is no way I can get out of this poverty because whenever I try to work, I am just working for food. I don t expect that I will be better off for the future. Whatever I get is for today. A report by the International Housing Coalition argues that most people resort to living in informal settlements because rents for a standard house in a serviced neighborhood are typically in the $185 - $250 per month range, well beyond the means of the poor. Even though most people are either renters or squatters, land remains a huge problem because the vast majority does not have the means to purchase a plot (Giddings 2009, 11 emphasis added). Thus, most remain permanent squatters or informal renters and are unable to break from this cycle. Yet, even if these citizens were able to accumulate enough capital to begin to save, Uganda s land tenure system makes it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to own or buy land. Dating to British colonization in the early twentieth century, most land in Kampala remains under mailo or private tenure (Fig. 5) and much of that land has two legal owners: 1) the landowner who has the title; and 2) the bona fide tenant who can claim ownership of the land under customary law if they have stayed there unchallenged for over 12 years (Owaraga 2012; Giddings 2009). When making decisions concerning this land, the titleholder must reimburse and relocate tenants should they want to move them and the bona fide tenant must consult the land owner with each sale, development or lease of the land (Giddings 2009). Augustus Nuwagaba of Makerere University explained that the problem with Mailo land is that it creates legal ownership of land which the owner does not occupy and occupation of land which the occupant does not own (quoted in Businge 2007). It is this ambiguity which Businge contends: [Results] in a situation where the mailo land title holder cannot sell the land or utilise it because he/she has to adequately compensate the tenants, while the tenants are not comfortable enough to develop or sell land for which they don t have a title, even though they may own it under customary law (Businge 2007). Ultimately, this complication has created informal settlements which landowners cannot develop and which citizens living there cannot own. While squatters can claim legal ownership of the land should they occupy a place for twelve years, they remain indistinct co-owners who do not possess a title and are therefore subjected to challenges from authorities like the KCCA or the police. Out of this complexity, many citizens living in informality resort to informal housing where they squat on land because rents are generally unaffordable (Giddings 2009, 8). But this type of living and working environment has no protection and the KCCA can forcibly reallocate and move them. Charles and Thomas voice this concern stating that wherever you try to settle, you ve been moved away from there so you are never settled at all. That is the biggest challenge [we] have in our work. A bicycle repairman named Ssalongo and his two coworkers named Isaiah and Akiki shared a similar sentiment when asked about the challenges they face regarding housing, Now, the KCCA comes [and] wants to chase us away, they don t relocate 18

21 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? us. If they happen to arrest you, they leave you jobless here. Even just outside of the city center in Kibuli, Godfrey expresses the same issue: Because the KCCA might come and find your small business and say it is not supposed to be there. They will want to destroy you. While the informal sector allows these citizens a place to stay and a place to work, they are temporary establishments that do not guarantee any type of security. Next, there is an exclusion from the economy. In Kampala, most economic activity requires a trading license, and of the jobs in the informal sector, the vast majority requires this documentation in order to function. According to a World Bank report, the most popular activities in Kampala s informal sector include: making food, clothes, wood products, and handcrafts as well as metal fabrication, service, and transport (World Bank 2005, 3), and all but one of the interviewees fell into one of these categories. There were three auto mechanics (service), one bed sheet vendor (trade), two carpenters (wood products), one scrap collector (metal fabrication), three motorcycle mechanics (service), one boda driver (transport), three wheelbarrow pushers (transport), one shoe vendor (trade), three bicycle mechanics (service), and one matoke vendor (food processing). The only interviewee that did not participate in one of these sectors was a young man and his even younger colleagues who were musical performers. With the exception of some handcraft vendors who make and sell their goods on their own property, in accordance with the Trade (Licensing) Act 1969, all of these require a license in order to operate, but many citizens in the informal economy do not obtain this license because, frankly, it is too costly. Ranging from 7,500 to 2,250,000 shillings ($3-900) (Radoli 2013), even the cheapest license is unaffordable considering the vast majority live on less than $2/day. If Figure 5. Land Ownership in Kampala, Source: Giddings 2009,

22 Matthew F. Pietrus (and usually when) caught without a license, businesspeople can face fines up to 20 million shillings ($8000) and jail time up to 12 months (Senkabirwa 2013; Trade (Licensing) Act 1969). Yet many of these citizens operating without a license are more likely to pay less expensive, albeit illegal bribes to lowly authority figures in lieu of jail time. With each interview, a motif emerged. Ssalongo reported that Where I operate, the KCCA does not want me to operate my business. Sometimes when I am working [with] a client [repairing] his bicycle, the KCCA comes and confiscates my tools. Joseph explained that Interacting with the city council is not [easy] because sometimes [we] meet when you ve moved your pad, you ve not made money, you re exhausted, they take what you re selling and go away with it. Finally, when asked whether or not the KCCA has ever helped them, Isaac stated that [The KCCA] have never helped me apart from letting me down. They have always been confiscating my things and I do not go and get them [because] it is very hard for me to get them back. Without a license and therefore vulnerable to paying bribes, fines, or facing jail time, vendors operating in the informal economy find it even more difficult to prosper. These vendors vulnerability not only affects their personal well-being, but also creates micro-capital flight. Rather than face persecution, many leave the city center which subsequently takes business away from enterprises that rely on that population. According to prominent Ugandan periodical New Vision, In September 2011, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) ordered all vendors and hawkers to leave the city streets. Since then, they have engaged in running battles with enforcement officers (Anguyo 2013). One boda cyclist (or motorcycle taxi driver) named Gusta explained that his income from fares has decreased as a direct result of this repression: It is the city council which has paralyzed the boda boda work in the city. [We] used to make money when the street vendors were there because people would come [and] want to buy things from the vendors cheaply. Now, the KCCA has sent them away. They no longer operate in the city which means few people come into the city. [We] have few passengers to carry. As a result of oppressive monitoring by authorities, the loss of vendors has drastically slowed the transient population that would normally commute to the city center in search of these goods. Now, supply of drivers far outweighs demand for their services and they have no choice but to take meager fares because if they do not, someone else will: Since there are so many young men boda boda cycling, [I] find [I] don t have time to negotiate [fares] with the customer. As I negotiate with a customer another person comes and takes him at any fare. The only option is whoever comes with little money or enough money to take him. Because poverty and underdevelopment force more people to rely on boda driving as a source of income, the supply of drivers increases. At the same time however, the demand for their services drastically falls because of repressive authorities and as a result prices deflate, wages decrease, and poverty ensues. Indeed, corruption has indirectly crippled one of the most popular forms of transportation which provides the livelihood for many in the city. With access to the economy limited, ever-vulnerable, and under constant threat, as Isaac put it, At work it is not a safe place; at home, it is not safe. We just live by the mercy of god. Unable to confer rights to housing or to the economy under current circumstances, the informal sector cannot grant citizens a right to the city. So then, what should the right to city look like living in informality? In need of rights to space and the economy, claiming a right to the city in the infor- 20

23 The Right to the City in the Informal Sector: Claiming Rights or Gaining Access in Kampala, Uganda? mal sector would first resemble Waldron s (1993) concept of gaining socioeconomic rights to housing and a source of livelihood. To achieve the former, a comprehensive land reform needs to take place. This is by no means a new proposal, as scholars, policy makers, and the government of Uganda have continued to try and tackle the confusion and conflict that arises from land disputes (Republic of Uganda 1998, 2010; Giddings 2009; Nkurunziza 2006). Roy (2005) points out that while squatters were able to purchase public land through a policy in Manila, it resulted in catering to the upper and middle class squatters while marginalizing the lower class (page 153). Moreover, this type of program could not be implemented in Kampala because most land is owned privately. While the resolution of this problem is beyond the scope of this paper, a recommendation would be to consider informal settlements and those who live there when drafting these plans and new legislature. In particular, looking at how policies will affect the informal land market and whether or not this will subsequently take a home away from the majority of the city who relies on informal housing is paramount to discussions about policy change. All too often, this group remains forgotten in these discussions and perpetually alienated from housing after new policies are drafted. Indeed, despite his in-depth analysis of the land market in Kampala, Giddings (2009) admits that this study focuses primarily on formal sector land issues. Further analysis is required on the number and type of informal sector land transactions (Giddings 2009, 16). Regarding the right to a source of livelihood, citizens in the informal sector cannot enjoy the right to the city without state support. This does not, as Roy argues, necessarily have to come through formalization but until regulations shift from marginalizing these citizens to supporting them, they will not achieve the right to the city. While it would appear that most citizens in the informal economy are more likely to encounter cheaper fines through paying bribes rather than face the costly penalties and jail time associated with operating without a permit, this is problematic. First, any type of fine is detrimental to an income which already provides barely enough to purchase food for the day. Second, corruption perpetuates citizens pervasive distrust for the state which in turn hinders development plans and drives away foreign investment. However, this essay does not advocate that these already economically strained citizens face higher, albeit legal fines. Instead, policies should exist that protect these citizens from fines, both formal and informal so that they can use the little money they earn to try and improve their socioeconomic situation. In this way, the informal economy should become more regulated (not policed) in order to protect the majority of the city s citizens who are ever vulnerable to poverty. Second, achieving the right to the city in the informal sector would also resemble Dworkin s (1977) concept of a moral right to challenge or break the law. In Kampala as well as in many cases for that matter, living in informality is in itself illegal but results because economic and political conditions create widespread underdevelopment. As this essay demonstrated, this underdevelopment does not accommodate the growing urban population, resulting in citizens participation in the informal sector in order to gain access to shelter and a source of livelihood. In doing so, they are constantly vulnerable to either legal persecution or authorities abusing their power. Yet, they are unable to challenge this persecution even though the underdevelopment out of which they resort to informality is the result of a weak state and economy. If these conditions infringe upon their right to improve their well-being, they should, as Dworkin and this essay argue, be able to legally challenge that infringement. However, outside some ability to legally contest land disputes (which is in itself time-consuming and confusing given the current land tenure system), they cannot challenge such laws, 21

24 Matthew F. Pietrus break such laws, and make [their] case to a jury of [their] peers (Attoh 2011, 673). Thus, in trying to find shelter and a source of livelihood, these citizens live in a constant state of persecution. CONCLUSION Participating in informality is necessary for many who cannot gain access to formal shelter or a source of livelihood. In this sense, it is certainly a positive. However, because informality cannot confer any types of legal rights, that access is often challenged, which leaves citizens ever-vulnerable to poverty. Frequently denied access to both space and the economy, citizens participating in informality cannot claim a right to the city without facing contestation. Yet this is the paradox of the informal sector: it allows citizens a place to stay, but without security of tenure. It allows them a place to work, but not an occupation protected by labor laws. It allows them partial access to the city, but not complete inclusivity. It allows them access to socioeconomic benefits but in no way confers them as rights. In sum, informality does not confer the right to the city. Rather, it provides necessary, but constantly vulnerable access to space and to the economy. However, as this paper contends there is a marked difference between gaining access to and claiming a right to shelter and a source of livelihood. Second, in order to achieve the right to the city in informality, policies and regulations must be made in order to protect these citizens rights to the socioeconomic benefits of urban life. Finally, it must also permit channels through which they can fairly challenge and break laws that infringe upon their pursuit of self-improvement. Without these conditions, citizens in the informal sector will not achieve the right to the city. As Isaac told me, in [the informal sector] people don t have their full rights ; and without conferring these rights in the informal sector, the right to the city does not exist. NOTES 1. Vulnerable to poverty is defined as spending below twice the national poverty line ($2.40/day). 2. The most recent census from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2014) showed that the average household size in Kampala was 3.5 (UBOS 2014, 36). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my draft readers Sarah & Tina for their unconditional support and for not being afraid to dissect previous drafts of this paper; to the reviewers and editors of The Geographical Bulletin for their remarks that have strengthened this essay s central argument; to the department of geography at DePaul University for their support, both financial and academic; to the members of PED, especially Abdul, Milton, and Drew for introducing me to the pearl of Africa; to my mentor Dr. Winifred Curran for her selfless guidance, endless advice, and for giving me the necessary mental stability to continue this research; and finally, to all of the interviewees who gave me the honor of representing their voices which all to often go unheard. REFERENCES Ablode Attoh, K The Transportation Disadvantaged and the Right to the City in Syracuse, New York. The Geographical Bulletin, May: pp Anguyo, I % of Ugandans Vulnerable to Poverty. New Vision, 19 March. [ news/ of-ugandans-vulnerableto-poverty.html]. Last Accessed 2 September Anguyo, I Vendors, Hawkers Reap Big Amid Traders Strike. New Vision, 29 June. [ news/ vendors-hawkers-reap-big- 22

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29 Compassionately Hidden: The Church Telling Local Homeless to Come to Our House Robert Oliver* Department of Geography Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA Matthew Robinson Constituent Relations Representative at International Justice Mission (IJM) Washington, D.C C. Theodore Koebel Urban Planning and the Myers-Lawson School of Construction Senior Associate, Center for Housing Research Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA ABSTRACT In early 2011, the To Our House (TOH) thermal shelter program opened its doors to homeless men in the New River Valley Area (NRV) of Virginia. The program was a grass roots response to the death of a wellknown local homeless man and the goal of the program is to provide winter shelter for single adult men by using rotating host sites at local churches. We highlight that in the NRV local churches have sought to remedy a socially unjust situation by providing shelter for men that was previously unavailable. We illustrate that faith-based outreach in the New River Valley can be viewed as positive compassionate outreach by a caring community. While acknowledging the benefits of this compassionate outreach to more than 25 men in the NRV, we also offer a cautionary note regarding the dilemmas of this outreach suggesting that it has the potential to mask the problems of the local housing market. Key words: rural homeless, thermal shelters, faith-based compassion INTRODUCTION * corresponding author The Geographical Bulletin 56: by Gamma Theta Upsilon In 2011, a new emergency thermal shelter program catering to homeless men was launched in the New River Valley (NRV) of Southwest Virginia. Referred to as To Our House (TOH), this program relies on the volunteer efforts of a coalition of churches to provide shelter to homeless men in a relatively isolated area of Virginia during the winter months. It was the first time that a shelter program catering exclusively to men was initiated in the area. We have three aims in this paper. First, we seek to report on how the visibility and ultimately the death of a single homeless man, Teddy Henderson, led to the creation of the To Our House program in the New River Valley. Our second aim is to acknowledge that in the NRV local churches have sought to remedy a socially unjust situation by providing 27

30 Robert Oliver, Matthew Robinson and C. Theodore Koebel shelter for men that was previously unavailable. In the words of Terry Smusz, Executive Director of the New River Community Action (NRCA), the thermal shelter system in the NRV couldn t be done without the churches (Smusz 2011). Here we illustrate the particular challenges that rural homelessness poses as well as the process of mobilization of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the provision of welfare. In an area characterized by smaller towns and large rural spaces, the NRV does not have the scale to allow the professionalized resources and funding that supports the governmental and NGO approaches seen in medium- to large-size cities, such as continuum of care programs, a variety of shelters with services for transitional housing, and permanent affordable housing. The NRV is also an area where faithbased outreach remains strong, so it is not surprising to find faith-based organizations (FBOs) involved in welfare provision. From this perspective, the compassionate outreach by FBOs in the NRV might be viewed as a more accommodating and inclusive approach to homeless provision in comparison to the more punitive or exclusionary policies that are linked to homeless individuals in urban areas. Our third aim is more suggestive. We feel that it is important to acknowledge the delicate nature of this compassionate outreach. We argue that the TOH program relies on the ongoing care and compassion as well as the strategic mobilization and financial resources of local faith-based organizations to operate. Our goal is not to challenge whether or not faith-based organizations (FBOs) should be involved in welfare provision, rather we seek to show how a successful thermal shelter program operated by local churches does risk masking an affordable housing dilemma in the NRV. It is also worth noting that the success of a faith-based approach ultimately rests on its acceptance by the intended recipients of the outreach. This student-driven research incorporates a series of ten semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in homeless service provision in the New River Valley as well as leaders of faith-based organizations. REVISITING HOMELESSNESS Recent literature stemming from geography, urban studies, sociology and other social science disciplines has extensively documented the more punitive measures that have been employed to make the homeless in urban areas less visible (e.g., aggressive policing, removal of the homeless from public space by force or law, laws against sleeping in public, panhandling and begging, removal and relocation of shelters, soup kitchens and other facilities) (Crawford 2008; Davis 1990; DeVerteuil et al. 2009; Lee and Price- Spratlen 2004; Wolch and Dear 1993; Smith 1996; McNamara et al. 2013; Mitchell 1997; 1998a, 1998b; 2003). Numerous examples of containment and control have been uncovered and help lend credence to Mitchell s (1997) claim that a neoliberal agenda has sought to annihilate the homeless subject. As Lee et al. (2010) note, prior to the 1980s there were three main periods that attracted researchers studying homelessness: (1) the tramp years from 1890s-1920s; (2) the Great Depression of the 1930s; and (3) the skid row years of the 1940s-1970s. But it was following the economic downturn of the early 1980s that homelessness in America came to be seen as the most critical social issue in urban America (Saelinger 2006, 545) with the amount of literature produced mimicking the increased visible presence of the homeless population. For Don Mitchell (2011), the sudden explosion of homeless people on the streets in the 1980s led to increased activism as well as a marked growth in emergency shelters in urban areas. What made this most recent period unique, according to Mitchell (2011) was the sudden visibility of the homeless population, with city streets, sidewalks, and parks from the Central Business District to the suburbs being littered with homeless individuals. Unlike the skid row years, this new homeless population was out of place, no longer confined to 28

31 Compassionately Hidden: The Church Telling Local Homeless to Come to Our House particular neighborhoods of older industrial cities. In addition, this new homeless was demographically different (Takahashi 1996). Where previously the face of homelessness was white disaffiliated men who had severed (or had never sustained) ties to family, workplace, church, or community, presumably because of substantial problems with their socialization skills and/or their personalities (Saelinger 2006, 548), now new faces comprised of young and old men, women, children, teens, [and] whole families that were disproportionately Black (Mitchell 2011, 940) populated the homeless ranks. Whereas previously homelessness was linked in the public s mind to personal deficits, the downsizing of welfare services combined with an extremely competitive job market exposed just how difficult it was for individuals to secure governmental benefits and paid work. Those viewed to be at risk of homelessness represented a broad demographic and consequently challenged public representation and perception of homeless individuals as undeserving and blameworthy. As children, seniors, families, women, veterans, and minorities joined men as homeless, the conversation about the root causes of homelessness became muddled. The most obvious indication of increased public sympathy was the passing by Congress of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, later named the McKinney- Vento Homeless Assistance Act. This act recognized that the causes of homeless were not only many but complex and would require solutions that were equally diverse. Moreover, the act acknowledged that homelessness had become an unprecedented crisis that required (albeit reluctantly) a federal response, but also required enactment at the local level. The act did provide a policy vehicle to ensure that large amounts of funding was steered towards the construction or renovation of a variety of different types of shelters, as well as money for the establishment of health care programs, limited job training, adult literacy programs, and access to public school education for homeless children. For the first time, there was a source of federal support for new types of shelters including transitional housing to assist individuals with disabilities and homeless families as well as support for initiatives such as the Emergency Shelter Grant Program. But as Mitchell astutely noted, the 1980s were not simply a crisis for people made homeless but also a time marked by a crisis of capital which ensured that the public presence of the homeless became a lingering dilemma (2011, 941, italics in original). Mitchell (2011) also highlighted that a continuum-of-care or coordinated services approach and the initial enthusiasm for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 lost momentum in the 1990s as neoliberal reforms and a more competitive urban economic climate characterized by deindustrialization, post-fordism and globalization led more cities to adopt entrepreneurial models of urban growth. The continued growth of a visible urban homeless population in the 1980s and 1990s, coupled with the new attempts by cities to secure the footloose capital, tourists, suburban visitors, and gentrifiers (Mitchell 2011, 934), as well as a rising sense of compassion fatigue (Millich 1994), led to a situation where homeless individuals and the facilities that served them (shelters, drop-in centers, halfway houses, etc.), were seen more and more as liabilities (Mitchell 2011, 934). As Link et al. (1995, 534) noted, in the context of homelessness, evidence of compassion fatigue emerged in the form of mass media portrayals that repeatedly emphasize[d] growing public indifference and anger toward homeless people spawned by extensive contact with them. In addition, Mitchell (2011, 942) noted that compassion became more distanced, meaning that support for services like shelters often did not emerge from the immediate community. Put simply, local assistance was often replaced with local backlash and expressions of NIMBYism (Not in My Backyard) and efforts to improve the city s safety and image replaced the willingness to aid the homeless. 29

32 Robert Oliver, Matthew Robinson and C. Theodore Koebel The rise of anti-begging ordinances is often used to illustrate the growing frustration of a previously sympathetic public (Amster 2003; Millich 1994). Ultimately, the shift in the public s attitude toward the homeless from compassion to intolerance and even hostility (Millich 1994, note 6), resulted in the criminalization of homeless people in many cities (Mitchell 2011, 934). With cities seeking to adopt and enforce zero tolerance policies that deliberately and diligently seek to remove homeless people from public sites and sight, precious little has been done to improve the situation for homeless individuals. Moreover, recent programs like Housing First, Mitchell (2011, 949) argued, have done little to address the structural problem of homelessness in America. In retracing the history of the urban homeless population in the United States, Mitchell noted that during the 1990s, the lack of collective or state-led regulatory efforts led to a more full-fledged turn to charity (2011, 945). Mitchell did not elaborate on the implications of this turn except to claim that charitable efforts to address homeless still operated under the oversight of the government, and frequently resulted in homeless individuals having to endure religious proselytizing and other forms of indoctrination as the price of a bed or a meal (Mitchell 2011, 946). But as Hackworth (2009) demonstrated, faith-based community development took on a more prominent role during this time period. Two federal actions were critical: Charitable Choice (a provision in the 1996 welfare reform law) and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (first created by President Bush in 2001). These two actions permitted the funding of religious charities via block grants and allowed faith-based organizations (FBOs) to compete for federal contracts by exempting these organizations from restrictions in hiring based on religious belief or practice and permitting these organizations to retain their religious character in the provision of services. The involvement of faith-based agencies in the delivery of welfare provision has triggered a wave of commentary. For some, [t] he role of religion in promoting the social and economic welfare of communities and their people is timeless (Wright 2004, 27). Other researchers have challenged the constitutional appropriateness of a church-state partnership (Boden 2005), while other investigators have highlighted the strategic value that FBOs can play in community building process while simultaneously highlighting the organizational challenges these groups face when trying to directly deal with the provision of affordable housing (de Souza Briggs 2004). As Leginski (2007, I-28) summarized: [i]n past waves of homelessness, the moral imperative of responding to people in desperate circumstances has prevailed. Charity, church, kin, and compassion often did more to redress homelessness than civic administration. But in the face of complex contemporary homelessness, the force of government legislation, policy, and financial resources continue to be at the frontlines of our expectations and approaches to solve this crisis. Xavier de Souza Briggs (2004, 50) arrived as a similar conclusion, noting that when it comes to providing direct housing, FBOs face the same challenges that secular non-profits experience: balancing bricks-and-mortar and financial objectives with broader social aims, including perceived obligations to serve the most disadvantaged in the community; balancing the politics of the immediate neighborhood with that of city hall; and beyond politics, responding to the market dynamics price pressures, unforeseen demand, and more that make housing unpredictable and quite distinct from welfare, health, education, and other services that are less market driven. The above summation, we hope captures some of the broad narratives regarding the homeless in urban America in the last few decades. Without question, since the early 1980s various efforts have been made by scholars, social activists and policy makers 30

33 Compassionately Hidden: The Church Telling Local Homeless to Come to Our House to define and enumerate the homeless population according to a variety of methodologies and statistical analyses (e.g. Cloke et al. 2001; Cordray and Pion 1991; Lee et al. 2003; Metraux et al. 2001; Rossi et al. 1987). Researchers have sought to identify the individual/personal and structural barriers or risk factors that lead to homelessness and to highlight the complexity of trying to help America s homeless. Much of this work has had an urban focus, with many of the findings indicating a punitive urban environment for homeless individuals (e.g. DeVerteuil et al. 2009; Hebert 2011; Wacquant 2009). As the implications of Charitable Choice and other faith-based initiatives are negotiated, it remains important to investigate how the homeless situation is unfolding in rural areas where professionalized resources and funding support is more limited. RETHINKING RURAL HOMELESSNESS In smaller urban centers and rural areas the lack of visible poor and rather narrow definitions of homelessness have helped to keep the homeless unseen, unacknowledged, [and] unattended (Cloke and Milbourne 2006, 261). In these areas, efforts to police the poor are not as obvious as in larger urban centers and headcounts are difficult to perform when homeless people are not on the street. Rural homeless are often hidden in remote locations like hunting or fishing cabins, abandoned barns or trailers, or in vehicles. They are also frequently doubledup in other people s homes rather than in the care of a social service agency (Hodas and Myers 2008, 29). The lack of visibility often contributes to a scenario where public officials and community members do not feel that homelessness is a problem or even exists in their community (Hodas and Myers 2008). In addition, Cloke and Milbourne (2000) highlighted that sometimes in rural areas, a lingering sense of the rural idyll or concern over social surveillance (people will know if you are homeless) prevent homeless people from acknowledging their problem in terms of homelessness, so that even in periods of crisis, people employ tactics of invisibility (e.g. using short-term insecure accommodation or sleeping somewhere out of sight) or turn to outmigration rather than declaring themselves or risk be labeled as homeless. The lack of visibility coupled with the absence of rural homeless services means that the rural homeless not only remain unidentified, they are under-reported, a scenario that further contributes to perception that there are few, if any, homeless people living in rural communities (Lawrence 1995). As Cloke et al. argued, it is imperative to investigate rural homelessness not only because it has been underemphasized, but because rural areas reflect difficult terrains of service, where clients and volunteers are sparsely distributed and where service provision can be hampered by diseconomies of scale (2010, 211). The unseen nature of rural homeless individuals, combined with the challenges of providing public transportation and outreach in isolated environments, as well as high rural poverty rates, a shortage of decent affordable housing, a lack of services (particularly professional services in mental and behavioral health care) and a prioritization of urban needs with regards to allocation of Federal funds make the challenges of service delivery in small towns and rural areas different from larger urban centers. In areas where services are provided there is concern over the type of service model (e.g., does the local community have the ability to adapt a model that caters to the needs of the homeless living in their particular area or will it simply adopt an urban-based model) as well as the style and amount of outreach being performed to encourage homeless individuals to use these services. LOCAL COMPASSION IN A PLACE REMOVED: THE CREATION OF THE TO OUR HOUSE (TOH) PROGRAM IN VIRGINIA S NEW RIVER VALLEY We follow Cloke et al. (2010, 211) in arguing that towns serving rural hinterlands 31

34 Robert Oliver, Matthew Robinson and C. Theodore Koebel often become the first point of contact [between homeless individuals and service providers], places where homelessness becomes visible and where fixed point services are developed in response to this visibility. The thermal shelters for the TOH program are located in Blacksburg, VA and Christiansburg, VA. While these two towns are considered to be part of a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), only the Town of Blacksburg contains a population that exceeds 35,000 people, and the entire population for the New River Valley (NRV) is less than 200,000 people. The NRV includes the counties of Montgomery (including the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg), Pulaski, Floyd, Giles and the independent City of Radford (Fig. 1). While containing urban populations, the New River Valley has extensive open spaces and a low population density. The NRV is spatially removed from major urban centers and contains many rural residents. In addition, the counties that comprise the NRV have poverty rates that not only exceed the state average, but are also higher than the national average. According to The 2001 Virginia Rural Homeless Survey, in Virginia s Southwest Region, there were 18,824 homeless person events 1 estimated for 2001 accounting for more than half of all homeless events in the state (Koebel et al. 2001, 9). It was estimated that the New River Valley contributed 8.4% of all homeless person events (Koebel et al. 2001, 11). Koebel and Abdelfattah (2003) estimated that the capital cost for constructing permanent housing for the chronically homeless in Virginia could be $440 million, with another $13 million required in annual building operating subsidies excluding services. Even in the heyday of political and public support for addressing this problem, the available resources have never been sufficient to reach smaller communities such as those found in the NRV. We have struggled with the dilemma of using the death of a homeless man, Teddy Figure 1. Study area. 32

35 Compassionately Hidden: The Church Telling Local Homeless to Come to Our House Owen Henderson 2, to engage in an academic exercise. Mr. Henderson s death, however, was the catalyst for the creation of a new program called To Our House, with the acronym capturing both the initials of Mr. Henderson s full name and the intention of sheltering homeless men in community houses of worship. Mr. Henderson was the most recognizable homeless individual in the NRV and his death stimulated the formation of a grassroots group formed to combat homelessness in his memory (Moxley 2009, n.p.). As Carol Johnson, Director for the New River Valley Shelter in Southwest Virginia, summarized, [o]ur homeless population looks different. It s not as visible because you don t see a lot of people living on the street (Johnson, quoted in Moxley 2009, n.p.).teddy Henderson was known, and it was his death that triggered a substantial response to the challenge of sheltering homeless men in the NRV. According to Pastor Bryson Smith (Fieldstone United Methodist), Teddy s death uncovered a gap in service and a need in the community that some would argue does not exist (Smith 2011). Although The 2001 Virginia Rural Homeless Survey documented that [e]mergency shelter was most frequently ranked the number 1 service need, followed by transitional shelter and emergency rent assistance (Koebel et al. 2001, 14), before the creation of the TOH program homeless men had limited options in the NRV. Prior to the establishment of the TOH program, homeless service needs in the NRV were addressed by various organizations, including The New River Family Shelter, the Women s Resource Center, the United Way, and the Salvation Army. Despite this support, Moxley (2009, n.p.) critically pointed out that between Christiansburg and Blacksburg, [only] six shelter spaces exist[ed] to serve homeless families with children. There [were] no shelters that [took] single men or women. As noted above, previous research has shown that the lack of shelters and services in rural areas forces people to either double up at whatever social cost or move to a city for emergency shelter (Koebel and Abdelfattah, 2004, 15). In addition, given the shortage of beds, it is common for informal networks of agencies, churches and charities to provide the equivalent of emergency assistance through the purchasing of restaurant vouchers, bus tickets, or hotel vouchers (Moxley, 2009). These scenarios were common in the New River Valley. For example, in one moment of desperation, the local pastor of Redeemer Church, David Vance, resorted to the website couchsurfing.com to aid an individual (Moxley 2009). Couchsurfing is a hospitality and social networking site where a community of travelers (usually global travelers) visit to secure a room, bed, or couch to stay at when they visit local communities. While this piecemeal strategy did provide short-term solutions for homeless individuals, it also revealed that an effective system of shelter or housing remained wanting. The transferring of men from the NRV to facilities in adjacent communities (such as Roanoke s Rescue Mission) not only spatially displaced the NRV s homeless population, it also had the potential to compound the service delivery in neighboring counties/ cities. A bus ticket or a single night s accommodation in a motel was clearly not a preventative strategy, as these solutions did not offer ongoing assistance such as legal aid, nor did they help individuals transition back to permanent housing. It was during Mr. Henderson s memorial service in 2009, attended by 40 members of the local community, that a conversation regarding the challenges of homelessness and poverty in the NRV was initiated. The attendees were a mix of clerics and laity from interfaith organizations, concerned citizens, and human and social services professionals (e.g. New River Community Action) (Rees 2011). A number of these concerned citizens intent on honoring the death of one of their citizens started meeting regularly, determined to raise awareness of homeless men in the New River Valley (Hardbarger 2011, n.p.). As one pastor summarized, 33

36 Robert Oliver, Matthew Robinson and C. Theodore Koebel Teddy s memory inspired a group of individuals to do something, whatever that something was. Teddy is our conscience through this because after Teddy s death many felt there was a missed opportunity. It is a great collaboration of spiritual and service communities. If you start looking for homeless people you will find them. You can t just sweep them to Roanoke (Fleischer 2011). Another pastor commented: We have shelters for women and shelters for children. The story of Teddy is compelling, haunting. When he froze to death, he froze to death within a mile of 6 warm churches (Lough 2011). 3 Reverend Susan Verbrugge (2011) adds that although Teddy wanted to stay on the streets his death produced a sense of guilt and people felt called to help the men in the NRV where there is a gap in service. She further noted that the city is less and less involved and does not have much for them. Cheaper housing is still a struggle (Verbrugge 2011). Verbrugge s statement about a lack of housing options for homeless or low-income individuals has merit. According to Census data, rental housing in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Statistical area is very unaffordable particularly for households with incomes below $20,000. This includes most principal wage earners in minimumwage jobs and those dependent on social support or otherwise scrapping through. The 2011 American Community Survey reported that 96% of renters with incomes below $20,000 in the Blacksburg metropolitan area were housing-cost burdened, meaning that 30% or more of their income was consumed by housing. Many of these households face extreme cost burdens where housing takes 50% or more of their income. Although there are a large number of apartments for a small metropolitan area, most of these are occupied by undergraduate students attending the region s universities (Virginia Tech and Radford University). The college student demand for off-campus housing distorts the local market in a variety of ways. The rental housing supply consists primarily of apartments built for students whose ability to pay often reflects family resources more so than personal incomes. Rents in the undergraduate student housing market are shared across multiple roommates, making those rents more affordable for each student but less affordable for a person living alone or a family with one income earner. The student market also creates a scarcity effect (New River Valley Planning District Commission 2014). Rental units, including houses, closer to the campuses and on bus lines are in high demand. Rent levels and student life styles make most of these areas unaffordable and unattractive to nonstudents. A few old mobile home parks provide some of the cheapest and poorest quality housing in Blacksburg and Radford, but the sites are redeveloped whenever possible with housing that is completely out of reach for anyone with a modest income, not to mention the poor (Gangloff 2014). There were only 2,209 units receiving federal rental assistance for very low-income occupants in the NRV in 2010, some of which are age restricted (Housing Virginia 2014). Based on HUD estimates accessed through Huduser. org (2014), there were slightly over 11,000 renter households potentially eligible for these units based on income and the presence of one or more housing problems. The assisted properties are also dispersed across the region, and only a few of the units are in the primary urban centers. They provide limited or no social services on-site. Although these are a primary defense against slipping into irregular shelter and homelessness, they are not intended to be the pathway for the homeless to get back to stable housing. At the same time as affordable rental housing in the denser locations has virtually disappeared, people in non-student neighborhoods are very resistant to allowing rental housing to be developed outside of student-dominated neighborhoods. Regardless of sentiments about the need for affordable housing, these residents fear that any development other 34

37 Compassionately Hidden: The Church Telling Local Homeless to Come to Our House than single family detached home will become student occupied, and so they oppose its development. No policies currently exist that would impose occupancy restrictions to help preserve affordable housing for nonstudents, although the Low Income Housing Tax Credit bars most students from being the leaseholder. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to obtain sites for affordable housing development. The quantity of affordable housing production is therefore very limited and costs remain out of reach for anyone on income support or in a minimum wage job. There are older, cheap housing units of poor quality outside of the primary urban locations. This supply includes a few apartment buildings, subdivided houses in distressed locations, and mobile home parks, as well as temporary housing in recreational vehicles and vans. THE FAITH FACTOR IN THE NRV: THE CHOICE FOR CHARITY The creation of the TOH program serves as an acknowledgement that the need for a coordinated effort to provide shelter and associated services for homeless men existed in this Virginia community. When discussing the men that ultimately used the TOH program, Terry Smusz (2011) noted, there is simply not enough low income or affordable housing and although some of the men have income, it s not enough so they live in the woods or at Crater Lake camp. As noted, in the NRV there has been an ongoing struggle by local professional services and faith-based organizations to find a potentially workable solution to local homelessness as an alternative to the move to the bigger city prescription. As noted above, [t]here is an intricate political history to the faith-based social services movement in the U.S. (Hackworth 2010, 753). While a full investigation of the history of faith-based activity is beyond the scope of this paper, it is important to note that in the NRV, there is a history of church involvement in shelter provision, with six of the shelter spaces available to families being located in two church-owned properties. Religious providers have functioned as a key link in the public social safety net in the region. Moreover, larger debates concerning the constitutional, pragmatic and ecclesiastic implications or merits of faith- based initiatives and programs such as charitable choice have not generated much public commentary or debate in the region. From the outset, those involved with the creation of the TOH program had three principal goals: (1) to develop a brochure that documented existing area services that could be distributed by local libraries to inform those asking for help where food, transportation, clothing and housing could be found; (2) to launch a website to disseminate information to the public; and (3) to organize a temporary emergency thermal shelter program during the winter months for single men in the area. Not surprisingly, it was the third goal that proved to be the most difficult to accomplish. After exploring cooperative faith-based models in operation in a number of other Virginia communities (Roanoke, Charlottesville, Norfolk, Winchester, and Harrisonburg), local pastors (e.g., Fieldstone United Methodist Church Pastor Bryson Smith) expressed a willingness to use church facilities to create a temporary housing facility. In particular, the People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM) model that had been established in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2004 provided inspiration (Rees 2011). Operating on the principle that every head deserves a pillow, PACEM s shelters operate as sites of last resort, with the participating, individuals, congregations, and organizations seeking to establish and expand a community safety net for those in need (People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry 2013). Mimicking the efforts in Charlottesville, VA, the TOH program adopted a rotational shelter system relying mainly on local Christian churches of multiple dominations. The use of local churches required host congregations to meet the appropriate zoning permissions and to receive approval from the local planning de- 35

38 Robert Oliver, Matthew Robinson and C. Theodore Koebel partment (in Blacksburg) in order to allow the churches to provide temporary thermal shelter. While the TOH program explicitly states that guests should not be pushed to attend religious services, host congregations are permitted to hold and invite guests to participate in Bible study and prayer meetings or other forms of religious service (To Our House 2011). In addition, the welcome letter distributed to shelter users does include the following message [w]e hope you feel love and [peace] through our church family and friends as we prepare meals and share some time with you and attention is drawn to the fact that prayer requests can be made (To Our House 2011). Meal blessings are also performed. Without question, many of the volunteers who participate in the TOH draw a connection between their involvement and the opportunity to live out their faith. For example, Pastor Rob Lough (2011) of Pembroke United Methodist and Mt. Lebanon explained TOH has helped keep his church relevant, by allowing people to act out their faith. In the NRV, homeless men are transported to the designated church from an intake center the lobby of the New River Community Action building after arriving in the early evening. The men are served a hot dinner and provided with a bed, bedding, toiletries as well as opportunities to play games, watch television and interact with volunteers (Hardbarger 2011). The men are expected to leave the designated facility by 7:00am after being served a cold breakfast and provided with a bagged lunch. As Rees (2011) notes, the TOH program provides a low-barrier emergency shelter, and therefore there is risk involved, but she notes that the program is meeting a need for our guests. In this case low-barrier means that the men are not asked about their backgrounds, so it is unknown to volunteers if the person has been a convicted felon (Mathes 2011) The To Our House program opened its doors as planned in early January 2011, twenty-six months after Mr. Henderson s death. In its inaugural season (limited to just four months), the TOH program was utilized by 28 different men who required the provision of 403 nights of shelter. Remarkably, the needs of these men were accommodated by 29 host and support congregations or community organizations, staffed by 290 volunteers (To Our House 2012). During , the program expanded its service delivery from 11 to 21 weeks (147 nights) and necessitated a larger network of supporting churches and volunteers. Once again, 28 men used the shelters for a total of 907 shelter nights and more than 2,700 meals. The average number of guests each night was 7 men. During the second season, there were 12 host organizations and 751 organization volunteers who amassed more than 5,300 volunteer hours (To Our House 2012). If the large number of volunteers and volunteer hours dedicated to the TOH program is indicative, then it appears that the local residents are not yet fully suffering from compassion fatigue. From this perspective, the TOH program can be read as an example of compassionate outreach exercised by a caring community. THE RISK OF COMPASSION: A CAUTIONARY NOTE ABOUT THE DILEMMAS OF A FAITH-BASED HOMELESS SHELTER At a time when churches across the country have been forced to cease providing services (shelters, soup kitchens, warming rooms) by a host of zoning requirements, the launch of the new shelter program in the NRV provides the basis for a more compassionate story. At the same time, while faith-based involvement may now mean that the homeless situation in the NRV is no longer unacknowledged, of concern is whether this thermal shelter program will make it easier for local and more senior governments to ignore the housing dilemma in the region. Put simply, homeless men in the NRV may be being compassionately hidden. In the NRV, Teddy Henderson s death highlighted the lack of a critical service to the area s disadvantaged. As noted, nearly 36

39 Compassionately Hidden: The Church Telling Local Homeless to Come to Our House 30 men have made use of the new thermal shelter program. While the TOH program fulfills a number of broader social aims (e.g., allowing people to (re)connect with their faith, to make available resources to homeless men), it must be stated that it is not designed to deliver affordable housing. In a community that does not yet suffer from compassion fatigue, the risk of creating a functioning thermal shelter program is that it will potentially mask the violence of the local housing market, thereby enlarging the capacity fatigue of the region s housing stock. Future research needs to be directed towards determining the impacts of devolving social service provision to religious and charitable organizations in the NRV and elsewhere before offering a more definitive conclusion. In addition, it is important to acknowledge that the current study did not seek to uncover how the men using the new shelter system felt about this new initiative. CONCLUSION The chronically homeless need permanent subsidized housing with a significant level of health and social services. The temporary and episodically homeless also need specialized housing as an alternative to living in cars or moving among relatives and friends who might only be one rung higher on the housing ladder. While it has been acknowledged that emergency shelters are at best a stop-gap measure and that [i]t takes far more effort and requires more resources than just emergency shelters to move the homeless forward to permanent housing (Koebel and Abdelfattah 2004, 16), currently in the NRV more ambitious services (e.g., extensive case management, job training, health care, emergency financial assistance, legal aid, and drug and substance abuse rehabilitation) and permanent housing are still a struggle to provide. In the NRV, the creation of a temporary thermal shelter was the occasion for a compassionate community to offer an alternative to a group of men who had limited options. In the absence of a more secure and long-term financial plan that would create a greater supply of housing and assistance in the NRV, the TOH commendably provides an alternative. Yet the risk of the thermal shelter is that it might make homelessness in the NRV more invisible to rest of the community. It was, of course, Mr. Henderson s visibility that helped spark the creation of the TOH program in the first place. Volunteers in the TOH program are aware of the dilemmas of faith-based outreach and many recognize that there are implications of their compassionate deeds. It remains to be seen whether the TOH program can spark a more sustained discussion about how the needs of homeless men in the NRV might extend beyond the capability or capacity of compassionate outreach. NOTES 1. Since homelessness can be episodic even among the chronically homeless, homeless person events estimate the total number of people who would experience one or more episodes of being homeless throughout the year. 2. Teddy Owen Henderson was also known as Adul-Shahid (Moxley 2008). 3. It was ultimately determined that Mr. Henderson did not die from exposure. REFERENCES Amster, R Patterns of Exclusion: Sanitizing Space, Criminalizing Homelessness. Social Justice, 30(1): Boden, M.A Compassion Inaction: Why President Bush s Faith-Based Initiatives Violate the Establishment Clause. Seattle UL Review, 29: Burt, M. R., Aron, L. Y., Douglas, T., Valente, J., Lee, E., and Iwen, B Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve: Findings of the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients. Washington, DC: Urban Institute, Research Report. 37

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42 Robert Oliver, Matthew Robinson and C. Theodore Koebel Takahashi, L A Decade of Understanding Homelessness in the USA: From Characterization to Representation. Progress in Human Geography, 20(3): To Our House Thermal Shelter Guidelines for Volunteers. [ Last accessed September 12, Spring Newsletter. [ Last accessed June, Verbrugge, S Personal interview. October 10. Blacksburg, Virginia. Wacquant, L Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity. Durham: Duke University Press. Wolch, J. R. and Dear, M. J Malign Neglect: Homelessness in an American City, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 40

43 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study Kanika Verma Department of Geography Texas State University San Marcos, TX ABSTRACT Spatial thinking and learning are essential components of geography education. The National Research Council s 2006 report Learning to Think Spatially emphasized that people vary with respect to performance on spatial tasks. This pilot study at a large Texas university investigated geospatial thinking variances among undergraduate students based on academic experience of students. This exploratory study uses the Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS), based on the Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT) endorsed by Association of American Geographers (2006) and published by Lee and Bednarz (2012), to assess the geospatial thinking differences of undergraduate students. The results show that academic major, academic classification, and exposure to academic geography influence comprehension of geospatial concepts, use of geospatial representation tools, and application of geospatial reasoning processes. Key Words: geospatial thinking, geography, academic major, academic classification INTRODUCTION A groundbreaking National Research Council publication, Learning to Think Spatially, offered a new approach to spatial thinking (NRC 2006). The report defined spatial thinking as a constructive combination of concepts of space, tools of representation, and processes of reasoning, using space to structure problems, find answers, and express solutions. Spatial thinking is a cognitive ability to visualize and interpret location, position, distance, direction, relationships, movement, and change over space, in different situations and at different scales (Sinton et al. 2013). Geospatial knowledge helps us to make sense of chaotic and diversified environments (Golledge 2002). Geospatial thinking is important for significant everyday life exercises such as remembering a specific map, route planning, following directions to a lo- The Geographical Bulletin 56: by Gamma Theta Upsilon 41

44 Kanika Verma cation, calculating distances and directions, determining spatial patterns among different features on land, visualizing 3-D topography from an alternative perspective, or choosing the best location based on given geographical criteria. The basic building block for spatial thinking is space, and the operations that humans can perform in space form its foundation. Geospatial thinking, focusing on the geography of human life spaces (spatial thinking at the level of Earth), is a subset of spatial thinking in general (Golledge, Marsh, and Battersby 2008b). Geospatial thinking is using Earth space or geographic space at different scales to frame problems, identify answers, and provide solutions employing geospatial concepts, representation tools, and reasoning processes. The NRC argued that spatial thinking is universal, malleable, powerful, and pervasive in academic disciplines, the workplace, and everyday problem solving. Spatial thinking is a powerful problem-solving tool (NRC 2006). Geospatial thinking and reasoning are important because they are fundamental to many aspects of everyday life, to understanding the relations between different people and between people and environments, and to understanding differences in various cultures and regions of the world (Golledge, Marsh, and Battersby 2008b). Spatial and geospatial thinking also improve overall academic performance and increase student participation in mathematics and science careers (Newcombe 2010; Uttal et al. 2013). Spatial and geospatial training prepares students for many careers, including logistics, transportation, real estate, agriculture, natural resources, and military operations. Ignoring spatial and geospatial thinking education directly implies neglecting one of the key ways with which human brain comprehends and organizes information (Gersmehl 2012). The NRC (2006) identified its predominant goal as training students to adopt and practice spatial thinking habitually. The NRC report highlighted that spatial thinking can and should be taught at all levels in the educational system because of its importance in research, academics, workplace, and everyday life situations (NRC 2006). Reports have claimed that spatial and geospatial thinking can be inculcated by education, training, and practice, such as lessons in geography (Liben 2006; NRC 2006). Scholars have emphasized that geography as a subject relies on spatial concepts as its foundation and thus provides exceptional spatial and geospatial training to students. However, many other disciplines such as physics, art, dance, mathematics, and computer science also focus on spatial concepts. It is important to confirm with empirical research, and not just theoretical claims, that geography is actually better than other disciplines in improving spatial and geospatial thinking of students. Curriculum and teaching modules should then be designed specifically to improve geospatial thinking of students coming from different backgrounds. Liben (2006) and Newcombe (2010) observed that people vary with respect to performance on spatial thinking tasks. Addressing the issue of group differences in geospatial thinking will assist in outlining different learning paths and ways for different groups of students (Anthamatten 2010; Gersmehl 2012), such as those belonging to different ethnic groups with varying levels of geospatial thinking. PURPOSE Significant differences occur among people as to how, how quickly, and how well they understand and do something. Like different levels of performance exist in spatial thinking as a function of age, sex, and experience (NRC 2006), students from various academic majors and classifications (year in college) may also demonstrate differences in approaching and assimilating spatial thinking. These variations might reflect different progress rates through developmental spatial achievements, different developmental end points, differential access to non-spatial component skills that are needed for spatial processing (e.g. working memory), or differential success in activating competencies 42

45 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study in a given test environment (e.g. as a consequence of test anxiety) (Liben 2006, 208). Investigating the nature of group differences, based on variables such as academic major, academic classification, or academic experience in geography, can lead to a better understanding of the comprehension and use of spatial thinking. Classroom tools, curricula, and assessments could be designed on the basis of any such explored differences to instill geospatial thinking in students (Anthamatten 2010; Gersmehl 2012). Scholars in geography and other disciplines have researched extensively about sex and age differences in spatial thinking. Few studies have addressed the issue from a perspective of academic majors, academic classifications, and background in geography of university undergraduates to discern differences in geospatial thinking. The purpose of this study is to investigate group differences in geospatial thinking of undergraduate students at a large Texas university. The primary research question is: Do academic major, academic classification, school geography academic experience, and/ or college geography academic experience influence the geospatial thinking of undergraduate students? I examine whether there is a statistically significant difference in geospatial thinking ability among students with different academic majors, at different stages in their academic career, and with differing degrees of exposure to academic geography. LITERATURE REVIEW Scholars in geography and other disciplines have studied group differences in spatial thinking but have mostly focused on sex, age, and K-12 school grade-level (Allen 1974; Gilmartin and Patton 1984; Cochran and Wheatley 1988; Lawton 1994; Voyer, Voyer, and Bryden 1995; Henrie et al. 1997; Albert and Golledge 1999; LeVasseur 1999; Montello et al. 1999; Hardwick et al. 2000; Lee 2005; Levine et al. 2005; Battersby, Golledge, and Marsh 2006; Marsh, Golledge and Battersby 2007; Golledge, Marsh, and Battersby 2008a; Huynh and Sharpe 2009, 2013; Lee and Bednarz 2012). Other variables, such as academic major, academic classification, and academic background in geography, should also be investigated as well for differences regarding geospatial thinking abilities. Investigating such group differences is important for effective interventions, for example, in the form of properly tailored map and GIS exercises in geography classrooms. Students in several academic majors and workplaces may have to deal with spatial and geospatial thinking but they may not be equally competent if their geospatial thinking skills are at a lower level than students from other academic majors. This research will highlight students from what academic majors have better geospatial thinking and thus those disciplines may well become vehicles for improving students spatial and geospatial thinking skills. Research on sex differences in spatial abilities has been ongoing since 1970s, especially in the field of psychology. Research about geospatial thinking is relatively new in such fields as geography. Although geographers and other scholars have examined many different facets of geospatial thinking, including the effects of sex/gender, and age and grade level (progression from novice to expert in school), not a great deal of literature exists for group differences in geospatial thinking based on culture, disability, socioeconomic status, academic major, academic classification, geography academic experience, ethnicity, language, or urban/ rural background. Researchers such as LeVasseur (1999), Hardwick et al. (2000), and Lee (2005) found no significant sex differences in a variety of spatial and geospatial tasks in their research studies. Studies undertaken by Allen (1974), Henrie et al. (1997), Cherry (1991), Cochran and Wheatley (1988), Lawton (1994), and Montello et al. (1999) detected significant sex differences on various spatial tests with males performing better than females. Gilmartin and Patton (1984) and Franeck et al. (1993) found significant sex differences in younger age groups such 43

46 Kanika Verma as junior high (males outperformed females) but no sex differences in college students on various map use experiments. Voyer, Voyer, and Bryden (1995) found sex differences increase significantly with age on six distinct spatial tests. Levine et al. (2005) identified significant sex differences in middle and high socioeconomic groups (boys outperformed girls), but no differences in low socioeconomic group on certain spatial tasks. Several scholars such as Henrie et al. (1997), Newcombe and Huttenlocher (1996), Battersby, Golledge, and Marsh (2006), Marsh, Golledge, and Battersby (2007), Golledge, Marsh, and Battersby (2008), Lee and Bednarz (2012), and Huynh and Sharpe (2009, 2012) discovered that students spatial and geospatial knowledge (for example map usage and spatial and geospatial vocabulary and concept usage) improves with age and increasing school years. Hardwick et al. (2000) investigated gender differences influencing performance on a standardized test of geography knowledge of 109 undergraduate students in an introductory physical geography course and 85 students in a world geography class. Students majoring in geography did better on the test than did those having other academic majors across all gender categories. Lee and Bednarz (2012) administered the Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT) to a sample of 532 junior-high, high school, and university students. The scholars concluded that two universities with more geography majors scored higher than two universities with fewer geography majors. METHODS Few standardized tests of spatial thinking exist (NRC 2006; Huynh and Sharpe 2009, 2013). I therefore drew geospatial questions from the Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT) that Lee (2005) developed and employed. This test has been endorsed by the Association of American Geographers (AAG 2006), and used by researchers such as Lee and Bednarz (2009; 2012). I undertook an exploratory study in a large Texas university to gather data to evaluate geospatial thinking of undergraduate students using what I term the Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS). Figures 1-6 in the appendix show example questions from the GTS. The GTS included demographic and academic questions, collecting data on sex, age, ethnicity, highest educational attainment of parents, annual income of parents, state of high school graduation, academic major, academic classification, number of geography courses taken in high school and college level, and urban/rural background. Following the demographic and academic questions, the GTS had twelve geospatial thinking questions, which were closed multiple choice questions, encompassing concepts about route finding; graph and map usage; 2-d and 3-d terrain models; spatial correlation; geographic information presented as points, lines, and areas; and map overlay. Using a map, the final question asked students to engage in site analysis based on given geographical criteria. In the fall 2012 semester, I introduced my study to undergraduate students in five general education geography courses to try to obtain as many non-geography majors in the survey as possible. The students used the URL provided to them to complete the GTS via Survey Monkey. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. Seventy-seven students completed the GTS online. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the GTS as a non-invasive and anonymous instrument for administration to university undergraduate students. To establish the internal consistency of the GTS, I calculated the Cronbach s Alpha statistic that measures the intercorrelation of items or the extent to which item responses obtained at the same time correlate with each other (Lee and Bednarz 2012). The Cronbach s Alpha for the GTS was 0.679, which signifies a low level of internal consistency in social science research. However, the results of the pilot study indicated that if one particular question (3-d terrain question) were removed 44

47 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study from the GTS, the Cronbach s Alpha would increase to 0.708, a value indicating an acceptable level of internal consistency among the items (Lee and Bednarz 2012). Out of a total of 77 students in the pilot study, only 20 answered the 3-d terrain question correctly. I, therefore, deleted this question from the GTS for analyses. The dependent variable in my study was geospatial thinking, measured by the score on the GTS. The independent variables were academic major, academic classification and number of college geography courses. To analyze group differences in geospatial thinking for the three independent variables, I used one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests to compare means on a quantitative Y outcome variable (GTS score in this case) across two or more categorical groups of X predictor variables (Park 2009). I carried out three series of ANOVAs incorporating the four predictor variables: academic major, academic classification, number of high school geography courses, and number of college geography courses. For each of these variables in different runs, the ANOVA test compared the means of various categorical groups (e.g. freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior for academic classification). ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Table 1. Distribution of respondents according to academic classification. Academic # of Students % of Students Classification Freshman (First Year) Sophomore (Second Year) Junior (Third Year) Senior (Fourth Year) Graduate Total Table 1 shows the distribution of respondents for academic classification. I deleted the one graduate student because this study focuses on undergraduate students. The ANOVA (sig. value 0.033) revealed that a statistically significant difference exists among the four academic classifications. The mean score of the senior (fourth-year) students was the highest (8.82), while that of the freshmen (first year) was the lowest (6.11) (Table 2). Academic classification therefore influences geospatial thinking of the students. This result supports the findings of other researchers (Henrie et al. 1997; Battersby, Golledge, and Marsh 2006; Newcombe and Huttenlocher 2006; Marsh, Golledge, and Battersby 2007; Golledge, Marsh, and Battersby 2008a; Lee and Bednarz 2012; and Huynh and Sharpe 2009, 2013) in underscoring that geospatial knowledge and understanding improves as education level progresses. Table 3 displays the responses for the academic major variable. Because few respondents were from social science, natural science, humanities, business, engineering, and teacher certification categories, I combined respondents in these academic major categories with the other category for the ANOVA analysis. The three groups then became: 26 geography students, 18 education, and 33 other. The ANOVA found a statistically significant difference among the three academic major groups (sig. value 0.001). The mean score of geography students (8.88) Table 2. Group means for academic classification. Academic Classification Freshman (First Year) Sophomore (Second Year) Junior (Third Year) Senior (Fourth Year) Total Possible Score Highest Score Lowest Score Mean

48 Kanika Verma Table 3. Initial distribution of respondents according to academic major. Academic # of Students % of Students Major Geography Social Science Natural Science 0 0 Humanities Education Business Engineering Teacher Certification Other Total was the highest of the three groups (Table 4). In this pilot study, geography majors show significantly better performance than nongeography majors. In my small sample drawn from one university, science majors tended to score better than education and business majors. This finding confirms the inferences drawn by Hardwick et al. (2000) and Lee and Bednarz (2012) about geography exerting a positive influence on the geospatial thinking of students. Geography students have better spatial and geospatial thinking than other students. This is because geographic thinking and reasoning revolves around such spatial concepts as scale transformation, spatial association, distance and direction changes, and location identification (Golledge 2002; Cutter, Golledge, and Graf 2002). My study empirically supports the theoretical assertions of such scholars as Blaut (1991), Downs (1994), Uttal (2000), Golledge (2002), and Liben (2006) that geography education is the most important vehicle in instilling spatial Table 4. Group means for academic major. Academic Total Highest Lowest Mean Major Possible Score Score Geography Education Other and geospatial thinking skills in students. A large-scale study with a bigger sample size will be necessary to determine the significance of this finding. Table 5 displays the number of college geography courses the respondents had taken. The ANOVA (sig. value 0.017) found a statistically significant difference among the groups of geography academic experience at the college level. The mean score of the students who had taken three-five college geography courses (8.76) and students who had taken more than five geography courses at the college level (8.73) differed from students who had taken fewer than three college geography courses (Table 6). The number of college geography courses taken influences students geospatial thinking. This implies that with higher number of geography courses, students develop expertise in geographical thinking and thus their spatial and geospatial thinking skills improve. Higher number of geography classes provides sophisticated spatial understanding, thereby supporting Liben s (2006) assertion that geography courses have the potential to serve as an intervention in improving geospatial thinking. Battersby, Golledge, and Marsh (2006) reasoned that, because geography relies on many aspects of spatial thinking, reasoning, and visualization, lessons in the subject should bring about improvements in geospatial thinking skills. The findings of this study strongly suggest that to ensure students Table 5. Distribution of respondents according to number of college geography courses. # of College # of Students % of Students Geography Courses Never had a geography course > Total

49 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study Table 6. Group means for college geography courses. # of College Geography Courses Total Possible Highest Score are capable of competing globally in various employment areas (e.g. logistics, transportation, image analysis, GIS, civil engineering, real estate, site analysis, military operations) that require solid geospatial thinking skills, geography must be integrated into fundamental aspects of K-16 education. Students from other majors, such as nursing, education, criminal justice, and business, may be confronted with spatial and geospatial thinking in their work, but they will not be equally competent. Even if a student does not want a career in geography, taking college geography courses is important to prepare students for many other careers that require spatial and geospatial thinking skills. CONCLUSIONS Lowest Score Mean None > An exploratory study with a small sample from one university cannot provide clear results as to which variables significantly influence geospatial thinking of students, although the study serves to guide further research. For example, the findings of this present study must be strengthened and confirmed by conducting research with a larger sample size, encompassing a larger geographical area, including more variables, and assessing the effect of different variables in combination along with considering them discretely. Geospatial thinking of American students may be compared with students in other countries for assessing cultural differences at an international scale. Understanding group differences in geospatial thinking will assist in detailing varying learning strategies. Understanding differences in spatial and geospatial thinking competencies among various groups of students are important considerations in geography education research. The findings of this exploratory study support earlier research showing increased spatial and geospatial thinking with increasing years of experience in school and in life in general, and also reinforce the potential of geography learning to improve geospatial thinking of students. Geography students scored higher on the GTS than non-geography majors. Moreover, students who studied more geography courses performed better on the GTS than students who studied few geography courses. This study underscored the importance of geography education in improving students spatial and geospatial thinking. It highlighted that non-geography major students should also take a few geography courses in college so that they will be competent both in school and in the workplace with higher geospatial thinking. REFERENCES Albert, W. S., and R. Golledge The Use of Spatial Cognitive Abilities in Geographical Information Systems: The Map Overlay Operation. Transactions in GIS 3 (1): Allen, M. J Sex Differences in Spatial Problem-solving Styles. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 39: Anthamatten, P Spatial Thinking Concepts in Early Grade-level Geography Standards. Journal of Geography, 109(5): Ardila, A. and Moreno, S Neuropsychological Evaluation in Aruaco Indians: An Exploratory Study. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 7: Association of American Geographers Spatial Thinking Ability Test. [ ewha.ac.kr/~ziriboy/stat.pdf]. Last accessed 25 February Baenninger, M. and Newcombe, N The Role of Experience in Spatial Test Performance: A Meta-analysis. Sex Roles, 20:

50 Kanika Verma Battersby, S., Golledge, R., and Marsh, M Incidental Learning of Geospatial Concepts across Grade Levels: Map Overlay. Journal of Geography, 105(4): Blaut, J. M Natural mapping. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 16 (1): Bodzin, A. M The Implementation of a Geospatial Information Technology (GIT)-supported Land Use Change Curriculum with Urban Middle School Learners to Promote Spatial Thinking. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(3): Butt, G Closing the Gender Gap in Geography. Teaching Geography, 26(3): Carole, M. S. and Golledge, R.G Sexrelated Differences in Spatial Ability: What Every Geography Educator Should Know. Journal of Geography, 93(5): Cherry, S. F Action Research: Factors Influencing Recognition of Geographical Locations on a World Map. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED Cochran, K. F. and Wheatley, G. H Ability and Sex-related Differences in Cognitive Strategies on Spatial Tasks. Journal of General Psychology, 116: Cutter, S. L., Golledge, R., and Graf, W. L The Big Questions in Geography. The Professional Geographer, 54(3): Downs, R The Need for Research in Geography Education: It Would be Nice to Have Some Data. Journal of Geography 93 (1): Franeck, M. A., Nelson, B. D., Aron, R. H., and Bisard, W. J The Persistence of Selected Geographic Misconceptions: A Study of Junior High through Undergraduate College Students. Journal of Geography, 93(6): Geospatial Thinking Survey [ Last accessed 25 August Gersmehl, P. J The Spatial Brain and the Common Core. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council for Geographic Education, San Marcos, TX. October 5. Gersmehl, P. J. and Gersmehl, C. A Spatial Thinking by Young Children: Neurologic Evidence for Early Development and Educability. Journal of Geography, 106(5): Gilmartin, P., and Patton, J. C Comparing the Sexes on Spatial Abilities: Map Use Skills. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 74(4): Golledge, R. G The Nature of Geographic Knowledge. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92(1): Golledge, R., Marsh, M., and Battersby, S A Conceptual Framework for Facilitating Geospatial Thinking. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98(2): Matching Geospatial Concepts with Geographic Educational Needs. Geographical Research, 46(1): Hardwick, S. W., Bean, L. L., Alexander, K. A., and Shelley, F. M Gender vs. Sex Differences: Factors Affecting Performance in Geographic Education. Journal of Geography, 99(6): Henrie, R. L., Aron, R. H., Nelson, B. D., and Poole, D. A Gender-related Knowledge Variations within Geography. Sex Roles, 36(9/10): Huynh, N. T. and Sharpe, B The Role of Geospatial Reasoning in Effective GIS Problem Solving: K-16 Education Levels. Geomatica, 63(2): An Assessment Instrument to Measure Geospatial Thinking Expertise. Journal of Geography, 112(1): Lawton, C. A Gender Differences in Way-finding Strategies: Relationship to Spatial Ability and Spatial Anxiety. Sex Roles, 30(11/12): Lee, J. W Effect of GIS Learning on Spatial Ability. PhD diss., Texas A&M University. Lee, J. and Bednarz, R Effect of GIS Learning on Spatial Thinking. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33(2): Components of spatial thinking: Evidence from a Spatial Think- 48

51 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study ing Ability Test. Journal of Geography, 111 (1): LeVasseur, M. L Students Knowledge of Geography and Geographic Careers. Journal of Geography, 98(6): Levine, S. C., Vasilyeva, M., Lourenco, S. F., Newcombe, N. S., and Huttenlocher, J Socioeconomic Status Modifies the Sex Difference in Spatial Skill. Psychological Science, 16(11): Liben, L. S Education for Spatial Thinking. In: Renninger, K. A. et al. (ed.) Handbook of Child Psychology, Volume Four, Child Psychology in Practice. New York: John Wiley, pp Marsh, M., Golledge, R., and Battersby, S. E Geospatial Concept Understanding and Recognition in G6 college Students: A Preliminary Argument for Minimal GIS. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 97(4): Montello, D. R., Lovelace, K. L., Golledge, R. G., and Self, C. M Sex-related Differences and Similarities in Geographic and Environmental Spatial Abilities. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 89(3): Mulenga, K., Ahonen, T., and Aro, M Performance of Zambian Children on the NEPSY: A Pilot Study. Developmental Neuropsychology, 20: National Research Council Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum. Washington, D. C.: National Academies Press. [ nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11019]. Last accessed 30 January Newcombe, N. S Picture This: Increasing Math and Science Learning by Improving Spatial Thinking. American Educator, 34(2): Newcombe, N. S. and Huttenlocher, J Development of Spatial Cognition. In: Renninger, K. A. et al. (ed.) Handbook of Child Psychology, Volume Four, Child Psychology in Practice. New York: John Wiley, pp Park, H. M Comparing Group Means: T-tests and One-way ANOVA Using STATA, SAS, R, and SPSS. [ edu/~statmath/stat/all/ttest] Last accessed 4 June Rosselli, M. and Ardila, A The Impact of Culture and Education on Non-verbal Neuropsychological Measurements: A Critical Review. Brain and Cognition, 52: Self, C. M. and Golledge, R. G Sexrelated Differences in Spatial Ability: What Every Geography Educator Should Know. Journal of Geography, 93(5): Sinton, D. S., S. Bednarz, P. Gersmehl, R. Kolvoord, and D. Uttal The People s Guide to Spatial Thinking. Washington, D. C.: National Council for Geographic Education. Smith, J Developing a Spatial Thinking Skills Taxonomy: Are There Important Lessons to Learn from Bloom? Research in Geographic Education, 9(2): Spence, I., Yu, J. J., Feng, J., and Marshman, J Women Match Men when Learning a Spatial Skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 35(4): Uttal, D. H Seeing the Big Picture: Map Use and the Development of Spatial Cognition. Developmental Science 3 (3): Uttal, D. H., N. G. Meadow, E. Tipton, L. L. Hand, A. R. Alden, C. Warren, and N. Newcombe The Malleability of Spatial Skills: A Meta-analysis of Training Studies. Psychological Bulletin 139 (2): Voyer, D., Voyer, S., and Bryden, P. M Magnitude of Sex Differences in Spatial Abilities: A Meta-analysis and Consideration of Critical Variables. Psychological Bulletin, 117(2):

52 Kanika Verma APPENDIX 1. The map below shows average annual precipitation of Texas. If you draw a graph showing change of Texas annual precipitation between A and B, The graph will best match which curve? o A o B o C o D o E Figure 1. Selected Questions from Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS): Question 1 focusing on Geospatial Pattern and Transition (Access all questions at geospatial2013gts/home/geospatial-thinking-survey) 50

53 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study 2. Please answer this question on the basis of the street map below. If you are located at point 1 and travel north one block, then turn east and travel three blocks, and then turn south and travel two blocks, you will be closest to which point? o 2 o 3 o 4 o 5 o 6 Figure 2. Selected Questions from Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS): Question 2 focusing on Map Navigation, Way-finding, Route Planning, and comprehending Orientation and Direction (Access all questions at geospatial-thinking-survey) 51

54 Kanika Verma 3. Imagine you are standing at location X and looking in the direction of A and B. Among five slope profiles (A E), which profile most closely represents what you would see? o A o B o C o D o E Figure 3. Selected Questions from Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS): Question 3 focusing on Geospatial Profile and Transition (Access all questions at geospatial2013gts/home/geospatial-thinking-survey) 52

55 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study 4. Find a map (A F) having a strong positive correlation (association or showing similar pattern) with the top map on the right. Choose the closest one. o A o B o C o D o E o F Figure 4. Selected Questions from Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS): Question 4 focusing on Geospatial Association and Correlation (Access all questions at site/geospatial2013gts/home/geospatial-thinking-survey) 53

56 Kanika Verma Real-world objects can be represented by points, lines (arcs), and areas. Based on the examples in the figure below, classify the following spatial data in the following question: 5. Location of weather stations in Washington County. o Lines o Area o Points and Lines o Points Figure 5. Selected Questions from Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS): Question 5 focusing on identifying and comprehending Geospatial Shapes integration of geographic features represented as points, lines (networks), areas/polygons (regions) (Access all questions at 54

57 Influence of Academic Variables on Geospatial Skills of Undergraduate Students: An Exploratory Study 6. Find the best location for a flood management facility based on the following conditions. First, a possible site for a flood management facility should be within 60 feet of an existing electric line. Second, a possible site for a flood management facility should be located less than 220 feet in elevation. And last, a possible site for a flood management facility should be located in state park or public land. Choose the best site (A E) for the flood management facility on the potential facility location map. o A o B o C o D o E Figure 6. Selected Questions from Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS): Question 6 focusing on Geospatial Overlay comprehending overlaying, aggregating, and dissolving map layers to choose the best location based on various spatial/geographical conditions, connections, distance; inferring a geospatial aura (influence) (Access all questions at com/site/geospatial2013gts/home/geospatial-thinking-survey) 55

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59 Book Review Global Information Society: Technology, Knowledge, and Mobility. Wilson, Mark I., Aharon Kellerman, and Kenneth E. Corey. Rowman & Littlefield, vii and 285 pp. US $29.95 paperback (ISBN ). Reviewed by Jessica Breen, Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. Global Information Society: Technology, Knowledge, and Mobility authors Mark I. Wilson, Aharon Kellerman and Kenneth E. Corey are very clear in their intentions for this book: to empower its reader to understand the complexities of the networked global information society and to use that understanding to promote awareness and to positively effect change. That this work is intended to facilitate the work of practitioners in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) development is a point the authors frequently return to throughout the text, but students of the field will also find this book highly useful. The authors bring a substantial amount of expertise to the work, all three having been ICT development scholars since the 1980s. Wilson is a Professor of Urban & Regional Planning/Geography as well as the Associate Director of the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University. Kellerman is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography at the University of Haifa, Israel and a former Visiting Fellow of the Oxford Internet Institute. Kenneth E. Corey is a Professor Emeritus of Urban & Regional Planning/Geography and Dean Emeritus of the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. The book makes use of Corey and Wilson s ALERT planning support model, now in its third iteration, which asks analysts, scholars, and policy makers to raise their Awareness of changing geographic (Layers) and technological (E-Business, E-Government, and E-Society) forces and to positively and The Geographical Bulletin 56:?-?? 2014 by Gamma Theta Upsilon 57