Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
“The Making and Unmaking of Home: Eminent Domain, Blight, and the Politics of Redevelopment in Gatlinburg, Tennessee”
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This paper examines the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of redevelopment in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I focus on one particular project, “East Parkway at Baskins Creek Bypass,” which concerns ten acres that contain a vital housing resource for low-income tourism industry workers: residential motels. Renting a motel room on a weekly basis enables residents to more deftly negotiate the structural constraints of an economic system shaped by the fluctuations of tourism. Yet the city plans to demolish these residential motels and replace them with new construction. One possible tool for land acquisition is eminent domain, a strategy that has undergone a significant change in the wake of a 2005 court decision, Kelo vs. New London, that allows cities to seize land for urban revitalization projects. Drawing from participant observation, interviews, and an analysis of city planning documents and state laws, I examine how concerns over “blight” are weighed against the value of self-determination and the rights of private property owners. City government is considering two redevelopment proposals from commercial developers, both of which would significantly expand commercial services for tourists and residents. However only one includes federally subsidized housing, while the other argues that downtown Gatlinburg is not suitable for housing development. How do debates over the town’s “Appalachian” aesthetics become translated into anxieties over the physical, mental, and moral wellbeing of residents? And how do property owners and residents impacted by this redevelopment project understand their position, as violators of an aesthetic ethos that threatens their livelihood?
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
I am a socio-cultural anthropologist and my field site is in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the gateway community to the most visited national park in the U.S., the Great Smoky Mountains. I also practice anthropology in a museum setting, specializing in museum education and exhibition design. My research interests are the U.S. South, Appalachia, tourism, the politics of representation, urban anthropology, critical race studies, political economy, and symbolic/interpretive approaches to anthropology. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Museum Studies at Central Washington University, where I teach courses in material culture, the history of anthropological thought, tourism and anthropology, economic anthropology, neoliberalism, and museum studies.
“The Making and Unmaking of Home: Eminent Domain, Blight, and the Politics of Redevelopment in Gatlinburg, Tennessee”
This paper examines the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of redevelopment in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I focus on one particular project, “East Parkway at Baskins Creek Bypass,” which concerns ten acres that contain a vital housing resource for low-income tourism industry workers: residential motels. Renting a motel room on a weekly basis enables residents to more deftly negotiate the structural constraints of an economic system shaped by the fluctuations of tourism. Yet the city plans to demolish these residential motels and replace them with new construction. One possible tool for land acquisition is eminent domain, a strategy that has undergone a significant change in the wake of a 2005 court decision, Kelo vs. New London, that allows cities to seize land for urban revitalization projects. Drawing from participant observation, interviews, and an analysis of city planning documents and state laws, I examine how concerns over “blight” are weighed against the value of self-determination and the rights of private property owners. City government is considering two redevelopment proposals from commercial developers, both of which would significantly expand commercial services for tourists and residents. However only one includes federally subsidized housing, while the other argues that downtown Gatlinburg is not suitable for housing development. How do debates over the town’s “Appalachian” aesthetics become translated into anxieties over the physical, mental, and moral wellbeing of residents? And how do property owners and residents impacted by this redevelopment project understand their position, as violators of an aesthetic ethos that threatens their livelihood?
