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Office: 1043 Hunter North
Phone: (212) 772-5320
Email: mpavlov@geo.hunter.cuny.edu
Class and gender processes and transformations of urban space; critical GIS; mixed
research methods; urban political ecology and environmental justice
My current research involves the connections between class, gender and urban
restructuring in Moscow and New York City, open space equity in New York City,
and critical GIS research.
Class, gender, and urban restructuring in Moscow in the 1990s
The transition to a market economy has deeply transformed the urban space of Moscow
(Russia) as well as the class and gender processes in which its residents participate.
Discourses of transition usually focus on the macro-level transformation of the state
to private economy and thus ignore its profound effects on fundamental daily economic
activities such as paid employment, domestic work, income earning in the second economy,
and childcare arrangements. Consequently, the transformation of related class and
gender processes is not being addressed. In my dissertation, I developed an alternative
framework of "multiple economies" to analyze the connections that exist between class,
gender, and urban space in the "formal" economy, informal wage work, and domestic labor.
A small portion of downtown Moscow, strongly affected by privatization of economy and
buildings, was used as the study area. To understand household experiences of this
change, I conducted in-depth interviews with households with young children regarding
their past and present income earning activities, domestic work, networks of support,
and uses of urban space. An urban transformation resulting from privatization was
analyzed using geographic information systems (GIS) technologies. I created detailed
digital maps of the study area using the databases of types of urban establishments
for 1989 and 1995 that I compiled for this purpose. Multiple economies of households
were then documented and analyzed in the context of the on-going urban transformation.
I found that despite the explosion of the private tertiary sector, services that support
household lives did not grow or became unaffordable, and, therefore, the urban
privatization did not provide a sound alternative to the informal and non-money based
economies of households.
Households, multiple economies, and urban change:
A case study of three neighborhoods in New York City. Drawing on the mixed methodology
that I developed in my research on Moscow, this project will investigate the different
coping strategies of single- and two-parent families with young children who live in one
African American and two immigrant (Russian and Hispanic) neighborhoods in New York City.
It will compare the ability of households in these communities to meet the competing
demands of earning income, fulfilling domestic responsibilities, and securing childcare
in a rapidly changing urban context. The diverse formal and informal economic and social
arrangements of each neighborhood will be conceptualized in terms of "multiple economies"
that include paid work, informal work for cash, unpaid domestic labor, and help in kind,
labor, and cash from networks of extended family, friends, and neighbors. The selected
communities have traditionally relied upon multiple economies to secure income and
social reproduction tasks; however, the differences among them remain unclear. Equally
unclear is the impact of locally specific urban services on economic and social arrangements
inside the households. These research questions will be investigated through a combination
of qualitative interviewing of households followed by structured interviews and GIS-based
analysis of local formal and informal urban resources. The findings will help to develop
place-based strategies for the economic and social empowerment of communities by addressing
their specific needs, an approach applicable not only in New York City but nation-wide.
GIS and critical geographic research
Critical GIS research has rapidly grown within geography during the last decade. It
engages with critical, feminist, and post-structuralist examinations of GIS technology,
research practices, and applications. Traditionally a male-dominated and often
characterized as a "positivist" research field, GIS today is a tool used by an increasing
number of researchers who give a new meaning to GIS and GIS research. In my own work, I
use GIS to create alternative visions of economic restructuring and map the unprivileged
yet fundamental daily economic practices in Moscow and New York City. My research on open
space equity in New York City uses GIS technology as a primary analytical tool as well.
In this way, my research contributes to the transformation of the technology itself and
to production of knowledge informed by critical and feminist perspectives.
Open space equity in New York (with NYCEJA)
Urban political ecology engages with issues of unequal exposure to environmental hazards
and access to environmental resources in cities of the first world. In a cooperative
research effort with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYCEJA) we
investigate differences in the amount of open space available to residents of different
neighborhoods of New York. The results of this research will be used by NYCEJA in its
advocacy campaigns.
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