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Place-making practices refer to the ways in which people create and define physical spaces as meaningful and significant through their everyday activities and social interactions.[1] In Ethnography, the study of these practices is often referred to as ‘ethnography as place-making,’ which involves the exploration of the cultural meanings and practices that shape the physical and social environments in which people live. This can include examining how people create and maintain social boundaries, how they express their identities and values through the built environment,[2] and how they negotiate power and control over the spaces they inhabit.

This place in Gröpelingen is made a place through the interaction of the people tending to the urban gardening project. 

1. Pink 2008, 178ff. 

2. See: urbanization 

3. Pink 2008, 190. 

In the interview with Emily Roehl, artist Steve Rowell describes his style in contrast to the more "didactic" approach of land use and documentary photography. Instead, he has come to combine his visual works with sound installations that are meant to unsettle. These sounds are often generated based on air pollution data that he has collected (Roehl and Rowell, 2022, p. 137). Rowell further describes how changes in the development of aerial video and photography technology have shaped his work. In the past, Rowell would rent expensive camera equipment and attach them to a helicopter to generate fly-over images (Roehl and Rowell, 2022, p. 140). Though commercial drones have become available, Rowell says that he soon got dissatisfied with the "slick" images they produce. When using drones, Rowell relies on an angle that faces down or is close-up, creating feelings of uncanniness. These unusual perspectives are combined with split imagery and mirroring to achieve a specific effect: “There’s a value in giving the viewer/listener a chance to distrust the work in the same way there’s value in giving them room to question the work. The landscapes I feature are all altered. What landscape isn’t now? That’s the point.” (Roehl and Rowell, 2022, p. 140).

Steve Rowell is an educator and research artist, currently working on “long-term projects that use image, sound, and archival practice to interrogate the relationship between humans, industry, and the environment” (Roehl and Rowell, 2022, p. 136). Rowell has worked extensively with the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in Los Angeles, including a comissioned project for which he photographed every petrochemical plant in Texas (ibid, p. 137). In subsequent projects, he has focused on tracing pipelines going from the Alberta Tar Sands to petrochemical communities in Long Beach, California and Port Arthur, Texas. Another recent project focuses on the industrial ecology of Houston's Buffalo Bayou. 

The Community Air Protection Program Online Resource Center is "a one-stop shop to obtain data, guidance, and tools to support improving air quality at the community scale. The Resource Center serves as a centralized repository of information and resources for use by community members, air districts, and the public. It will be continuously updated as new documents, materials, and data become available."

See this recording and supporting documents for CARB's AB 617 Consultation Group Meeting on February 26, 2020.

"The AB 617 Consultation Group includes individuals representing environmental justice organizations, air districts, industry, academia, public health organizations, and local government. Consultation Group meetings provide an opportunity to discuss of various aspects of Community Air Protection Program implementation. Consultation Group meetings complement additional outreach and consultation efforts through a variety of forums including public workshops, community meetings, and discussions with individual organizations and stakeholders."

Since its foundation in the mid 1960's, CARB has produced 0ver 2500 fact sheets, reports, datasets, or other forms of information on the state of air pollution in California, on its public health impacts, and on strategies for reducing this pollution and improving public health. See this link to their repository.

Some recent research, data, or other information relevant to our work in Santa Ana includes the AB 617 Statewide Strategy Summary - Q1-2021 Archive, Health Analysis Project,  2022 Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation - Proposed Drayage Truck Requirements, Understanding the Sources and Formation Regimes of Present-day PM2.5 to Mitigate Particulate Pollution in California, California’s 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan Fact Sheet, Research on Health Effects of Air Pollution, and Research on Environmental Justice.

Relevant ongoing research includes a Study of Pollution Exposure and Life Expectancy Across Time in Different Generations in California.

"CARB establishes state air quality regulations which protect public health by addressing all major sources of smog-forming air pollution, and other forms of air pollution. As a result, cars today are 99 percent cleaner than in the 1970s, resulting in less air pollution overall, shorter hospital stays and fewer days missed from school and work due to respiratory and cardiopulmonary diseases.

California regulations, based on extensive research and sound science, have driven innovation, leading to significant technological developments such as the catalytic converter (which helped slash ozone by 60 percent), and the production of highly marketable low- and zero-emission cars and trucks, and cleaner fuels.

The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Nunez) expanded CARB’s role to development and oversight of California’s main greenhouse gas reduction programs. These include cap-and-trade, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard and the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) programs. As a result of these efforts, the state is on track to roll back carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. With the passage of additional laws (such as SB 32 in 2014 and AB 398 in 2017), CARB is now mapping out how these programs and others can help California reach its next target: reducing greenhouse gas emissions an additional 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The ultimate goal for California is to reduce greenhouse gases 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050."

CARB is made up 16 Board members, 12 of whom are appointed by the Governor and approved by the State Senate.  Out of these 12 board members, the Chair, is the only full-time member. The governor may appoint any board member as the chair. As for the rest, six serve on local air districts, four work to shape air quality rules, and two are "public members." Two of the remaining four board members are appointed by the Senate and Assembly to represent environmental justice committees. And two other "non voting members" are also appointed by the Senate and Assembly to serve as "legislative oversight."

CARB sits at the middle tier of the California's Environmental Protection chain of command:

• The United States Environmental Protection Agency sets nationwide air quality and emissions standards and oversees state efforts and enforcement.
• The California Air Resources Board focuses on California’s unique air quality challenges by setting the state’s own stricter emissions standards for a range of statewide pollution sources including vehicles, fuels and consumer products.
• Thirty-five local air pollution control districts regulate emissions from businesses and stationary facilities, ranging from oil refineries to auto body shops and dry cleaners.

CARB was formed through a merger of the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the California Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board in 1967, just after Ronald Reagan signed the Mulford-Carrell Air Resources Act in August of 1967. The purpose of the organization was to better enable California to address its already considerable air pollution woes. It was discovered that exhaust from motor vehicles was the primary cause of "smog" in the 1950's. In 1966, California responded with the first tailpipe emission standards in the US. In 1970, California's clean air efforts were given extra support with the federal Clean Air Act, as the federal government gave California special permission for stricter standards to address the pollution concerns, as the state had the worst air quality in the nation.

CARB's work entailed forming partnerships between state, local, and federal government, academia, and industry to generate policy, technology, and consumer-behavior solutions to smog, and to cleaner air more generally. Air smog alerts went from 148 in 1970 to zero alerts in 2000. As smog levels have been greatly reduced, the newer focus is on Greenhouse Gas emissions and on PM2.5. This shift in focus began in the early to mid 2000's. the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 was signed by Schwarzenegger, to initiate this new focus for CARB.

The California Air Resources Board is one of six boards, departments, and offices under the umbrella of the California Environmental Protection Agency. CARB describes it's mission as being: "to promote and protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering effects on the economy. CARB is the lead agency for climate change programs and oversees all air pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain health-based air quality standards."