Julia Youngs
DPhil in Sustainable Urban Development
Thesis
Abolition and Sanctuary: Rescaling and Resisting Urban Borders in Barcelona and Santa Fe.
Research abstract
Despite claims that we are collectively living in a “borderless” world where migration flows freely in globalization, global spending on the maintenance and securitiation of territorial borders securitization shows no signs of slowing. Instead, it has become increasingly common over the last two decades for far-right populist leaders in the Global North and Global South to cite future climate-motivated migration as a threat to national security. The site of the city has become a locus for contestation as cities are tasked with managing issues of climate change and transnational migration amid increasing backlash against border policing and carceral violence. In response, a growing number of municipalities are declaring themselves solidarity or sanctuary cities for both illegalized migrants and climate refugees.
My research explores two such cases: Santa Fe, New Mexico and Barcelona, Spain, to examine how municipal policies differentiate between, and enact climate sanctuary policies and immigration sanctuary policies. At the same time, I explore the rise of abolitionist social movements within those cities which advocate for the abolition of territorial borders and border enforcement regimes as an intersectional issue of climate justice and migration justice.
Supervisor(s)
Biography
Julia began her DPhil in Michaelmas Term 2020. Julia previously served as an invited guest faculty for the University of New Mexico School of Architecture + Planning course "The Architecture of Justice." Julia currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is a Program Manager for Microsoft's Global Social Entrepreneurship Program. She is passionate about issues of equity and justice and how they intersect with the built urban environment. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
Publications
Creative Startups (2019), Northeast Ohio Creative Economy Asset Analysis.
Creative Startups (2018). Grant County Makerspace + Feasibility Study.
Research interests
Migration, climate change, transitonal justice, refugees and displacement, memorials and monuments, climate justice, abolition.
