A Qualitative Study of Practitioner Perspectives on Landscape Architecture and Equity

Team: Kristine Miller: Co-PI, Amanda Smoot: Co-PI, Rachel McNamara: Co-PI (and former UROP Student Researcher), Joe Favour: Co-PI, James St. George-Schreder: Research Assistant

Program: Landscape Architecture

This study sought to understand landscape architecture practitioner perspectives on challenges and opportunities for advancing equity through landscape architecture.

This paper describes an interpretive, exploratory qualitative study that sought to understand practitioner perspectives on challenges and opportunities for advancing equity through landscape architecture. We defined equity broadly as “fair and just access to opportunities and resources.” A purposeful nonrandom sample of public practice designers as well as designers in private and nonprofit practice who worked on public projects was followed by a snowball sample.significantWe conducted 25 interviews in total. As we planned for our member check in May 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was murdered by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, prompting racial justice and police reform protests in the Twin Cities and around the world.

We used the member check survey as an opportunity to review themes in the interviews and to ask how participants thought their interview responses might have shifted as a result of experiencing these events. Participants identified the lack of diversity in landscape architectural education and practice as a barrier. They observed that one’s professional power (e.g., status as a firm leader vs. junior staff member) was to one’s ability to advocate for equity through practice. Public engagement and community planning processes were seen as opportunities for landscape architects to address the unequal distribution of positive and negative impacts of environmental design.

Respondents suggested that there was a need to educate design decision-makers about what equity is and how equity-driven design projects might be implemented. Respondents noted the role that community organizations played in educating designers about equity issues. Last year we conducted a survey based on our findings, to hear from a broader range of practitioners in the State of Minnesota and shared this research with ASLA-MN members who are organizing equity-advocacy networks. In 2023 we will plan a set of focus groups with Twin Cities design firm leaders.