The affirming affects of entrepreneurial redevelopment: Architecture, sport, and local food in Oklahoma City

Abstract

This paper draws on assemblage thinking—especially Deleuze and Guattari’s conception of territorialization—to analyze urban redevelopment processes in Oklahoma City, a mid-sized city in the central United States that has pursued a culturally led, “entrepreneurial” approach to redevelopment. Focusing on the linkages between architecture, sport, and local food in the city, I demonstrate some of the ways in which these realms were woven together in support of the territorial expansion of redevelopment. Following recent research on affect in human geography, I argue that the interweaving of these realms involved careful attention to the material capacities of buildings, athletic bodies, and foods to generate a sense of excitement, pride in place, self-worth, and above all movement in the city. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the implications of this analysis for the politics of redevelopment and some suggestions for future research.