tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53825996216475342812024-03-20T08:11:51.819-04:00polisPolis is a collective blog about cities worldwide.petersigristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01653915776728182869noreply@blogger.comBlogger1213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-8217998617439903042014-08-04T07:44:00.000-04:002017-11-15T22:44:54.178-05:00A Space That Is Not the Battlefield<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><small><i>by Patrick Sykes</i></small><br />
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The dust is settling on Shura City, yet not a single brick has been laid. Since this proposal for a <a href="http://www.citylab.com/politics/2013/02/imagining-drone-proof-city/4606/">drone-proof city</a> emerged, its creator, Asher Kohn, has attracted the unexpected attention of architects, allies and antagonists alike. I spoke with Asher and Hiba Ali — the visual artist who created a <a href="http://hibaali.info/project/8">virtual model of the city</a> — as they developed plans for Shura's interior spaces.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd9YnWkBJliyiBITOYeMR63tL4dolheBDgUtxGCU-jykgpGcE9SmRQ5TNOSSmXzB9SDsqpWU5YsmeLYTRtzRbRHHm5oVVXQWs94_zbEArpHmB50Vm6jrdunh7AOtHI_bstja_tez6I9v4/s1600/244504-drone.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
<small>Source: <a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-us-drone-attack-kills-five-in-pakistan-s-tribal-region-1996353">DNA</a></small><br /><br />
The <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/104135119/An-Architectural-Defense-From-Drones">original proposal</a> is a semi-ironic architectural response to drone warfare. It details materials and design features meant to obscure the information that a drone operator uses to identify targets — colored glass to alter skin tones, paneled roofing to cast shadows, and windows coated in QR codes to "act as guard dogs, letting the machines outside know that they are not welcome." The plan draws upon traditional architectural elements found across the Middle East and the Maghreb; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher"><i>badgirs</i></a> (windcatchers) minimize human heat signatures, and <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashrabiya">mashrabiyas</a></i> (projecting windows fronted with intricate latticework) hide Shura's several hundred residents from view.<br />
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Fortified cities, of course, are nothing new. The pentagonal walls of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmanova">Palmanova</a> and the octagonals of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuf-Brisach">Neuf-Brisach</a> are among the most prominent of many historic designs for residential war machines. Yet drone warfare necessitates a different approach. When the asymmetry between parties is so great, the targeted community is unable to simply increase defense in proportion to escalating danger. Shura City is based on the notion that creative use of space may succeed where other forms of intervention fail. Its purpose is to spur debate.<br />
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One might argue that any fortified settlement normalizes fear of the world outside. <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/staff/profile/steve.graham">Stephen Graham</a> and <a href="http://www.annaminton.com/">Anna Minton</a>, for example, have written about gated communities and their propensity to instill a sense of vulnerability as much as security. Asher contends that fear of drone attacks is already present, and can only be reduced by preventing civilian casualties.<br />
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It is essential that security measures do not reduce the quality of life for city residents. "An architectural solution to perpetual defense must bring people out of a siege mentality," Hiba explains. "If the city's exterior is experienced as protective, it should not be a cage, and its interiors should be comfortable, adaptable. This also subconsciously influences how one navigates through private and communal space."<br />
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Asher emphasizes the city's open plan, which allows people to "create spaces that work for them." This would include rearranging interior walls and opening roofs. "Giving people the opportunity to make the most of the city, giving them a safe place to create their own city, that was the goal more than creating a utopian city," he says. An open plan may also bypass the authoritarian streak that infuses top-down urban design, setting this project apart from those of "planners who create places that no one actually lives in or enjoys living in." Empowering residents to organize — both politically and architecturally — is one of Shura City's most widely praised features. The word <i>shura</i> means "consultation" in Arabic, representing a form of direct democracy envisioned for the city.<br />
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Unlike other fortified cities, Shura isn't equipped for residents to fight back. I asked Asher how he reconciles that with the promise of empowerment. "It puts the aggressor (the human operating the drone) in a position where, knowing that there will be no retaliation, they have to still make the conscious decision to attack," he explains. The city's defensive system involves a similar principle, targeting the drone's ability to process information so that operators must pause and reconsider the potential for unintended consequences.<br />
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Given the complex imbalance of drone warfare, a fortified pacifism may be the only hope of effective resistance. From an operator's perspective, Asher concludes, "if someone is a drone target, they must present themselves as a target — 'being with your family' is putting innocence in the crosshairs of a drone, instead of just 'being with your family.' You're never allowed to not be on the battlefield. More than anything else, we're trying to make a space that is not the battlefield."<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.patricksykes.net/">Patrick Sykes</a> </i><i>is a writer, editor and radio producer based in Istanbul.</i><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-55060657226768761652014-07-21T09:30:00.000-04:002017-11-11T12:56:12.030-05:00Podcast: Walking Through London’s East End<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Cristiana Strava</i></small><br />
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London’s East End needs little introduction. Though nestled between the largest financial hubs in Europe (Central London to the west and Canary Wharf to the south), it has traditionally been one of the city’s least affluent areas.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyrOXWK-Jhnk8WAac6c2QuUjpoIPy1BKqu6SJgYnNFd76CdBZPLf7WOZGo1AzJGVr_jKEy4tzdYLM-BSgcjg0DImEPvRB8WrgDajz4uNpZbHXHkGI5ryC6Q01ld9ApDVnquBuPI7DDNnA/s1600/faichney-london-from-clichy-estate.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Central London viewed from Clichy Estate in the East End. Image source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/willfaichneyphotography/11804867946/">Will Faichney</a></small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF0LYFGq0KmP3V3s3M6xIBLVZPDccwJIYMNAacUkcNH-fJxQsX9H0oqHIbd8WGrJh9nI0lqEzDQW4RtX8t-6aJZ3dfF-WfRtm5oyaew2kHkbE7qraYLZnhB8CZLPIsoBlbabW-93fLRUw/s1600/faichney-canary-wharf-from-stepney.png" width="540" /><br />
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<small>Canary Wharf financial center from Stepney. Image source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/willfaichneyphotography/11804526054/">Will Faichney</a></small></div>
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The East End is home to places like the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1118242.stm">recently refurbished</a> <a href="http://www.east-thames.co.uk/ocean-estate">Ocean Estate in Stepney</a>, known for many years as one of Europe’s largest and most deprived housing developments. It is also home to vibrant <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_Lane">Brick Lane</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_Road">Whitechapel Road</a>, the <a href="http://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/">East London Mosque</a> and <a href="http://queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk/">Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park</a>. <br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAmYuROdPa3pIMz2i4Wc-JApPFCDvOnbCOFNNDd1cf-w0iCMaHb6afvXgrwDQtWhFlaMWyhdWBSn1OQfKONgcrWiOxuTVEFiF7GpwWUds7MJebeivsYwaEvzao3vq1aMJvcYWwY19U1A/s1600/webb-whitechapel-road-london.png" width="540" /><br />
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<small>Markets along Whitechapel Road. Image Source: <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/east-london/webb-photography#/07-whitechapel-road-shoppers-670.jpg">Alex Webb</a></small></div>
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithz1WRu5TTNfCjAmzlk9xS-BFbJpJRJ6qcXmDj8YZuVMFDCvFiVb40YNH3eve-nij6_ynOzjiQKpm9GYQ6c7uZzYuka_emWZix30SKg71UQma-AxZYTz3QFRzjyqJX6NXViq1ViNwSOY/s1600/ocean-estate.jpg" width="540" /><br />
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<small>Mixed-tenure apartment buildings, part of the Ocean Estate redevelopment project. Image source: <a href="http://newlondondevelopment.com/nld/project/vivo_so_stepney">New London Development</a></small></div>
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There have been many waves of migration to the East End since the 17th century — including French Huguenots, Ashkenazi Jews, Irish Catholics and Bangladeshi Muslims. The northwestern zone is now gentrifying into a habitat of hipsters, yuppies and "yummy-mummies."<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBpTj8gxlt7Zf4fIdZDk68WtbsYByw9PSlgh7Rd8-OHZFWfJlUch_dPOwlFG5dik59AUV0xgjzpTWv5UeT0EPnpNkfy9cPE65AlxUBr1jj3dJAVIo9mOrOg9HvxQgzQTa7LCOttDVxHrc/s1600/godfroy-spitalfields-market-east-london.jpeg" width="540" /><br />
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<small>A cafe at Spitalfields Market. Image source: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/24/it-has-slowly-eroded-the-place-away-your-stories-of-gentrification-from-london-to-la#img-2">Elly Godfroy</a></small></div>
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Imran Jamal, an ethnographer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, has worked in the East End’s Bangladeshi community for many years. He gave an unorthodox tour of the area in November 2012, which I attended and <a href="http://cargocollective.com/thaliag/About-thalia-gigerenzer">Thalia Gigerenzer</a> recorded for CoLab Radio. The audio track is embedded below.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F80679517" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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Sand Childhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04020793709597426882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-26977612129190166452014-07-07T05:40:00.000-04:002017-11-11T13:30:37.237-05:00Community Engagement in Mexico City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Wangũi Kamonji</i></small><br />
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An innovative urban development program is activating positive change in low-income neighborhoods across Mexico City. Despite winning the <a href="http://www.worldhabitatawards.org/winners-and-finalists/project-details.cfm?lang=00&theProjectID=D7EA86C0-15C5-F4C0-99D29FF27EE2D86F">World Habitat Award</a> in 2011, the city government's Programa Comunitario de Mejoramiento Barrial (Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement, or PCMB) is surprisingly little-known outside Mexico.<br />
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Socioeconomic inequality is deeply engrained in Mexico City's spatial structure, and neighborhood wealth generally corresponds with the quality of public services. The PCMB addresses this problem by funding revitalization projects in economically depressed areas. While living in one such area, El Pedregal de Santo Domingo, I noticed the program's impact on freshly painted buildings that were formerly concrete gray.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik-k4-gYkAADgfSRepCCElwS2jAxZ1vi0R2rL26IDDHgBZdAYBIAsXK4rIEf0NSljMip_HC0BSzSyY2Ue-ToFAK82DPU5pVwu5tVGJhf8_jk5EN9ODoveS8Lm6gWpp6oSxf4Mlj6bC5gk/s1600/IMG_0546.JPG" width="540" /><br />
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<small>Recently painted homes along a street in Mexico City's El Pedregal de Santo Domingo neighborhood. Image source: Wangũi Kamonji</small></div>
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Inspired to learn more about the PCMB, I met with economist Manuel Luis Labra Illanes, a member of the Malacate Civic Association who has been actively involved in developing the program. Our conversation is transcribed below.<br />
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<b>Can you tell us about how the PCMB came about?</b><br />
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The PCMB came out of the Programa de Mejoramiento de Vivienda (Home Improvement Program, or PMV), which the Mexico City government started in 2000. The PMV helped improve people's houses through loans repayable over eight years, but it didn't address public spaces and other shared resources. So we began planning the PCMB, which launched officially in 2007.<br />
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<b>So the main difference between the two programs is that the PMV is for homes and the PCMB is for broader neighborhood projects?</b><br />
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Yes, and the PMV is a credit system while the PCMB is a public benefit program.<br />
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<b>What are the core elements of the PCMB? How does it actually work?</b><br />
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The guiding principle is that neighborhood residents decide what to do, how to do it and who will do the work. They administer the government funding. That's what makes the program unique.<br />
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Another essential component is that it's a competition — community groups compete for available funds. In 2015, for example, there were 677 entries and roughly 200 projects funded.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzht297kle0KOyzYKuNKL3FulNBn_Gzkan2H003oIipLsvKwxD5Du4L5YHINvrb1ms-IKmGLlEHFldG6f7oE7IUPTXhpw2TWFaHLERS0PnKyxIwHzxUjB1HmvZx3b9G_Q7H_aqv96grUU/s1600/pcmb.png" width="540" /><br />
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<small>Inauguration of new planters and recreation equipment installed through a PCMB project. Image source: <a href="http://www.df.gob.mx/transforman-vecinos-de-miguel-midalgo-sus-espacios-publicos-con-recursos-del-pcmb-de-cdmx/">Mexico City Government</a></small></div>
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<b>Does the amount of funding vary each year?</b><br />
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The city government's Social Development Secretariat (SDS), which is responsible for the program, allocates funds that vary slightly from year to year and average around 100 million pesos. We carried out a study and found that, for a program of this kind in a city like ours, the base budget should be about 300 million pesos.<br />
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<b>How many times can a neighborhood group secure funding?</b><br />
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Up to five. Applicants can receive a maximum of 500,000 pesos in the first year and a million pesos after that.<br />
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<b>How do you evaluate applications, distribute funds and prevent irregularities?</b><br />
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There's a program committee made up of five civil servants and five civil society members who decide which applications to fund. The most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods take precedence.<br />
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The program committee releases funds to a neighborhood representative, and that person has to be on a project committee. Local assemblies elect the members of these committees. If there are no project committees in a given neighborhood, residents have to establish them in order to receive funding. Each project has an administrative committee that monitors project spending and other implementation requirements to prevent irregularities.<br />
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<b>What specific issues do funded projects address?</b><br />
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There are three main focal points: public space, infrastructure and neighborhood image. Projects can, for example, establish open squares, community gardens and needed infrastructure. They can also attend to neglected parts of the urban fabric through maintenance and beautification.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid8YKdm-RQ74lA44VWOFndZEg1uXxnfP1ttVRDj7N4JEYBy_k4CYgEle1-ZeFt8-TntMIJi_YgSmRvBpXYjyd98PF2gyeP4bkoXLY0HhjuAe3IsbVWg8ubK-j5xbabamaeKAG3VC3CBSI/s1600/Centro.png" width="540" /><br />
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<small>El Centro de Artes y Oficios "Escuelita Emiliano Zapata" — a community center in El Pedregal de Santo Domingo — received crucial repairs to its building. A later project resulted in 20 solar panels that allow the center to generate its own electricity. Image source: Yolanda Gómez</small></div>
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<b>Can you share your thoughts on the program's results so far?</b><br />
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About 1,000 projects have been funded, covering each of the neighborhoods most in need and improving government services after decades of neglect. We're especially proud of reaching communities like <a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2015/07/12/capital/027n1cap">Tepito</a>, which are known for severe blight and violence.<br />
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The Legislative Assembly of Mexico City recently approved a law through which the program budget is set each year and protected against rising inflation. This law also protects against threats to the PCMB's existence under new administrations. You see, there are politicians who don't like the program because grassroots administration makes it hard to control from above.<br />
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<b>What's in store for the PCMB in coming years?</b><br />
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A few things. One is a problem with the current model: we have to figure out what happens when neighborhoods reach their funding limit. This is a discussion we're currently having. <br />
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We're also discussing ways to fund larger projects — libraries, cultural centers, schools — with broader impact on neighborhood identity. This has real potential for reversing cycles of marginality. Opportunities are often closed to people from high-poverty areas, but social stigma declines with visible signs of progress. So neighborhood improvement signifies many things. We'd like to fund 30 medium-to-large projects a year through the PCMB or create a parallel program for this purpose.<br />
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Another thing I'd like to see is a process for building relationships between neighborhoods with similar issues in different cities. There are nation-to-nation links and city-to-city links but I don't know if there are neighborhood-to-neighborhood links. <br />
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<b>Do you have any advice for people who are interested in starting a similar program?</b><br />
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It's important to design the program with local communities instead of trying to impose a prefabricated model. The process has to be participatory, emerging through strong relationships with neighborhood residents. <br />
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The original vision may be different from the way it develops in practice, and adaptability is key. When we began, we didn't imagine that we'd be attending to basic sanitation infrastructure, because that's the work of the central government. We were very theoretical in our conception of public space, viewing it as a kind of panacea for all the city's problems. When I visited <a href="https://youtu.be/HmQ5AzCAobg">Colonia La Cruz</a>, part of the Gustavo A. Madero borough, I was surprised to see how residents adapted the program to their infrastructural needs.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzGeliUu5V2joWdffICKmRfhPL72O-Ri9SyZETJva2ibCj7FpwDXXo6VEpTq_RMe6yYHswsQfJ7xDpR_XokfQ_0rlE50m0RKP9WrBTv5oBIxL_LmNoj0tgC0Er-sbAB9UQJTPg24AX6E/s1600/Escaleras.png" width="540" /><br />
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<small>The hilly Colonia La Cruz area in northern Mexico City lacked proper drainage and safe pathways. The PCMB empowered residents to install a new drainage system, build staircases and give homes a new coat of paint. Image source: Wangũi Kamonji</small></div>
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It's really important to begin where you know people are interested — where there are community leaders and responsible participants. If you start out in a place where residents are apathetic, or where there are extreme social conflicts, the chances of failing increase exponentially. Start with a promising location, ensure the effectiveness of the program, and then you can move to more challenging situations. If not, funders will lose confidence in the project. Social programs come under a lot of fire, so it's critical to build a reputation for successful work.<br />
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<i>Wangũi Kamonji is a recent graduate of Wellesley College who researches urban socio-environmental issues in countries worldwide, including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Vietnam. She blogs about her experience at <a href="http://sustainabilityfromtheroots.wordpress.com/">Sustainability from the Roots</a>.</i><br />
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petersigristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01653915776728182869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-47004324055123526042014-06-02T09:47:00.000-04:002017-11-11T13:24:57.066-05:00To Replenish a Sense of Wonder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><small><i>by Min Li Chan</i></small><br />
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In a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Writers+and+Company/ID/2313221830/">radio interview</a> with Eleanor Wachtel of Writers & Company, <a href="https://www.uws.edu.au/writing_and_society/people/professional_staff/professor_gail_jones">Gail Jones</a> reflects upon urban experience and its centrality to her novel <i>Five Bells</i>. The conversation is insightful and eminently quotable, with many passages that threw new light on my old urbanist ways. Jones urges us to be aware not only of a city's physicality, but also of its intangible atmospheres:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">I'm very interested in psychogeography, and the idea that we must walk around our own place with an active intelligence and a degree of radical attention to what is there. ... We ought not be the flaneur who is idly and languidly consuming the sights of the city, we must look at its shapes, at its motions, attend to its sounds, corridors between spaces, the unexpected things looming up or falling away as we turn a corner.</blockquote><br /><a name='more'></a>
<small><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7JYybWI6udahJV3dnP8LLWK2jvRlgg5aQWdrPoWJ-DhOov_l4Vt-WWGH37_h989nTkiq0EJZxLXswgoSd-_9sFw_A1HiWTfOXOsBrjxYb4dzy7qNOQxs7GMnSWTpaxkPsQIJKnfLTuU/s1600/alley.png" width="540" /><br />
A painted alley in Sydney, Australia. Source: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39682238@N05/3838578275">Zijun Roger Qian</a></small><br />
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Psychogeography is a balm for the jaded local, a way of revitalizing everyday urban experience. In <i>Five Bells</i>, Jones returns to Sydney's <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=circular+quay+sydney&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=T_rqUdCoIoqiigLnj4DgBw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1398&bih=688">Circular Quay</a> in an attempt to "defamiliarize a place that seems exhausted," one that is "eroded by tourism, evacuated of its wonder."<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgta2Ge2YizN2gaaBiVY3j7Yk6UHR72ywMPdJ69MdDWkODeCsp_bjTXbgsz8kHCB6dhMzvXEJEupRqIowB9QtdUMWbnDAGOc4FSozt8R-3HXtFEHVDOtZbZmBKqZ0qStUILnOW5J8ISLXc/s1600/DSC_0240.png" /><br />
<small>"Lighting of the Sails" at the Sydney Opera House near Circular Quay. Source: <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/102105033075272859234/albums/5340105617878988113/5340105950733211298?banner=pwa&pid=5340105950733211298&oid=102105033075272859234">Dahlia Bock</a></small><br />
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As I grow accustomed to living in San Francisco, I fear getting desensitized to the city's quintessential sights and experiences. The heady discombobulation of travel and the novelty of distant places can evoke a sense of wonder that is easily overlooked in the cities we call home. Yet it's also possible to experience familiar places in new ways. In San Francisco there are events — from <a href="http://www.sfheritage.org/upcoming_events/lecture-series/">talks</a> and <a href="http://www.sfcityguides.org/current_schedule.html">walks</a> to <a href="http://shapingsf.org/tours.html">bicycle tours</a> and <a href="http://www.sftreasurehunts.com/hunts/chinese_new_year/">treasure hunts</a> — that delve into <a href="http://www.sfmuralarts.com/" target="_blank">public art</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/474628242612896/">food politics</a>, <a href="http://www.sfhistory.org/events">vernacular history</a> and other fascinating aspects of the city. This groundswell of hyperlocal resources from fellow urban dwellers helps to defamiliarize and rediscover everyday settings.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjusemMjW8r3hhkY7qHNuBxszAM9DadT2jcEN5jT5AWwW-WbZh3_lUYKIrsxUEp_K-aLdbtlx4nm4anhCmBg6PHTByIIMkG-DAsNMDX_iuFsmWo-AR8rCVIV8uVfPIknrxiWWBt2GMAZq0/s640/July-2010-Social-Justice-Mural-tour-bike-ride-visiting-the-Banksy-stencil-near-Mission-Street-.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>The Social Justice Mural Tour in San Francisco. Source: <a href="http://www.thinkwalks.org/2010/06/01/social-justice-mural-tour-description/">Thinkwalks</a></small><br />
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Jones also discusses Sydney's <a href="http://demolitionbook.tumblr.com/aboutdemolitionbook">Demolition Books</a>, an <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/history/urban-history">archival collection</a> of "ghostly buildings that are no longer there, which you can look at and place with absolute precision where they were, where they sort of spoke from." She engages memorably with the roles of urban history in understanding and experiencing places:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">There is both the <i>vertical</i> and the <i>horizontal</i> history, as it were, that we might attach ourselves to when we start to meditate on a city. ... There's the history that seems to be unfolding and moving forward, and there's the plunging down into the interiority of the place, into its lost histories.</blockquote><br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6-ois4XLcQFdoI61m3bK2Fp7QFLlUU06-nw4lNYUKN0LfiSAd8bqpEulTcQTCJaMcfNTGY6AyIKPErGbRvR6BVo7R6a6NFNoVV1uR_1MvJK8vnpFkPgKWS87bclkKDeeDZByPzYplr4o/s640/sydney.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>A picture by <a href="http://www.sydneymedia.com.au/historic-city-images-shed-light-on-lost-sydney/">Adam Forrest Grant</a> of his son David at Circular Quay in the early 1900s. Source: <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/learn/search-our-collections/historical-photographs-and-maps">City of Sydney Archive</a></small></div><br />
Jones inspired me to contemplate how visual technologies might heighten the experience of historical artifacts like Sydney's Demolition Books. Imagine putting on a pair of <a href="http://recode.net/2015/01/21/microsofts-hololens-makes-the-leap-to-holographic-computing/" target="_blank">augmented reality glasses</a> to compare present cityscapes with detailed recreations in the same field of view. This brought to mind a recent brush with urban psychogeography in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality" target="_blank">virtual reality</a>. Outfitted with a <a href="http://www.htcvr.com/" target="_blank">Vive</a> headset and handheld controllers, I suddenly found myself transported to my former neighborhood in Manhattan. Taking a few steps forward, I gazed up at skyscrapers rendered by Google Earth. Pixelated walls betrayed their virtuality, but the experience was nonetheless breathtaking. I zoomed out and looked down at the tops of buildings — feeling a bit like King Kong, perhaps — until they faded into a swath of planetary blue and green. In our near future, could virtual reality accentuate the wonders to be found in actual city streets?<br />
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</div>MLChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10896813240496693636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-48467652785807341882014-05-05T05:26:00.000-04:002017-11-11T14:02:13.512-05:00A Tramway Arrives in Casablanca<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Cristiana Strava</i></small><br />
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As Morocco’s largest city and business center, Casablanca suffers from infernal traffic congestion, related air pollution and <a href="http://www.casablancatransports.ma/Le_Projet/page-14-2">insufficient public transit</a>. The municipal government has yet to realize <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_metro">longstanding plans for a subway system</a>, but has recently completed a $1.6 billion tramway that connects much of the city’s east and west sections via the center. Such lines are becoming a <a href="http://regionomist.blogspot.de/2013/01/the-revival-of-trams-france-is.html">global trend</a>, promoted as environmentally sustainable and socially equitable urban renewal.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvf1IxmxRefnW4j7FQbjf5luPO_e-vZ3f0nkrcBtLor3tf_E1JXuBbM53OuP_3CPzpkq9lf6zYSIshipvLjPbVCjbvjCN5TwzmxTQsy2091FyUddTmdP5ZBU8td059WAHWvEpsxmhKDQU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-02-11+at+10.34.45.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>New tram on Boulevard Mohammed V in Casablanca. Source: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasznowak/8405380950/">Tomek and Sylvia</a></small><br />
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The 31-kilometer system was <a href="http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2012/12/inauguration-of-casablancas-first-tram-line-in-morocco-/">inaugurated</a> on December 12, 2012, featuring shiny new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstom_Citadis">Citadis trams</a> built by French transport giant Alstom. It is similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabat-Sal%C3%A9_tramway">light-rail model recently implemented in Morocco’s capital, Rabat</a>. Access to the tramway in Rabat is available at clearly marked stations with an open platform. Casablanca’s tramway network has 48 stations with separate exits and entrances accessible through turnstiles.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4udzx0LqVDQceDHMv13oPojVdJ8d9I8bXtZqcvcmG-zk4BTo_Kvl2f0yPe_13IHVyhVUbzZPcki0lxXbInZJg2PSZMt-981Uk4L-v_WjL_nuvbnYZ-d9enuZ4MWfYBnBwOUA_x6YHFQ4/s1600/Trams_0301_edited-1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Turnstile entrance to the Casablanca tramway platform. Source: <a href="http://riadzany.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-casablanca-tramway-nears-completion.html">The View From Fez</a></small><br />
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Telquel, a popular Moroccan weekly magazine, dedicated a feature to the <a href="http://www.telquel-online.com/Actualite/Maroc/Surete-Les-cops-du-tramway/554%20">security force working on the Casablanca tramway</a>. While riders in Rabat can travel across the city without seeing a transport employee, their presence on the Casablanca tramway is remarkably high. Each station has five to seven employees, whose responsibilities range from maintaining order and safety to helping with ticket purchase and validation. Two attendants signal the arrival of tram cars with whistles, a measure aimed at helping people adjust to their presence in the streets.<br />
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Casablanca’s tramway has become highly popular in the two months since its inauguration. There have been an estimated 1.2 million passengers to date, although officials say they’ve yet to reach the targeted volume of 250,000 per day. The introduction of 37 new trams, along with monthly passes, should bring this target quickly within reach.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguE8KCb7hw5_wrp7B8AJNe1dmXzTDVzOGxTFWWkydq9vzIXVmImStBeuglZ4UVAlUYINWfCSyZANnNk43VbLJxC-nOHKhN7ArR108bgXQmclKXDEmI9P4BIE6Gq0IqL6vvZMgEncNf9Ew/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-01-27+at+19.07.11.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Passing through Casablanca’s center. Source: <a href="http://www.casablancatransports.ma/Galerie_&_multimedias/page-27-2">Casa Transports</a></small><br />
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For the moment, the city’s plans to substantially reduce traffic problems remain unfulfilled. Those who commute to work by car tend to live outside the areas served by the tramway, which currently links Casablanca’s working-class neighborhoods of Sidi Moumen and Hay Mohammadi with the main university campus and the luxury beachfront neighborhood of Ain Diab. However, transit authorities intend to add another four lines to the network, as well as an express-rail line (RER), to connect the sprawling suburbs in the northeast with the airport, commercial sectors and technology hubs in the southwest.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XWLhfzj2fAs/UR9sj21O8DI/AAAAAAAARNs/6rEemT_X49k/s1600/casablanca-map.png" /><br />
<small>Map of existing and planned railway lines. Source: <a href="http://www.urbanrail.net/af/casa/casablanca.htm">Robert Schwandl of Urban Rail</a></small><br />
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In addition to easing traffic congestion, city officials hope the tramway will strengthen “<a href="http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-20681-site-visit-casablancas-new-metro/#.URj3cqXULEM">social cohesion</a>.” It has reportedly generated 4,000 jobs and become “<a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201302100055.html">an essential means of transport for students, public-sector workers, housewives, the elderly and visitors</a>.”<br />
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Could bridging spatial gaps between the periphery and the center help bridge opportunity gaps between those living in the shanties of Sidi Moumen and those sipping cocktails in the beachfront bars of Ain Diab? If so, it would be a sign of the potential in transportation planning for reducing urban poverty.<br />
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Sand Childhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04020793709597426882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-40243410201656976762014-04-07T05:55:00.000-04:002017-11-11T13:31:16.849-05:00Isolation to Eviction for Nile Island Dwellers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Abdelbaseer Mohamed</i></small><br />
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Greater Cairo, which includes the city of Giza, is spatially fragmented and heavily oriented toward private transit. Low-income residents are disproportionately isolated from essential infrastructure, services and job opportunities. Segregation is especially acute on <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2012/10/04/geziri-al-waraq-cairos-forgotten-island/">Gezirat Al Warraq</a> and <a href="http://wikimapia.org/477599/Dahab-Island">Gezirat Al Dahab</a>, large islands several kilometers from central Cairo. Efforts to solve this problem have encountered resistance from proponents of sustainable development.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqMg-SGQTk_9nZ4Qre6apY38EYGtLCeW6uluI5Le51F_6v4ycZsWP0dS1hnArSJYePtapjP87dsW8ZODgq7rociTnzGuqrZuym7gvhH-bzRnk569u90_ifsvYNt6BDjzS9NDoHYe22Bo/s1600/3955410577_a07880773b_b.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Dahab Island. Image source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fouadgm/3955410577/sizes/l">Fouad GM</a></small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpE0banUXEBrtxQRnFwCiur_rFt-2emPjRIKVvu1VkxsWI4Ryrd1mXceu4WokRF5w_caXnyz5LueqhnsUWIcbsaRfW5o5pWugHwKLIfY-qmVqidBSo4fc7pScJKd96CKiuQe8MSBXIjL8/s1600/al-warraq-island-ester-meerman.png" width="540px" /><br />
<small>Warraq Island. Image source: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/estermeerman/11251760914/in/photolist-i9hdvQ-i9h4tk-i9fLn9-i9fAsP-i9dYQG-i9dnsh-i9d6z5-i9d22e-i9cmiy-i9c1F7-i9bKw9-i9fXVa-mcdtPT-mcfheU-mcffWU-mcedza-mcebRF-mceb24-cScxFo-qwdamK-gSha3R-9nx1N6-88sdFK-9nA2JJ-9nx5Mv-9nwYtc-4T1AgJ">Ester Meerman</a></small><br />
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The islands’ fertile land and rare bird species coexist with informal settlements, where thousands of people have lived since the construction of Aswan Low Dam in 1902. Links to the mainland are starkly insufficient. To access Cairo and Giza on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qTdwXh8et8">old ferries</a>, many residents leave home before dawn and return late at night. Lack of transit infrastructure has effectively barred them from economic opportunities as well as quality healthcare, education and law enforcement.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq42IbiBRg2VLrIRCnSpm1wNBAcw65rlm-6BBJOekqit3oHDpwJKPb9T0_0Y2mlweJ0uB7rBBGVgQdMsq-7QiDOIVKm9yOILrPaW2vEMVUyqK34StPBqH0wwkiGjhyzmnodxbro3EVl8A/s1600/cairo-accessibility-map-abdelbaseer-mohamed.jpg" width="540px" /><br />
<small>Spatial accessibility map showing the extent to which large river islands Warraq (top) and Dahab (bottom) are isolated from the rest of Cairo and Giza. Red indicates higher transit connectivity; blue indicates lower connectivity. Image source: Abdelbaseer Mohamed</small><br />
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In a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HzOsfssThY&ebc=ANyPxKp0HZOwuVEEhhv70ulC2WFVEsAZvx_22_Wx1VKnhHueH8Q3wIBn13_oPycot9LASxoBAVyR61IPu-_cTeIAj6UJM0rPUQ">Al Kahera Walnas news feature</a>, island dwellers expressed frustration with the lack of infrastructure and services. Sanitation and crime were especially urgent concerns. “I have to use the river’s contaminated water to wash my dishes,” said a Warraq resident. “Liver disease and kidney failure are normal.” Another woman reported, “drug trafficking and thugs are overwhelming.”<br />
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So why not build bridges linking Dahab and Warraq to the mainland? Based on a 1996 decree, these islands are “<a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/lack-services-and-sanitation-toxic-mix-gezirat-al-warraq">natural protectorates</a>” that must be cleared of informal settlements. Municipal officials argue that bridges threaten biodiversity by encouraging more unplanned development. According to one local official, since the islands are natural protectorates, higher authorization is needed for the city to provide more than basic administrative services. Island residents, many of whom live in communities established by their ancestors, remain despite government neglect and exclusion from decision-making processes.<br />
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Ironically, the <a href="https://cairofrombelow.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/cairo-2050-vision-v-2009-gopp-12-mb.pdf">Cairo 2050</a> and <a href="http://issuu.com/cube-egypt/docs/giza2030_vision-cube-04-12-2010">Giza 2030</a> master plans envision high-end residential and recreational development for the islands. Planners hope to resolve chronic traffic problems by adding 15 metro lines and 1,000 streets by 2050, but these projects wouldn’t meet the needs of people now living on Warraq and Dahab. The plans focus on attracting tourists and wealthy citizens, along with eliminating informal settlements.<br /><br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij9WBopTfbbEk_xmcWEjhhaDofA-FEbZfHBt_IswYRQ3WGZ77oko2K7LC0RIEl3KT8j_3CuZIjw3uOj6cAkR2wqMKus907U4ne3g9gB7_AkFWd8zBy2XKoCEx2o4RiTiyba7xp2nf7FNE/s1600/giza-2030-plan-island-development-map-rendering.png" width="540" /><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJH94bcO9aGwaUYNAct3ZTMPhSAbPd50SkUfk8ZNCx0TZYsDKWxjZvCTV6FCHmbI6I55upWN6BzlCkZGKJRXxaKoKwZlRsJ1Ty0y2x38nVxvAGsFCq1tk6oQ4yRg-2Fv0dTWqvOYfOxmw/s1600/giza-2030-plan-island-development-rendering.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Plans for new development on the Nile islands. Image source: <a href="http://issuu.com/cube-egypt/docs/giza2030_vision-cube-04-12-2010">Giza 2030 Master Plan (pp. 145)</a></small><br />
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In a 2009 survey for Cairo 2050, <a href="http://www.tadamun.info/2014/04/01/cairos-strategic-development-what-about-participatory-planning/?lang=en#.VQ06NI5PhjM">over 60 percent of island residents voiced discontent with the development plan</a>. One man reported to Al Kahera Walnas that “the governor of Giza doesn’t care about us.” Instead of helping to solve the problems of isolated communities, policymakers are making these problems more difficult.<br />
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Master plans without resident input are problematic, to say the least. Island dwellers should be able to reach the mainland safely and efficiently. Their present segregation contradicts visions of social justice that inspired the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.<br />
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Responsible management of island ecosystems is needed to avert the harmful consequences of new development. To this end, it’s important to reject exclusivity. A more equitable approach would assure that islanders have the right to contribute meaningfully to new plans while sharing land ownership with the municipal government. Deep concern for the places where they live makes them natural partners in sustainable development.<br />
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<i>Abdelbaseer Mohamed is a visiting scholar at American University in Washington, D.C. He recently completed a doctorate in urban design at Ain Shams University and Cologne University of Applied Sciences</i>.<br />
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<br /></div>petersigristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01653915776728182869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-57785612431201803532014-03-22T06:03:00.000-04:002019-09-08T12:02:07.766-04:00Myanmar’s Instant Capital<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><small><i>by Jordi Sánchez-Cuenca</i></small><br />
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In 2007, Siddharth Varadarajan described the city of Naypyidaw (<a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.ru/2007/03/capital-times.html">Abode of Kings</a>) as "<a href="http://svaradarajan.blogspot.ru/2007/02/dictatorship-by-cartography-geometry.html">the ultimate insurance against regime change</a>, a masterpiece of urban planning designed to defeat any putative 'colour revolution' — not by tanks and water cannons, but by geometry and cartography." Less than two years prior, this brand-new outpost became the capital of Myanmar through a process shrouded in mystery.<br />
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Based on astrological counsel, as the story goes, a convoy of 1,100 military vehicles carrying 11 battalions and 11 ministries left Yangon for Naypyidaw on November 11, 2005, at 11 a.m. General Than Shwe, leader of the junta in power at the time, justified this move as a solution to <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2006/11/2008525184150766713.html">expanding government facilities</a> without exacerbating congestion in Yangon. Information Minister Kyaw Hsan added that the government sought to place the capital in a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4416960.stm">strategically central location</a>. Military planners rapidly developed Naypyidaw with little if any input from civil society.<br />
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Following the release of pro-democracy activist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi">Aung San Suu Kyi</a> from twenty years of house arrest, in 2010, a series of political reforms took effect in Myanmar. A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/world/asia/hopes-and-reality-clash-in-a-new-myanmar.html">civilian government</a> succeeded the military regime in 2011, and Suu Kyi's party — the <a href="http://editorials.voa.gov/content/burmese-parliamentary-elections-146265885/1493313.html">National League for Democracy</a> — won 43 of 45 seats in the Lower House of Parliament a year later. It is unclear whether the former leaders, who have retained substantial influence, built the new capital in preparation for these changes.<br />
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Unlike the famous modernist plans for <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/2013/02/brasilia.html">Brasilia</a> and <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/2013/02/planning-karma-in-chandigarh.html">Chandigarh</a>, Naypyidaw lacks a clearly articulated form. Its structures are idiosyncratically arranged in low-density clusters linked by giant <a href="https://www.google.ru/search?q=naypyidaw+roads&sa=X&es_sm=91&biw=1213&bih=705&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0CDAQsARqFQoTCJ-Rlv3a1cgCFcKHLAod4iQMXw#tbm=isch&q=naypyidaw+streets">roadways</a>. Architectural monotony is evident from above in the <a href="http://www.newtowninstitute.org/newtowndata/newtown.php?newtownId=1666">shapes and colors of residential development</a>.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh46F8nnDalBZRgOmPwNmkYyvjE_9aUHIKsedHheJ38asN194X2ZdQmIH8-MANrIp9w0K5OTyD9uzuOnJbSlRTS0EkcSQkA6A5Y2Om6KHmqNmc2Rl6QIBfge8O6UsjYZZfoM_h695hC0sp9/s1600/Naypyitaw+planned+sprawl.jpg" width="540"><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqMlka8XEDC_x5xAAymlBJ2ZFbtH-xpgBb0cC66JuuPB0vv_EQn-5P9XApBurMPxJhly2KsZ4oi3sg2uE2_GIhlAEYd4Rbt8lbOEIXJgWUuqyHFS4P1rfF1GHeAd0lFyT2Ev3Xx1vz0f27/s1600/Naypyitaw+residential.jpg" width="540"><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvGGgrd9l8vRIdrqDSg-ZJUYdwb4KTsfgftThU_Ta8zTCyJL_qd2Zjmk6MmDTqienq2tkdwty0QhkuP97j_qDjuovL8JS85Cq2sqQIHJjwlG1k6of_MWQ2j_2fv5Fk-xzBlIUPP3d63BBP/s1600/Naypyitaw+ministries+2.jpg" width="540"><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVy1r6ZMrlmPraWp2rjVLY_l-fmCoiayHFo6SGbGUqrcWrUmz5AI1VTjcX6Io00y4MNAs3xxMnzfafKDCK7Zz-lW8CzXYQqlBYtiWcUR7uzeaDW-p40cqrDs8HkDXo6WZoC3JLW6cq9ZM7/s1600/Naypyitaw+residential+4.jpg" width="540"><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXjFrVK9RK4odKUEW4E5a1LwJNkCVQL4C8obfYMqsbBPQPlsZVRaI-DmmAjbHFK0kWTPEM7f0FQBMPuorbZfcy2bQF0vKiGLHfFYE2oSeR_6fZpcXdor2KxY57hnK_7YczccAGGelj_YTl/s1600/Naypyitaw+residential+2.jpg" width="540"><br />
<small>Housing in Naypyidaw.</small><br />
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The capital's public buildings include a central <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naypyidaw#/media/File:Hluttaw_Complex,_Naypyidaw.jpg">parliamentary complex</a>, an <a href="http://www.newtowninstitute.org/newtowndata/NTimages/Naypyidaw-130515-1_airport.jpg">international airport</a> and a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbBJ5GBoE9I">massive pagoda</a>. Their designs tend to feature grandiose symmetry around a central axis. Most are located far from residential areas, in keeping with the general scarcity of mixed-use development in Naypyidaw.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMvpIuQe8OTReAgYl079INiboOpdtmv7tctKuBxm_CYE-7DpdUsAqjOezwZRNvowq_-glnnxrSJX1o3sFPZAM3pgUOxRMGAKmsjBvFIp7MBnsHg6KKMhuWlESBqFRn_54rlonhGzUxwQiO/s1600/Naypyitaw+monument.jpg" width="540"><br />
<small>Uppatasanti Pagoda (Peace Pagoda), at left, is Naypyidaw's largest monument.</small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMxOeEep8RChBjNoGj6_7MkMFmObFE7yr3y8NMgQpC1Yr8LiSohPCO10UBeBXEqS5NtenSRbxifM-Z2cEfdgaBF1WId_KdYUZWtJsLSuKocefnQzl1LKdVHUP1GFfq_ZYywfyVrfg9u7C/s1600/Naypyitaw+residential+3.jpg" width="540"><br />
<small>Rare mixed-use development around the <a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/86510131">Gems Museum</a>.</small><br />
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The town of Pyinmana, about two miles from Naypyidaw, exemplifies the organic density of most settlements in Myanmar. By contrast, the new capital is a luxurious sprawling garrison. Its costly architecture and amenities underscore longstanding deprivation that still plagues the country in spite of government reforms.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuV46vLJniZP_bdKkqpxvybGDMcwOSoTlwz_u3modsV-qnCssi4pK9KKE90Sptj2gLJQKWdfHahFNMo7bp-qO0KKig1NBL88CRpxJCVlHbzJdVfQsw8QCILr5RM5alcIISorSC4dmfKaSl/s1600/Pyinmana.jpg" width="540"><br />
<small>The town of Pyinmana, located a few miles from Naypyidaw.</small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE7KUiIj_ke2zfkq2mXPL_F-td-QA05KyoqyUwl3OP3AMcUeqpT0E2OuHyrODx_JwD9tvaFSQBoNw5oLZVGsGKrelxFF5OjmAKGPnzZXBQqUc5E3QjKJFZMvlOjoEUtITLLzmUEfTsEqct/s1600/Naypyidaw+train+station.jpg" width="540"><br />
<div style="line-height: 120%;"><small>Naypyidaw Railway Station (above left) and other new development (below center) in comparison with nearby settlements.</small></div><br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhtLlFd_NAVffmDz-Q40ribKwozj_pD-OnZEGOnPHPxdBnEBjR0b14PibZvLzgsLuuuNe1YqxRTEDdp5PKs_U7nkF-VnYG6x65CrUaCzVUC841UWtjsQDjgNanwAIB2px2oh2_mvRfRqB/s1600/Naypyitaw+new+villages.jpg" width="540"><br />
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Naypyidaw does not reflect an explicit social model or policy aimed at improving the lives of Myanmar residents as a whole. Still, it is growing haphazardly with the arrival of migrants in search of employment. Such opportunities are extremely limited in other areas due to inadequate public and private investment. As a result, informal settlements will likely expand around Naypyidaw as persistently as they have around Brasilia and Chandigarh.<br />
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Myanmar's capital is oriented, above all, toward the interests of a small group of military leaders. Government reforms may eventually improve conditions for the broader populace, but a vital question remains: will current leaders allow people outside their ranks to play a meaningful role in urban planning?<br />
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<small>Credits: Satellite images captured from Google Earth.</small><br />
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</div>Jordi Sanchez-Cuencahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10034266796877307472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-16065548794822015852014-03-03T06:41:00.001-05:002022-05-02T11:27:02.137-04:00Replacing Industry with Green Housing in Stockholm<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Peter Sigrist and Rebecka Gordan</i></small><br />
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“Sustainable architecture and urban development can never be solely technical issues or be reduced to a matter of points on a certification scale, but need to begin with fundamental social issues: How are we to live together and how can architecture and the city create best possible conditions?”<br />
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– <a href="https://kkh.se/index.php/component/comprofiler/userprofile/henrietta">Henrietta Palmer</a> in “<a href="http://libris.kb.se/bib/11889650">Art and Institution: A Contradiction?</a>” 2010<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc8uHkyhDu_b7F1rGsrJVxMzraUa1LV2-5xsqqOLEQbVhySk9GFcAuABW5QZ7q_7BX4sZV3GfC0audE3gXofVVr_DVW-JxvdEKhC89G3FU3Y7-ucTjTnpyAGUGDLKuw77mdJgi-h3N8Lw/s640/dagvattenkanal.jpeg" width="540" /><br />
<small>A stormwater channel in the Hammarby Sjöstad housing development. Source: <a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/frameset.asp?target=inenglish/inenglish_press.asp">Malena Karlsson</a></small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W-p8YeCHiUc/UQPILNkn20I/AAAAAAAAP4w/os7ugRkqgf0/s1600/map.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Site of Hammarby Sjöstad, three kilometers from central Stockholm. Source: <a href="https://maps.google.com/?ll=59.322437,18.071484&spn=0.057542,0.169086&t=f&z=13&ecpose=59.26983814,18.07150008,5873.68,-0.009,44.946,0">Google Earth</a></small><br />
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<a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/frameset.asp?target=inenglish/inenglish_project.asp">Hammarby Sjöstad</a> is a large residential development in Stockholm, with an innovative <a href="http://www.futurecommunities.net/case-studies/hammarby-sjostad-stockholm-sweden-1995-2015">urban design and sustainability program</a>. Since 1995, the municipal government has <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:D4d-2vbJZ9wJ:www.infra.kth.se/bba/HamSjostad.pdf+&hl=sv&gl=se&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESin0toZ4pc8-vdNO2XytLUyqIgWg7uhPcggBNrQs40scE03x-abBeKMmhxr0sy_MOBFHOxFDwMDqEqX0lX5Zcr0s4MHrfiFYkBvBVe6auqMM6XSXzc2FCyig3XvCupwWskspjcE&sig=AHIEtbTonPaGA_-g_1HlsSownI2e2J2jpQ">transformed</a> a 200-hectare industrial site on Hammarby Lake into a neighborhood with 9,000 residential units, 400,000 square meters of commercial space, new canals, piers, bridges, a tramway and ferry service. By 2011 it was home to 17,000 people, and the <a href="http://www.itdp.org/documents/092211_ITDP_NED_Hammarby.pdf">total population</a> (including 5,000 local workers) is projected to be almost 30,000 upon completion in 2017.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbeYfiPuBMpkbJMKpV-9vbdBJk6nrwpVFVIfTBms0hrwG8N3LQ4U3XiU4r0VmJSfbM4Qlm8UV-AfEOnIBHtGdUeAbaW3DQjbht7cHwxHfL5d0Q02Fw_MpDe1k3WOChXQ4Rie1hVOGsbs/s1600/before.png" style="folat: left; margin-right: 10px;" width="265" /><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SY3cnavRdfhDCU4acsfvs64JQv2lFFzLyQo2ZOCR9S_SBseIP3FAmDaMQI9b9k2o_9l1cdvWwCskth8Dr1AoNlGFKoo4VYcC52H7pBIgKb8p9TR-KP9pYBuacCTNDBPVxocA5kjkTyY/s1600/after.png" width="265" /><br />
<small>Land use around Hammarby Lake before and after redevelopment. Source: <a href="http://www.itdp.org/documents/092211_ITDP_NED_Hammarby.pdf">ITDP</a></small><br />
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The industrial area was once anchored by the Luma <a href="http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1985/1031/mokhiber.html">co-operative</a> lamp factory in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_(architecture)">functionalist architecture</a> landmark constructed between 1929 and 1947. The Lugnet peninsula (now called Sickla Udde) accommodated small-scale industrial operations and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammarby_Sj%C3%B6stad">trailer park</a>. Many enterprises around the lake were <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:D4d-2vbJZ9wJ:www.infra.kth.se/bba/HamSjostad.pdf+&hl=sv&gl=se&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESin0toZ4pc8-vdNO2XytLUyqIgWg7uhPcggBNrQs40scE03x-abBeKMmhxr0sy_MOBFHOxFDwMDqEqX0lX5Zcr0s4MHrfiFYkBvBVe6auqMM6XSXzc2FCyig3XvCupwWskspjcE&sig=AHIEtbTonPaGA_-g_1HlsSownI2e2J2jpQ">prospering</a> — albeit informally or illegally — when redevelopment proposals started to gain traction in the 1990s. Their removal was possible because the city owned most of the land. While government officials raised the threat of expropriation, they ended up compensating many business owners at rates far above market value to avoid lengthy appeals.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_07C-usnDq5i8xa1wvtCrJGlsss7_TfxxLTEy6h7TSpAEwT06e1P9Y-DM_O7d92_1tcTdcVsYbWyFTsSY6DKe9nD3IwhnUaeuun1mqEi9nmrwLCbgbPA5obB-NnFOsI6-xaoPSMBIY8/s640/observatoriet.jpeg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Hammarby Lake today. Source: <a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/frameset.asp?target=inenglish/inenglish_press.asp">Malena Karlsson</a></small><br />
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The decision to uproot industry around the lake was driven by rising demand for urban housing and a desire to address environmental contamination, noise, traffic and disorder associated with the site. It was a prime location for the government’s “<a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:D4d-2vbJZ9wJ:www.infra.kth.se/bba/HamSjostad.pdf+&hl=sv&gl=se&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESin0toZ4pc8-vdNO2XytLUyqIgWg7uhPcggBNrQs40scE03x-abBeKMmhxr0sy_MOBFHOxFDwMDqEqX0lX5Zcr0s4MHrfiFYkBvBVe6auqMM6XSXzc2FCyig3XvCupwWskspjcE&sig=AHIEtbTonPaGA_-g_1HlsSownI2e2J2jpQ">build inwards</a>” strategy of reducing sprawl by reusing developed territory within the city. This was a response to state-sponsored suburban housing construction during the 1960s and 1970s, known as the “million homes program.” The resulting apartment blocks lacked the healthy street life that tends to arise when accessible housing, employment, recreation and commerce coexist in walkable communities. In light of this experience, municipal leaders saw residential density as key to economic vitality, environmental conservation and quality of life in the new district.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQ94nt2SxBIJQNPErvkNs2WK4tmGqHRMqfYOXWzGgt83xvGyY2-zsvTQT5qUbeMHSLpafZjH3STgL-9kkLPmJWpn8Bjxg_TefpDQKfm5ElcLWwIdcDudk9VGBcqf2OLwQO03zT8HX8lw/s320/sunlight-study.png" style="clear: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="260" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Sunlight analysis. Source: <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:D4d-2vbJZ9wJ:www.infra.kth.se/bba/HamSjostad.pdf+&hl=sv&gl=se&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESin0toZ4pc8-vdNO2XytLUyqIgWg7uhPcggBNrQs40scE03x-abBeKMmhxr0sy_MOBFHOxFDwMDqEqX0lX5Zcr0s4MHrfiFYkBvBVe6auqMM6XSXzc2FCyig3XvCupwWskspjcE&sig=AHIEtbTonPaGA_-g_1HlsSownI2e2J2jpQ">Dick Urban Vestbro</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Stockholm City Planning Bureau drafted a master plan for multi-unit housing reminiscent of 19th-century urban blocks with interior courtyards and businesses at street level. They adapted this layout into U-shaped buildings to maximize waterfront views, and set height restrictions to bring more sunlight into each courtyard.<br />
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Hammarby Sjöstad’s urban livability features are complemented by a comprehensive environmental strategy. The municipal government decontaminated the area and set a goal for <a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/frameset.asp?target=inenglish/inenglish_goals.asp">limiting carbon emissions</a> to 50 percent of the average for new residential development in the city. The Stockholm Waste Management Administration worked with the Stockholm Water Company and Fortum — a Finnish energy company — to develop the “<a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/inenglish/images/Kretslopp%20eng%2009%202009%20300ppi.jpg">Hammarby Model</a>” for managing water, energy and waste based on an “eco-cycle” of consumption and reuse.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bqHZLxyej_s/UQOHlhd_DeI/AAAAAAAAP1I/ofaSXWgqE7w/s640/kretslopp.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>The Hammarby Model’s “eco-cycle.” Source: <a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/frameset.asp?target=inenglish/inenglish_press.asp">Hammarby Sjöstad</a></small><br />
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Among the development’s many <a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/frameset.asp?target=inenglish/inenglish_tech.asp">energy-saving technologies</a> is an incinerator that turns combustible waste into electricity. The plan also focuses on land use, building materials and transportation as means of conserving resources and decreasing the use of cars. This includes reusing the Luma factory for <a href="http://www.tea.se/l/projects/library/oscar-properties/luma/">housing</a> and amenities (including a new <a href="http://brooklynbrewery.com/blog/news/new-brewery-stockholm/">Brooklyn Brewery</a>). A central <a href="http://www.hammarbysjostad.se/frameset.asp?target=inenglish/inenglish_glashusett.asp">community center</a> showcases and supports the city’s ecological strategy.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwvk6jvUfUysFP_L6DiXP8fcoE_9tLvTVroKCEY_6mB0RPYFHFj1Tmw-DLnM61NZHhC8ZQJy8oaMkOB5YMYJallu_SS9_IpOi5NglWDwmW4vkkt-Mn7Db2hdT5sOQ3Dlt6xZUcyN8n5A/s1600/Luma_8394-029.jpeg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Waterfront housing and amenities in the repurposed Luma factory. Source: <a href="http://www.tea.se/l/projects/library/oscar-properties/luma/">TEA</a></small><br />
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Despite Hammarby Sjöstad’s impressive planning, it has not escaped <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:D4d-2vbJZ9wJ:www.infra.kth.se/bba/HamSjostad.pdf+&hl=sv&gl=se&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESin0toZ4pc8-vdNO2XytLUyqIgWg7uhPcggBNrQs40scE03x-abBeKMmhxr0sy_MOBFHOxFDwMDqEqX0lX5Zcr0s4MHrfiFYkBvBVe6auqMM6XSXzc2FCyig3XvCupwWskspjcE&sig=AHIEtbTonPaGA_-g_1HlsSownI2e2J2jpQ">criticism</a>. Providing advanced facilities for waste management, energy-efficiency and public transportation has apparently not prompted residents to adopt ecologically sensitive lifestyles to the extent expected. Post-occupancy studies show that many are unwilling to make even minor sacrifices to help realize the city’s environmental goals, lobbying instead for more parking (although their <a href="http://www.itdp.org/documents/092211_ITDP_NED_Hammarby.pdf">use of cars</a> is still lower than average for Stockholm). A large shopping mall outside Hammarby Sjöstad has been an impediment to limiting the use of cars and supporting neighborhood businesses. In addition, the municipal government hasn’t enforced standards for window size and building materials that would further reduce energy consumption. While the development includes a small percentage of subsidized apartments for students and people with disabilities, and efforts are underway to increase low-cost options, existing costs have led to a much higher average income than that of the city as a whole.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r5HaYmi8iJI/UQTreCBLM_I/AAAAAAAAP6k/AOG0I1W298w/s1600/stats.png" /><br />
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<small>Hammarby Sjöstad in comparison with a nearby suburb, the city center and the entire city in 2010. Note the relatively high average income and low use of cars. Source: <a href="http://www.itdp.org/documents/092211_ITDP_NED_Hammarby.pdf">ITDP</a></small>
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Sustainability as a concept is blessed and cursed with a seemingly endless range of interpretations. It unites us in a general sense, but often becomes problematic in transition to specific action. Hammarby Sjöstad is a case in point: sustainable development served as a rallying call for public officials planning for the future, but also helped stigmatize the area’s previous inhabitants to make way for high-income housing. The redevelopment appears to be a net gain for the city, but critical assessment helps identify what was lost and what should be improved. Returning to the Henrietta Palmer quote, initiatives like Hammarby Sjöstad can benefit from continuous reflection upon how we live together and how to create the best possible conditions.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-61089949095439377662014-02-14T07:04:00.000-05:002017-11-11T13:29:23.751-05:00Happy Fifty Years, Gentrification!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">... Does Gentrification Gentrify Without Gentrifiers?</span></div>
<small><i> by Javier Arbona</i></small><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">Gentrification doesn't need to be something that one group inflicts on another; often it's the result of aspirations everybody shares. All over the city, a small army of the earnest toils away, patiently trying to sluice some of the elitist taint off neighborhoods as they grow richer. When you're trying to make a poor neighborhood into a nicer place to live, the prospect of turning it into a racially and economically mixed area with thriving stores is not a threat but a fantasy. As the cost of basic city life keeps rising, it's more important than ever to reclaim a form of urban improvement from its malignant offshoots. A nice neighborhood should be not a luxury but an urban right. – <a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/gentrification-2014-2/">Justin Davidson, 2014</a></blockquote><a name='more'></a>
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An aura of fascination suffuses all of these accounts. The adulatory tone was engendered by a group of writers who continue to build their careers on regular updates of East Village art developments. These "East Village critics" — who are, in fact, not critics but apologists — celebrate the scene with an inflated and aggressive rhetoric of "liberation," "renewal," "ecstasy." – <a href="http://www.abcnorio.org/about/history/fine_art.html">Rosalyn Deutsche and Cara Gendel Ryan, 1987</a></blockquote>
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According to <a href="http://prrac.org/pdf/Gentrification_literature_review_-_October_2013.pdf">recent literature</a>, the word "gentrification" appeared fifty years ago in 1964. It describes a historical shift after World War II — the unmaking and remaking of cities along new class lines, although it has previous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann">historical</a> <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/housing-question/ch02.htm">precedents</a>, of course. <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=cQqOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA4&dq=glass,+ruth+gentrification&hl=en&sa=X&ei=utjzUuTCCuSOyAGq64DAAg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=glass%2C%20ruth%20gentrification&f=false">Scholars attribute</a> its coinage to British sociologist Ruth Glass. Its everyday use could predate her writing and Glass herself may have used it in an unpublished draft before the 1960s. <br />
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Working on <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/635836344">research about London</a>, Glass wrote: "One by one, many of the working class quarters have been invaded by the middle class — upper and lower." She then adds, "Once this process of 'gentrification' starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the working class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed."<br />
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At the initial moment of introducing this concept into the research on cities, Glass shows its inherent critical charge. Note the kind of language she uses (emphasis added): "working class quarters have been <i>invaded</i>," "working class occupiers are <i>displaced</i>," "whole social character of the district is <i>changed</i>." Invaded. Displaced. Changed.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgnqocWJBdC96R0CNQ28lmFD3iK9Omd1eG7fmJiTo_CCOr7QAXcG4OXv9O0hY56PE5TdGthRPAnvISuAhEHaXo-aeYiQcf7EoqWSiFLLJw85F9W6nsFMYVxiEe7trHIDJqeLuXIuG5It8DCgCdqG6ddrjdKlEROwzhdLpt85i3F=" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;">
<small>Entire blocks of the San Mateo inner-city neighborhood in Santurce, Puerto Rico, were expropriated and demolished around 2005 for a new high-end development. The resident in the house above continues to wage a court battle against displacement. Photographed by Javier Arbona, January 2014.</small></div>
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Some years after the concept appeared, the first attempts to divorce it of its critical tone came along. In the early 1970s, architecture critic Wolf Von Eckardt introduced the term in the pages of the Washington Post for the first time, <a href="http://goodspeedupdate.com/2006/2017">according to an analysis by Rob Godspeed</a>. Von Eckardt described gentrification as "the best thing that has happened to American cities since ditches were turned into sewers." Addressing these very sorts of revisions of the word, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8330.00249/abstract;jsessionid=165A431726C5032A99A12A53281210CF.f03t03?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false">Neil Smith once remarked</a>, “Precisely because the language of gentrification tells the truth about the class shift involved in the 'regeneration' of the city, it has become a dirty word to developers, politicians and financiers." But because the word seems resistant to being swept up with other taboos, then, gentrification periodically has advocates like Von Eckardt who attempt to retake it and absolve the very same unjust processes originally labeled with it.<br />
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Can gentrification refer to something opposite to its coinage (while cognizant of <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0074.xml">the numerous academic variations</a> on the theme)? In other words, can it be divorced from its initial charges of spatial colonization and class segregation? To hear some recent voices in the media, it can. <br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJap1d2m_TWuLKQpGZDblSUvI5_hf3thZfLbFrFbdkLlE_3bCV3HWUxjJn5VyXcaTxzZGF53sAiogRr-SzSivDDOHUdPi3DAYSWYKRwN2kxI0UcZyLcH0HENLMhhzYtp_ZQuheqAt9FTty/s1600/laurasullivan.jpg" width="540" /><br />
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A National Public Radio (NPR) journalist tweets that "<a href="https://twitter.com/LauraSullivaNPR/status/425687861179203584">yuppies can stop feeling guilty</a>" because —based on a cursory glance — gentrification also benefits longtime residents. <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/01/22/264528139/long-a-dirty-word-gentrification-may-be-losing-its-stigma">NPR ran her </a><a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/01/22/264528139/long-a-dirty-word-gentrification-may-be-losing-its-stigma">story</a><a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/01/22/264528139/long-a-dirty-word-gentrification-may-be-losing-its-stigma"> with a URL extension</a> that gives away the slant: "long-a-dirty-word-gentrification-may-be-losing-its-stigma." Another reporter — looking at the same neighborhood as NPR — asks rhetorically, "<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/the-politics-of-the-urban-comeback-gentrification-and-culture-in-dc/260741/">is bemoaning the gentrification of Washington, DC, a genre past its prime?</a>" (File this one under: Writing by the Victims of Moaning About Gentrification.)<br />
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And in the latest salvo from the world of architecture criticism ("Is Gentrification All Bad?") Justin Davidson ventures: "<a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/gentrification-2014-2/">gentrification can be either a toxin or a balm.</a>" It's vital to recall, for context's sake, that Davidson recently invested time and energy <a href="http://nymag.com/news/politics/bloomberg/city-transformation-2013-9/">defending</a> Michael Bloomberg's mayorship as a virtuous period for public spaces — with no mention of the mayor's dismal record on homelessness, free speech and civil rights. Davidson comments in a radio interview, <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/gentrification-and-urban-planning/">"</a><a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/gentrification-and-urban-planning/">We need to define gentrification as separate from the process of displacement</a>." Nevertheless, Bloomberg's tenure itself might indicate that the two (the word and the displacement) can't be as separate as Davidson would like. All in all, these reports, and more appearing almost every day, start to resemble the writing of <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Gentrification-no-longer-a-dirty-word-4302093.php">The San Francisco Chronicle's sports-turned-law-and-order-disciplinarian columnist, C.W. Nevius</a>, which is cause for great concern — for writing and for cities both.<br />
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One <a href="http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/trends/2013/1113/01regeco.cfm">government study cited by NPR</a> said, "while [gentrification] does not have a precise definition, it is commonly associated with an increase in income, rising home prices or rents and sometimes with changes in the occupational mix and educational level of neighborhood residents." But gentrification does have a precise definition that goes back to its roots. (Invaded, Displaced, Changed). Whether or not the word applies to a specific case could be quibbled over, but its linguistic precision shouldn't be obfuscated. More importantly, "In any area where residents feel under attack they will be using a word like gentrification, it is not the job of a researcher or anyone else for that matter, to impose a formal definition of what gentrification means on a neighborhood," as <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/sam-barton/gentrification-how-do-we-define-it-and-who-cares-anyway">Sam Barton cogently argues</a>. He adds, "If we are not to dispose of the word in its entirety, we should adopt its colloquial usage." I agree.<br />
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Federal Reserve economist Daniel Hartley (author of <a href="http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/trends/2013/1113/01regeco.cfm">the study cited in the paragraph above</a>) concludes that, when gentrification occurs, all residents benefit from — unsurprisingly — a higher credit score associated with their zipcode. This is a mixed blessing, to say the least, when issues like steady employment, health care, food or stable housing probably take a higher priority, but I digress. Another article mentioned in the NPR piece — missing exact dates to situate the economic effects — "found that low-income residents were no more likely to move out of their homes when a neighborhood gentrifies than when it doesn't."<br />
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Is gentrification happening without gentrifiers and without the gentrified? Apparently, yes. No one loses. Everyone wins. Gentrification. Just. Happens.<br />
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But gentrification, as a word, is incapable of projecting the benign "balm" that some in the media and academia make it out to be. Does anyone identify as gentry? Hardly anybody (though <a href="http://www.18media.com/about.html">some</a> people do, certainly). But do any of the gentrification-friendly journalists self-identify as gentry? The gentry are generally understood to be an over-advantaged lot. In the history of literature and art, the gentry hoard property and privilege as much as they can, yet they obsess over their manners and style in order to disguise their rapacity. These are the basic reasons why <i>gentrification</i> carries with it the power of biting satire. Glass (a Marxist) was well aware of this. It's precisely because no one likes to reveal themselves as such shameless climbers that periodic efforts emerge to revise the definition of the word and deaden its force. In reality, using the word without its satirical edge is a surefire recipe for sounding like a member of the gentry oneself.<br />
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Indeed, urban dwellers (or their scribes) are free to identify as the entitled members of a rigid caste system if they like, but that doesn't mean they can salvage the term gentrification for the better. One can't have it both ways. Either there is gentrification or there isn't. Period. And recalling Barton, I'd venture to say that the locals experiencing it have a better sense of what's going on. To give it any positive spin implies denial of the stratifying wave the process begets. In short, gentrification doesn't <i>just</i> happen.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj2qUeZgfFFrXMV6RWfED15dUv_OOjUqF5Hq674U32bGyd6Kla6F8oFIOiqpMhPhc3RZAwKZixLFj6t7QzrmHWpUmGCciiT3iqd9uSwI6GErIvrCwpDzdhmfu2NQ_8Mhy_TORN2gg06YD0cf24vX65YXc5GkCLoWrYINitMPDU0=" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;">
<small>Remnant wall of the San Mateo neighborhood in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Photographed by Javier Arbona, January 2014.</small></div>
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One must be equally alert to replacement words spoken to camouflage gentrification — and sometimes to advance its course in the very same breath. Neighborhoods don't "evolve," passively "change," or get "discovered." "Transition" and "transformation" can also be added to the pile of evasive vocabularies. David Madden <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/10/gentrification-not-urban-renaissance">points out</a> how these kinds of words, in effect, stigmatize and denigrate past neighborhood history as a primitive state before the gentrifiers. In a demagogic offshoot of the same revisionist-colonialist vocabulary, Jerry Brown <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Oakland-for-the-Elite-Only-As-city-officials-2893875.php">once asserted</a>, as mayor of Oakland, that staving off gentrification was to invite "slumification."<br />
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Or take, for example, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/magazine/oakland-occupy-movement.html?pagewanted=all">the following</a>: “What will this transformation mean for Oakland? [Gentrification] should produce a bigger tax base that can help improve city services and maybe even create a more effective police force." These are the words of Jonathan Mahler in The New York Times Magazine — while conceding that gentrification produces few jobs (except for police, apparently) in the very same article. He concludes: "The utopian vision for a post-capitalist Oakland clung to by (rapper and activist) Boots Riley and the rest of the city’s revolutionaries will soon be dead." ... Dead? Due to what cause of death? A vision killed by some divine plague — the wafting, mysterious airs of gentrification? All of these twists reveal the bizarre contortions of turning a charged word into a bland euphemism. <br />
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Here is another way to look at it: for these studies and articles to be on the mark, their authors must unfortunately be using <i>gentrification</i> wrong. If everyone's lot is improving, then we're not speaking of gentrification, or are we? Perhaps this is the case and the word has been poorly chosen. But NPR's Laura Sullivan and the scholars she cites do stress gentrification time and time again. They seem to celebrate what they see changing. She writes, "every other shop is a new restaurant, high-end salon or bar. The neighborhood is gentrifying." Whether this cohort realizes it or not, it takes gentrification to usher in the gentry, and vice versa. And even if some legacy residents stick it out, that is not evidence of gentrification's benevolent gifts trickling down to these folks.<br />
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To be fair, a short piece on the radio or in a magazine hardly has the room to tease out the effects of gentrification — although the NPR reporter should have sought out at least one countervailing study. Likewise, one of the two NPR citations forms the bedrock of Davidson's New York Magazine piece. (Is the evidence so slim that they all call the same <a href="http://uar.sagepub.com/content/40/4/463.abstract">scholar</a>? Did they realize his study has also been <a href="http://usj.sagepub.com/content/43/1/23.abstract">retorted</a>? <a href="http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/142/gentrification.html">And that, in addition</a>, "The unfortunate paradox is that studies showing low mobility rates among the poor are being used to vindicate gentrification and to dismantle precisely those policies that help to cushion its worst impacts.") <br />
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My aim here isn't to directly agree or disagree with these writers, even though I nevertheless suspect that these pieces are inaccurate and take a very short view of urban history. (It's easy to deny displacement as part of gentrification when it happened in "the past.") For an example of much deeper journalism, see a <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/21563-poorest-residents-fight-displacement-by-gentrification">recent story by Rania Khalek examining the longer historical pattern</a> of neighborhood neglect, displacement and elimination of public housing in Washington, DC. But more to the point at hand, the re-branders of gentrification are blinded by their operating theory of "gentrification without gentrifiers" — and blinding others along with them. And that's a larger issue with the discourse: a colonization of language itself.<br />
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Gentrification, at its root, refers to something different from the commonplace assumptions I have mentioned here. If one is writing articles, one can do better than to leave the word itself unexamined in plain sight. (Besides, how many of these writers can claim to know gentrification from the perspective of those who have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/nyregion/gentrifying-into-the-shelters.html?_r=2&">experienced</a> urban disenfranchisement?) Countless vernacular opinions mirror the same assumption in the media of "gentrification without gentrifiers." But the suffix "-ation" implies that someone is doing something, that is: <i>gentrifying</i>. <br />
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The core problem with these stories reflects a turning away from what gentrification precisely means, perhaps out of fear that one is, or could be, complicit in the process. And yet, at the same time, the classist anxieties over gentrification's Other — Brown's "slumification" comment, for example — show how phobias of the poor and "other" rank higher than a concern over one's own role in the process. This hardly makes for good research or journalism.<br />
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I, for one, would be thrilled to read that gentrification is not happening — that we all misidentified one of the most significant urban restructuring processes of the past half-century. But if gentrification is taking place — and it certainly is (and has) — someone must be practicing it. Moreover, even among studies that acknowledge the detrimental effects of gentrification, there is a pattern of focusing on the seemingly independent decisions made by individual homebuyers (and, sometimes, renters). These housing consumers are in a putative "market" devoid of actual power brokers. Realtor groups, homeowners associations, business improvement districts, employers, public and private police forces, government policymakers, planning consultants, politicians, marketing agencies, banking and insurance firms, and the news media <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/173867/how-one-percent-rules">all cooperate, in different ways, to gentrify</a>.<br />
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So the constant focus on the homebuyer/renter as the <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/sometimes-i-feel-like-im-the-only-one-trying-to-ge,11249/">sole gentrifier</a> can have a detrimental effect on anti-gentrification efforts. The consumer doesn't act alone. The usual hero or villain central to gentrification narratives — the consumer (if such an abstraction has any meaning) — is more likely to be the last ingredient in the mix. Therefore, the concerted pressure of gentrification suggests that communities should not cede possession of the term itself.<br />
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<i><a href="https://www.cca.edu/academics/faculty/jarbona">Javier Arbona</a>, geographer and founding member of the <a href="http://demilit.tumblr.com/about">Demilit</a> collective, gathers gentrification links </i><i><a href="https://pinboard.in/u:aljavieera/t:gentrification/">here</a></i><i>. He can also be found on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/AlJavieera">@AlJavieera</a></i><i>.</i><br />
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<small><i>by Joe Penny</i></small><br />
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Most people wouldn’t call public-service commissioning exciting, if they even know it exists. Commissioning is the process of coordinating financial support based on assessment of local needs, aspirations and assets. It includes processes of contracting, procurement and outsourcing. It sounds dry and remote from our daily lives, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnB9TPi1YarEMxQwaUtOWuC59gL57qVg4bDSaPTPEJl4gD-hfYKSWwc4bz5DUziQSh7KC2D8GB6XDqLRbZjPqXYhCSXwxCrTHYfdnjTRVjE70Da3tlVZouPGWhORtQNWdWGQNqtB7ud0/s720/brixton-market-traders-lambeth-council.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Brixton market traders, part of a program sponsored by <a href="http://www.lambeth.coop/">Lambeth Council</a>. Source: <a href="http://www.younglambeth.org/young-peoples-zone/images/gallery.html">Young Lambeth</a></small><br />
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Commissioning is at the heart of how decisions are made about the services we rely on throughout our lives: when we are ill, when we need legal advice, when we want to do something fun in our area. As outsourcing becomes the norm, commissioning has turned into a booming industry. Each year, some <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2012/12/rise-shadow-state-truth-about-outsourcing">$130 billion is spent on outsourced public services</a> — all through a commissioning process of some sort. In other words, if you care about public services and how taxpayer money is spent, you care about commissioning.<br />
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Commissioning has great potential as a vehicle for local democratic engagement in urban renewal. Yet it is too often managed by public-sector employees who are too far removed from the people they serve. It doesn’t have to be this way.<br />
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At the <a href="http://www.neweconomics.org/">New Economics Foundation</a>, we’ve been working with a <a href="http://www.neweconomics.org/blog/entry/co-producing-in-lambeth-the-co-operative-approach">young people’s service-commissioning team</a> in London’s Lambeth district to change the way they allocate funds. The aim is to <a href="http://coproductionnetwork.com/">co-produce</a> the commissioning process. This means working in partnership with people who use and provide local services to decide what the council should be trying to achieve with the dwindling money it has to spend.<br />
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An early <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/21/councils-adopt-co-operative-approach">example of co-producing commissioning</a> involved $32,000 earmarked for a service aimed at young offenders. In the past, a group of professionals would have decided what service they thought would be most effective. They would have then written up a tender that specified what the service would look like, how many people would benefit and how results would be evaluated. <br />
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The problem with this process is that it doesn’t incorporate much input from the target population. As a result, it misses out on an invaluable source of expertise. It also runs a high risk of failure because, as countless examples show, when the so-called beneficiaries of a service are not involved in its design and implementation they are far less likely to find it useful.<br />
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We did things differently in Lambeth. The first stage involved recruiting a small group of young offenders and paying them in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton#Brixton_Pound">Brixton Pounds</a> for their time and effort. They were responsible for defining outcomes and helping to draw up a service tender. They also interviewed short-listed bidders and decided to fund a talent show organized by local youth. This was not the commissioning manager’s first choice.<br />
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What does this tell us about the future of commissioning? At a time when more and more public money is channelled to private companies, and democratic accountability is at risk, co-producing commissioning opens up the potential for inclusive decision-making at the local level.<br />
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Of course, this is far from easy. When trust is low, it’s hard at first to get people involved. When people do take part, it’s difficult to manage conflicts and ensure that the process isn’t dominated by the most vocal participants. Despite inevitable challenges, the potential benefits are too great to be ignored.<br />
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At its best, co-producing commissioning engages target populations in fair allocation of public funds. It brings people together around a common goal, fostering a sense of collective ownership over local services. In short, it can help kickstart a more democratic approach to urban renewal.<br />
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<i>Joe Penny is a researcher at the <a href="http://www.neweconomics.org/">New Economics Foundation</a>, but the views expressed here are his own. His interests include the production of urban space, security urbanism and the right to the city.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comLambeth, London, UK51.4935082 -0.1178423999999722651.4539677 -0.19852339999997226 51.5330487 -0.037161399999972256tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-15561033004786180702014-01-27T09:54:00.000-05:002017-11-11T13:18:27.918-05:00Territory and Transgression: An Interview with Stuart Elden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><small><i>by Peter Sigrist</i></small><br />
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Stuart Elden, professor of political theory and geography at Warwick and one of the editors of the journal <i><a href="http://www.envplan.com/D.html">Environment and Planning D: Society and Space</a>, </i>has published volumes of groundbreaking research on <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/elden/publications/archive">geopolitics and spatial theory</a> over the past decade. His research addresses topics of critical importance to cities today, including globalization, territory, terrorism, power relations and place. It engages with the thinking of Martin Heidegger, Henri Lefebvre and Michel Foucault, along with many of their lines of influence.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg85qEXVNsIAfRBavbplDgguK1ndKYLFsPdA4iAHtnheaoqb3dPVx9__t7Z6LDVFbbIDT3LJclLQp-vHwY3diclwA1rBr8g-UGP20MMlzTimY5RFN91EHk7nRIBQ-F3M1TIAJtxTaHHPss/s1600/8559_2012_Feb_23.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>Demolition and redevelopment in Istanbul's Tarlabaşı neighborhood, a <a href="http://societyandspace.com/category/virtual-theme-issues/">virtual theme issue</a> of <i>Society and Space</i> dedicated to last year's protests in Gezi Park. Source: <a href="http://www.tarlabasiistanbul.com/photo-gallery/">Tarlabaşı Istanbul</a> (via <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/2013/06/05/the-events-in-turkey-a-virtual-theme-issue-for-background/">Progressive Geographies</a>)</small></div><br />
Stuart is currently writing about urban geopolitics, the last decade of Foucault's life, the role of territory in Shakespeare's plays, and the notions of "earth" and "world" in relation to globalization. Examples of his work and other interests can be found at <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/">Progressive Geographies</a>, the actively updated blog he started in response to the <a href="http://savemdxphil.com/">occupation of Middlesex Philosophy</a> in 2010.<br />
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Over the past three months I've been sending one question at a time to Stuart by email, to which he responded with remarkable speed and detail. He'd been using this approach to conduct interviews at the <a href="http://societyandspace.com/category/interviews/" style="font-style: italic;">Society and Space</a><a href="http://societyandspace.com/category/interviews/"> open site</a>, but it was completely new for me. Each answer became something to look forward to, a rare opportunity to speak directly with someone whose work has been of great value to me in studying cities. I sent questions related to its many insights into topics found on Polis — from urban placemaking to open access, globalization to the arts, philosophy to geography, education to politics.<br />
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<b>We appreciate that you make so much of your <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/free-downloads/articles-and-chapters/">research</a> available for free on Progressive Geographies. Based on your experience as an author and editor, how might the cost of academic publications become less restrictive while still allowing publishers of all kinds to be fairly compensated for their work?</b><br />
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I post as much as I'm able to post on Progressive Geographies, not always following journal protocols. I've never been asked to take anything down. Most academics can now post work in an agreed way to institutional repositories. We aren't paid for journal articles, so the compensation comes from our main academic salary. Many authors have rightly wondered why they don't retain control of their own work when they give it to journals for free — a license to publish is fine to sign, but a wholesale transfer of copyright is probably outdated.<br />
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There are a growing number of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/oct/21/open-access-myths-peter-suber-harvard">open-access journals</a>, many of which have excellent editorial standards, and it's a shame that some <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2013/oct/04/open-access-journals-fake-paper">fraudulent operations</a> — ones that publish just about anything if the author pays — have tainted the overall move. It's a terrible problem that the open-access model has become associated with "author pays" monetization by publishers. There is no such thing as entirely free publishing — someone, somewhere invests labor in the process — but this doesn't justify exorbitant article-processing charges or putting the onus on authors to find funds from their institutions or elsewhere to publish.<br />
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Things are a bit different with books. The royalties on academic books are very low — I suspect a lot of people would be surprised at how little most academics make even on reasonably well-selling titles — but we do still appreciate getting them. Given the costs incurred in writing a book, I'm not sure about giving everything away for free. There are some excellent publishers who are breaking with the traditional model: <a href="http://punctumbooks.com/">Punctum Books</a> and <a href="http://openhumanitiespress.org/">Open Humanities Press</a>, to name just two. But I'm not sure the big university presses and commercial academic presses are too worried about losing their best titles just yet. For that to happen we would need more than just a change in publishing culture — the whole academic appointment, promotion and tenure system would need recalibration.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitf0MV3Kld1GnceoYN0z-6UYpK6M06g6Z3MrF9vjOQUe9cyE9yg7TRlsS6IqPEOGJz-mCoN8Y9uUrDyuWPUgXr5N-dXWmR_TnCWELCBjRpwJ5lsxx9LIiPIvTvD7GVGqywqbpanJojVKA/s540/topographyofmemory.jpg" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>Brian Brush's cartographic explorations of territory and memory. Source: <a href="http://www.seismopolite.com/beyond-the-reference-continuity-memory-and-territory-in-cartographic-art">Seismopolite</a></small></div><br />
<b>Thinking back on your first book, <i><a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/mapping-the-present-9780826458476/">Mapping the Present: Heidegger, Foucault and the Project of a Spatial History</a>,</i> what would you say are the most important contributions in Martin Heidegger's work for urbanists today?</b><br />
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I'm not sure there are clear and direct linkages to be made between Heidegger and urban questions. He is a really important philosopher for thinking about space and place; people like <a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didier_Franck">Didier Franck</a>, <a href="http://edwardscasey.com/">Edward Casey</a>, <a href="http://www.utas.edu.au/geography-environment/people/jeff-malpas">Jeff Malpas</a>, <a href="https://philosophy.as.uky.edu/users/schatzki">Theodore Schatzki</a> and others have written extensively on this. I've made some contributions to those debates, especially in <i><a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/(S(i0oeix45xsgpac55t0xuir55))/uk/mapping-the-present-9781847143136/">Mapping the Present</a> </i>and, to a lesser extent, in <a href="http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748619818"><i>Speaking Against Number</i></a>. But Heidegger, while an exceptional philosopher on these questions, is much less useful in political and historical registers. I made the argument in <i>Mapping the Present</i> that Foucault takes forward Heidegger's analyses in thinking the role of spatial, geographical questions in his historical studies. There is a lot in Foucault that speaks to debates in urban studies — questions of surveillance, social control, regulation, circulation. I think that work is most useful if we think about the Heideggerian influence on his ideas.<br />
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Similarly, in <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/(S(i0oeix45xsgpac55t0xuir55))/uk/understanding-henri-lefebvre-9780826470034/"><i>Understanding Henri Lefebvre</i></a> I make the claim that a lot of Lefebvre's work can be situated in relation to Heidegger as well as the three thinkers he claims most affinity with: Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche. I think Lefebvre's work on space — in <i>The Production of Space</i> and elsewhere — is also indebted to Heidegger, even though he distances himself from many aspects. It's also there in other places, like his appropriation of Heidegger's notion of dwelling (<i>wohnen),</i> which Lefebvre reads as <i>habiter</i> but crucially situates in urban locations rather than just the rural. For Lefebvre, these are inherently political questions linked to the contested spaces of urban sites, the relation of the state to space, urban transformation and the right to the city, the role of the production of space in the survival of capitalism.<br />
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What all three thinkers share is a recognition of the power of the scientific revolution in how we perceive the material world. This rendering of the world as amenable to scientific measurement and control — what Heidegger calls the "world as picture" — is worked through in political detail most fully, for me, in Foucault's and Lefebvre's analyses. Lots of elements come up here: the role of power in organizing space, the role of space in supporting power, rhythmanalysis and the production of space as complementary analyses, the role of calculation as a political spatial question. I've tried to articulate this in the works already mentioned, in which I read Foucault and Lefebvre in relation to what they do with Heidegger.<br />
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My own work has largely applied these theoretical arguments to the question of territory. But some of this work has been considered alongside that of the more urban-focused work of <a href="http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/people/neil-brenner.html">Neil Brenner</a>. Neil and I collaborated on the <a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/state-space-world"><i>State, Space, World</i></a> collection of Lefebvre's writings, for example, and wrote a piece on <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-5687.2009.00081.x/full">Lefebvre's thinking of state, space and territory (open access)</a>.<br />
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<div style="line-height: 180%;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Does it make sense any longer to think of specifically urban areas within a territory? Is territory becoming completely urbanized? What are the boundaries of the urban?</span></i></div><br />
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At the moment, I'm beginning to think about territory and the urban intersect: Does it make sense any longer to think of specifically urban areas within a territory? Is territory becoming completely urbanized? What are the boundaries of the urban? Does it make sense to think of the territorialization of the urban — that is to say, are state spatial strategies that were previously directed toward the territory, and especially the borders of a territory, now focused increasingly on urban agglomerations? Some of this work will be done with the <a href="http://cusp.nyu.edu/">Center for Urban Science and Progress</a> at NYU, which I will be visiting for a term each year as part of my Warwick post. Brenner, Heidegger, Foucault and Lefebvre will be continual real or virtual interlocutors.<br />
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<b>In light of your article "<a href="http://progressivegeographies.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/rethinking-the-polis.pdf">Rethinking the <i>Polis</i>: Implications of Heidegger's Questioning the Political</a>," do you find value in the thinking of Bruno Latour and others who point to the importance of nonhuman actors in assembling a <i>polis</i>, or site of being? Is there a practical way to apply this perspective toward more democratic and discerning approaches to placemaking?</b><br />
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I've read some of Latour's work, and heard him speak once, but I've never been that influenced by it. I think this is due to being exposed to some of its application by others more than the work itself, at least initially, and finding some of it rather formulaic. That said, when I read Graham Harman's <a href="http://re-press.org/books/prince-of-networks-bruno-latour-and-metaphysics/"><i>Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics</i></a> I realized that there was much more going on than I'd given it credit for, and have been more open to it as a consequence. I'm looking forward to reading Latour's recent book <i><a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674724990">An Inquiry into Modes of Existence</a></i>. There are some interesting developments of some of these ideas in geography, notably by <a href="http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/swhatmore.html">Sarah Whatmore</a>, <a href="https://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Steve_Hinchliffe">Steve Hinchliffe</a> and <a href="http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-the-department/people/academic-staff/andrew-barry">Andrew Barry</a>. Barry's work is the most obviously political — in <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/political-machines-9780485006346/"><i>Political Machines</i></a> and his new book <i><a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-111852912X.html">Material Politics: Disputes Along the Pipeline</a>,</i> which I read recently.<br />
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I've also been reading some other works that open up political questions beyond the human: Jussi Parikka's <i><a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/insect-media">Insect Media</a>,</i> Jane Bennett's <i><a href="http://www.dukeupress.edu/Vibrant-Matter/">Vibrant Matter</a>,</i> Ian Bogost's <a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/alien-phenomenology-or-what-itas-like-to-be-a"><i>Alien Phenomenology</i></a> and so on. I'm not sure what I'll do with these in terms of my own work, though I have been thinking about them. This has mainly been in relation to the concept of "earth" and how we might use this to rethink what we mean by "geopolitics." Rather than thinking of this as a synonym for global politics, what would happen if we took the earth and earth processes seriously? There are <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/free-downloads/audio-and-video/">audio recordings</a> of a few of my talks on this topic at Progressive Geographies, but I've not yet worked these into publishable form.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUVwiy7WQltCJKWzfgslrWf8QkCPNOEE9u5KXD4b5OTPSrlOkrMBboRzx1b_lFwx0T_ltIYUmazrm4mfanx8jaQZjBhWsaZ7nAqgL_vpsvkq6yaTBO9R2T-W6mlwjHauJJHBif5q0spdA/s1600/western_eurasia.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>Eurasian cities, roads, railways, transmission lines and submarine cables. Source: "<a href="http://globaia.org/portfolio/cartography-of-the-anthropocene/">Cartography of the Anthropocene</a>" by Globaia (via <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/2012/12/19/10673/">Progressive Geographies</a>)</small></div><br />
Another element in thinking about nonhuman actors is nonhuman animals. I wrote a paper titled "<a href="http://progressivegeographies.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/heideggers-animals.pdf">Heidegger's Animals</a>" some time back, in which I thought through what Heidegger said about animals throughout his career rather than just the famous discussion in his 1929-1930 lecture course. That was an important paper for me, as I came across Charles Patterson's powerful <a href="http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?id=1-930051-99-9"><i>Eternal Treblinka</i></a>, which persuaded me to become a vegetarian (though I've since gone back to eating fish). I've not written anything else on animals — neither politically, philosophically nor geographically — but I do keep reading books on the topic. David Farrell Krell's <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=806826"><i>Derrida and Our Animal Others</i></a> reawakened my interest in this and I wrote a brief <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/2013/09/06/reading-david-farrell-krell-on-derrida-and-our-animal-others/">review</a> of it. These seem like vital questions as we grapple with the implications of the anthropocene.<br />
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<b>In your interview at <a href="http://www.newappsblog.com/2011/03/new-apps-interview-stuart-elden.html"><i>New APPS</i></a>, you mentioned early jobs at a county court, a town council and a research unit on local economic policy. Can you tell us more about this experience and how it may have influenced your thinking on territory and geopolitics?</b><br />
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These were all part of a sandwich degree at Brunel University: in the first three years we studied for two terms, and worked for six months. The advantage was that you graduated with eighteen months of work experience, got paid a bit and didn't have to look for vacation work. At the court and the research unit I did fairly mundane clerical work, nothing especially demanding. The county court was interesting, as this was in 1991, just after Margaret Thatcher had been replaced by John Major as prime minister, and seeing the financial problems people were facing — repossessed houses, defaulting on loans and so on — cemented a lasting concern for social issues.<br />
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The most rewarding of the placements, by far, was at Kensington Town Hall. I worked for the research unit of the social services division. Most of the time was spent researching and then writing directories of services for children under eight and for those with special needs. In a sense these were my first publications, though uncredited. I also did an assessment of the division's recordkeeping on child protection, which led to some changes in procedures.<br />
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I continued working for the town hall part-time in the first year of my PhD, alongside a job in central government, and learned a lot from this experience. Although the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is largely known for its affluence, there are pockets of severe deprivation — parts of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earls_Court">Earls Court</a>, for example, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golborne_Road">Golborne</a> in North Kensington.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZR1oSU7BsK8d9HK_Z3nRN8EuIIDyvZRiBex9RtqgoPt7PNZImKmMplS-gODQgGRthcstoGVAlrM6IEgMEdkJZs_26KFbBgAHXRgqTO96nV3zLpowc7IgIRLsmiicszGCpQfq-kgMTN4/s540/trellick-tower.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Golborne Road in London, with Trellick Tower in the distance. Source: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/15985961@N00/4353318469/">Pitty 107</a></small><br />
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The thoughts that came from this work were not, therefore, especially geopolitical or territorial questions but more general political ones, predominantly local. That wasn't really surprising — I was studying politics and modern history at the time, and hadn't really been exposed to more political-geographical questions. I guess these exposures to politics in action — both in local and central government, and in legal administration — were important in terms of shaping how I thought about politics generally. All that said, probably the central thing I took away from all this was that I wanted to be an academic — to write, to teach, to speak and, most importantly, to do these on questions I thought were important rather than being told what to research.<br />
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<b>Based on the editing and translation you did for <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/rhythmanalysis-9780826472991/"><i>Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life</i></a>, how has Lefebvre's exploration of the everyday influenced your perspective on relationships between place and power in cities? Does this extend in any meaningful way to your recent work on place and power at global scales in <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo15506915.html"><i>The Birth of Territory</i></a> and <a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/terror-and-territory"><i>Terror and Territory</i></a>?</b><br />
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This is an interesting question, because the work on everyday life in Lefebvre has probably been the least influential on my work. I think it was revolutionary for the time — he began working on these topics in the 1930s (the first volume of <i>Critique of Everyday Life</i> was published in 1947), reorienting Marxism towards cultural questions. These questions are there in Marx, especially in the early Marx, but they had perhaps been obscured by Marxism. By the time I came to write on Lefebvre, this work had been explored in more detail than his other key contributions. The chapter on everyday life in <i>Understanding Henri Lefebvre</i> was the shortest partly because I could situate this work in relation to existing concerns and then move on. It's similar with the treatment of <i>The Production of Space</i> in that book, which despite its importance to me, I also say less about than might be expected. This was partly to free up words to discuss less-examined parts of his work, such as the work on the state, or on philosophy and so on.<br />
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With <i>Rhythmanalysis</i>, the English title is not Lefebvre's — he wrote a book that would translate as "Elements of Rhythmanalysis," which is included in <i>Rhythmanalysis</i> along with a couple of related essays. The subtitle is a marketing choice, though it is hardly false advertising. Lefebvre saw this book as the informal fourth volume of <i>Critique of Everyday Life</i>, and the essays all treat the relation between space and time in interesting ways. That book is most important to me in that it shows Lefebvre was not just a thinker who introduced a spatial, geographical dimension into historical materialism, but a thinker who also wrote extensively on time and history. <i>Rhythmanalysis</i> gives a taste of that work, but other important texts — such as <i>La somme et le reste</i> and <i>La fin de l'histoire</i> — remain untranslated, with the exception of little bits in <i>Key Writings</i>.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3WjBaRK1TLU_-KTQNKjOs8lZos_9gbSIebZy5_ovBBMCnzKFtbHtU-Em4B3mS36pHX7kIBQwPgITwVfwivU3QKl6e43OdCP8CalKVJFJIc3ESCP3ZVpB8rMBxU58fijDshUUPyK-ggOU/s512/lefebvre.png" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>Pictures of Henri Lefebvre from the cover of Łukasz Stanek's <i><a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/henri-lefebvre-on-space">Henri Lefebvre on Space: Architecture, Urban Research, and the Production of Theory</a></i>. Source: <a href="http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/3970-henri-lefebvre-on-space-architecture-urban-research-and-the-production-of-theory">Graham Foundation</a></small></div><br />
How all this influences my thinking in the books on territory is a good question. I was gently chastised for having written a theorist's book on the "war on terror," concentrating on elite actors and documentation rather than other perspectives in <i>Terror and Territory</i>. That's fair enough, though one book, and one person, can only do so much and I wasn't aiming to be definitive. Similarly, I can imagine critiques of <i>The Birth of Territory</i> for privileging the textual, the theorists of political power, and the actions of kings, emperors and popes. That's not the whole story I tell, but it is the focus for large parts of the book. How would the history of the concept and practice of territory look if we told the story "from below"? It would be a fascinating account, but I suspect it would need to be told within a much narrower time-frame and probably on single territories rather than the broader scope I set out. That has been done for some states and territories in the past (I reference many of these studies), but that would be a very different book.<br />
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Lefebvre was influential for my territory work because of his theorization of politics and space, and of the state. I really think that his contributions to political theory have been neglected, and the<i> State, Space, World</i> collection was partly intended to begin that conversation. Lefebvre leaves a lot unsaid, and he wasn't a very careful scholar with regard to missing references, citation dead ends and misrepresentations, so his work is generative rather than definitive on these questions. But it is enormously suggestive of work to undertake and things to follow up on. The range of things he wrote about is extraordinary: from Rabelais to Diderot to Hegel, culture in pre-war France to nascent globalization, rural and urban transformations, May 1968. In writing <i>Understanding Henri Lefebvre</i>, I grappled with them all and tried to find a way to organize them into a semi-coherent narrative. I suspect his work will give me renewed inspiration in future projects.<br />
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<b>It's interesting that you've remained — at least to my knowledge — relatively silent on the right to the city as invoked by Occupy proponents against the injustices of a "<a href="http://criticallegalthinking.com/2013/01/30/reclaiming-democracy-an-interview-with-wendy-brown-on-occupy-sovereignty-and-secularism/">neoliberal order</a>." Even your essay "<a href="http://interstitialjournal.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/elden-occupy.pdf">V for Visibility</a>," an insightful reflection on the Guy Fawkes mask, touches on Occupy without going much into the aspects of global capitalism that give rise to it. But that essay does highlight, as you put it, "the use of the tools of capitalism against capitalism" — people's appropriation of smart phones, laptops, online social networks, the media and highly visible urban spaces to undermine political and economic processes they see as unjust. Based on your study of how the concept of territory came into being, do you see any conditions today that could make way for a restructuring of national borders, resource allocation or governance worldwide? In visibly transcending boundaries — both physically and by way of media — could assertion of a right to the city open possibilities for a collective right to the earth? </b><br />
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I'm not sure I have much to contribute to these kinds of debates — there are others much better suited to making those kinds of connections. David Harvey and <a href="https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/geo/Mitchell,_Don/">Don Mitchell</a> have been doing some work in that register, for example. I do find Lefebvre's idea of the right to the city interesting, but I haven't written about it other than in <i>Understanding Henri Lefebvre</i>.<br />
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What I think is important and not fully developed is how Lefebvre understood the right to the city in his later work. It doesn't disappear from his thinking entirely. I think it gets worked through in a broader set of questions around the notion of territorial <i>autogestion</i>, which is sometimes translated as "self-management." In the introduction to <i>State, Space, World,</i> Neil Brenner and I make the claim that we should not translate <i>autogestion</i> — it has multiple resonances, including what we would understand as grassroots democracy.<br />
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Lefebvre makes the argument that <i>autogestion</i> should be understood in at least two ways: as the workers cooperatives springing up in France and elsewhere (in the famous <a href="http://www.geocities.com/~johngray/lip.htm">LIP watch factory</a>, for example), and as the potential for collective movements to run the city or other spaces (which he calls "territorial <i>autogestion</i>"). Mark Purcell's recent book <i><a href="http://pathtothepossible.wordpress.com/book-the-down-deep-delight-of-democracy-2013/">The Down-Deep Delight of Democracy</a></i> is probably the most creative use of Lefebvre's ideas in this register, linking them to his later work on the "new contract of citizenship" that encompasses rights to difference, to the city, to information and to <i>autogestion</i>. The question is to what extent these are to be provided by the state, and to what extent they are to be claimed and enabled by people themselves.<br />
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<div style="line-height: 180%;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The uprisings in Egypt, or more recent protests in Turkey, were not just demands for democracy, but democracy itself. Democracy is not an end-point to be reached, but a process, and wrestling back popular control of all elements of politics is crucial.</span></i></div><br />
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What Purcell's book does well is to highlight the impoverished sense of democracy that we exist with and leave largely unquestioned. The uprisings in Egypt, or more recent protests in Turkey, were not just demands for democracy but democracy <i>itself</i>. Democracy is not an end-point to be reached, but a process, and wrestling back popular control of all elements of politics is crucial. In the UK there has been some recent debate about this, though it's a shame that it took <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/russell-brand-democratic-system-newsnight">Russell Brand</a>, a millionaire comedian who doesn't even live in the UK, to get this onto the front pages. But he raised some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3PalrfEF4g">interesting points</a> about voting, the spurious legitimacy that the elective process gives and the lack of viable choice between the main parties. I would never advocate not voting, but spoiling your ballot by writing "none of the above" or posting a blank ballot seems at least an attempt to show a rejection of the choices. I know you get lumped in with people who didn't read the instructions properly and so on, but that's better than being seen as someone who didn't care enough to go to the voting station.<br />
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The right to the city should not be taken as a narrow, urban question, but as one about politics more generally. I think this is how it is in Lefebvre, and how those taking up his ideas can perhaps best use them. Whether this can be taken further, scaled-up, to a right to the earth, is an interesting question. I think there is some work being done on indigenous land rights that might be a contribution to these kinds of debates. <a href="http://www.teoballve.com/">Teo Ballvé</a> is doing some important work on this, and I have a new PhD student, Mara Duer, who is working on related questions. My work on territory could be of some use in thinking through these issues, not just the more explicitly political aspects but also the historical.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD-h5UKenU1w3mC3hMnEmGBxsg8UVv6dJhGYbVf9s0wRPrNBCtfPt8hormP6ZsAB2thIgUwFJifCwDf23US76O_wsEQ6IhEcFDvoXTxBBch7jor5EoqDzWH_vYToa8fsciK2KAOyVJ2GQ/s720/w920-1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>Replacing the name "Musgrave Park" with "Aboriginal Land" in Queensland, Australia. Photo by Bob Weatherall. Source: <a href="http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/showcase/state-of-emergency">State Library of Queensland</a></small></div><br />
One of the reasons for writing the history of the concept of territory was to show that it has not always been thought of, and practiced, in the same way. It's very easy to think that we've always had territory (as a concept) and territories (as a practice), but just had boundaries in different places, different ways of dividing. On the contrary, I think it is a relatively recent concept with different ways of organising the relations between place and power at different times in the past, and with a lot of conceptual and political struggles to get to where we are now. Seeing alternatives in the past might open up new ways of thinking in the future.<br />
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I've been working on the concept of "earth" to explore how we might think about geopolitics as a politics of the earth. I think an element within that should be a more popular politics of the earth, which might take into account these kinds of questions, but I've not really begun to think about it in that register as yet.<br />
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<b>Showing how territory isn't an eternal given is also a reminder that capitalism is a relatively recent concept realized through political struggle, and that political struggle can lead to alternatives. The <a href="http://progressivegeographies.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/being-with-as-making-worlds.pdf">essay on Peter Sloterdijk</a> that you wrote with <a href="http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/philosophy/people/faculty_pages/mendieta.html">Eduardo Mendieta</a> comes to mind — especially the parts about "being-alongside-others ... as a making of worlds" and about today's "globalisation of saturation, brought about by the rapacity of capitalism but also the collapse of space-time leading to simultaneity and proximity of everything and everyone in an almost unblinking present." How has Sloterdijk influenced your thinking on place and power? Does the notion of "being-alongside-others" offer any useful insights into political struggle?</b><br />
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Sloterdijk is an interesting but problematic thinker. I find much of his work inspiring, but he is equally infuriating, and many of his recent political suggestions have been unpalatable. What I like most in his work is the extension and critique of Heidegger, especially in terms of space. His <i>Spheres</i> trilogy, for example, is immensely suggestive. The monumental ambition (and conceit) of writing what he calls "the great unwritten book of Western philosophy," <i>Being and Space</i>, is admirable. To do that he has to break with what Heidegger expressly denies in <i>Being and Time</i>, which is that the "in" word in being-in-the-world can be understood spatially. Sloterdijk works through in detail the implications of that "in" as a spatial question, but he also develops what Heidegger called <i>Mitsein</i> (being-with) and <i>Miteinandersein</i> (being-with-another or being-alongside-another). Especially when Sloterdijk thinks about the idea of "foam" as interlocking spheres, he is spatializing <i>Mitsein</i> in an interesting way.<br />
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It took me a while to realize that <i>Speaking Against Number</i> is really a book about <i>Mitsein</i> — about the politics of connection, both with those things that share our mode of being and with those that don't. (At the time, I was unaware of what Sloterdijk was doing with these questions — I only knew his <i><a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/critique-of-cynical-reason">Critique of Cynical Reason</a></i> and his book on Nietzsche <i><a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/thinker-on-stage">Thinker on Stage</a></i>.) Heidegger's political involvement can be traced through the way he thinks about political community, which is there in 1920s lecture courses on Aristotle, when he talks about being-in-the-<i>polis</i>. And his work on technology can be understood as a means of trying to make sense of modes of connection in the world. Sloterdijk is interesting to me in those registers, though he's approaching these ideas from a different angle and doing very different things with them than what I've tried to do.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNy3cxFMr_MbK137IOS-l0Ykc4klBdabCyBLdNyBMHohtWSqMyKwWftZENU6F62WBDeGLOQwFs19c3iSz6WP1n66gzhIbGtKORUXVmBv7zRZNIEr9bLKeqeerBCLp9a5yd4ff0rutkLBM/s540/sea%2520foam.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>Measuring the bubble coalescence in sea foam. Source: <a href="http://sciencewise.anu.edu.au/articles/bubbles%20and%20salt">Australian National University</a></small></div><br />
I began working on Sloterdijk, in part, through the prompting of <a href="http://nigelthrift.wordpress.com/biography/">Nigel Thrift</a>, who was co-editor of <i>Society and Space</i> at the time. There wasn't much of Sloterdijk's recent writing available in English — this was 2007 or so — and so Eduardo Mendieta and I thought we should do <a href="http://www.envplan.com/contents.cgi?journal=D&volume=27&issue=1">an issue of the journal on his work</a>. This led to a few translations — a couple of excerpts from <i>Spheres, </i>plus the "<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/24691389/Peter-Sloterdijk-Rules-for-the-Human-Zoo">Rules for the Human Zoo</a>" piece — and a number of commentaries and reviews. It was an attempt at a somewhat different way of engaging with a thinker than waiting for other disciplines to do the intellectual labor of translation and interpretation. It led to the idea of an edited book on Sloterdijk's work, with some of the same people involved but wholly new essays. The people at Polity press were keen to do this, and the resulting book was <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745651354"><i>Sloterdijk Now</i></a>, which I think serves as a good introduction to his range of work. Now almost all of his books are either already available in English or in the process of being translated — quite a remarkable turnaround from the way things were in 2007 or 2008. In that sense, I think Nigel, Eduardo and I were somewhat ahead of the curve — something Nigel is regularly very good at being.<br />
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I admire the <i>Spheres</i> trilogy and find Sloterdijk's book on globalization, <i><a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745647685">In the World Interior of Capital</a>,</i> inspiring for my work on the concept of "world." His pluralization of this idea is intriguing for me. But I'm not sure he's the place to go for an understanding of political struggle. For that I'd be more inclined to turn back to Lefebvre — or to Foucault, whose political activism is still underappreciated. (Marcelo Hoffman has recently addressed this in <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/foucault-and-power-9781441180940/" style="font-style: italic;">Foucault and Power</a>.) There are also things in Jean-Paul Sartre's <i>Critique of Dialectical Reason</i>, and perhaps in <a href="http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/">Louis Althusser</a>, that are useful here. I'm thinking through these on somewhat different questions at present — less so with Sartre. One planned project is to do an edited collection on Althusser, especially given the translation of <i><a href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/1495-on-the-reproduction-of-capitalism">On the Reproduction of Capitalism</a></i>. Maybe I'll then have a better answer to this question.<br />
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<b>In philosophy, as in many fields, writers sometimes look to art for insight into workings of the world. You've written about literature and film — <a href="http://progressivegeographies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/place-symbolism-and-land-politics-in-beowulf.pdf"><i>Beowulf</i></a>, <a href="http://www.berfrois.com/2012/02/stuart-elden-coriolanus/"><i>Coriolanus</i></a>, <a href="http://progressivegeographies.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/the-geopolitics-of-king-lear.pdf"><i>King Lear</i></a>, for example — and I imagine you've read many compelling studies of art by others. Do any people from the past or present stand out in your mind for their writing on works of art?</b><br />
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I'm certainly very interested in literature in relation to political spaces. I wrote about <i>Beowulf</i> and <i>King Lear</i> in <i>The Birth of Territory</i>, as well as <i>Antigone</i> and some other smaller examples. There are also some other works of art that I discuss in that book — paintings, the <a href="http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft309nb1mw&chunk.id=d0e7396&toc.depth=1&brand=ucpress">Boscoreale Cups</a>, and some of the maps are as much artistic as technical. My Shakespeare interest is certainly continuing. The <i>Coriolanus</i> reading was developed into a book <a href="http://www.ewidgetsonline.net/dxreader/Reader.aspx?token=3a65da8bb00f4a5fb721dd67e764bcde&rand=1008744806&buyNowLink=&page=&chapter=">chapter</a> and, along with a much more detailed reading of <i>King Lear</i>, will be part of the book I'm planning on <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/future-projects/shakespearean-territories/">Shakespeare and territory</a>.<br />
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Over the past few years I've been reading a lot more novels, and some have been revealing on how we might think about political spaces. The obvious examples are the remarkable <i><a href="http://chimamanda.com/books/half-of-a-yellow-sun/">Half of a Yellow Sun</a></i> by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, on the Biafran war,<i> </i>or <i><a href="http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/products/every-day-is-for-the-thief">Every Day is for the Thief</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/29908/open-city-by-teju-cole/9781400068098/">Open City</a></i> by <a href="http://www.tejucole.com/">Teju Cole</a><i>.</i> I was reading these and other African novelists while visiting Nigeria in 2011-2013. I'm not sure I will ever write about these books, but they are certainly related in important ways to politics and space.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uID6zbjR6dQ" width="540"></iframe><br />
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Film has tended to be one of my escapes from academic work, and with the exception of a review of Ralph Fiennes's version of <i>Coriolanus</i>, I've not written about cinema. I do sometimes use clips of movies when teaching, not because they necessarily represent an accurate historical view of an event but because they can be useful for provoking discussion. In a course on territory and geopolitics I used a variety of films, from <i>Gladiator</i> to <i><a href="http://www.eventherainmovie.com/">Even the Rain</a></i>. I used <i>Gladiator</i> partly to understand the nature of Rome as a parasitical city, and I can imagine using films like <i>Cyclo</i> to think about the urban in Vietnam, or <i>Crash</i> — the Paul Haggis movie, not the David Cronenberg one! — to think about Los Angeles.<br />
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Warwick has regular film screenings introduced by faculty and students in the Politics and International Studies Department, and I hope to get involved with this. I've also been reading quite a bit about staging for the Shakespeare project, and one of the things I like about being in the Midlands is the proximity to Stratford-upon-Avon. I've seen some very powerful productions there in the past few months.<br />
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There are plenty of good examples of people using literature, film or other arts to think about political and geographical questions — <a href="http://www.politicalscience.hawaii.edu/4-faculty/shapiro.html">Michael Shapiro</a>, <a href="http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/interpol/staff/academic/jfe/">Jenny Edkins</a>, <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/staff/geogstaffhidden/?id=2710">Louise Amoore</a> and <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/maja.zehfuss/">Maja Zehfuss</a> have all done interesting work in this sphere. Louise's very recent book, <a href="http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=49866"><i>The Politics of Possibility: Risk and Security Beyond Probability</i></a> (the introduction is available <a href="http://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-0-8223-5560-1_601.pdf">here</a>), does some really creative things with novels — from <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/gilesfoden">Giles Foden</a> and <a href="http://jenniferegan.com/">Jennifer Egan</a> to John Updike and Thomas Pynchon. I'm certainly very interested in what the arts can tell us about territory, geopolitics and so many other aspects of life on earth.<br />
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<b>Returning to Foucault, who also wrote memorably about literature and other arts, you mentioned that his activism remains underappreciated. Which contemporary academics do you find inspiring or otherwise notable for their activism, and — broadly speaking — are the professional responsibilities of academics today any more or less compatible with this form of engagement than they were in the past?</b><br />
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I think Foucault's work on literature is underappreciated — he wrote some very interesting pieces in the 1960s, which are perhaps somewhat neglected today. There is quite a bit in <i>Dits et écrits</i> that isn't translated, but also a new collection of previously unpublished work titled<i> <a href="http://www.editions.ehess.fr/ouvrages/ouvrage/la-grande-etrangere/">La grande étrangère: À propos de literature</a></i>. His work on other arts is also relatively neglected in geography and political science. But on his activism there is the Hoffman book [<i>Foucault and Power</i>], which will hopefully reinvigorate interest in that aspect of his work. And there have been a couple of French <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/2013/11/21/philippe-artieres-intolerable-groupe-dinformation-sur-les-prisons/">collections</a> on his work with the <a href="http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095909839">Groupe d’information sur les prisons</a>, which would be good to get translated. Generally, Foucault’s collaborative work — both academic and activist — has been rather neglected in English-language debates.<br />
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I think there are some good examples of academics who find the time to combine their publishing and teaching careers with activism. Any list I give will inevitably be partial, but I'm thinking of some of the Israeli scholars I know who are involved in really important work on challenging the occupation or other state policies. <a href="http://www.geog.bgu.ac.il/members/yiftachel/">Oren Yiftachel</a>, for example, does some very important work with Bedouin people in the Negev, and <a href="http://www.conflictincities.org/CV-Yacobi.html">Haim Yacobi</a> and <a href="http://www.tau.ac.il/~tobiws/">Tovi Fenster</a> set up the NGO <a href="http://bimkom.org.il/eng/">Bimkom</a>, which works on planning-rights cases in the occupied territories. In my visits to Israel/Palestine I've been able to see things through their work and contacts that would have otherwise been difficult to access — informal settlements in the Negev, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1_(Jerusalem)">E1</a> in the West Bank, various other sites around the wall. <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2012/eyal-weizman-architecture-confronts-politics">Eyal Weizman's work</a> in this area is also very impressive.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnd5npcx3kUdT-jarpkJTvhuXZSOQOeSdzP-6vayb28nLxBETM8CNZ6QN2bj5z-G_qle72mrN5biaFjuC0lAiblpEyz0YEu6rI8gShHGdIc1FvlUSWJsh-d-YL83a0dn4W9_KcBE4Pwm0/s540/3866199198.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>A Bedouin settlement near the Israeli Ma’ale Adumim development in the E1 zone northeast of Jerusalem, photographed by 'Ammar 'Awad for Reuters. Source: <a href="http://www.btselem.org/publications/201306_area_c">B'Tselem</a></small></div><br />
Neil Smith's death last year was a loss not just for the academy, but for the many activist groups and artists he worked with in New York and elsewhere. When we were putting together <a href="http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=d306ns">tributes to Neil’s work for <i>Society and Space</i> (open access)</a> we included a number of these people alongside academics and his students. Neil was one of the key voices in geography responding to the "war on terror," alongside David Harvey, <a href="http://pwias.ubc.ca/people/distinguished-professor/derek-gregory/">Derek Gregory</a> and others.<br />
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At my first Association of American Geographers (AAG) meeting there was a session organized by Derek and <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Allan-Pred-social-scientist-who-focused-on-2656489.php">Allan Pred</a>. A semi-official AAG publication — with many key officers and past presidents contributing — titled "The Geographical Dimensions of Terrorism" was drawing a lot of criticism for its attitude toward the Bush administration, namely: How could the skills and tools of geography help in the struggle? I especially remember Allan's thunderous denunciation of the book for its uncritical engagements and complicity. Those sessions were an early version of what became an important collection of essays, <i><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415951470/">Violent Geographies</a>, </i>aimed at setting a different agenda. Neil, Derek and David Harvey all wrote influential books about the "war on terror," and <i>Terror and Territory</i> was intended as a contribution to these debates.<br />
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Writing can be a form of activism, rejecting the false distinction between the two – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theses_on_Feuerbach">Marx's eleventh thesis</a> has a lot to answer for in this regard. You could also point to the work of people writing about gentrification — Neil Smith is crucial here too, of course — and how much of that work comes out of engagement with specific sites and as part of particular struggles. <a href="http://www.pygyrg.co.uk/">Participatory Geography</a> is oriented toward bridging this gap in many ways. There are good examples out there, and these could be multiplied many times over. With the exception of the "war on terror" work, I've not done much in this register and I greatly regret that my work with <a href="http://www.alqudsbard.org/">Al Quds Bard Honors College</a> in Abu Dis couldn't continue beyond what I did earlier this year.<br />
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<b>The time you've spent in Israel and Palestine seems to have been transformative in many ways. Can you tell us about <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/2013/05/14/a-week-at-al-quds-bard-honors-college/">the work you were doing at Al Quds Bard</a>?</b><br />
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Yes, it's been extremely important to me. The link to Al Quds Bard came about as part of the Open Society Institute's Academic Fellowship Program, which provides support for scholars who were trained in North America or Western Europe to return to their home countries as part of plans to support universities and, more broadly, civil society. It was set up initially in post-Soviet states, but has broadened to include Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Palestine. As part of the scheme, returning academics have a more senior academic working with them to provide support, guidance and career development. I was delighted to be asked by <a href="http://societyandspace.com/reviews/reviews-archive/samman-maha-2013-trans-colonial-urban-space-in-palestine-reviewed-by-stuart-elden/">Maha Samman</a> and <a href="http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=4118&ed=223&edid=223">Nadim Khoury</a> to serve in that capacity.<br />
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The Honors College is based at the Abu Dis campus of Al Quds University, which has other campuses in Jerusalem/Al Quds and Ramallah but these are logistically difficult for students to get to. Abu Dis is a town cut in half by the West Bank wall, and while I'd visited both sides of the wall several times before, it was only on this trip that I really experienced its impact on the everyday life of people.<br />
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Getting from East Jerusalem to the campus is a much longer and more circuitous route than before the wall, passing several Israeli settlements on the road towards Ma'ale Adumin, past E1 on the hilltop, then doubling back to end up close to where we started. Palestinians who have Jerusalem ID papers can use the roads and faster checkpoints, but if they have a West Bank ID with a Jerusalem residence permit they need to use a checkpoint on foot. I travelled with two Palestinian academics every day, and the trip was very complicated because of their different residence statuses. We had to drop off one at a different checkpoint and then drive around to collect him at the other side. This can also be a very difficult journey for students coming from different parts of the West Bank, so there isn't a culture of asking why people are late for class.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</div><br />
<div style="line-height: 180%;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The campus was interesting in itself, as the wall cuts through it, and there is a fascinating museum named after Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir) that focuses on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The design of the building replicates the West Bank wall and checkpoints — made all the more striking by the real wall only meters away.</span></i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</div><br />
The campus was interesting in itself, as the wall cuts through it, and there is a fascinating <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/2013/05/14/abu-jihad-museum-for-the-prisoners-movement-affairs/">museum named after Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir)</a> that focuses on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The design of the building replicates the West Bank wall and checkpoints — made all the more striking by the real wall only meters away. The exhibits are very powerful, and on the top floor there is an archive with letters, photographs and other material.<br />
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While at Al Quds Bard I attended classes led by Nadim and Maha on political theory and urban studies, ran a small workshop on publishing and gave a lecture about my work on territory. I also participated in meetings on teaching, planning the degrees and so on. The position was renewed for a second year, but logistically it was just not possible for me. My new role at Warwick takes me to Australia in term two and to New York in term three, and my wife works in international development, currently in Ghana. A life on four continents is complicated enough, but to try to work out times for regular trips to Palestine as well was just too difficult, especially given the complications and hassles of Israeli border bureaucracy.<br />
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Earlier visits had been through Ben-Gurion University, where geographers and political scientists are among the most critical voices in Israeli academia and receive a lot of criticism for precisely that. They recently managed to block <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-education-body-reverses-decision-to-close-ben-gurion-university-politics-department.premium-1.503188">attempts to close the Ben-Gurion Department of Politics and Government</a> for largely political reasons. Returning to your previous question about activism, one thing that is perhaps surprising is how ineffective university academics have been at challenging things going on in their own universities and within the higher education sector as a whole. So many people are critical, but collective organization has been very poor — at least in the UK. You could point to increased workload, to a breakdown in collectivity, to changing political and economic conditions (the economic mobilized to justify a lack of political alternatives). It is striking that there has been so little debate about, and pressure against, what universities have become.<br />
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<b>You made a good point earlier that writing can be a form of activism, yet so much of an academic's time must be directed towards educating relatively privileged students, applying for grants, publishing in journals with high prices for public access, presenting at conferences attended by people who already have free access to these publications. I'm interested in "what universities have become" — the emergence and influence of tenure, rankings, endowments or other characteristics that you may have in mind. The points you've made here encourage the perception that academia hasn't always been the way it generally is today, and that alternatives are conceivable. The Internet has made new forms of education possible but has also contributed to misunderstandings that provoke criticism along the lines of Ray Brassier's "<a href="http://www.kronos.org.pl/index.php?23151,896">online orgy of stupidity</a>" comment. Reflecting upon your active engagement with broader publics online as well as your experience in academia, how might the Internet be used to more effectively generate, finetune, transfer and archive knowledge?</b><br />
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I think it's important not to think everything that has happened has been for the worse. That clearly isn't the case. I don't know enough about the history of tenure and so on to be able to say how systems have changed in detail, but I think it's fair to say that expectations have increased for academics overall. In 1999, when I finished my PhD, expectations were tough and opportunities were very competitive, but it is harder now. Even with teaching, which might appear to be a constant, things have radically transformed. I don't necessarily mean content or quality in an absolute sense, but meeting expectations like multimedia presentations, for example, takes more time to get right. Research assessment, while not as quantity-dependent in the UK as widely assumed, still weights articles as equal to books and makes some people overly focused on publishing in specific journals. There are also expectations related to grant income and the so-called "impact" agenda. The way different research requires different funding and some lends itself much better to a more-than-academic audience is only slowly being worked through. Then there is the increase in administrative work — much of it triggered by external pressures. <br />
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But you asked about the Internet. It's interesting to think about the purpose of a blog. I use Progressive Geographies for at least three purposes: as a public notebook that alerts people to new books, articles, interviews or videos that I find interesting; as publicity for my own work, public talks, etc.; and as an informal way of talking about what I do. The way I see it, I blog about my work, I don't blog my work. For example, I posted various updates on the writing of <i>The Birth of Territory</i> and am currently doing the same for a book I'm writing now, <i><a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/future-projects/foucaults-last-decade/">Foucault’s Last Decade</a></i>. I think blogs can be very useful in complementing, promoting and enhancing other publication formats. Although I put finished articles on the site, I haven't tended to share early drafts of papers. I do put up audio and video recordings of lectures, which are works in progress, and share some of my working tools: the <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/resources/boko-haram-an-annotated-bibliography/">annotated bibliography on Boko Haram</a>, for example, or brief translations of Foucault. People seem to appreciate these kinds of things — I certainly do on other sites.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItW0Inp4OMB_mDzrbqxLHh-k9RODhHAkin26rAB3kqqOiwbzc3kCtDR1AW-8ADK6mAzFOxPq2iT9vQxqJ3FQamL-xqfLkBmV7Mq4LvFGl220uN1TXj7VyXeYzhYwdFTcLrWpbI-SlIXU/s540/boko-haram_wide-54b7935e5b82be0faa59475e71a3f375ac50b21a.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 110%;"><small>Aftermath of a raid by Boko Haram militants in Benisheik, Nigeria. Source: <a href="http://www.ideastream.org/news/npr/246148209">Ideastream</a></small></div><br />
Brassier's point is interesting, but I suspect it has more to do with philosophical disagreements and personal relationships fracturing. I don't think it is an indictment of the whole medium. It's helpful when publishers make sample material available online, and for older books there is some excellent material available in repositories. There is also much newer material available, often illegally uploaded, which I'm less keen on for reasons discussed earlier.<br />
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Audio recordings by the <a href="http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/">Backdoor Broadcasting Company</a> are very useful, and the availability of academic talks on YouTube is excellent. There has been a discussion recently of the Internet becoming a replacement for lectures, as the same content can be delivered to a much larger audience through the so-called Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). I guess it depends on the purpose of the lecture, but even if there is some opportunity for dialogue, a recording is never going to replace being there in person. I was really fortunate to have the opportunity to hear Derrida speak a couple of times before he died, and I wouldn't trade the chance to see contemporary thinkers in person for a recording.<br />
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Archiving is an interesting question, particularly for blogs. It's an issue we've been trying to address with the <i>Society and Space</i> open site. They say that you can never entirely delete something on the Internet, but I'm not sure that is quite the case. I do know that the British Library is looking at projects related to online archiving, and there was the recent furor about the British Conservative Party deleting some of its pre-2010 election pledges. There's such a vast proliferation of material out there, it can be difficult to navigate. Archiving may help in this sense as well.<br />
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<b>The Boko Haram material you shared is a great asset, and I've enjoyed following <a href="http://progressivegeographies.com/category/thinkers/michel-foucault/"><i>Foucault's Last Decade</i> as it unfolds</a>. In <i>A Thing of This World</i>, <a href="http://philosophy.usf.edu/faculty/lbraver/">Lee Braver</a> mentions evidence that Foucault was "on the verge of a very important <a href="http://books.google.ru/books?id=YIG-HyP3tesC&lpg=PA427&vq=%22a%20very%20important%20new%20conception%20of%20agency%22&hl=ru&pg=PA427#v=onepage&q=%22a%20very%20important%20new%20conception%20of%20agency%22&f=false">new conception of agency</a> before he died." What do you make of this?</b><br />
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I'm certainly very interested in what Foucault does in his last writings, and I'm hoping that as I progress with the book I'll be able to make some connections. What I'm trying to do is write an intellectual history of Foucault's <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Sexuality">The History of Sexuality</a></i>. As is well known, he published three volumes of this, but the second and third came out eight years after the first, very shortly before he died. A fourth volume on the early church, <i>The Confession of the Flesh</i>, remains unpublished even though a manuscript exists.<br />
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When Foucault published the first volume (<i><a href="http://books.google.ru/books?vid=9780141037646&redir_esc=y">The Will to Knowledge</a></i>) in 1976, he envisioned a plan for five more: on the body and confession, on children, on women, on perverts, and on population and race. Crucially, the confession volume was going to address a quite different time period than that of the later fourth volume. We know from various sources that Foucault completed drafts of some of these originally planned volumes but moved to a different plan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There are numerous plans, not just two, as well as different configurations of material and other volumes he says he planned to write: on psychiatric expertise in penal affairs, on hermaphrodites, on torture and truth, on techniques of the self. It's not always clear whether or not he intended these to be part of the sexuality series. I'm trying to use all available material to trace the project from inception to near completion.<br />
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The title <i>Foucault's Last Decade</i> came about because we know he was working on <i>The History of Sexuality</i> from 1974 — he apparently started the first volume on the very day he completed <i>Discipline and Punish</i> — until his death in 1984. The lecture courses in 1973-1974 and 1974-1975 give some good indications of work he was doing on hysteria, confession, masturbation and perversion. In many later courses we see him exploring related material, and can thus track some of the transitions in his thinking. There are also traces of the project much further back, of course, and I'm including these in a couple of introductory chapters.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</div><br />
<div style="line-height: 180%;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Reading what Foucault says about power and resistance from the early- to mid-1970s complicates a lot of the straightforward ways his work is presented and criticized. As he says, the way around the problem of the subject was to write a genealogy of it. This is why so much of the sexuality work is only about sexuality in a very broad sense, and why he is so interested in ideas about freedom, the self, techniques, governance.</span></i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</div><br />
While I've worked on Foucault quite a bit, I'm finding it very revealing to return to the texts in chronological order, encountering links and relations that I hadn't seen before. The updates on the blog have been opportunities to talk about the process rather than the content of what I've been doing. It might appear that I've gotten a little sidetracked by some things that seem to be minor issues — when Foucault was in various places, when he lectured on specific topics, when exactly he wrote a text, and so on — but they are parts of the puzzle I'm trying to reconstruct.<br />
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At the moment I'm at around 1976, not an especially good position to answer the question about his very last works. I suspect that rereading all that material after the fascinating courses of the late 1970s and early 1980s — some of which are only just out in French or still to come — will be illuminating. Reading what Foucault says about power and resistance from the early- to mid-1970s complicates a lot of the straightforward ways his work is presented and criticized. As he says, the way around the problem of the subject was to write a <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/#4.3">genealogy</a> of it. This is why so much of the sexuality work is only about sexuality in a very broad sense, and why he is so interested in ideas about freedom, the self, techniques, governance and, I suppose, agency. Still, I'm a little reluctant to use that word to describe Foucault's thinking — he would probably be more inclined to talk of freedom, care of the self, techniques of the self, and resistance. That seems to be what Lee Braver is getting at.<br />
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We can see that Foucault was trying out ideas in lecture courses two or three years before they appeared in <i>Discipline and Punish</i> and <i>The History of Sexuality</i>. With the later volumes, Foucault wrote the books in a different order to how they were published, or at least wrote versions of the books in a different order. But the lecture courses show him trying out ideas, discussing different source material — in the mid-1970s often cases of individuals, in the 1980s more commonly texts from the tradition — that would sometimes make their way into the writings he chose to publish in his own lifetime. One thing I'm trying to be very careful about is respecting the distinction between different types of writing. There is a longstanding debate about the use of Nietzsche's notebooks alongside his published books, and this is discussed a bit in relation to Heidegger with lecture courses and manuscripts. The debate hasn't happened to the same degree with Foucault, but I do think it's important. I sometimes hear people referring to his "book" <i><a href="http://home.ku.edu.tr/~mbaker/CSHS503/FoucaultSocietyDefended.pdf">Society Must Be Defended</a></i>, for example, and imagine what it must be like for someone whose first introduction to reading Foucault is a lecture course. There are significant differences in wording, mode of argument, presentation of material, authorial voice. Nonetheless, the resources we now have are so interesting alongside the books that I think we can do valuable work with them.<br />
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<b>What do you foresee as the enduring value in the work you've done and the work you plan to do?</b><br />
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In a sense this isn't for me to say, and it's hard to predict the way ideas by anyone are taken up and used. The positive reaction to <i>Terror and Territory</i> surprised me, for example, as I didn't think it was my best work. That undoubtedly has to do with topicality, though I hope it also has something to do with the book's accessibility and arguments. <i>State, Space, World</i> — published in the same year — seemed to me a more valuable contribution. I also thought <i>Speaking Against Number</i> had the potential to make a bigger splash than it did, given the ongoing interest in Heidegger and politics. With the Lefebvre translations, <i>Key Writings</i> made relatively little impact despite providing an overview of Lefebvre's work and being the only source in English for a sampling of his philosophical writings; <i>Rhythmanalysis</i> received much more attention. So, it's hard to predict the likely interest and contribution of things in advance. All that said, I certainly hope that <i>The Birth of Territory</i> will be seen as the best book I've done so far.<br />
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The other thing that I think is an important contribution is the editorial and translation work. Some is in <i>Society and Space</i>, then there are the three Lefebvre collections and the translations in books I've edited or co-edited on Foucault, Kant and Sloterdijk. Most of this is commissioned rather than done by me, but still enabled by the project. It's not terribly well recognised in some of the bureaucratic assessments we discussed earlier, but it's important in opening new possibilities for application by others.<br />
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Looking forward, it's even harder to say. I'm certainly excited by the Foucault and Shakespeare books I'm currently writing, and hope they will come to be seen as good contributions. The earth/world work is still in its early stages, as with the urban, but I think there is something to say there. I certainly hope my best work is some ways ahead of me, not yet planned or even anticipated.<br />
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</div>petersigristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01653915776728182869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-82821349122604663532014-01-18T07:28:00.000-05:002017-11-11T13:37:10.356-05:00Elizabeth Blackmar on Public Space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOoRUjM3XCeFF2qrpgE38uCKt7O5SqvzxfGuYXz7YYLJQNzEzLpwGnj7o5fj9sdwe-toKT4vP7tYrC4ZHFzF8N7onnGwxxxnRGB6R0JEsg7G26eyf35Ud6M-XE7R8fArqDXUVzc_KolYc/s576/future-commons-arthus.gif" width="540" /><br />
<small>Source: <a href="http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/connect/events/2011/aug/89850-future-of-the-commons">Te Aria Nui Charitable Trust</a></small><br />
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“The scholars’ contest over whether ‘the commons’ would be understood as a historical set of social relations, as a metaphor for a primitive past that spawned an enlightened future, or simply as a scenario for decision making was overtaken in the 1960s with the rise of a new trope, which continues to circulate to this day. In a 1968 article in <i>Science</i> magazine, the biologist and environmentalist Garrett Hardin illustrated his argument on behalf of regulating population growth by describing a ‘tragedy of the commons.’ ...<br />
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“A loosely defined ‘property rights movement’ ran variations on the theme of the ‘tragedy of the commons’ as it fashioned solutions that ranged from ‘free market environmentalism’ to World Bank-sponsored ecological management. At the same time, although efforts to privatize state services and property received their greatest boost from the hard facts of fiscal crisis, that movement also scored points off the trope of commons in ways that helped usher in the public-private partnership as a model for governance of public property and hence public space. ...<br />
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“Some have suggested that the fantasy of limitless private wealth has distorted the vision and values of propertied Americans, turning self-interest into a crabbed and literal-minded miserliness. Cold War anticonmmunism, the economic trauma of deindustrialization, and the political disruptions and gains of social movements in the 1950s and 1960s left economic elites fearful rather than confident in the assimilative powers of public institutions. And, as was true among environmental activists, leftists as well as libertarians thought that public officials could not be counted on to protect or advance the common good. Some scholars suggest that with abundance, Americans outgrew their collective need — even their capacity — for a public realm. Others argue that the public itself was felt to have become too large, too inclusive, its rewards too widely disseminated in too many forms — too democratic. Whatever the cause, the demise of the idea of a democratic public domain in the United States is a loss that extends beyond its borders.<br />
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“It is not possible, of course, to construct a global public; at a global scale, the ideas of democratic access and accountability associated with public space stretch beyond recognition, for people do not live their lives as members of abstract communities or spaces. Of necessity, common property regimes around the world are represented as sharply bounded, local, and delimited, usually with reference to particular kinds of resources, such as fish, land, and forest. The discourse of property rights has created ways of imagining that those independent systems of allocating property rights and sharing resources might continue at the sufferance of international proprietors — the NGOs who are taking figurative ownership of the globe’s ‘future’ and who in their capacity as guardians have set about evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of any given system to determine which should be left in place and which should be reformed. Local practices can create their own space for unexpected contingencies, new openings that can redirect strategic calculation on a larger scale, of course. But without larger institutions of government, there are not many ways most ordinary people with limited means can collectively deliberate over what they wish to control or leave for their descendants by way of shared resources, institutions or public spaces.<br />
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“Historically, public space was created as public property, and if that institution has run its course, if there is no language or theory that affirms that people can build and maintain governments that can build and maintain public space, we should all pay attention, for we have observed one more tragedy in our own time.” <br />
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— Elizabeth Blackmar in “<a href="http://books.google.ru/books?id=x8T7qheiI2oC&lpg=PA49&ots=RLpiJ1u2py&dq=Appropriating%20%27the%20Commons%27%3A%20The%20Tragedy%20of%20Property%20Rights%20Discourse&hl=ru&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q=Appropriating%20'the%20Commons':%20The%20Tragedy%20of%20Property%20Rights%20Discourse&f=false">Appropriating ‘the Commons’: The Tragedy of Property Rights Discourse</a>,” 2006<br />
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<i>This is part of the Polis collection of <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/search/label/quotes">quotes</a> related to cities.</i><br />
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petersigristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01653915776728182869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-58639496901784172392014-01-10T06:41:00.004-05:002017-11-11T13:44:49.225-05:00Data Collection in the Moscow Metro<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><small><i>by Gulnaz Aksenova and Artur Shakhbazyan</i></small><br />
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In the words of John Holland, "<a href="http://books.google.ru/books?hl=ru&id=8KkfAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22pattern+in+time%22">the city is a pattern in time</a>." Yet actions within its boundaries leave traces. Whether crossing the street, making a phone call or entering the subway, our traces are retained in the city's memory.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9dK2x1toWt_I4BqGVxGY9oc00MoOIkH1KKoPfKs08AN0W60B0mbuQDSFhwIvG62yg99tNX3xBpAF3M7HECKYjJOHKCW2YwoPuyMCG8dCeUngSzUqm6cxkm_3tW87p5wIRm8LRLKNCHIA/s1600/ca29e97f-02b3-4e88-a59e-9fe3c8e0dfb0.Moscow_605-0293_Moscow.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Arbatskaya Station, Moscow Metro. Source: <a href="http://www.insightguides.com/destinations/europe/russia/moscow/overview">Insight Guides</a></small><br />
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As the world becomes more digitized, so have our traces, joining the massive aggregate known as <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation">big data</a>. This information is updated daily by sensors tracking social media, traffic flows, retail transactions, mobile phones, GPS signals and many other sources. A virtually limitless trove of quantitative measures, it has the potential to add new dimensions to our understanding of human experience in urban environments. But the positive and negative aspects of this potential defy measurement.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHh4eNCcKyWoOoZJ1x2VsiN43628SYegCA3QjuWGzYvnf4LNS42-laKrrBHGeuGuE4wFs-TACq67w5vU3D8zgqEF9Km6Y3ckGxOf5N-U564_op_pxslcG7ptasjSTJWjPErDtdWdGtlKY/s1600/metro-cover.png" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 120%;"><small>Visualization of human symptoms of stress on the Sokolnicheskaya Line of the Moscow Metro. Relative stress levels range from dark red (lowest) to light yellow (highest).</small></div><br />
The <a href="http://mosmetro.ru/flash/scheme11.html">Moscow Metro</a> is full of urban traces. An estimated <a href="http://www.brand-metro.ru/">70 percent of Muscovites</a>, representing almost all social strata, use the Metro on a regular basis. This is inevitably tied to interaction with technology, both directly (validating tickets, riding escalators, using emergency call stands) and indirectly (being recorded by CCTV). The Metro's underground passages have become urban laboratories for collecting and analyzing data.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnKtfj_-cRp5Ms8nJB2idvK26nr9fK5KnkI-v8WJBfeYqdC64Fz1o-H6A2EnQ3hhb2fN8jVO8VuPEEUdSib2v27KkVYnXZt2fEA-JwnVI9nlR51H9g8as_LNp0gprNqWSpuy0Fef4RBU/s1600/472700863.jpg" /><br />
<small>Crowded platform in the Park Kultury Station. Source: <a href="http://ria.ru/moscow/20120321/602189815.html">RIA Novosti</a></small><br />
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Macro data are among the oldest and most widely used sources, offering a snapshot of the past that can be used to forecast general trends. We know how many passengers used the Metro in the past few years and can thus predict the approximate number for the current year. What we do not know, at least from publicly available statistics, is how busy each station or train is at a given time, which is more intriguing.<br />
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Social media provides user-generated data from digital telecommunications and the Internet. Today, anyone can add to big data via cell phones and computers, sharing their thoughts or simply their locations. Digital networks collect information as people update their statuses and chat with friends, contributing to global databases that archive this activity.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvYr-as0Gv_56w4-opiNg_NHm0jQutf798F_2UNAACoYvvQI-u7f_pvKJNgnA1rz5xcXS4JqwGxV3kTqhS-ysk7nPM_IyQxO5xwmbsPh0YT4EsmJUMMzorerVu9RtIozyAyN0ds1P05KVC/s1600/4sq_map_polis-02.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Regularity of Foursquare check-ins in the Moscow Metro.</small><br />
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The Foursquare social network allows users to show where they are by "checking in" online. They can also rate places and leave tips for others based on their experience. These data show, for example, that stations in Moscow's outlying residential districts have surprisingly higher rates of check-in per user than those in the city center.<br />
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Biological data can tell us about human-environment interactions at local and global scales. Recent studies have addressed <a href="http://biomapping.net/">outdoor settings and their influence on experience</a>. Yet there is relatively little research on the impacts of indoor transitive spaces, like subway stations.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97YlQLeTO3WtLtfnoCLmJr5nZ3S1wk116N4TdnJyVFIlwCu5qXJ_hMcUkZCAtDxraUBBCmy97Q7_rWWCuiH_d2YBBhs3f6thrz_js_fEGteJXE-EXRx1Gqho9p5r4D_I6g1LAvZeHBgfk/s1600/Metro_red+line_story_150613+full+separate+data-1.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97YlQLeTO3WtLtfnoCLmJr5nZ3S1wk116N4TdnJyVFIlwCu5qXJ_hMcUkZCAtDxraUBBCmy97Q7_rWWCuiH_d2YBBhs3f6thrz_js_fEGteJXE-EXRx1Gqho9p5r4D_I6g1LAvZeHBgfk/s1600/Metro_red+line_story_150613+full+separate+data-1.jpg" width="540" /></a><br />
<small>Human ecological data from the Sokolnicheskaya Line (click for an enlarged image).</small><br />
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Earlier this year, as students at the Strelka Institute, we built <a href="https://github.com/igoraven/arduino-biologger">a wearable data-collection tool</a> to gather information on human-environment interactions in the Moscow Metro. The device measures <a href="http://www.media.mit.edu/galvactivator/faq.html">galvanic skin response</a>, body temperature, air temperature, humidity, noise levels and light intensity. This helped us identify where people experience stress or excitement, shedding light on contextual factors that influence their experience. <br />
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Embedded technologies are capable of recording, correlating and even anticipating human behavior. They can inform urban governance and play important roles in safeguarding health conditions, reducing criminal activity, improving transit efficiency, and other public services. At the same time, they can threaten privacy and facilitate the abuse of power.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLSCVqjazjuRuRCD4zsg1I1SHMrigSs6_BDOTyKfvXAXKyG7twWZ9QkGLfn8dx5h3NB1G16r84wtBfrahKfCyKPV0iY2f7mhggiGm6EvJWf_MaMXJP2CsJgHDp3JbX3TX18foSdxEEUABl/s1600/data+laboratory.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Speculative forms of data collection and use in subway stations.</small><br />
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Data collection is becoming part of everyday life for Muscovites and visitors who use the Metro. Each person, train and station holds insight into solving urban problems. However, it is essential to remember that people decide how to apply data. These decisions must be transparent and democratic, with careful attention to potential errors and misuse.<br />
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<i><a href="http://ru.linkedin.com/pub/gulnaz-aksenova/4b/bba/aa0">Gulnaz Aksenova</a> and <a href="http://ru.linkedin.com/pub/arthur-shakhbazyan/33/b01/662">Artur Shakhbazyan</a> are 2013 graduates of the <a href="http://www.strelka.com/?lang=en">Strelka Institute</a> in Moscow. Gulnaz is now a doctoral student at the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, and Artur is a project director at the Moscow Department of Transportation.</i><br />
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<small>Credits: All images are by Gulnaz Aksenova and Artur Shakhbazyan unless otherwise noted.</small><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comMoscow, Russia55.755826 37.617355.1838695 36.3264065 56.3277825 38.9081935tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-55441612409732486242014-01-06T08:30:00.002-05:002017-11-11T13:53:01.928-05:00Housing Demolition and the Right to Place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><small><i>by Tony Roshan Samara</i></small><br />
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There is no small irony in the fact that the most notable achievement of affordable housing policy in the United States over the past two decades has been the systematic demolition of affordable housing stock. To understand this upside-down world of housing politics, at least as it collides with the lives of the urban poor, we have to understand the moral panic that has developed around the concept of concentrated poverty. Over time, this panic has hardened into a consensus among the urban policy elite. For its members, most if not all social ills associated with cities and poverty stem from too many poor people being gathered in one place.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZoKdqwSFqn9FQSOWauahelPZZgOAxG5tXRdOcuh-UOhX8DPseAyVSeb5KDTV2DfAlVoG7ksE8qoIVgJ1psLo7jWQZg4pGFSvBbKPI9NeSIStlFz9p4dc8yCZm0Gd6-GbIZESk2bIjVPEf/s1600/Cochran+Gardens,+St.+Louis.+Wiki+Commons.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/11/us/from-squalor-to-showcase-how-a-group-of-tenants-won-out.html">Cochran Gardens</a> in St. Louis, demolished 2008. Source: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cochran_Gardens_demo_04-STL_MO-1-3.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></small><br />
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As a result, poverty deconcentration has become the public policy hammer that defines as a nail virtually every problem related to urban inequality. And nowhere has this hammer been wielded to more devastating effect than against public housing. Public housing has long served as a convenient boogey man in debates about racial segregation and persistent, concentrated poverty in low income communities of color. It has been evoked repeatedly by conservative and liberal administrations over the past twenty-five years as they raced to dismantle the welfare state, achieving the status of conventional wisdom: "You don't think concentrated poverty is a problem? Just look at public housing!" Importantly, influential strands of academic research have provided <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2008.00381.x/abstract">intellectual firepower for the policy</a>.<br />
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As a highly racialized metaphor, "the projects" have a power to reshape the urban landscape that their residents can only dream about. Since the early 1990s, in city after city, the alleged failure of public housing as social policy facilitated demolition, even as the affordable housing situation for very low-income city residents grew ever more grim. Between 2000 and 2008 alone, over 99,000 public housing units were lost — a rate of 11,000 per year — primarily as a result of the HOPE VI program, a legacy of the first Clinton Administration. At the same time, the market forces that were nominally intended to make up for the destroyed housing units instead replaced the people they had once sheltered.<br />
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This scorched-earth policy did not go completely unnoticed. In 2009, congressional representatives Barney Frank and Maxine Waters called for a <a href="http://nhlp.org/files/01%20Frank%20and%20Waters%20Renew%20Call%20for%20Moratorium.pdf">moratorium on the demolition of public housing</a>, referring to the losses as "epic." One year later, after a special mission to the US, the United Nations rapporteur on the right to housing repeated the call. However, demolition continues and public housing projects have virtually disappeared in some cities. In Atlanta, for example, the last units were torn down in 2011.<br />
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While the loss of actual housing for very low-income residents is the most obvious outcome of demolition, policies promoting deconcentration, mobility and mixed-income developments have a much broader impact. Tearing down public housing and dispersing its residents, for example, has broken up entire communities and cleared the way for widespread gentrification in many inner-city areas.<br />
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After decades of research, the failure of these policies to alleviate poverty or even maintain existing levels of affordable housing is impossible to ignore. Yet the consensus around poverty concentration and, to a lesser extent, market solutions to urban poverty remains — apparently oblivious to the devastation for which it is responsible.<br />
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There is a growing backlash against these trends among urban scholars that dovetails with the growing awareness of just how bad inequality has become. As part of this response, I recently co-edited, along with Anita Sinha and Marnie Brady, a <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/cities/news/public-housing-and-the-public-agenda/">special issue of <i>Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning </i>on affordable housing</a>. The issue, in turn, is an effort to engage with a <a href="http://www.righttothecity.org/index.php/resources/reports/item/61-we-call-these-projects-home">report on public housing</a> released in 2010 by the Right to the City alliance. [Disclosure: Each of the editors works or has in the past worked closely with the alliance.]<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9CEhTR-bYkLcRAKIlvW1AnQoYew3X005RWUrgvUev1RA6ggCrIfd6dNXEr95hBZGmnOXRPNIwTObgJGZ1pMNYp0CnBW-uHNLuaKyIO3QxP-p_VHv8U15YHwwcqQCXfan89X_8a7NFjZfi/s1600/Rockwell+Gardens,+Chicago.+Demolished+2003..jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 120%;"><small><a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/keyword/rockwell-gardens">Rockwell Gardens</a> in Chicago, demolished in 2003. This <a href="http://www.thecha.org/filebin/pdf/FY2006-Annual-Plan.pdf">redevelopment</a> replaced over 1,100 public housing units with 264 public housing units, 265 "affordable" units and 326 market-rate units. Source: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Demolition_of_Rockwell_Gardens.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></small></div><br />
The Right to the City report is unique because it involved residents of public housing from seven metropolitan regions in both the design and implementation of the research. The result is arguably the most comprehensive study we have of what public housing residents actually think about the places in which they live — or once lived. The picture that emerges challenges the widely circulated racist, sexist and classist stereotypes that underpin the myth of public housing as a policy failure.<br />
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Against the view that public housing is the social and spatial epitome of an urban pathology, the report presents the views of residents who believe that public housing does and can continue to work, that repair and upgrading are preferable to demolition and that demolition destroys communities along with homes. It also argues that, to the extent public housing has fallen into disrepair, this is the result of decades-long neglect and disinvestment.<br />
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The idea behind the special issue of <i>Cities</i> is to advance a debate about urban poverty and inequality that has grown stagnant, even as it continues to provide ideological cover for ineffective and destructive policy. While we hope it contributes to an effort to put deconcentration advocates on the defensive, our real interest is in simply leaving behind the distorted framework it offers and participating in the more vibrant intellectual and political work being done by researchers, community activists and others to address the intertwined challenges of displacement, poverty and political marginalization.<br />
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Debates over the outcomes of deconcentration and mobility programs are important but, in our view, largely settled. Our <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275112001928">introduction</a> to the special issue of <i>Cities</i> refers to many related studies for those interested in exploring them in detail. We see deconcentration policies, however well intentioned, as expressions of austerity politics that convert homes and communities into real estate, driving former residents into a hostile and discriminatory market to individually chase "opportunity." We contrast this market-based mobility approach with a discussion of public housing and the right to place.<br />
<br />
Our focus is on what is lost when homes are torn down and people are displaced. This view is largely absent from elite discourse, which reduces complicated communities to the policy-ready concept of the concentrated poor. The relentless demonization of public housing and its residents over many decades has made it extremely difficult to even discuss the positive social, economic and political histories of public housing, much less its potential for the future as the affordable housing crisis grinds on. In the distorted view that has come to predominate, the role of public housing in anchoring social relations and political mobilization for low-income communities of color is erased.<br />
<br />
Articles in the special issue are part of an ongoing effort to reorient the research on poverty deconcentration toward the important history of public housing as a site of empowerment for people of color, especially for women. There is a relatively small but growing interest in crucial support networks that residents build over the years as a result, in part, of spatial concentration. From a research and policy perspective, these networks represent important challenges to the racist and dehumanizing rhetoric of "highrise hell holes" and other tired metaphors. Yet the centrality of public housing to these networks, and the consequences of its destruction, have elicited barely a whisper from deconcentration advocates in a rush to level the projects.<br />
<br />
Contributors to the issue also analyze how the ideology of concentrated poverty works to obscure the relationship between demolition and neoliberalism, particularly the partnership between market and state that has been so effective in clearing neighborhoods of existing residents in preparation for redevelopment. Authors here and elsewhere have argued that popular and academic discourses on concentrated poverty, opportunity and mobility are heirs of older "culture of poverty" arguments deployed by conservatives and liberals alike to dismantle social welfare policy. Today, critical studies of market fundamentalism and social inequality reveal the extent to which the spatial politics of contemporary cities represent what David Harvey calls "<a href="http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5811/2707#.Usgc-2QW1OE">accumulation by dispossession</a>."<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3a9TAbQHzjQ" width="540"></iframe><br />
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In this context, individualism, choice and mobility become mechanisms of dispossession that hinge to a great extent on dismantling stubborn concentrations of poverty — or what some might call poor and resilient communities. Rather than attempting to strengthen these communities, dispersion policies scatter their members to other poor inner-city areas or to increasingly race- and class-diverse suburbs. Poverty and segregation are not reduced, but are rendered less visible from certain social and spatial vantage points.<br />
<br />
In the end, a fresh view of public housing demolition and the deconcentration of poverty suggests that these policies do not create opportunities for the urban poor. Instead, they represent new cycles of accumulation and attempted management of resulting inequalities. From social and political perspectives, poverty deconcentration functions primarily as a form of disorganization, making it much more difficult for low-income people to collectively mobilize. Rather than increasing the upward mobility of marginalized communities, it decreases their ability to assert a right to place.<br />
<br />
<i><a href="http://soan.gmu.edu/people/tsamara">Tony Roshan Samara</a> is an associate professor of sociology at George Mason University. He also chairs the <a href="http://citiesandglobalization.org/">Cities and Globalization Working Group</a> and serves on the national steering committee of the <a href="http://righttothecity.org/">Right to the City</a> alliance. Tony welcomes correspondence via Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/CGWG2">@CGWG2</a>) or email (<a href="mailto:samar495@gmail.com">samar495@gmail.com</a>), and many of his publications can be downloaded free of charge at <a href="http://gmu.academia.edu/tonyroshansamara">Academia.edu</a>.</i><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-5062785714792083982013-12-21T05:38:00.000-05:002017-11-10T18:11:31.759-05:00David Madden on the Shanghai World Expo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Pp2RNsDfX7mHbxGZ16yeS-SlM4PPPRPXbPyWyfLcdL_Uicn7yLVUDFS5LzKS3fzY6qiWCMIknyCDa3Nmp88h6uvIKP58yC7zyRQPD9kiAa9V7TVZL_aQR3Xybo9XBbiRGJOtURW4-uQ/s1600/denmark-pavillion-for-shanghai-expo-2010-big2.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Danish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010. Source: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5151051/the-twirly-danish-pavilion-at-the-shanghai-expo-2010">Gizmodo</a></small><br />
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“[T]he 2010 World Expo in Shanghai ... suggested that the horizon of politics lies in the development of progressively smarter solutions by an alliance of business, science, and authoritarian state and city governments. The global-urban problematic, from this perspective, is above all a question of efficiency and proper management, where political contentiousness, like pollution, is one more problem to be solved.”<br />
<br />
— David Madden in “<a href="http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=d17310">City Becoming World: Nancy, Lefebvre, and the Global-Urban Imagination</a>,” 2012<br />
<br />
<i>This is part of the Polis collection of <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/search/label/quotes">quotes</a> related to cities.</i><br />
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petersigristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01653915776728182869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-80882005471261879292013-12-01T03:24:00.000-05:002017-11-11T13:41:38.539-05:00Corruption and Cities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Dieter Zinnbauer</i></small><br />
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Creative, inclusive and just. Safe, healthy and green. Adaptive, resilient and sustainable. Urbanists frequently articulate these visions for cities, but an important element is missing: integrity.<br />
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By integrity I mean transparent governance with preventative measures for controlling corruption — a necessary condition for improving the quality of life in cities.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15bNtOx0rYfylI-ZkrKZEvcdBKw1pT3HaX8R5nnuD0AzV_6UtlZ4tW-LdtkEhYMMoymnjlcdn91_-OqLbfZgPK4AZ6ic3cwhyphenhyphen1vLHGiLAyH5wbN1Nllk1EDYtlBbNW5H3cbh4Onr5NJhL/s1600/Police.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: left;"><small>Source: Rodrigo Abd via the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-5033367-504083.html">Associated Press</a></small></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Corruption is not a "<a href="http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300036411">weapon of the weak</a>" that greases the wheels of creaky government systems. It is also not a petty nuisance to be ignored. Corruption systemically undermines livelihoods, justice, health, resilience, safety and democracy.<br />
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Does this sound like an exaggeration? Let’s take a closer look.<br />
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Entrusted with the power to enforce laws, police who abuse their authority become a source of chronic injustice. Unfortunately, this is a common situation in cities around the world.<br />
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In a recent <a href="http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013">household survey</a> across a representative sample of over 100 countries, 42 percent of urban residents who had interacted with the police indicated that they were coerced into paying a bribe. The figures are even more startling in rapidly urbanizing countries: 67 percent in India, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and 80 percent in Bangladesh and Nigeria.<br />
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Urban justice is unattainable when law enforcement is for sale to the highest bidder.<br />
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Thoroughly documented <a href="http://www.transparency.org/research/gcr/gcr_health">corruption in the healthcare sector</a> disproportionately affects low-income communities. Doctors on the public payroll don't show up for work so they can bring in extra income from private practice. <a href="http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/2/83.long">Medicines are unaffordable or unavailable</a> due to illegal sales. Hospital workers overcharge, embezzle funds and peddle off <a href="http://www.medwelljournals.com/fulltext/?doi=rjmsci.2011.257.261">counterfeit drugs</a> to unsuspecting patients.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqbMmfxqGbm8hmko5blewR8hS2zQdvWXURUw02XxaC5ez2KgSWEkn6-umoNkKQeIejqY7IMFE1xOUyJXh55ZitTLurQEbbUvQm3ryigliLwud6tw5RrFMPBZJKOjibUG4gTLTG-1CFGsT/s1600/fakedrugs460.jpg" /><br />
<small>Source: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/11/pharmaceuticals.drugs">The Guardian</a></small><br />
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<a href="http://www.transparency.org/research/gcr/gcr_water_sector">Access to safe drinking water</a> becomes all but impossible when 20 to 40 percent of water budgets go missing due to corruption, or when water mafias work with corrupt officials to keep low-income settlements off the public water networks so that private vendors can step in. Illegal dumping of toxic waste has long been a <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1305127">lucrative business for organized criminal networks</a>, exposing many communities to health hazards.<br />
<br />
Efforts to improve public health depend largely on controlling corruption, especially in urban environments where health risks are already at crisis levels.<br />
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Urban aspirations, and the many ways that corruption impedes them, are inexhaustible. I have documented an extensive list with empirical evidence in a new Transparency International working paper on <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2288558">corruption in cities</a>. <br />
<br />
The data point to a need for cooperation between urbanists and anti-corruption practitioners. A current disconnect between these communities hinders cross-fertilization, mutual learning and collaborative advocacy.<br />
<br />
A recent working paper on <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2168063">ambient accountability</a> investigates ways for architects, planners and concerned citizens to collaborate strategically in fighting urban corruption. I plan to discuss specific strategies in a future post. Critical feedback and ideas are always welcome.<br />
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<i>Dieter Zinnbauer is a specialist in policy and innovation for Transparency International. More of his work can be found on the <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1588618">Social Science Research Network</a> and <a href="http://ambient-accountability.org/">Ambient Accountability</a> websites.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-11606199295060752112013-11-30T09:34:00.000-05:002016-08-07T12:04:46.051-04:00Mark Purcell on ‘Chains of Equivalence’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZrOCDhk8Itg48uk_7AUBI7xODCm4IvkFVNUkjkJXOQGewxFszim7oEHXsDYn5DeOSpZMuHSIvee2UzipiXqdxrAZIf72ycw2AKu5KfdM8SZ4h9JiOAkIKnQq3YlkBOgv7iyWNyCvxRo/s1600/seattle.png" /><br />
<small>Source: <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115360/wto-protests-why-have-they-gotten-smaller">New Republic</a></small><br />
<br />
“Laclau and Mouffe (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony_and_Socialist_Strategy"><span class="s2">1985</span></a>, <a href="http://books.google.ru/books?id=-ZVoVtwCMz0C&pg=PR7&lpg=PR7&dq=Hegemony+and+Socialist+Strategy+second+edition&source=bl&ots=Q0UQkI0RX3&sig=uS_pM5UzmDJYWQHyqm7t0RDvHn0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=K8huUZrGLqGK4AT284HwCg&redir_esc=y"><span class="s2">2000</span></a>) understand that if we are to pursue a model of agonistic struggle, existing power differences mean that marginalized and disadvantaged groups will need to assemble creative and deeply political strategies to undo the current hegemony. In that context, they advocate what they call ‘chains of equivalence’: movements made up of allied groups seeking broad transformation of existing power relations. The groups in the chain each have their own distinct relation to the existing hegemony, and each group’s experience and interests are irreducible to the others. Each retains their difference. However, they are able to act in concert around an agenda of equivalence. That is, they see themselves as equivalently disadvantaged by existing power relations. ‘Equivalent’ in this case does not mean identical. They are not disadvantaged in precisely the same way, and Laclau and Mouffe explicitly reject the old-style social movements that reduced participants to a single social position (usually class). Each link in the chain remains distinct, but they operate together, in concert. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/egTCngQv66A" width="540"></iframe><br />
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“The most talked-about model for this kind of idea is the so-called ‘anti-globalization’ movement that carried out the string of protests in Seattle, Goteborg, Doha, Genoa, Geneva, Quebec, etc. The movement is better understood as an anti-neoliberalization movement, because it involved a range of groups (e.g. labor, environmentalists, anti-third-world debt, human rights in China, etc.) that shared an equivalent opposition to the globalization of neoliberalism. Their concerns were in many ways disparate (outsourcing of jobs, sea turtles, rediscovering jubilee obligations, the occupation of Tibet, etc.), but they strategically defined themselves as equivalent and acted together to oppose the WTO and other institutions committed to neoliberalization (<a href="http://books.google.ru/books/about/Multitude.html?id=LM2leHxCCiIC&redir_esc=y"><span class="s2">Hardt and Negri, 2004</span></a>). Each member of the coalition achieved much more than they could have alone, but they did not have to dissolve into a large and uniform collective to do it. While they did not achieve the end of neoliberal hegemony, they certainly succeeded in identifying it and calling it into question.”<br />
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— Mark Purcell in “<a href="http://plt.sagepub.com/content/8/2/140.abstract">Resisting Neoliberalization</a>,” 2009<br />
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<i>This is part of the Polis collection of <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/search/label/quotes">quotes</a> related to cities.</i><br />
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petersigristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01653915776728182869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-3419065271742960632013-11-25T16:00:00.000-05:002017-11-11T13:50:33.170-05:00A False Rendering of the New Banlieue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Alex Schafran</i></small><br />
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Virtually everywhere you go in the Parisian <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banlieue">banlieue</a></i>, you will find large signs drawing attention to "<a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politique_de_la_ville_en_France#Le_programme_national_de_r.C3.A9novation_urbaine_.28PNRU.29">urban renovation</a>" — major facelifts for large housing projects (<i>cités</i>), new public spaces in the centers of villages and towns, better integration with the myriad transit projects currently underway, entire blocks of housing.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2dFSVNyca2c4XyJRgEqt5RGBvgBUzvK8SCjOOTEeZooOHKjMuwmII7VHuhglK0FHj_6QPc1gK9o7fy5PeR8CastzacV68sHQ5c05QRVSgrAYFiThwWQ2sm8FdxvdftbT3vzAhgg10mnp/s400/cabougue.jpg" style="clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" width="405px" />Omnipresent construction, like most initiatives in France, is being done by a complex network of public, private and semi-public actors operating at every scale. Ideologues of either state or market would be incapable of understanding new development in France, for everything is a public-private partnership when you drill down deep enough. Regardless of who seems to be in charge of a project, there is liable to be a large billboard outside the construction zone with a celebratory rendering of what this space will look like — be it a revitalized public park, a downtown shopping zone or an eco-housing development built by a major developer. This, of course, is nothing unique — billboard-sized renderings have become part of the international language of city-building.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMv4O5sn000URBVA-Fm3yq_ne2YFWwHhaP91W2THoPbMKLX606doD_TVYyMgztLB7j-Ll5D8fk7Osbf7Y-EPq4SVeF6zr2FrUg-QWz0-V8ubD7zRdBSTm0vChdePZmpOjsksJHNXfyd0w/s640/villeneueve.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 120%;">
<small>Each of these pictures (top and bottom) are of the same site in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, but only one depicts an actual place.</small></div>
<br />
What is notable about these billboards is the people shown occupying the new space. It doesn't take a scholar of race to guess that the answer is not those who look anything like the population of the <i>banlieue</i>.<br />
<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5xnV1IoVJInc1RUJ7Ee8eLjVHGABwcIx-MfL0gdA6xNoJz1RaABPOCSo-BgaGLs3nd74eCguhiXGyVjvkJv0ELqt0AuKDNhQz-aocAS3db8D6aj_VGT_y1UnTirqF1-1veDZDceFAOAp/s1600/realargent.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>The actual center of Argenteuil (above) and the rendered version (below).</small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu4aSXGW_dnnEecXFLpF56IUpKTNgTxeDmC10I5Mqdgjd844dittTnWQAnPxRqicrte71E_kYagFzeeb9Dab_bRysCa5h7SAFXDuv9zVTw_Bcj16VB02Bc1yfNNdiWbwakx0FfsRj3FOfO/s1600/renderedargent.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<br />
The shocking thing about the "whitewashing" of places like Argenteuil, Choisy-le-Roi, Villetaneuse, Drancy and Asnières is how thorough it is, and how little it matters if it is formally a public or private venture. For me, what started as a passing observation has evolved into a research project. Of the hundreds of people in what are now dozens of renderings I've encountered in housing projects across four districts (<i>departments</i>), there are only a few people of color. And not only are the white people everywhere, they are often particularly blond and bourgeois or seemingly part of the vast "<a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeois-boh%C3%A8me">bobo</a>" class that has started to gentrify places like Montreuil and Pantin. At times it feels like a bad joke: in a major poster for the T8 tramline — which will connect Épinay-sur-Seine with Saint-Denis — the only black person, among over 50 people, was playing basketball. <br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdprSKz921DbuC8EqdOsnzggRSXZ9bTQEJWLAmsVzMyUICGKQnpV_gR2itDdHYeoxcokXjKdRyeBCIUutZcnrF2-VtBgnt1E3its6tDg6e-dI6uJf3WCcT9jPvOSPcZKtEUzolsQ3zKIA6/s1600/drancy.rome.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 120%;">
<small>The box in the upper-right corner is a blown-up version of the billboard to the left, near the Drancy-Bobigny border. The smoke in the background is from an informal settlement.</small></div>
<br />
Although I can't prove quantitatively that this is a false rendering — <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1887106,00.html">France doesn't collect data on race</a>, based on a tenet that since race exists only in theory, in theory it doesn't exist — not only do these cities have significant communities of color, I'd bet my bike and camera that many are now majority minority. I'd also be willing to wager that in many communities where these renderings have been tacked up in public space, they have been false for a generation now. Moreover, these renderings belie the fact that people in the public spaces of metropolitan Paris are strikingly diverse, both in the <i>banlieue </i>and in the city itself.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5XcSMxBsQT9KPXWe-_8eGiAMmoSUaKYb_DKJv-Wpgz_HMPpK_ehGLywJgs_hTWhiEsaYhTjr8ZJEFkj-TTZNKfutNTRVOU0LzGXl2yH97oQKzHIBWUCl36lCNJnKOfZNRPzUQ8SDO57k/s1600/big+photo.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<br />
There are a few exceptions to the many disingenuous billboards on display, including the group picture (above) from Argenteuil. But even this one, clearly intended to promote the harmonious vision of a multicultural and inclusive society, erases one of the most visible aspects of life in metropolitan France: Muslim women with head scarves. Spend five minutes on a busy street, in a park, on transit or outside a school at dismissal, and you will realize that women with their heads covered are part of the firmament in contemporary Île de France.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYvkR3_vljvZ_-oodlT3XdoFybJydm_PbZcJZ3u41bQrXgloSl4WVNPUC9J5pzgCNLFOLAizzEH0CqsYinG7m-HnXajHpLg1FUE9qI4Ik-vTuXOuNCINxYRFznTGbkEx93WoEYwtPwvE/s1600/coupleparklefebvre.jpg" /> <br />
<small>A couple on a bench in Parc Lefévre, Livry-Gargan. (The woman's hair is not red.)</small><br />
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Head scarves are a lightning rod for controversy in theoretically secular France. The urbane nation where James Baldwin felt so at home will surely be aghast at this whitewashing; but even much of the progressive wing of the French establishment would likely sit on their hands at the failure to show women in head scarves occupying public space, even if they are an undeniable presence.<br />
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<small>Credits: All pictures by Alex Schafran.</small><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comParis, France48.856614 2.352221900000017748.6894645 2.0294984000000178 49.0237635 2.6749454000000177tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-7298582573642892682013-11-15T06:43:00.001-05:002017-11-11T18:04:48.155-05:00Agitation Versus Inequality in Global Cities<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><small><i>by Deen Sharp</i></small><br />
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In 2012, Trenton Oldfield threw himself into the River Thames to protest elitism in Britain. Oldfield intentionally timed his leap to disrupt the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge, yet he may have underestimated the British establishment's love of sport. His act provoked a starkly revanchist reaction: he was sentenced to six months in prison and deemed unwelcome to continue living in the United Kingdom. He is now <a href="http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/theresa-may-home-office-stop-the-deportation-of-trenton-oldfield?share_id=FPvqdkUgOc&utm_campaign=share_button_action_box&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition">fighting</a> deportation to Australia.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheWeEpoaa9zfHW_hsw8lRdk60DUFCsWYse1W3eOUmdi9tJZp1glEqCzy3Q4oI-w2K1QAenFzg3-pZDmuwh-FeftZdrccVMjGu0iFlFysuV9ga3HjHOq_aSTq_tcyYJGs5ZFTeruicj4F4/s540/trenton%252Boldfield.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Trenton Oldfield in the River Thames. Source: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/rowing-boat-race-calls-in-the-marines-to-prevent-any-more-protests-8554803.html">The Independent</a></small><br />
<br />
Oldfield and his partner, Deepa Naik, are the founding directors of <a href="http://www.thisisnotagateway.net/">This Is Not A Gateway (TINAG)</a> and <a href="http://www.myrdlecourtpress.net/">Myrdle Court Press</a>, which serve as platforms for examining and transforming cities. They recently published the third volume of their book series <a href="http://criticalcities.net/"><i>Critical Cities: Ideas, Knowledge and Agitation from Emerging Urbanists</i></a>, which features writing and images by an international group of contributors from a wide variety of fields.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Vv6DJYjTA_NzMVnhC0fQ5swtrk6k8azPRrLNjKeoZtT5maz6recEHhJ6zz5pXP7dXMDbtpFEUoatKIq7OGVNqvn-enAw9e-Sq-ebRkrovsrIxta-aIOPHhzTuCBTJ8-CJSvZFFmCXug/s1600/CC+Vol+3.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<br />
The volume has four sections: Erase, Stretch, Relinquish; Archipelago; Agency; and Stratification. Archipelago and Stratification are the strongest and most enjoyable, in my view. Archipelago is about the "avant-garde spaces of modern capitalism." The authors feature surprising uses of financial districts in Hong Kong, Cyprus and London, with emphasis on the social, cultural, economic and political relations within them.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUb95kX_zjSD38iMqTLarqnXw0QduvbnLVpcFns-Rt01YPJwKJrc2Lknjt_Q4W10TCrdE5BrUz0QIXt2R42sZ7j1JYcYxAt2coKzYvDHcxFOMHvp8wpIUo4m0BiRmBI08UqaDG18ruL28/s1600/Olga+Lucia.tif" width="540" /><br />
<small>Source: "People of Corabstos," a photographic essay by Jhon Arias in <i>Critical Cities, Volume 3</i></small><br />
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"Pink: The Art of Being Confident," a photographic essay by Oldfield and Nanna Nielsen, is a fun and prescient analysis of the City of London in 2006. Alongside pictures of people wearing pink shirts to work, the authors share their reflections: "We wondered if the 'the City' [sic], despite being awash with scientific graphs and business models, was still dependent on the emotion of confidence." Nielsen and Oldfield capture this confidence in thirteen portraits, finding in the pink shirts a "symbolic 'canary in the mine'" for cities today.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1J48jFhme4SCndd5NODgFldi8qvGzpNoeoTz-zGSZSNrMjlwTUB8XwebePphlK3Nj8Pg4w8DzatplQVqZHea1v9WArwcDR3MRaNhM-6gpFPUAMLAwpI7sTuVPUmIWwrbA8GOYM9I4wO0/s1600/PINK.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Source: "Pink: The Art of Being Confident," a photographic essay by Nanna Nielsen and Trenton Oldfield in <i>Critical Cities, Volume 3</i></small><br />
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In Stratification, the reader is taken past the confidence of the global city: "Underneath the promises (and experience) of democracy, efficiency, creativity and endless 'possibilities' lie some worrying unintended consequences." This section highlights related inequalities in Beirut, Bogotá, Zagreb and London, behind the corporate gloss of a "globalising neoliberal machine."<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRaaaUSoS1G9NWWCQlejS033hPrpr1beCOyiRaPnvdDBwMJyHSZ-dd9k6MCAuvVqOR9W7pCUyzOFttLQ2jbcuRWLhFUwYsaehTJ3q25qjhiVBrUYocYA_CDHrZ_6-UQ0fSt3IC6ZvarA/s1600/Luis+SO%CC%82C%CC%A7a%CC%81nchez.tif" width="540" /><br />
<small>Source: "People of Corabstos," a photographic essay by Jhon Arias in <i>Critical Cities, Volume 3</i></small><br />
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Fadi Shayya, Fouad Asfour and Lana Salman give a detailed account of the ways in which violence, sectarianism and political economy intertwine to shape — or deform — public space in Beirut. They assert that "conflict is still there in all its different forms: political, sectarian and armed; new traumas seem to sustain the everyday, and the geopolitically divided spatiality of sectarian geography persists and increases." In keeping with the book's theme, the authors offer a critique and call to action in shaping their city's development from below.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKP3Kkq3LnGuoO-c-aWWtex-4b8cYQ45W1QV_T1dN4n9ww1k20Mu7ZvptZnHZXyRNa5AmsQb6GwrxkgY7-jLQlvE6369HpiC9k9hfKQ4WVQJa8UDUe-XgS-ms3EjUZl4pRZK6X8JugOPM/s1600/El+turco.tif" width="540" /><br />
<small>Source: "People of Corabstos," a photographic essay by Jhon Arias in <i>Critical Cities, Volume 3</i></small><br />
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Agitation against the abuse of power is one of <i>Critical Cities</i>' central themes, but the editors' political analysis is all too frequently agitating. The book is littered with hyperbole: "everyone alive today knows it is possible to overthrow regimes" and "the axis of evil — capitalists, the military and religious leaders," to name a few. Added to this are some blatantly inconsistent attacks; Oldfield and Naik call academics to task for "flying around the world networking with one another," only to later boast that a London TINAG festival attracted participants from "across the planet."<br />
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The passion that inspired Oldfield to leap into the Thames is present throughout the collection, and has both a positive and a negative impact. This is an impatient book, bursting with cutting insights and calls for action. The sweeping arguments and sense of urgency, however, create a maelstrom characteristic of the "neoliberal" city at the center of its critique. We are taken from one place to another in a rush of global capital flows. There will surely be a new volume displacing this one, then on to the next — the regime expands, the city is interrogated, and all that is solid melts into air.<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.deensharp.com/">Deen Sharp</a> is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the City University of New York.</i><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-9034571409810649122013-10-29T09:56:00.001-04:002017-11-11T13:53:59.358-05:00Placing Sidewalk Vendors on the Map in Ho Chi Minh City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Noalee Harel, Ruth Sappelt and Jackie Sly</i></small><br />
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Some urban treasures are hidden in plain sight. The documentary film "On the Map" shows how MIT professor Annette Kim and her research group, the Sidewalk Lab (SLAB), trained themselves to see anew in Ho Chi Minh City. In the process, they helped open the eyes of planners to <a href="http://slab.scripts.mit.edu/wp/research/tourism/">one of the city's greatest assets</a>: street and sidewalk <a href="http://slab.scripts.mit.edu/wp/links/street-vending-and-sidewalks/">vendors</a>. Through rigorous observation and cartography, SLAB worked to protect the rights of these entrepreneurs and highlight their positive impacts on the city.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="304" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KJQcdtmFVp4" width="540"></iframe><br />
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While filming "On the Map," we found inspiration in SLAB's unique approach to research, analysis and visualization as a path toward understanding. We focused on the use of critical cartography for spatial analysis and public engagement. Kim elaborates on this process in her new book "<a href="http://dusp.mit.edu/idg/publication/sidewalk-city-re-mapping-public-space-ho-chi-minh-city-vietnam">Sidewalk City: Re-Mapping Public Space in Ho Chi Minh City</a><i>."</i><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCzwSYMGdOz8hh7VoO7fl5BvgQ1PjCB_KgeZFvssOr7xIBCHD8nSXbkWAry4VLXy94R0ow6HhEir7gcGwTMnQDS1yrVgjwkPiQyXkM5U5m2RUecx1FF-IIX4d3lZj7xLdvYRQgHgllnOA/s1600/4-property-rights-maps-and-icon-950x797.png" /><br />
<small>GIS survey data laid onto a cadastral map, indicating the presence of sidewalk vendors in Ho Chi Minh City. Source: <a href="http://slab.scripts.mit.edu/wp/maps/property-rights-maps/">SLAB</a></small><br />
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SLAB is now hosting an <a href="http://sap.mit.edu/resources/galleries/wolk_gallery/sidewalk/">exhibit</a> at MIT's Wolk Gallery through November 15, which features their latest <a href="http://slab.scripts.mit.edu/wp/maps/">experimental maps</a> based on 15 years of fieldwork. The exhibit will then travel to Ho Chi Minh City, where the team hopes it will encourage debate on the legitimacy of public vending in a non-participatory planning system. It will also show in Los Angeles, home to the world's largest Vietnamese diaspora. Details on <a href="http://slab.scripts.mit.edu/wp/public-engagement/">upcoming events</a> can be found on the SLAB website.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR-cwMTDiEL5VBU1KmwYuN3R-1MNPhzFBszPmBiqQdpyO82K0UExbkxe6BlyV4C9dlwlJ9BPQf-GzPT8-VltzU36tmrEwZHqfOzuv8dFJQJWdSLAU5N_REIXpiynilIUNzZ3kr1YWrpz4/s640/fruit+vendors.JPG" width="540" /><br />
<small>Fruit vendors restock along the street. Source: <a href="http://slab.scripts.mit.edu/wp/research/photography/">SLAB</a></small><br />
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<i>Noalee Harel, Ruth Sappelt and Jackie Sly are students at MIT. Noalee is a Comparative Media Studies major, with a special interest in documentary production and science journalism. Ruth is a Master of City Planning candidate who focuses on social justice through public leadership and media. Jackie Sly is majoring in Mechanical and Ocean Engineering and minoring in Writing. They co-produced "On the Map" for</i><i> a film class taught by Bill Lattanzi in the spring of 2013.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comHo Chi Minh City, Vietnam10.8230989 106.62966389.8248079 105.33877030000001 11.8213899 107.9205573tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-73825736376456877542013-09-28T17:35:00.000-04:002017-11-11T12:55:16.925-05:00Tubist Trompe-l’Oeil<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Pierre Nadilon</i></small><br />
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My first encounter with Tubism was at a house party with a large poster of the London Underground hanging in the living room. Looking closer, I found that the Tube stations had names like Semantics, Leonardo Da Vinci and Fordism. The map was full of intriguing references that served as perfect conversation-starters for the many guests who gathered around it that night.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgodDxDnBhpRvIL1Bjdrb4_1Bov8JbReA76VxU87VkDxw2s4VI6pFq4TNVfu633tOfeDAppj8ALOmNmAGn5XIp_DNJz5ea09S1H4aYif8pZhI0p8EUfxEbJt0jKPxceUOtNcHDqBC-hfh0/s1600/beckmap1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Harry Beck's design for the London Underground map from 1933. Source: <a href="http://briankerr.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/connections/">Connections</a></small><br />
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The poster's designer, Sean O'Mara, encouraged me to try doing my own Tubist posters. It wasn't easy but I began to learn by experimenting with themes like scientific inventions, <a href="http://pierrenadilon.com/racines-dun-conflit/">the Arab-Israeli conflict</a>, LGBT celebrities, <a href="http://pierrenadilon.com/paris-en-chansons/">songs about Paris</a>, <a href="http://pierrenadilon.com/sciences-humaines-5/">social sciences</a>, <a href="http://pierrenadilon.com/le-plongeon/">poetry</a> and religious rites. Some people asked me to do <a href="http://pierrenadilon.com/portrait-de-s-g/">Tubist portraits</a> based on information from their friends and Facebook profiles.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDxRnVSzU7XemO_jDDd5RGJHl3fDHznFx1x0eccCo1eFv0ArKz09jcAo6gCzAp3wEl9UzZ0_qNZoLDERxVhZXp7g_kMoV7IT4g7sVvQcRTboZw76__PS40bRkdWBe3lsXwzeT4fRs238/s1600/tubist-portrait.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>A Tubist portrait by Pierre Nadilon.</small><br />
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Tubism makes it fun to wander through topics and spot connections. At the same time, it has been criticized for a lack of originality bordering on copyright infringement. I agree that designers who created the original subway maps deserve credit. Tubist imitation is based on respect for the enduring quality of their work. It is also useful for adding an element of surprise: subtly altering well-known images helps bring playful unexpectedness into everyday settings.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Z0ZV-AW5lX8g4AcXhga75_JvttZ4MN_i6Pjejed7PCfIFYlygoOIpUswCo8IayisgLuCcR10HhmdAMzn3XCvJsHzZM2SY6ZYDUSc4Ul_BpFZH1I2fTVy4OQ-ItKXHYHIESh3-Ri0-oA/s1600/tubist-muni-map.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>"LGBT Pride" version of the San Francisco Muni map, by Pierre Nadilon.</small><br />
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It isn't clear whether Tubism is art, design or something else. Artistically, it draws upon pastiche and trompe-l'oeil. Based on Marcel Duchamp's view of art as the interplay between <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/23/the-creative-act-marcel-duchamp-1957/">intent, realization and perception</a>, one might conclude that Tubism is artistic when intended and perceived that way. <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/patterson-the-great-bear-p77880/text-summary">Simon Patterson's adaptation of the London Underground map</a>, for example, is now part of the Tate collection.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglufUhtzMxlT4bpAO7u96tcrs8xVBSVgGhip-vQGezyquSZgLI2tXp2mKHfl_TBVMMOMsC9zyFTFJjbnfW4eFREFLRoEi2rMgby4ef1qkgXWEWr9ScOalBV0pDQd-c49sgutyVzCuTYzU/s1600/great-bear.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Simon Patterson's famous altered Tube map, "<a href="http://maeveconwayfried.wordpress.com/texts/the-great-bear-by-simon-patterson/">The Great Bear</a>" (1992). Source: <a href="http://londonist.com/2011/03/a-guide-to-alternative-london-tube-maps.php">Londonist</a></small><br />
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According to Nelson Goodman, art performs symbolic functions in different <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=m68CcIi-baUC&lpg=PA188&ots=Cq2s3nl7lj&dq=Nelson%20Goodman%20mountain&hl=ru&pg=PA187#v=snippet&q=%22Symptoms%20of%20the%20aesthetic%22&f=false">contexts</a>, creating <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=e4a5-ItuU1oC&lpg=PA252&dq=%22Symptoms%20of%20the%20aesthetic%22&hl=ru&pg=PA247#v=onepage&q=%22aesthetic%20experience%22&f=false">aesthetic experiences</a> from specific perspectives. He finds the question "What is art?" less important than "<a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/goodman-aesthetics/">When is art?</a>" Tubists may create aesthetic experiences, but presenting information in unexpected ways is usually a higher priority. In this respect, Tubism is a form of communication design. It is even used for <a href="http://mappingrama.blogspot.fr/2012/09/mon-cv-en-3-lignes.html">résumés</a> and <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJ7vAbhXehlPBQ3cTMYOoXrCnt3RJMLTr3ubOhNDKSLVpQuqaBiAvxZu53foYdfD7paK9mg-uWw7SRpjxzm7kveLIYAY_lDNIOorGLWeCa-SmT4HgqivSdz-tlWvGK1NC6evXrGGHNe0/s1600/Affiche+finale+OK+2013+mars.jpg">advertisements</a>, but it is not always so pragmatic.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5AsomM2xiDMf-dXgYPSZbUFuZY3_781PGBY2UZ9un4YguB82ax4yE-Bl3CSt3mLw1W4kM2kxLOFDB_SHSbqMN9y0krnlStiN-KgVHfTaSS56qy6trYMIIoT4-qW9m_DSEBoo1CMb_R-8/s640/subway-axeland-dehli-1504889-o.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>"Axeland" advertisement by BBH Asia Pacific. Source: <a href="http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/axe-deodorant-subway-map-8268255/">Coloribus</a></small><br />
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<img border="0" src="http://static-mb.minutebuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/6186482036_95c3c129f8_b.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>"Metro Wine Map of France" by David Gissen. Source: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/09/how-wine-became-metropolitan-an-interview-with-david-gissen/244698/">The Atlantic</a></small><br />
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Despite Tubism's questionable originality and identity, it is a fresh newcomer in the world of street expression. Tubist posters can be attached quickly to walls any time without attracting much attention. In public space, they are akin to understated graffiti or psychogeographic urban interventions. As digital tools for design and printing become more accessible, Tubism could flourish in cities around the world.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNAPkbzH7JAVVon-YUuLVNaQRWqAxl2gEwyrbUIJBBH4QCpJz27jTETdndLZa_lHwbm3NK6R7l3d74lumGC5j6CByUeH3TZ4BNImpNxl5snrfLqBmJFWdhrxGLiUYnwzNjHEKzZAQKOg/s1600/le-plongeon-pierre-nadilon.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>"Le Plongeon" version of Line 6 on the Paris Metro, by Pierre Nadilon.</small><br />
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<i><a href="http://pierrenadilon.com/lartiste/">Pierre Nadilon</a> is a digital, conceptual and urban artist based in Paris. He is currently working on a comic with psychological ingredients. Pierre is always willing to share what he knows with people he doesn't know.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-24394390583950090082013-08-08T17:07:00.001-04:002017-11-11T12:47:35.248-05:00Secret Gardens of Greater Paris<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Alex Schafran</i></small><br />
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I imagine that most people, when confronted with the end of a two-year sojourn in the City of Lights, would make plans to visit the unvisited museum (Louvre, check), finally scale the Eiffel Tower (soon, surely), eat the uneaten or discover the exhibition that will change history. The 19th century romantic in me feels pulled to Benjamin's passages and Baudelaire's promenades, even if they're overdone as subjects of literary flânerie. Harvey's Sacre Coeur is part of my daily run, part of life on the Hausmannian edges between the gentrified and the gentrifying.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjgWvp02cGT6B8ozhcEDdGxZ4zHwM61WyJjYTkwIUP9t9_IvkKWfY782nKZ1XtXDilpd2prPOP4wKOsIrol850nO9Sg5WnJNS20BPSqP2G2dLjXqwEKdaPetDK1d_CtfbrCrjAh7MtoDcZ/s1600/DSC04013.JPG" width="540" /><br />
<small>Parc des Impressionnistes with La Defense in the distance.</small><br />
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Intramuros Paris is still fascinating, still full of impressive and controversial interventions into the urban fabric. The gigantic <a href="http://www.parisrivegauche.com/">Rive Gauche</a> project continues to unfold, as does the <a href="http://clichy-batignolles.fr/le-projet/lensemble-du-projet">Batignolles</a>, transforming vast space once dedicated to train infrastructure without sacrificing trains as a mode of transportation. But as Laurent Vermeersch and I have argued on Polis, the banlieues (residential districts beyond the city center) are the main course for any conversation about change in metropolitan Paris and the Île-de-France region.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOm0lhI44OEJMwmymRMj8lJmVEE0BzVpaj4Ujy6yU5n4gaxzRv848fEfV_uY0pEqbMeic5qDKmZjzEPXJ3VB8UNkQCXSKf-eq6bvPSf3DlcQ3u9RJKLcvnvConEmk955BFScvlyeW1mKE/s1600/26sept2012_Entree_Clichy-la-Garenne_15.JPG" width="540px" /><br />
<small>The Clichy-la-Garenne commune, outside central Paris. Source: <a href="http://habitees.fr/Entree-de-ville-Clichy-la-Garenne-92">Les éditions illimitées</a></small><br />
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In the comments section of <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/2013/03/grand-paris-transportation-infrastructure.html">Vermeersch's post</a>, an anonymous reader asks how the banlieues' reputation for monotony survives despite their incredible diversity. The answer is, in part, included in the comment: "True, many people living in the City of Paris don't often set a foot in suburbs, but how many people living in Manhattan, Central London, San Francisco set the foot in the suburbs or in the outer districts of those cities? This is quite normal ... people living in the central area of the city don't go often in the periphery." Normal, yes; conducive to actually knowing anything about your region, no.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmIABbNuQTpcqdKOSlyVgvwQgif8rIFV-n5fEKGPi0PyYmd3n1H76jUkjwFWu-hvbxie64s4HCmYFIqy6KR8YwgFP2M9AkiQCGW9HdTMD-RHEZmwRoikySoVa-kEzFRZFx_T4xgOsqwg/s1600/paris-et-banlieue.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Paris et Banlieue" width="140" /> So, armed with "L'Indispensable" (my old-school, low-tech guidebook), a streeted-out road bike and a proper camera, I've begun a mad dash around the first three rings of the banlieue. I hope to experience the diversity of this most misunderstood of contemporary urban spaces as it rapidly transforms. The pace of change eludes the navigational powers of my Indispensable (as well as Google and Apple combined); this project seems destined to continue long after I lose my Parisian address.<br />
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Extramuros Paris is a bevy of surprising discoveries, a crazy patchwork of historical layerings with micro and macro interventions that make your head spin. All the things you'd expect to find are there — enormous cités (housing projects), freeways, old factories, new office complexes, residential neighborhoods of varying social compositions, malls and outlet stores, single-family homes and reminders that the banlieue is also suburbia. One of my favorite unexpected gems is the parks: not the fact that there are parks, but that there are awesome parks.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXo2EYda_BELEFXXk688TuNHhgqFeMaj5xeh-1yWh7nj-nRCjvCmOXFgNrKrrrm7BmJlxNzOPGHX97SH4fAYp0ahpx3sCYr4e7Or-O6iQOC29IYFiR6Axif_ZGzV0Fy6pKlFqsY6hkUKim/s1600/DSC03786.JPG" width="540" /><br />
<small>A field to rest in can be hard to find in Paris, but not at the Parc des Chanteraines.</small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEYCHh3u-brQzf_0yWiTxIslSz9QV2v4twoArKHkfuwGbLWz2Y1fGBrlp8Sqgy9j5mBP3USdKxPPSmGqp7SjiOOtb6WU3JJJO6Vz8r_CA_dTTE0mbXm5UNt2Qx9BsgVxEJO_MbEP1XTNE/s1600/normal-map.png" style="display:block; margin:auto;" /><br />
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<small>Paris (75) and its surrounding departments: Seine et Marne (77), Yvelines (78), Essonne (91), Haut de Seine (92), Seine-Saint-Denis (93), Val de Marne (94) and Val d’Oise (95). Source: <a href="http://great-paris-tourism.com/travel/">GPT</a></small></div>
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Two of these parks are in the northern transect, which crisscrosses the meandering border between the Hauts-de-Seine (92) and Seine-Saint-Denis (93) banlieue departments. <a href="http://www.clichy-tourisme.fr/en/parc-des-impressionnistes,article-483.html">Parc des Impressionnistes</a>, in Hauts-de-Seine, is a bizarre update of Monet's perspective on urban life (the original is still accessible at Parc Monceau). It sounds hokey but it's totally brilliant, with quiet forested nooks, water lilies and big open fields. Wedged between train tracks, factories, neo-Haussmanian apartments, older modernist cités, a sewage treatment plant and various architectural remnants, it boasts a view of both the Sacre Coeur and La Defense, allowing one to contemplate the entire history of the Île-de-France in one sunny afternoon on the grass. Socially, it feels very much like a place between old and new industries and populations, a park that refuses the stereotypes associated with Hauts-de-Seine (bourgeois) and Seine-Saint-Denis (racialized poverty).<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH8BOqQHgU3_VFb5_ne6mQ3cSyjOw5ZL3yEEpqEatTIyU0-l8icFIkJ76tQLkL7gCP73V1KLrDQH9gW-H56tR1QD1a7Ca677sfuiWzlvqXI6ELAeQUzAWxqJRb17Nfju0xjmkEZhyxSms/s1600/parc-des-impressionnistes.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Parc des Impressionnistes. Source: <a href="https://maps.google.com/?ll=48.89335,2.16821&spn=0.008535,0.021372&t=h&z=16">Google Earth</a></small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVLkcV_35MPWzTABxnpVkSkMiLvuYMJVpLjmcH8YShxyDtPxzmF2jyCO0X65Y2v0ixW1FueNNJLlDNzaQZwXGDIyCS35bfbJyeMBvaHkD10tFJCyBgidH5egY0Z7Z8Oq67JfnO_I1ueT0W/s1600/DSC04001.JPG" width="540" /><br />
<small>Neo-Hausmannian buildings line the Parc des Impressionnistes.</small><br />
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A few miles to the northeast lies the incredible <a href="http://promenades.hauts-de-seine.net/parc-chanteraines">Parc des Chanteraines</a>, a meandering 75 hectares of fields, lakes, bird sanctuaries, pony clubs and prairies. Work on this park began in 1978 and proceeded in stages. From inside, it's hard to believe that you're surrounded by industrial zones. The landscape even cascades across a major freeway, such that you hardly realize what you're doing as you walk to the other side.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSueiobdx-lARA3UIXfyzkUBA6ZXrw5ha4cIVfneMPru5bDv8_21pH7e1xb6cRNbVuh2IwZYSTqt07lEEswVYUl_JnTIiygApLrdtpq9x1qFYKW_MLpAFHLN_00jhqQEka_qHIxkaW2C0/s1600/parc-des-chanteraines.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Parc des Chanteraines. Source: <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Parc+des+Chanteraines&hl=ru&ll=48.941107,2.315626&spn=0.017195,0.030856&sll=48.938519,2.314677&sspn=0.017196,0.030856&t=h&hq=Parc+des+Chanteraines&z=15">Google Earth</a></small><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzPB8BP7xxVqmM1a5eyD8-WDucmY1sa-Kz-c1s_Dz4_-YUoUwGHCrzzzmrHt3Bu-W1V78imnovVWBgtOyninQrPL5C7FBkbD3cLoVoZP6wF4pBw8FwMmMSainqTZsxBcwpLQ058DcgJH6w/s1600/DSC03784.JPG" width="540" /><br />
<small>You are standing on top of a seven-lane highway.</small><br />
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The expansive fields are also an escape from the <span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">demographic monotony of the </span>Buttes Chaumont and other leisure spaces of Bobo Paris, where more and more I feel surrounded by people who look like me. Chanteraines boasts a hyper-diverse set of parkgoers seeking respite from the concrete and steel that surrounds it. With the opening of the Saint-Denis/Asnières extension of the T3 tram, this respite is even more accessible from the racialized heart of Saint-Denis. On a sunny afternoon, you get a sense of just how nice this can be.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtAuVEG61aD3cMq-8NpqyYr2WQzLSc2me87Es4HQaFwXiGD6wkNO78LT1V6XoZHxk6dNnTpt9Cb_g_G64JnSVloBObrpe9kwCKPUyLwVFMlMsjt82R7XYr2i9HxXHjvCAJc3DBIj0Y4tZ/s1600/DSC03781.JPG" width="540" /><br />
<small>People of many different backgrounds meet in the Parc des Chanteraines.</small><br />
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Whether or not the transit-led revolution in the Parisian banlieue will be successful is a complex question that will unfold for another half-century, at least. Paris is not simply connecting the periphery to the center, but also taking on the more progressive challenge of connecting the periphery to itself. It certainly helps to have nice places to connect to — places that offer something unavailable inside the walls of the Boulevard Périphérique.<br />
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<small>Credits: Photos by Alex Schafran unless otherwise noted in the captions.</small><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-61586377595265221862013-07-26T08:01:00.000-04:002017-11-11T12:26:21.510-05:00Community Aesthetics in Heliópolis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Teresa García Alcaraz</i></small><br />
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Heliópolis is known as one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in São Paulo, with <a href="http://books.google.ru/books?id=-MEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA78&dq=Ruy%20Ohtake%20Heliopolis&hl=ru&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=%22120,000%20residents%20packed%20into%20about%20one-half%20square%20mile%22&f=false">120,000 people living in an area of less than one square mile</a>. Legend has it that architect <a href="http://www.ruyohtake.com.br/index.html">Ruy Ohtake</a> once called it the <a href="http://books.google.ru/books?id=-MEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA78&dq=Ruy+Ohtake+Heliopolis&hl=ru&sa=X&ei=Fi3lUaX3NMXj4QSf74GgDw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22the%20ugliest%20part%20of%20the%20city%22&f=false">ugliest part of the city</a>, prompting members of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UNASheliopolis">UNAS</a> community organization to ask him to help make it beautiful.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPT3ElMDn69La4mxDEeAu4IBaXvmbhPy68Zaegfcxxcnn8vO2eLWC5vlJC64L2Isu9uiIb2ybL-uH8glUEe_fu1BJmTaLHFNx6H7Rh2VV9EPyLksmaKuTtUUq7XMmZe9vFa-oopQakHsI/s1600/3093451420_23c1cea071_b.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Heliópolis. Source: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertorocco/3093451420/in/photolist-5HmKkj-6VgCDk-buzDBF-buzEcD-buzDSi-bqc5RZ-ayR2cq-ayR2iw-buzEAD-buzEZK-buzK5r-buzGXR-buzJ2Z-buzJqz-buzHkD-buzGaF-buzFLB-buzHz2-buzFm8-bqcdn2-bqcgvg-bqccF4-bqcfev-bqcgYv-bqceiK-bqchFH-bqceMg-bqcfZF-bqcdU8-bqc9S2-bqc7Np-bqcc5i-bqc9bc-bqc9wV-bqcap6-bqcaNt-bqcbqZ-bqc67B-bqc6vV-bqc6T6-bqc7rv-bqc8Ri-bqc77Z-aDkxgX-b6u9Nt-b6uafz-9U4kBQ-9TKD1V-ayNmEn-ayR2ym-ayNmKV/">Roberto Rocco</a></small><br />
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To their surprise, Ohtake agreed and began working with residents to transform the ubiquitous brick and concrete walls into a vibrant cityscape. Together they decided on a flexible color scheme to use in painting the neighborhood. Ohtake selected the trim for windows and doors to subtly unite the composition.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTpgL-hrncEwBSXpHPZlLaQpIVS-Jl1eDWATwk3VV-w589Bbk8WJI3T8VHw2tw9604x6gwM2_8gVKB4HLp53WqQJcL3sFwKqN-PuHdlkec8fu1qZ5r_0OlOdZszjKdgws9v9Hqn3lSUiE/s1600/heliopolis-paintings-b.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Streets in Heliópolis before (above) and after (below). Source: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniela_schneider/sets/72157602007583596/with/1382042211/">Daniela Schneider</a></small><br />
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Painting didn't begin until each participant was happy with his or her choice. In the meantime, Ohtake found a local company to donate supplies. When everyone was ready they painted the buildings together.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_OM2hhWC6YPbQsp_vcyIXrmcXetfozUCLujGAGPnDnPy0Tm2aOeFbG5XKmFtZQ0H0oE26N9KPAUfvTWSZohONKPIgOU1cTWH60GxtcC44EKdsgpq96gKIZkhRCb0AgAWfvuCNIu9htM/s1600/heliopolis.png" width="540" /><br />
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Ohtake found that participants acquired a "<a href="http://aajpress.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/ruy-ohtake-conjunto-habitacional-heliopolis-housing-project-sao-paulo-brazil/">civic sense</a> not by any concept handed to them by an architect, but by action, from results they achieved while making their own environment more beautiful."<br />
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This project may seem like another celebrated attempt by an outside expert to address a situation that needs more than surface treatment. Still, it prompted residents to get to know each other and work together. At least as important as the results, collaborative planning and execution generated a sense of community around a shared purpose.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSão Paulo, Brazil-23.5489433 -46.6388182-24.4795613 -47.929711700000006 -22.618325300000002 -45.3479247tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-41064953344576877432013-07-17T09:17:00.000-04:002017-11-11T13:21:04.358-05:00Reversing the Panopticon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Dieter Zinnbauer</i></small><br />
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The infamous Panopticon, conceived by Jeremy Bentham and thoroughly analyzed by Michel Foucault, is emblematic of architecture's role in surveillance and discipline — a blueprint for the perfect prison. It allows a watchman to observe inmates without them being able to tell whether anyone is actually watching them, generating an eerie sense of being monitored all the time.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5GyWT7CtCHb18eO-L6ELfOXaKNNeSSmBo_RPVLLgxH0Obs9ZSOU2ZktM7tLcOtW-htXVGAYIDOWii5YYMuS-j5Abjtn4Ac8dc_Owcgcm0xBlJ_xemArbSPmiEdrt8IHZyOnKABoamteo/s1600/panopticon.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Panopticons by Jay Crum. Source: <a href="http://www.celesteprize.com/artwork/ido:136921/">Celeste</a></small><br />
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Bentham's Panopticon blazed a trail for many technological interventions designed to help governments monitor and control public space. Check out <a href="http://spatialforces.tumblr.com/post/43085268238/nypd-skywatch-observing-the-occupy-protesters">Skywatch</a>, for example, the mobile observation structure used to keep an eye on the Occupy Movement in New York City. This high-tech platform — equipped with sensors, cameras and tinted windows — is also used at crime hot-spots.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDRS3LQmDYWQ3x8pRfY0ihw5RfM_MBb5Lt2vlAZQV16GOUUHY_AnxU9vSVUanFej-UWXCbPdOthC-ivR_jvk5k4tdJnEnQV-wYfF0FoIA8kLWSusR_X4Xy9c8UK7b3CQcCmPDroZ7LzA/s1600/nestle.jpg" /><br />
<small>Greenpeace Twitter wall. Source: <a href="http://blog.transparency.org/2012/11/02/fighting-corruption-with-bumper-stickers-and-public-toilets-ambient-accountability/">Transparency International</a></small><br />
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Anti-corruption NGOs, such as <a href="http://www.transparency.org/">Transparency International</a> (where I work), help people monitor and control what their governments do. In essence, this is about reversing the Panopticon. Tactics include establishing openness and accountability policies, mobilizing civic action and raising awareness. Returning to the spatial aspect of the Panopticon, important questions arise: Can we shape the built environment in a systematic way to empower citizens vis-à-vis their governments? Can we literally design for transparency and accountability?<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP2Jh7PDsfygJBuuJCSUSY5x66uY9GBNbhqRz30IgWMN4XOF_jtlSS41xzZNed5owds4tzyEPq8u9eBmC9ObVx-Ydx1aAAQmfEbbSbpSlMlVfsNZo3fPe0y8zidg9MfFvf8x-k7gwYNEU/s1600/tumblr_inline_mol4jjIxyn1qz4rgp.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Albert Sirleaf's public bulletin board in Monrovia. Source: <a href="http://ambient-accountability.org/post/53267987596/more-on-blackboard-blogging-in-liberia">Ambient Accountability</a></small><br />
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The term "ambient accountability" refers to creative adaptation of the built environment for the purpose of citizen empowerment, as explained with examples in "<a href="http://%27ambient%20accountability%27%20-%20fighting%20corruption%20when%20and%20where%20it%20happens/">'Ambient Accountability': Fighting Corruption When and Where it Happens</a>." To encourage dialogue on this subject, I've started collecting related information, ideas and images — including the <a href="http://ambient-accountability.org/post/51630208027/of-low-and-high-tech-ways-to-go-ambient-with">public bulletin board</a> above — in a blog about <a href="http://ambient-accountability.org/">Ambient Accountability</a>. I welcome everyone to add to the collection.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO915235_22-G2G1TXnb8dyA44SEnWdxyTtIGAXmgR4CMaxG56weYHYo_lLCfleh7lt55uzAB94rgv1f3s0tjTPgWhoa_R663XVWrkWp0UFmea761xlfrMiViKMN1SdIRcLN0zXSWpuwA/s1600/panopticon.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>"Panopticon, Isla de Pinos" by Stan Douglass. Source: <a href="http://www.celesteprize.com/artwork/ido:136921/">National Gallery of Canada</a></small><br />
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So how can we turn the Panopticon around? Contrast the classic Panopticon, a prison tower (above), with the bright red <a href="http://eng.archinform.net/projekte/6653.htm">Infobox</a> (below). The Infobox was a viewing platform set up in 1995 so that people could observe a massive public-private redevelopment venture in Berlin.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigQsFSXaf6cPgpJwqR3oykp1irQlKX-Ypsocb1W7Gd0UYLLKdm33jJYeQiJJCPBO2NT3rCEJDwlRkT3vbwFaWFKiuUUI-WSUsnJb1lsMdQ0tkJ2K2PQIBem-RLmOU-HGT349nA8kTa0p4/s1600/00001793-1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>The Infobox public viewing platform at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Source: <a href="http://eng.archinform.net/projekte/6653.htm">archINFORM</a></small><br />
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The Infobox made it easier for citizens to track the progress of significant changes in their city — a largely symbolic gesture for public relations, but at least a step toward publicly monitoring the work of public officials and private developers. <br />
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What other design interventions could help turn the Panopticon around? Can we adapt the built environment for democracy and accountability? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.<br />
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<i>Dieter Zinnbauer is a specialist in policy and innovation for Transparency International. More of his work can be found on the <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1588618">Social Science Research Network</a> and <a href="http://ambient-accountability.org/">Ambient Accountability</a> websites.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5382599621647534281.post-19181371349414835132013-07-12T13:35:00.000-04:002017-11-11T13:06:15.088-05:00Moscow’s Protected Landscapes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<small><i>by Svetlana Samsonova</i></small><br />
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My home town, Moscow, has earned its reputation for abandoned industrial zones, flashy business districts and traffic jams. Visitors are often surprised to discover that it is also a green city.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlnJE4Lj8md6HHGQCaWip5CT0S04WT766WwjCtaSpBb9ctnFl6icaEYFHP383-kx7wWBzsAdLYvw6nWiiIINEzF9OOvx4XvDjy2cSEVi_TilVIJvtpxaiKGoV-l9HwGIQDVtVGB-HNDRA/s1600/1-2.JPG" width="540" /><br />
<small>High-rise buildings near the Khimka River in Moscow.</small><br />
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As <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/search/label/peter%20sigrist">Peter Sigrist</a> mentioned in his series on <a href="http://www.thepolisblog.org/search/label/ppm%20series">public green space in Moscow</a>, there are 96 parks and 100 square kilometers of forest within the city's borders. He describes some of these territories and considers how political processes influenced them over time. Some are now protected based on their acknowledged ecological or cultural value. Having recently completed a research project on protected areas, I'd like to add a series of posts on their current state and future prospects. This is the first, offering a brief historical overview.<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYs0esPivB1v7G8HUct663LGLZ8aBhuAMCBKatG8I0uERa29pJt27wtOyqKQoXfYKB1T5yD_t7-BRxqpBi8Lyy2nThd2Ri5lDJlgxxZoOCb4IxLBaJU9BXWAKPhNMpzQQsfF0s1pHMo9U/s1600/2-1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Moscow's protected areas: 1. Tushino Park, 2. Izmaylovo Park, 3. Tsaritsyno Park, 4. Pokrovskoe-Stresnevo Park, 5. Sparrow Hills Park, 6. Setun River Valley Wildlife Preserve, 7. Teply Stan Park, 8. Moskvoretsky Park, 9. Ostankino Park, 10. Petrovsko-Razumovsky Park, 11. Skhodnya River Valley in Kurkino, 12. Kuzminki-Lyublino Park, 13. Kosino Park, 14. Skhodnya River Valley in Molzhaninovo, 15. Troparevo Park, 16. Sokolniki Park, 17. Zelenogradsky Park, 18. Bitsa Park, 19. Losiny Ostrov Park, 20. Degunino Park.</small><br />
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Precursors of today's protected areas have existed since the 16th century, when some territories were placed under special protection by the royal family and nobility as hunting grounds and private estates. These landscapes usually included not only houses and outbuildings, but gardens, farmland, meadows and woods.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3cL_pbW0Rrq5KIhox44T3HqzgyOHSD8q62HdV1HvBsMOAO9TdECG3S6EMNszK73iSg0RUnNAXeG8a2GXTZ1LzLydDz2RxPgf4gpchlDav40biXrGW-eShsSexWS0m0wegsuQrO1wE0o/s1600/3-1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>A Russian estate in the painting "Grandmother's Garden" (1878) by Vasily Dmitriyevich Polenov. Source: <a href="http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/collection/_show/author/_id/108">Tretyakov Gallery</a></small><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losiny_Ostrov_National_Park">Losiny Ostrov</a> (Moose Island) and Izmaylovo Park were strictly guarded hunting grounds for Grand Princes and Tsars. Other protected areas have estates or country houses within their borders.<br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEyfjqqXFaG801pp7E39fsqZVGdSN4kw6L8lTHJ1r34-Hilh0Q-FZXs5egFSKrfmRDWtO1LuSwLUbSQxJXkfswS01mulEF_2IEcJ4ZVUtSbU3X5lFEzmZQpsu9fm6ACCpU_3-Z1lGidAE/s1600/%D0%9E%D0%9E%D0%9F%D0%A2+%D0%B8+%D1%83%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C%D0%B1%D1%8B.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Historic estates in protected areas: 1. Brattsevo (16th century), 2. Tsaritsyno (16th century), 3. Pokrovskoe-Stresnevo (17th century), 4. Vorobyovo (15th century), 5. Vasilevskoye, also known as Mamonova Dacha (18th century), 6. Troyekurovo, (17th century), 7. Troitse-Golenischevo (17th century), 8. Spasskoye-na-Setuni (17th century), 9. Kuntsevo (17th century), 10. Ostankino (16th century), 11. Petrovsko-Razumovsky (18th century), 12. Vlakhernskoye-Kuzminki (18th century), 13. Lyublino (18th century), 14. Kosino (17th century), 15. Uzkoye (18th century), 16. Znamenskoye-Sadki (18th century), 17. Yasenevo (18th century).</small><br />
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Due to limits on development, these territories have remained relatively unchanged since the 16th century. They are thus increasingly rare and valuable in today's rapidly growing metropolis.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHGu93monKsbHFRqNP3vCYTnnOOP0wuhRku1_hvyYTLxZU-hwo3DHZJn3q1jigTOkKVvm4kfx8R-dQE_fet6f6KbQE1iDuTln3fimZy7qxnzzCQBbxVS-sOMVIhBVc1B7pDz1qAwvU8wk/s1600/5-1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>A picturesque ravine in Tsaritsyno Park. Source: <a href="http://club.foto.ru/gallery/photos/photo.php?photo_id=1028650">Sergey Vershinin</a></small><br />
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The first Russian Forest Act was adopted in 1804, when Emperor Alexander I issued a statute "On the Improved Protection of Forests and the Establishment of Forest Management in Moscow." Losiny Ostrov became the first official protected area in Russia.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikrqyzClzNss4ldTg9Ht8mPbPwz4GiF9L5q4FX7opbgx5MbNMaqeX8ktkAlXqktYVDFMkvPXJYutRz3NjejJuPV4CPgoB4NBYcjPuPk0AGHdPgdeMax9jIOyhxMgvliFQDdsP86tI3BIw/s1600/6-1.jpg" width="540" /><br />
<small>Urban moose in Losiny Ostrov Park. Source: <a href="http://lintastour.ru/new/index.php/obzornie-po-moskve/185-2010-08-27-11-49-54">Lintas Tour</a></small><br />
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The modern history of Moscow's protected areas is based largely on the 1935 General Plan, which established a greenbelt 10-15 kilometers wide around the city limits. It included forests, meadows, fields, farms, gardens and towns, with a <a href="http://www.hse.ru/data/2012/03/16/1265002785/%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B9%20%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%89%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9%20%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81.pdf">total population less than 270,000</a>. The plan also included a ring of parks around the city center: Sparrow Hills, Fili, Serebryany Bor, Izmaylovo, Timiryazevo, Pokrovskoe-Stresnevo, Ostankino and Sokolniki. Today these parks are all protected. Wedges of greenery were to connect them to the greenbelt, creating comfortable microclimates and improving public health. Between 1940 and 1980, construction of factories, residential areas and roads significantly reduced the amount of green space in and around Moscow.<br />
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In the late 1980s, there were mass protests to protect green areas against increasing construction and neglect. The main problem areas were Losiny Ostrov Park, Bitsa Park, Teply Stan Park, Brateevskaya floodplain, Kosino Park, Tushino Park and several river valleys. Such environmental protest movements had never happened before in Moscow, and successfully captured the attention of public officials. In 1989, the Ninth Congress of People's Deputies focused on urban environmental problems. They released a report on environmental degradation, calling for action to preserve urban green space. Goals for the use of Moscow parks changed dramatically: urban development and environmental protection were given equal status.<br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdGAIUYZiQPK530qCr9KBE3eqv3bFxVF4rfD3lKRmNBWX7_PwrLS04MBcgLsZr9r4rGhD5iprMvFXslQ3iZbyLWr5TYJW-yFuHkfely6htxsNWg-HSTpQ2c5QhDXXaPAlFrV3xZenO6KU/s1600/7-1.png" width="540" /><br />
<small>Growth of protected areas in Moscow between 1973 and 2020.</small><br />
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The Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies (Mossovet) decided to set up a system of protected areas, and the second (Bitsa Park) appeared in 1992. Since then, the network has increased substantially. In 2004, the municipal government approved a plan for the "Development and Management of Protected Areas in Moscow" with a list of existing and planned sites up to the year 2025.<br />
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There are now 20 protected areas in Moscow, which comprised 14.4 percent of the city's 154-square-kilometer area before the 2012 expansion. Can these territories survive in a densely populated megacity? In upcoming posts, I'll focus on the mysteries of these territories, with detailed information on specific sites.<br />
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<i>Sveta Samsonova is a junior research fellow in the geography department at Moscow State University and former president of the European Geography Association for Students and Young Geographers.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comMoscow, Russia55.7512419 37.618421755.1792854 36.327528199999996 56.323198399999995 38.9093152