social, change and communities final presentation
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Thinking about place
Social, Change and CommunitiesPenultimate & Final presentation
Tim Curtis and Ian Healy
This module is ‘soft’
Whatever is true for space and time, this much is true for place; we are immersed in it and could not do without it. To be at all – to exist in any way – is to be somewhere, and to be somewhere is to be in some kind of place
Edward Casey, The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), p. ix
Space and Place
• “Space is like sex …it’s there but we don’t talk about it” (Edward Hall)
• “Place is humanized space” (Yi-Fu Tuan)• Time-space compression (David Harvey)• Placeless planet, space of flows (Manuel Castells)• A global sense of place (Doreen Massey):
– porous boundaries– connections between places– roots vs routes
• Paradox of place (Noel Castree): unique but connected.
Relational thinking
• Geographies of difference (us and them, self and Other, East and West…): desire and dread, fear and fascination (Example: ‘racist soup’ vs the ‘couscous of friendship’ in Marseilles)
• Geographies of connection (combined and uneven development)
• Physical and human geography (nature and culture in a more-than-human world).
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Defining Place
• How do we define ‘place’? • Dimensions of place:
– Place as location: coordinates, dimensions, scale– Place as an idea: public & private; inclusive or exclusive;
places of memory; socially constructed places; spaces of identity; place-making’; home & nation; contested places
• Cresswell: Places are “meaningful locations”• John Agnew: Places have three attributes: (1) location;
(2) locale; and (3) sense of place• Cresswell: “place is not just a thing in the world but a
way of understanding the world.”
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Space and Place• Often ‘space’ is understood as something hollow or exterior: a container
for place. • In common usage (even by many geographers), ‘spaces’ are transformed
into ‘places’ by naming [claiming] and filling them. In this sense space and place are treated as a duality, even as opposites.
• But this is overly simplistic. • Rather than think of space as hollow or as an absence, we might
understand ‘space’ as a broader and more abstract concept than ‘place’.• Yi Fu Tuan (1974) describes space as ‘movement’ and place as ‘pause’.• Space as possibility, openness, the sublime, the ‘beyond’• Some geographers (e.g., Henri Lefebvre 1974) use ‘space’ where others
might use ‘place’
Space and Place
What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value… The ideas ‘space’ and ‘place’ require each other for definition. From the security and stability of place we are aware of the openness, freedom, and threat of space, and vice-versa. Furthermore, if we think of space as that which allows movement then place is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be transformed into place.
Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), p. 6
Sensing place
‘There is no knowing or sensing a place except by being in that place, and to be in place is to be in a position to perceive it.’ Casey, ‘How to get from Space to Place, p. 18
‘How to get from Space to Place in a Fairly Short Stretch ofTime’, in Senses of Place, ed. by Steven Feld & Keith H.Basso (Santa Fe: School of American Research,1996)
Perceptions of Place
• Place is perceived multi-dimensionally• Coordinates help to situate us in place• Place and the body constantly interact• Embodiment of place- from feminist philosophy• Representation of self in space (graffitti, but also
Somerville 2000)
Jeff Conklin: Wicked Issues
Somerville, Margaret and Laura Hartley. 2000. Eating Place: postcolonial explorations of embodiment and place. Journal of Intercultural Studies. 21(3):353-364
‘Just as there are no places without the bodies that sustain and vivify them, so there are no lived bodies without the places they inhabit and traverse.’
Casey,‘How to get from Space to Place’, p. 25
Senses of Place
You inhabit a spot which before you inhabit it is as indifferent to you as any spot upon the earth, & when, persuaded by some necessity you think to leave it, you leave it not, - it clings to you & with memories of things which in your experience of them gave no such promise, revenges your desertion.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, from The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley, ed. Frederick L. Jones, 2 Vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), II, p. 6.
Urban Space/urbanism
• Detachment from nature• Alienation• Labyrinth• Underworld• Crossing of boundaries• Subject to different meanings
So where have we been??
Social, change & communities
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Rules of the Game
• How we teach….– Developing your thoughts– Challenging your
assumptions– Practical reinforced with
reflection– Student led– You want different, you
tell us!
Whole Module
• We started with SELF• Then we looked at OTHER• Then we looked at the intersection of SELF and
OTHER • SELF/OTHER, like Michael Buber (1923) I/THOU• Then we looked at Community, Space, Place and
then back to• Embodied Place, and New Urbanism
Starting with YOU
• Being, working, relating and learning within the context of uncertainty
• Uncertainty as threat• Uncertainty as opportunity• Resilience • “Personal Construct Psychology-inc. ‘we can
challenge certain myths about ourselves.’• Being true to the person not the system
Motivation
• The pressure to change, continuous improvement
• Both as a student and your (future) clients/communities.
• Intrinsic v extrinsic motivation• Your role to facilitate the interplay• Ambivalence
Miller and Rollnick {2002} Preparing People for Change.
Self as social- the SELF:OTHER intersection
• Herbert Mead- I/Self: generalised OTHER• Identity work: the effort in maintaining
identity• Constructing, deconstructing,
reconstructing• MANIPULATING identity
Simmel 1950s
Strangeness- othernessBeing with strangersNo host communitiesIndifference/retreat/reserve/style = maskOverload of signs and meanings
Professionals dissociate from everyday life, rendering it strangePerhaps only objectivity/dispassion
Graffiti – constructing the OTHER
• Our identity informed in relation to OTHERNESS
• NOT ME• Others are ‘constructed’ by
what I don’t like in myself –scapegoat
• How do I ‘construct’ my clients?
• Am I being true to their own identities?
•Graffiti does not make a place worse, it highlights places that have already been neglected•Dialectic of claiming ownership in the context of ownership being abrogated
Who am I, Sam?
• I am not who I think I amI am not who you think I amI am who I think you think that I am
• it's not "You are what you eat," it's "You eat what you think you are."
• WHO ARE YOU? • If you are to ‘fix’ other people, is your identity(ies)
stable?
Community and Me
And my interviewee….
Community, communities
• Ferdinand Tonnies: Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft” Community v society
• What happens when my client is no longer in an abstract space of the counselling room?
• What happens to their ‘coping mechanisms'’ when in a real ‘place’?
All of social & community work
Is now subject to the wider policy of ‘Sustainable Communities’
or Big SocietySustainable communities are places where people want to live and work, now and in the future. They meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are sensitive to their environment, and contribute to a high quality of life.They are safe and inclusive, well planned, built and run, and offer equality of opportunity and good services for all.
Coin Street, London
The experience of modernity
Response to a ProblemSince World War II, cities have been spreading ever-outward. Strip malls, parking lots, highways, and housing tracts have sprawled over the landscape.
Response to a ProblemToo many urban neighborhoods have been blighted by oversized housing projects and centralized redevelopment schemes.
The problem of too much
• Excess, the modern urban experience• Looking for the good in community• Having the moral courage • When is enough?
• What is sustainable?• What can be sustained?
What’s Old in New UrbanismMany of the planning ideas behind New Urbanism are not new.
What’s Old in New UrbanismUrban design has been an art for millennia.
Chapter 1 of Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, by Jeff Conklin, Ph.D., Wiley,
October 2006.
Wicked Problems1. There is no definite formulation of a wicked problem.2. Wicked problems have no stopping rules.3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but better or worse.4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked
problem.5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there
is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly.
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique.8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another
[wicked] problem.9. The causes of a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The
choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution.10. [With wicked problems,] the planner has no right to be wrong.
Tame Problems
Chapter 1 of Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, by Jeff Conklin, Ph.D., Wiley,
October 2006.
The NeighborhoodThe word “neighborhood” gets tossed around a lot in real estate brochures, so it is important to be clear what it means. Each neighborhood has a center and an edge. The center should be a public space, whether a square, a green, or an important intersection.
The NeighborhoodThe optimal size of a neighborhood is a quarter-mile from center to edge. For most people, a quarter mile is a five-minute walk. For a neighborhood to feel walkable, many daily needs should be supplied within this five-minute walk. That includes not only homes, but stores, workplaces, schools, houses of worship, and recreational areas.
The NeighborhoodPeople within a quarter-mile radius will walk to a major transit stop. Those who live further from a transit node are less likely to bother with the train or bus.
BUT, change?
Physical infrastructure is easyCommunity infrastructure is neglected
Communities are disenfranchised
Exploring the Community Infrastructure
• Community profile- rational• Rich picture- lived experience & gaps• Express Empathy• Support Self-Efficacy• Roll with Resistance• Develop Discrepancy
• Contributes to change for a peaceful, just and sustainable future.•Develops anti-discriminatory analyses that reach from local to global, identifying the ways in which personal stories are political• Builds practical local projects with people in community•Teaches people to question their reality•Forms strategic alliances for collective action, local to global•Remains true to its radical agenda, with social and environmental justice at its heart•Generates theory in action, practical theory based on experience which contributes to a unity of praxis.
Ledwith (2007) reclaiming the radical agenda
Practical theory in action (Ledwith)
• Begins in stories of everyday life• Values: equality, respect, dignity, mutuality, trust… • Teaching to question the taken-for-grantedness of everyday
life• Re-experiencing the ordinary as extraordinary• Understanding local lives as politically constructed across
difference• Dialogue: creating critical dissent• Praxis: theory/practice, action/reflection, thinking/doing• Conscientisation: becoming critical• Collective action for change: local to global• Worldview based on cooperation, not competition• Participatory democracy
Spirituality of resistance and change (TC)
THE MORAL CONTEXT/Social Justice praxis
• The courage to enter the moral conflict {Kennedy}.
• Critiquing the moral context.
• Resisting the temptation to moralise, whilst being moral.
• Modelling a discursive morality; offering opportunities to alternative moral perspectives.
• The risk of a treadmill of relativism; how far can alternative moral perspectives and visions constructively interact?
• Is radical and autonomous critique by the people, the community, the stuff of utopian dreams?
Utopian Corby
Dystopia
Blade Runner Kowloon
Heterotopia (Michel Foucault)
• real space, utopia, and heterotopia.• Foucault describes heterotopia as alternative,
phantasmagorical, and ordinary space where transience and timelessness intersect with normal and ideal constructs of chronology, identity, sexuality, and reality
• Heterotopia is a space of juxtaposition and transgression.
Michel Foucault. Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias
Carnival (Bakhtin)
Multiplicity of Languages Multiplicity of Places
MI Community Interventions• Am I committed to non-oppressive change?• Have I explored the (wicked) situation in a systemic way?• Have I established and developed discrepancies between
the lived experience and aspired experience?• Have I allowed difference in places (topia) and voices
(glossia) to be evident?• What models of change are being promoted?• Is my own situatedness (bias) evident to me and the
community?• Have I kept the solution wicked (good) or tamed it (bad)?• Whose Utopia am I implementing?