1. Thinking about place Social, Change and Communities Penultimate & Final presentation Tim Curtis and Ian Healy

2. This module is ‘soft’

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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).

6. 6 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.”

7. 7 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’

8. 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

9. 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 of Time’, in Senses of Place, ed. by Steven Feld & Keith H. Basso (Santa Fe: School of American Research,1996)

10. 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

11. ‘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

12. 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.

13. Urban Space/urbanism Detachment from nature Alienation Labyrinth Underworld Crossing of boundaries Subject to different meanings

14. So where have we been?? Social, change & communities

15. 15 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!

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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

20. Simmel 1950s Strangeness- otherness Being with strangers No host communities Indifference/retreat/reserve/style = mask Overload of signs and meanings Professionals dissociate from everyday life, rendering it strange Perhaps only objectivity/dispassion

23. Community and Me And my interviewee….

24. 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’?

25. All of social & community work Is now subject to the wider policy of ‘Sustainable Communities’ or Big Society Sustainable 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.

26. Coin Street, London The experience of modernity

27. Response to a Problem Since World War II, cities have been spreading ever-outward. Strip malls, parking lots, highways, and housing tracts have sprawled over the landscape.

28. Response to a Problem Too many urban neighborhoods have been blighted by oversized housing projects and centralized redevelopment schemes.

29. 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?

30. What’s Old in New Urbanism Many of the planning ideas behind New Urbanism are not new.

31. What’s Old in New Urbanism Urban design has been an art for millennia.

33. Chapter 1 of Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, by Jeff Conklin, Ph.D., Wiley, October 2006.

34. Wicked Problems There is no definite formulation of a wicked problem. Wicked problems have no stopping rules. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but better or worse. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem. 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. 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. Every wicked problem is essentially unique. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another [wicked] problem. The causes of a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution. [With wicked problems,] the planner has no right to be wrong.

35. Tame Problems Chapter 1 of Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, by Jeff Conklin, Ph.D., Wiley, October 2006.

36. The Neighborhood The 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.

37. The Neighborhood The 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.

38. The Neighborhood People 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.

39. BUT, change? Physical infrastructure is easy Community infrastructure is neglected Communities are disenfranchised

41. Develops anti-discriminatory analyses that reach from local to global, identifying the ways in which personal stories are political

42. Builds practical local projects with people in community

43. Teaches people to question their reality

44. Forms strategic alliances for collective action, local to global

45. Remains true to its radical agenda, with social and environmental justice at its heart

46. Generates theory in action, practical theory based on experience which contributes to a unity of praxis.Ledwith (2007) reclaiming the radical agenda

47. 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)

48. 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?

49. Utopian Corby

50. Dystopia Blade Runner Kowloon

51. Heterotopia(MichelFoucault) 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

52. Carnival (Bakhtin) Multiplicity of Languages Multiplicity of Places

53. 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?