46 research outputs found
LIFE in a ZOO: Henri Lefebvre and the (social) production of (abstract) space in Liverpool
Building on recent critical contributions towards conceptualising neighbourhood change as socially produced and politically âperformedâ, this paper takes a closer look at the work of Henri Lefebvre to understand the production of urban space as a deeply political process. A common critical characterisation of neighbourhood changeâoccurring through a grand Lefebvrean struggle between âabstract space-makersâ and âsocial space-makersââis critically examined through an in-depth historical case study of the Granby neighbourhood in Liverpool. Here, these forces are embodied respectively in technocratic state-led comprehensive redevelopment, notably Housing Market Renewal and its LIFE and ZOO zoning models; and in alternative community-led rehabilitation projects such as the Turner Prize-winning Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust. By tracing the surprisingly intimate interactions and multiple contradictions between these apparently opposing spatial projects, the production of neighbourhood is shown to be a complex, often violent political process, whose historical trajectories require disentangling in order to understand how we might construct better urban futures
Vehicle and mission design of a future small payload launcher
This paper presents the conceptual design and performance analysis of a partially reusable space launch vehicle for small payloads. The system uses a multi-stage vehicle with rocket engines, with a reusable first stage capable of glided or powered flight, and expendable upper stage(s) to inject a 500 kg payload in different low Earth orbits. The space access vehicle is designed to be air-launched from a modified aircraft carrier. The aim of the system design is to develop a commercially viable launch system for near-term operation, thus emphasis is placed on the efficient use of high TRL technologies. The vehicle design are analysed using a multi-disciplinary design optimisation approach to evaluate the performance, operational capabilities and design trade-offs
Forgotten Plotlanders: Learning from the survival of lost informal housing in the UK.
Colin Wardâs discourses on the arcadian landscape of âplotlanderâ housing are unique documentations of the anarchistic birth, life, and death of the last informal housing communities in the UK. Today the forgotten history of âplotlanderâ housing documented by Ward can be re-read in the context of both the apparently never-ending âhousing crisisâ in the UK, and the increasing awareness of the potential value of learning from comparable informal housing from the Global South. This papers observations of a previously unknown and forgotten plotlander site offers a chance to begin a new conversation regarding the positive potential of informal and alternative housing models in the UK and wider Westernised world
Space as method: field sites and encounters in Beijingâs green belts
Great urban transformations are diffusing across the Global South, removing the original landscape of urban margins to make of them a new urban frontier. These processes raise questions of both validity and legitimacy for ethnographic practice, requiring critical reflection on both spatiality and method in fieldwork at the urban margins. This article draws on fieldwork experience in Beijingâs green belts, which could also be labeled the cityâs urban margin or frontier, to reflect on the space-time of encounter in the field. I aim to demonstrate how space foregrounds not only our bodily experiences but also ethnographic investigations of the daily life, and hence becomes a method. Beijingâs green belts symbolise a historical-geographical conjuncture (a moment) emerging in its urban metamorphosis. Traditional endeavours (immanent in various spatial metaphors) to identify field sites as reified entities are invalidated over the course of the space-time encounter, requiring a relational spatial ontology to register such dynamics. The use in fieldwork of DiDi Hitch, a mobile app for taxi-hailing and hitchhiking, reveals the spatiotemporal construction of self-other relations needing recognition via the dialectics of the encounter. In this relational framework, an encounter is never a priori but a negotiation of a here-and-now between different trajectories and stories as individuals are thrown together in socially constructed space and time
MANIFESTAĂĂES SOCIAIS E NOVAS MĂDIAS: a construção de uma cultura contra-hegemĂŽnica
O artigo analisa algumas manifestaçÔes sociais que surgiram pelo mundo a partir de 2008, em especial no Egito, na Espanha, nos EUA, no Chile e no Brasil. O nosso interesse estĂĄ no impacto, nessas manifestaçÔes, do uso das redes sociais, jĂĄ razoavelmente inseridas num contexto de intensa mediação na comunicação entre manifestantes e na opiniĂŁo pĂșblica em geral. Analisamos dois aspectos: o impacto na organização desses movimentos e o uso cada vez mais central das imagens como forma de comunicação. Com a preocupação de identificar pontos de novidade mais do que analisĂĄ-los profundamente, indicamos que hĂĄ interessantes possibilidades de luta contra-hegemĂŽnica a partir do uso extensivo e intensivo das mĂdias sociais, o que se dĂĄ pela busca da democracia radical e pelo uso crĂtico da imagem. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Internet. MĂdias sociais. Hegemonia. Movimentos sociais. PolĂtica.SOCIAL MANIFESTATIONS AND NEW MEDIA: the construction of a counter-hegemonic culture Paulo Rodrigues Gajanigo RogĂ©rio Ferreira de Souza The article analyzes some social protests that have appeared around the world from 2008, especially in Egypt, Spain, USA, Chile and Brazil. Our interest is in the impact, on these events, of the use of social networks, already fairly inserted in a context of intense mediation in communication between protesters and public opinion in general. We analyze two aspects: the impact on the organization of these movements and more central use of images as a form of communication. With a view to identify new points, more than deeply analyze them, indicate that there are interesting possibilities for counter-hegemonic struggle from the extensive and intensive use of social media, which is given by the search for radical democracy and critical use of images. KEYWORDS: Internet. Social media. Hegemony. Social movements. Policy.MANIFESTATIONS SOCIALES ET NOUVEAUX MĂDIAS: la construction dâune culture contrehĂ©gĂ©monique Paulo Rodrigues Gajanigo RogĂ©rio Ferreira de Souza Cet article analyse quelques manifestations sociales qui ont eu lieu dans le monde Ă partir de 2008, tout spĂ©cialement en Ăgypte, en Espagne, aux Ătats-Unis, au Chili et au BrĂ©sil. Notre centre dâintĂ©rĂȘt se situe au niveau de lâimpact crĂ©Ă© par lâutilisation des rĂ©seaux sociaux dans ces manifestations dĂ©jĂ suffisamment insĂ©rĂ©es dans un contexte dâintense mĂ©diation de ces rĂ©seaux pour la communication entre les manifestants et lâopinion publique en gĂ©nĂ©ral. Lâanalyse porte sur deux aspects: lâimpact au niveau de lâorganisation de ces mouvements et lâutilisation chaque fois plus centrale des images comme moyen de communication. Dans lâintĂ©rĂȘt dâidentifier des Ă©lĂ©ments nouveaux plus que dâen approfondir lâanalyse, nous signalons quâil y a des possibilitĂ©s intĂ©ressantes de lutte contre-hĂ©gĂ©monique grĂące Ă lâutilisation intensive des mĂ©dias sociaux, auxquels on fait appel en vue dâune dĂ©mocratie radicale et pour lâutilisation critique de lâimage. MOTS-CLĂS: Internet. MĂ©dias sociaux. HĂ©gĂ©monie. Mouvements sociaux. Politique. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH no Scielo: http://www.scielo.br/ccrh Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br
A Journey into the City. Migrant Workers' Relation with the Urban Space and Struggle for Existence in Xu Zechen's Early Jingpiao Fiction
In contemporary China, rural-urban migrants constitute a new urban subject with entirely new identity-related issues. This study aims at demonstrating how literature can be a valid field in investigating such evolving subjectivities, through an analysis of Xu Zechenâs early novellas depicting migrantsâ vicissitudes in Beijing. Combining a close reading of the texts and a review of the main social problems characterising rural-urban migration in China, this paper focuses on the representation of the identity crisis within the migrant self in Xuâs stories, taking into account the network of meanings employed by the writer to signify the objective and subjective tension between the city and the countryside
El derecho a la ciudad y mĂĄs allĂĄ: notas sobre una reconceptualizaciĂłn lefebvriana / The Right to the City and Beyond: Notes on a Lefebvrian Re-conceptualization
Resumen Uno de los Ășltimos artĂculos de Henri Lefebvre, âQuand la ville se perd dans une mĂ©tamorphose planĂ©taireâ, publicado en Le Monde Diplomatique en 1989 es, con mucho, uno de los mĂĄs enigmĂĄticos. El tĂtulo es elocuente por sĂ mismo, mostrando a un Lefebvre atĂpicamente deprimido, dos años antes de su muerte, extinguiĂ©ndose como su querida ciudad tradicional: cuando la ciudad pierde el rumbo, dice, cuando se descarrĂa, en una metamorfosis planetaria. El presente artĂculo pretende desarrollar el lamento de despedida de Lefebvre problematizando sus propias tesis sobre el âderecho a la ciudadâ, especialmente a la luz de su reciente reapropiaciĂłn burguesa. La argumentaciĂłn intenta redefinir el celebrado ideal radical que Lefebvre acuñara a finales de los 60, reubicĂĄndolo en el contexto de neoliberalismo global contemporĂĄneo, negĂĄndolo a travĂ©s de su superaciĂłn, afirmando en su lugar la necesidad de una âpolĂtica del encuentroâ. Si un concepto no encajaba, si, de algĂșn modo, no funcionaba, Lefebvre insistĂa en que debĂamos abandonarlo, entregarlo al enemigo. QuizĂĄs sea esto lo que debemos hacer con el derecho a la ciudad. La utilidad polĂtica de un concepto, dice Lefebvre, no consiste en que se corresponda con la realidad, sino que nos permita experimentar con ella, que nos ayude a ver otra realidad, una realidad virtual que estĂĄ allĂ, en alguna parte, esperando nacer, dentro de nosotros. AsĂ, sugiero que una polĂtica del encuentro nos obliga a encontrarnos a nosotros mismos, concretamente, junto a los demĂĄs; no consiste en una reclamaciĂłn de derechos superficial y abstracta de algo que se ha vuelto redundante en una Ă©poca en que la urbanizaciĂłn planetaria se ha convertido en un circuito de capital mĂĄs. Palabras clave: Henri Lefebvre, polĂtica del encuentro, urbanizaciĂłn planetaria. Abstract One of Henri Lefebvreâs last essays, âQuand la ville se perd dans une mĂ©tamorphose planĂ©taire,â published in Le monde diplomatique in 1989, is by far one of his most enigmatic. The title alone says bundles; an atypically downbeat Lefebvre is on show, two-years before death, dying like his cherished traditional city: when the city loses its way, he says, when it goes astray, in a planetary metamorphosis. This article mobilizes Lefebvreâs valedictory lament. It does so to problematize his very own thesis on âthe right to the city,â especially in the light of recent bourgeois re-appropriation. The discussion tries to rework and reframe Lefebvreâs celebrated late-60sâ radical ideal, propelling it into the contemporary neo-liberal global context, negating it by moving beyond it, affirming in its stead a âpolitics of the encounter.â If a concept didnât fit, somehow didnât work, Lefebvre insists that we should always ditch that concept, abandon it, give it up to the enemy. So, too, perhaps, with the right to the city. The political utility of a concept, Lefebvre says, isnât that it should tally with reality, but that it enables us to experiment with reality, that it helps us glimpse another reality, a virtual reality thatâs there, somewhere, waiting to be born, inside us. A politics of encounter, I suggest, forces us to encounter ourselves, concretely, alongside others; it doesnât make facile, abstract rights claims for something thatâs now redundant in an age when planetary urbanization has become another circuit of capital. Keywords: Henri Lefebvre, politics of the encounter, planetary urbanization
Europe\u27s New Urban Question
Europe is in crisis, deep economic and political crisis. With many member-state economies now tottering on zero-growth meltdown, professional politicians and economists persist with austerity drives and devise ideological covers for the continued plundering of public resources. Frack capitalism power-drills into the public realm, extorting value from erstwhile common property. A para-state of technocrats and Euro-bureaucrats, meanwhile, governs, sending us rain and sunshine from above (Marx). One big problem such professional representation poses for ordinary Europeans -- for people I shall call amateur shadow citizens -- is PARTICIPATION. Shadow citizens are disenfranchised Euro-citizens who express a citizenship waiting in the wings, a potential solidarity haunting the mainstream, floating across frontiers and through designated checkpoints. This lecture investigates the dialectic between professional austerians and shadow citizens, doing so while attempting to put a fresh spin on Henri Lefebvre\u27s late ideal that the right to the city is nothing less than a new conception of revolutionary citizenship