|
In moving towards new ideas of what our cities might be, our best attempts may involve engaging with the very diversity we currently seek to control. Saul calls for the need to move beyond our current positivist obsession with ‘problems’ and drive for ‘solutions’, as either of these implies a kind of final, perfectible state and denies engagement with a ‘here and now’ process 53. As Squires suggests, we need to accept that it is the variety, the flux and flow, the uncertainty of cities that make them desirable and exciting 54. If we start with the process of ‘aesthetic spacing’ 55, we can begin to see the ‘difference’ of strangers as a source of curiosity, interest and enjoyment. So that we do not end up with cities full of amused spectators however, we can ground this more firmly with a willingness to engage with that diversity, building on the understanding of difference as not essentially threatening, to perhaps find common ground and develop spaces for learning. Hence, "[t]o live is to relate, or to participate in the wider living world of which one is only a part." 56
Many authors discuss the physical possibilities of cities which engender real interaction 57, including a return to the ‘human scale’ and the creation of spaces for meeting and being, as seen fit by the residents. Much of this work also calls for the devolution of the dominance of the automobile and the advent of locally relevant, sustainable social, ecological and economic activities. The spaces for these can include food growing spaces in the form of community gardens or the practice of permaculture, local industrial spaces, community centres, LETS 58 schemes and cooperatives, amongst others. Some of these urban manifestations will be explored further in Chapter 2 as they pertain to this study. Further, there is much potential seen in ‘citizenship’. Active citizenship can be a process of "educational, ethical and political gestation" 59, to which we may add creative, emotional, spiritual and others as we desire. Newbigin posited a citizenship demanding a wide knowledge of the world coupled with the intensive study of particular locations in order to avoid "hasty generalisations" 60. Hence, citizenship could be that awareness of place, the ‘other’ and wider contexts, coupled with a desire to engage with it all as a life process. Clarke refers to this as ‘deep citizenship’, defined thus:
By acting as embedded, aware selves, we can start to move beyond disempowering, inappropriate ‘development’ options, to real and immediate ways of "regaining people’s spaces" 62 and ways of being. Such action is directly empowering: people get together to debate and determine how to address issues of immediate concern, in ways that make sense to them. While current and recent efforts are diverse, all take the form of action which is locally determined, meaningful and relevant, building on local, different knowledges 63 whilst informed by wider bodies and knowledges 64. As an example, Esteva discusses the need to reveal the hidden messages, assumptions and aspirations contained in words such as ‘development’ and to make explicit such agendas in any discourse 65. Such consideration of terminology engenders empowering, understood languages and conversations, rather than vague, imposed, easily misused notions of ‘development’ or ‘participation’. This encourages careful explanation and elucidation of the terms of discourse before their adoption and maintains their fluidity and flexibility. Such dialogue involves opening spaces for debate, discussed earlier as required for ‘sustainability’. In this regard, Howitt refers to the permaculture and ecology notions of ‘edges’ as areas of great productivity, interaction and exchange 66. This provides a useful interpretation of areas of productive dialogue between groups, such that we can shift our geographical imaginations away from ideas of oppositional zones and delineating borders, "towards a more complex, constructive and inclusive ‘edge politics’ that grapples with ambivalence, uncertainty, change, overlap and interaction" 67. Such spaces are implicated in both identity construction and political processes:
All such action therefore involves a willingness to engage with place, people and processes, engendering ongoing processes of transformation and change. Hence, as Rahnema states:
The role of academics in this has been evaluated by Blomley as challenging the formation of knowledge and fostering critical communities within academia, and acting as critical commentators or catalysts without 70. Powell discusses the need for
The role of academics as advisers to the state is also of importance, as this can provide leverage for change in these arenas 72. Rahnema refers to ‘animators’ who are "able to listen to their own people, to the world at large, and to the roots of their common culture" 73. Academics can perform this role by basing their knowledge in real, human action (including their own) and can serve as conduits of information, contacts and resources among and between groups. Such work moves beyond didactic authoritarianism by remaining aware of its embeddedness and aiming to reflect on action in order to provide knowledge for further social empowerment. Theobald refers to this, stating:
|
||||||||||
<< email:lcrabtre@*SPAMBINGLER*els.mq.edu.au >> NOTE: Remember to delete the expression *SPAMBINGLER* from the address before sending the email. |
|||||||||||