hey folks - happy new year!
i hope everyone had a good and safe new year's eve ...
my wife and i made homemade pasta and bread (trying out our new kitchen appliances), and then headed over to a friend's place for a small party. we actually looked decent for once...
and some of us looked even better when we got back (after a few glasses of wine - whoo boy!
)...
(the big thing at this party was making your own new year's hat ... go figure)
today, we stayed in all day. we made ribs in the crock pot. it's not QUITE the same as bbq, but still tasty. then he watched 'lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels.' pretty entertaining. it was a good day.
in other news, i wrote a draft of a book review today! it's for margaret kohn's "brave new neighborhoods." it's pretty interesting. kohn does two things in the book:
1. first, she details how we're losing publc space. she points to gated communities, malls, and "business improvement districts" that are gradually eroding public space and replacing it with private space.
2. the second - and more interesting - move that she makes is to detail why this matters.
2a. first, it's just about good democracy. (to be clear: kohn isn't talking about democratic epistemology either - she isn't some dewey adherent who thinks we're going to get the "right" answer from democracy.) rather, kohn sees democracy as a "good" in itself - coming from the idea that people have value and should have a say in their government. defending public space is part of defending democracy - b/c public spaces are spaces where anyone can get on the street and express their political opinion. thus, it's a cheap and relatively effective way to communicate and spread information. public space is a space for speech which means we can learn there which means we can better democratic decisions.
2b. this was the good bit ... public space matters for subjectivity. kohn doesn't do the work to fully tease this out, but she argues that public space is open - not controlled - space. when we're in public, we encouter strange people and unusual situations. we are forced to confront the reality of "the other" AND consider how our actions might appear to others. there is a reflexivity that is encouraged by public space, a reflexivity that is good for us ethically and good for democracy too.
kohn's stuff is really persuasive ... but what she DOESN'T do is really interrogate what she means by public space. it sounds nitpicky maybe .. but presumably public spaces differ (this is why New Urbanists and folks who like Garden Cities - ranging from Lewis Mumford to the designgers of Celebration, FL - argue with folks who embrace the concrte jungle - a la Jane Jacobs). so, kohn points out that we need public spaces not private ones .. but just what kind?
this really matters, since public spaces can be just as easily controlled (by the state) or controlling (used for state functions - think parades and military displays). kohn is aware of this .. but sort of sidesteps it. she knows that defending public space isn't the only answer to having a good democracy (true), but she wrote a whole book about the damn thing. given that, it seems safe to assume public space is *pretty* important - it would be nice for her to theorize on just what form ideal democratic public space would take. (my take: i'm with the jacobs camp - high density cities are both more efficient and good for us. they could be done better - with more parks and mixed income living, but they're closer to right than sprawling garden cities.)
anyway ... that's what i was working on today. tomorrow i have to write up a proposal thing for my MA - i present at our workshop next week. (ugh - back to school on monday. it seems so soon .. but i'm glad our break is short. i'd be at a loss if it was much longer.) i think we might go to the new target tomorrow in the south loop too. fun times.
hope all is well out there. see you soon
i hope everyone had a good and safe new year's eve ...
my wife and i made homemade pasta and bread (trying out our new kitchen appliances), and then headed over to a friend's place for a small party. we actually looked decent for once...
and some of us looked even better when we got back (after a few glasses of wine - whoo boy!
)...
(the big thing at this party was making your own new year's hat ... go figure)
today, we stayed in all day. we made ribs in the crock pot. it's not QUITE the same as bbq, but still tasty. then he watched 'lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels.' pretty entertaining. it was a good day.
in other news, i wrote a draft of a book review today! it's for margaret kohn's "brave new neighborhoods." it's pretty interesting. kohn does two things in the book:
1. first, she details how we're losing publc space. she points to gated communities, malls, and "business improvement districts" that are gradually eroding public space and replacing it with private space.
2. the second - and more interesting - move that she makes is to detail why this matters.
2a. first, it's just about good democracy. (to be clear: kohn isn't talking about democratic epistemology either - she isn't some dewey adherent who thinks we're going to get the "right" answer from democracy.) rather, kohn sees democracy as a "good" in itself - coming from the idea that people have value and should have a say in their government. defending public space is part of defending democracy - b/c public spaces are spaces where anyone can get on the street and express their political opinion. thus, it's a cheap and relatively effective way to communicate and spread information. public space is a space for speech which means we can learn there which means we can better democratic decisions.
2b. this was the good bit ... public space matters for subjectivity. kohn doesn't do the work to fully tease this out, but she argues that public space is open - not controlled - space. when we're in public, we encouter strange people and unusual situations. we are forced to confront the reality of "the other" AND consider how our actions might appear to others. there is a reflexivity that is encouraged by public space, a reflexivity that is good for us ethically and good for democracy too.
kohn's stuff is really persuasive ... but what she DOESN'T do is really interrogate what she means by public space. it sounds nitpicky maybe .. but presumably public spaces differ (this is why New Urbanists and folks who like Garden Cities - ranging from Lewis Mumford to the designgers of Celebration, FL - argue with folks who embrace the concrte jungle - a la Jane Jacobs). so, kohn points out that we need public spaces not private ones .. but just what kind?
this really matters, since public spaces can be just as easily controlled (by the state) or controlling (used for state functions - think parades and military displays). kohn is aware of this .. but sort of sidesteps it. she knows that defending public space isn't the only answer to having a good democracy (true), but she wrote a whole book about the damn thing. given that, it seems safe to assume public space is *pretty* important - it would be nice for her to theorize on just what form ideal democratic public space would take. (my take: i'm with the jacobs camp - high density cities are both more efficient and good for us. they could be done better - with more parks and mixed income living, but they're closer to right than sprawling garden cities.)
anyway ... that's what i was working on today. tomorrow i have to write up a proposal thing for my MA - i present at our workshop next week. (ugh - back to school on monday. it seems so soon .. but i'm glad our break is short. i'd be at a loss if it was much longer.) i think we might go to the new target tomorrow in the south loop too. fun times.
hope all is well out there. see you soon
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
We so need to hang out. So let's shake off some of this holiday hangover, so to speak, recoup some finances (that is, MY FINANCES) and work on that, a'ight??
[Edited on Jan 04, 2005 8:37PM]
Good luck with your presentation next week. I just started the new quarter at DePaul last night. Taking a class in artificial intelligence and another in bioinformatics (which I'm really pretty excited about - so many applications). What about you? What's on your plate?