Listening to the talk of the city: media and urban informatics in community consultation for architectural and urban design

The discipline of architecture focuses on designing the built environment in response to the needs of society, reflecting culture through materials and forms. The physical boundaries of the city have become blurred through the integration of digital media, connecting the physical environment with the digital. In the recent past the future was imagined as highly technological; Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is set in 2019 and introduces a polluted world where supersized screens inject advertisements in the cluttered urban space. Now, in 2014 screens are central to everyday life, but in a completely different way in respect to what had been imagined. Through ubiquitous computing and social media, information is abundant. Digital technologies have changed the way people relate to urban form supporting discussion on multiple levels, allowing citizens to be more vocal than ever before. Bottom-up campaigns to oppose anticipated developments or to suggest intervention in the way cities are designed, are a common situation in several parts of the world. For some extent governments and local authorities are trying to engage with developing technologies, but a common issue is that social media cannot be controlled or filtered as can be done with more traditional consultation methods. We question how designers can use the affordances of urban informatics to obtain and navigate useful social information to inform architectural and urban design. This research investigates different approaches to engage communities in the debate on the built environment. Physical and digital discussions have been initiated to capture citizens’ opinions on the use and design of public places. Online platforms, urban screens, mobile apps and guerrilla techniques are explored in the context of Brisbane, Australia.

Sharing ink

Sharing Ink is a Guerrilla Kindness work by public artist Sayraphim Lothian. 30 handmade books will be given to 30 local writers and artists to inscribe with a lovely message to a stranger. From 1 – 10 August, 2013, these books will be left out in various places around the Melbourne CBD as a gift to whoever finds them.

Playing Pranks: Traditions, communities & co-creative cultural performance practice

Pranks, hoaxes and practical jokes are co-creative cultural performance practices that appear across times, contexts and cultures. These practices include everyday play amongst families, friends and coworkers, entertainment programs such as Prank Patrol, Punked or Scare Tactics, and aesthetic and activist pranks perpetrated by situationist artists, guerrilla artists, and, most recently, culture ‘jammers’ or ‘hackers’ intent on turning capitalist systems back on themselves. Although it can, in common usage, describe almost any show off behaviour, a prank in the strictest definition of the term is a performance that deploys a very specific set of strategies. It is an act of trickery, mischief, or deceit, that must be taken as real, and momentarily cause real fear, anger or worry for an unwitting spectator-become-performer, who is meant to play along until the trick is revealed and their response can be represented back to the prankster, other spectators, or society as a whole, either for the sake of entertainment or for the sake of commentary on a cultural phenomenon. A prank, in this sense, deliberately blurs the boundaries between daily and dramatic performance. It creates a moment of uncertainty, in which both the prankster’s ability to be creative, clever, or culturally astute, and the prankee’s ability to play along, discern the trick, discern the point of the trick, and, in the end, be duped, be a good sport, or even play/pay the prankster back, are both put to the test. In this paper, I consider a number of pranking traditions popular where I am in Australia, from the community-building pranks of footballers, bucks parties and ‘drop bear’ tales told to tourists, to the more controversial pranks of radio shock jocks, activists and artists. I use performance, spectatorship and ethical theory to examine the engagement between prankster, pranked spectator, and other spectators, in this most distinctive sort of community-driven performance practice, and the way it builds and breaks status, social and other sorts of relationships within and between specific communities.

The prankster’s passion: Using theatrical terms to unpack players motivations in popular social performance

Amongst social players, the prank, as a social performance form, holds a lot of potential to impact on personal, relational and social status within a group or between one group and another group. More than simply showing off, a prank in the strictest definition of the term, is a social performance in which one player, a prankster, deploys mischief, trickery or deceit, to cause a moment of anxiety, fear or anger about a happening for another spectator-become-collaborating-player, a prankee – to enhance social bonds, entertain, or comment on a social, cultural or political phenomenon. During a prank, the prankster’s ability to be creative, clever or culturally astute, and the prankee’s ability to be duped, be a good sport, play along, or even play/pay the prankster back, both become fodder for other spectators and society to scrutinize. In Australia, pranking traditions are popular with many social groups, from the community-building pranks of footballers, bucks parties and ‘drop bear’ tales told to tourists, to the more controversial pranks of radio shock jocks, activists and artists. In this paper, I consider whether theatrical terms – theoretical terms from the stage such as actor, acting, objective, arc, performance, audience and emotion, such as those offered by Joseph Roach – are useful in understanding the passion some social players show for pranksterism. Are theatrical terms such as Roach’s as useful as analysts of social self-performance such as Erving Goffman suggest they are? Do they assist in understanding the personal actions, reactions and emotions of prankster and prankee? Do they assist in understanding the power relations between prankster and prankee? Do they assist in understanding the relation between the prank – be it an everyday prank amongst families, friends and coworkers, an entertainment program prank of the sort seen on Prank Patrol, Punked or Scare Tactics, or an activist pranks perpetrated by a guerrilla artist, ‘jammers’ or ‘hackers’ intent on turning dominant social systems back on themselves – the social players, and the public sphere in which the prank takes place? I reflect on how reading pranks as performances, by players, for highly participatory audiences, helps understand why they are so prevalent, and so recurrent across times, cultures and contexts, and also so controversial when not performed well enough – or when performed too well – prompting outrage from the prankster, prankee or society as passionate as any debate about a performance by players in a theatre.

¿Feminismo indígena? : Un análisis crítico del discurso sobre los textos de la mujer en el movimiento zapatista 1994-2009

This work analyses texts on indigenous women´s participation in the Mexican Zapatista Army, Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional. The EZLN came to public attention after ten years of clandestine organization in 1994 in Chiapas, a southern state of Mexico neighboring Guatemala. Along the invasion of various municipalities in Chiapas, the Zapatista Army published their own Revolutionary Laws, directed to the Mexican government that included a section on women´s own laws. The indigenous women´s participation in a guerrilla movement in the economically poorest area of Mexico raised many questions among Mexican feminists and some of them fiercely criticized the laws for not being liberating or feminist at all. The question is, did the indigenous women want the laws to be feminist? To answer the main research question How is the position of women constructed in the Zapatista discourse? I analyze texts by various actors in the discourse within the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis and the feminist theories of intersectionality. The connecting point in this interdisciplinary framework is the question of power and hegemony. The actors in the discourse are the women commanders themselves, the men commanders, the Zapatista spokesperson, subcomandante Marcos and the Mexican feminists. The texts analyzed are the letters of the EZLN to the media and discourses in public reunions, first published in Mexican newspapers and international discussion lists on the Internet and after 2005, on the Zapatista´s own webpage. The results show that instead of discussing whether the Zapatista women´s participation is feminist or not, the action itself provoked such wide discussion of the diversity within the feminist movement that it is a contribution itself. The work also shows that the use of language can be one tool in the quite recent paradigm of intersectionality in feminist theories.

En las raíces ideológicas de Montoneros : John William Cooke lee a Gramsci en Cuba

Desde 1945 la izquierda argentina no pudo resolver el enigma planteado por el hecho de que la clase obrera era peronista. Varios intentos teóricos fracasaron antes de que John William Cooke hiciera el suyo a mediados de los años sesenta. Influenciado por Gramsci, consideró que la clase obrera es una categoría histórica, por lo que el peronismo era la experiencia histórica de la clase obrera argentina y, como tal, revolucionario. Neutralizó el papel político de Perón convirtiéndolo en el símbolo de la identidad peronista. Por esto, la teoría de Cooke fue clave para que guerrilleros de izquierda se declararan peronistas sin que les importaran las opiniones e intenciones políticas de Perón. Las limitaciones de esa teoría quedaron expuestas cuando el general regresó a la Argentina y fue electo presidente por tercera vez.

Mulheres guerreiras: aproximação à experiência de vida de mulheres que pertenceram aos grupos armados da guerrilha na Colômbia

O tema das mulheres e sua relação com a guerra e a política começou a ser investigado na Colômbia durante a última década. Com o objetivo de colaborar para a compreensão deste fenômeno mais especificamente, a participação de mulheres em grupos guerrilheiros , nesta dissertação se busca analisar a trajetória de vida de cinco mulheres que ingressaram no Exército de Liberação Nacional entre os anos de 1980 e 1990. As categorias centrais manejadas neste trabalho foram: trajetórias de vida, gênero e conflito armado, concepções desenvolvidas com base nos postulados teóricos de Joan Scott e Pierre Bourdieu. Metodologicamente foram utilizadas ferramentas da história oral na abordagem dos relatos de histórias de vida com o fim de traçar pontes entre o sujeito, as condições sociais e a estrutura. Da mesma forma, realizou-se uma análise do Exército de Liberação Nacional como um campo social a partir do qual se pode abordar as relações entre homens e mulheres em temas como sexualidade, maternidade, relações de casais e referentes identitários. Enquanto se avançou em direção a uma aproximação à história dessas cinco mulheres dentro do grupo guerrilheiro, surgiram novas perguntas relacionadas com a trajetória política de cada uma delas no âmbito da vida civil.

Getúlio Cabral: trajetória e morte de um militante comunista em Duque de Caxias, na Guanabara e em Salvador

A Ditadura Militar brasileira desperta o interesse dos pesquisadores porque ainda é alvo de disputas das memórias sobre o período. As fontes usadas nesta pesquisa foram principalmente documentos encontrados no APERJ (Arquivo Público do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) e no site do Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais / Rio e entrevistas. O principal conceito norteador dessa pesquisa é o conceito de memória, usado na ótica de Pollak, Jacques Le Goff e Paul Ricouer. A mesma trabalha em conjunto com a História Política e com a História Oral. Diferentes memórias foram confrontadas para analisar o período da ditadura.

Peruwiańskie siły samoobrony chłopskiej. Od konfliktu zbrojnego do transformacji pokojowej

Wydział Historyczny: Instytut Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej

The Ford administration, Angola and the perception of Post-Vietnam US credibility, 1974-1976

This thesis is a study of how the Gerald Ford administration struggled to address a perceived loss of US credibility after the collapse of Vietnam, with a focus on the role of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the formulation, implementation and subsequent defence of US Angolan policy. By examining the immediate post-Vietnam period, this thesis shows that Vietnam had a significant impact on Kissinger’s actions on Angola, which resulted in an ill conceived covert operation in another third world conflict. In 1974, Africa was a neglected region in Cold War US foreign policy, yet the effects of the Portuguese revolution led to a rapid decolonization of its African territories, of which Angola was to become the focus of superpower competition. After South Vietnam collapsed in April 1975, Kissinger became fixated on restoring the perceived loss of US prestige, Angola provided the first opportunity to address this. Despite objections from his advisors, Kissinger methodically engineered a covert program to assist two anti-Marxist guerrilla groups in Angola. As the crisis escalated, the media discovered the operation and the Congress decided to cease all funding. A period of heated tensions ensued, resulting in Kissinger creating a new African policy to outmanoeuvre his critics publicly, while privately castigating them to foreign leaders. This thesis argues that Kissinger’s dismissal of internal dissent and opposition from the Congress was influenced by what he perceived as bureaucrats being affected by the Vietnam syndrome, and his obsession with restoring US credibility. By looking at the private and public records – as expressed in government meetings and official reports, US newspaper and television coverage and diplomatic cables – this thesis addresses the question of how the lessons of Vietnam failed to influence Kissinger’s actions in Angola, but the lessons of Angola were heavily influential in the construction of a new US-African policy.

Agricultura urbana, condición para el desarrollo sostenible y la mejora del paisaje

Este artículo resulta de investigaciones en torno al “enverdecimiento” de las ciudades y las oportunidades de la agricultura urbana para la alimentación de una población en constante aumento que no trabaja la tierra. También es fruto de actividades de mejora de ambientes urbanos realizadas con la Escuela de Ingenieros Agrónomos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. A través de casos de agricultura urbana, entendiendo por ella el conjunto de prácticas para la producción de alimentos y plantas ornamentales dentro de las ciudades y en sus entornos, se analizan alternativas para la recuperación de espacios construidos e incremento de la calidad de vida de la población. Todo ello se traduce, además, en creación de riqueza y mejora del paisaje urbano, siempre desde criterios de sostenibilidad que favorecen el desarrollo local desde la Cumbre de la Tierra de Río de 1992 y la Conferencia sobre Desarrollo Sostenible Río+20 de 2013.

Primitivismo y Feminismo en el arte contemporáneo

Para la mentalidad colonialista del siglo XIX la raza negra estaba provista de una extraordinaria sexualidad y lujuria. En la metrópolis el equivalente era la mujer sexuada, la prostituta. En los primeros años del siglo XX este tándem, prostituta-colonizado, sirve a los artistas vanguardistas como elemento de confrontación con la moral imperante. Son las artistas mujeres, con una intención feminista, quienes principalmente utilizan el primitivismo asociado a la mujer en su crítica a los estereotipos. Figura pionera en ello es Hannah Höch, especialmente en su serie De un Museo Etnográfico, en el que asocia figuras femeninas y objetos de arte primitivo. En los años 70 del siglo XX, algunas artistas de la performance, como Carolee Schneemann o Ana Mendieta reivindican el cuerpo femenino con el significado de Origen y Fertilidad que tiene en las culturas primitivas. En este mismo contexto puede inscribirse la escultura Maman de Louise Bourgeois. El elemento de crítica social, que está vigente aún en nuestros días, puede verse en las obras de las Guerrilla Girls.

The Irish Revolution, 1916-1923

This concise study of Ireland’s revolutionary years charts the demise of the home rule movement and the rise of militant nationalism that led eventually to the partition of Ireland and independence for southern Ireland. The book provides a clear chronology of events but also adopts a thematic approach to ensure that the role of women and labour are examined, in addition to the principal political and military developments during the period. Incorporating the most recent literature on the period, it provides a good introduction to some of the most controversial debates on the subject, including the extent of sectarianism, the nature of violence and the motivation of guerrilla fighters.

The supplementary documents have been chosen carefully to provide a wide-ranging perspective of political views, including those of constitutional nationalists, republicans, unionists, the British government and the labour movement. The Irish Revolution 1916-1923 is ideal for students and interested readers at all levels, providing a diverse range of primary sources and the tools to unlock them.

The political legacy of World war I and the Easter Rising in Longford

During the Irish War of Independence, between 1919 and 1921, Longford was one of the centres of the Irish Republican Army's guerrilla campaign against British rule in Ireland. The county's emergence as a centre of republican activity appears incongruous in light of its relatively peaceful history up to that point and in view of the fact that, outside of Dublin, its neighbouring Leinster counties were not particularly strongholds of IRA resistance. The explanation for Longford's role during the crucial years of the independence campaign is to be found in the political ransformation that occurred in the county in the crucial period of turmoil encompassing World War I and the Easter Rising.

Violence against women in the Irish War of Independence, 1919-1921

This chapter examines the nature and extent of violence experienced by women in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) at the hands of both the Crown forces and the Irish Republican Army. It argues that targetted killings of women by either side was rare. The most common forms of such violence can be categorised as physical, gendered (cutting of hair) and psychological (intimidation and the killing of male relatives). It argues that there was a difference between gendered and sexual crime, the latter of which appears to have been very uncommon. A considerable part of the chapter uses theoretical literature on violence against women in conflict zones to explain why sexual violence was uncommon, arguing that neither side had much to gain from its employment, that the Crown forces were aware of the damage it could do to Britain's international reputation and that the terror tactics adopted by the Crown forces were sufficient to achieve their ends without resorting to rape. In regard to the IRA, the absence of any evidence of rape or sexual assault being perpetrated could be attributable to their Catholicism, reliance on support from the community, the efforts of the first Dáil to achieve foreign recognition of the Republic and the role of Cumann na mBan women in the guerrilla conflict. The historiography of women in the Irish revolution is also analysed.