Week 2: September 9: On OHNY + Theoretical Framing

Via Present & Correct

First, about our weekly schedules:

If you’re accustomed to syllabi that consist of little more than a weekly schedule and a list of readings,  the following might look a bit – or a lot! – intimidating. Fear not! Most of what you see here is my attempt to provide context and intellectual framing. I explain why I’ve chosen particular texts, and what I hope you’ll gain from reading, watching, or listening to them. I offer tips regarding what to focus on. I pose questions that I hope you’ll keep in mind as you engage. I also occasionally direct you to collections of related resources that you’re welcome simply to skim, but which might (I hope!) prove useful for your own research – or inspire a new interest, or introduce you to some new resources, or connect you to a new community. In short, the voluminous text you’ll see below is meant to serve as a friendly guide to your weekly preparations. It’ll ideally make your reading more efficient and meaningful 😉

Now, about today:

🚨🚨 We’ll be meeting virtually this week, to allow for open conversation with our external partners. 🚨🚨

Today in class we’ll revisit our Community Agreement and review our project brief. We’ll also discuss (1) what constitutes our “field” and its inhabitants; (2) how we’ve gained “access” (and how this would happen if you were working independently!); (3) what theoretical frameworks and critical concerns could potentially guide our participant-observation and analysis; and (4) our own positionality. We’ll be joined again today by Pamela Puchalski, OHNY Executive Director.

To prepare for today: 

  • Complete your introduction on Notion.
  • You’ll all welcome to sign up for a half-hour office-hour appointment with Shannon sometime over the next three weeks. These meetings are optional, but they’ll help Shannon and V better understand your expertise and interests, so they can more effectively guide the class. 
  • Review the OHNY website, their OHNY Weekend Call for Submissions , OHNY’s Correspondence with Interested Partners (including especially the FAQ and Partner Guide), and our Project Brief.  
  • Now, let’s consider two themes / approaches that are central to OHNY’s work:
    • Urban Pedagogy: Shannon Mattern, “Infrastructural Tourism,” Places Journal (July 2013).
    • Co-Creation / Community Stewardship: Martin Severin Frandsen and Lene Pfeiffer Petersen, “Urban Co-Creation” in Jesper Simonsen, Connie Svabo, Sara Malou Strandvad, Kristine Samson, Morten Hertzum, and Ole Erik Hansen, eds., Situated Design Methods (MIT Press, 2014): 181-99.
    • Between now and September 30, you’re all invited to help design our critical apparatus by contributing a resource and short abstract to our Concept Library on Notion.
  • Required for Grads / Optional for Undergrads: Next, let’s examine an ethnography of urban pedagogy and co-design: Alberto Corsín Jiménez and Adolfo Estalella, “Ethnography: A Prototype,” Ethnos 82:5 (2017): 846-66 [you’ll be prompted to log in to access some of our copyrighted readings].  
  • Let’s also think about how the pandemic and our networked digital existence has transformed this work – perhaps only temporarily, but most likely for the long haul: Ruth Lang, “Remote Viewing,” Architecture Today (2020). How will these changes affect our work? 

Via Present & Correct

Supplemental Resources:

  • See the Center for Urban Pedagogy.
  •  Justin Garrett Moore, Germane Barnes, Joseph Henry, and Felema Yemaneberhan, “ReciprocityDeem Forum Session (June 10, 2021) < video: 1:07:07 >.  
  • Eric Gordon, “People Need to Participate in the Design of THings That Are Meant for Them,” Aspen Institute (March 22, 2018) and Gordon’s Engagement Lab
  • Sarah Kanouse, “Critical Day Trips: Tourism and Land-Based Practice” in Emily Eliza Scott and Kirsten Swenson, eds., Critical Landscapes: Art, Space, Politics (University of California Press, 2015): 43-56. 
  • Miodrag Mitrašinović, Concurrent Urbanities: Designing Infrastructures of Inclusion (Routledge, 2016. 
  • Ginger M. Moored, “Uniting a City: Facilitating Interracial Interactions and Cultural Exchange in Urban Public Spaces,” Woodrow Wilson School Journal of Public and International Affairs 17 (2006). 
  • Lilian van Karnenbeek, “Conceptualizing Co-Creative Planning Pedagogies: The Community Knowledge Triangle,” Planning Practice & Research 

On Access / Entering the Field:: 

  • Laura Antona, “Entering the Field and Discovering that I Was ‘Doing’ Ethnography,LSE Blog (September 3, 2020). 
  • Paul Atkinson and Martyn Hammersley, “Access” in Ethnography: Principles in Practice, 3rd ed. (Routledge, 2007): 41-62.
  • Hameed Chughtai and Michael D. Myers, “Entering the Field in Qualitative Field Research: A Rite of Passage in a Complex Practice World,” Information Systems Journal 27:6 (2017): 795-817. 
  • Naomi Mathiesen, “A Question of Access: Metaphors of the  Field,” Ethnography and Education 15:1 (2020): 1-16. 
  • Jean. J. Schensul and Margaret D. LeCompte, “Defining and Entering the Field” in Essential Ethnographic Methods: A Mixed Methods Approach, 2nd ed. (AltaMira, 2013): 22-46.

2 Replies

  • Hi! The link for this appears to be broken even after logging in:
    Co-Creation / Community Stewardship: Martin Severin Frandsen and Lene Pfeiffer Petersen, “Urban Co-Creation” in Jesper Simonsen, Connie Svabo, Sara Malou Strandvad, Kristine Samson, Morten Hertzum, and Ole Erik Hansen, eds., Situated Design Methods (MIT Press, 2014): 181-99 [recall that you’ll be prompted to log in to access our copyrighted readings].
    Thanks!

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