pARTicipatory Urbanisms
"Participatory Urbanisms is a compilation of interviews with urban practitioners and a critical anthology of peer-reviewed articles, examining the triangulation of urban participation, aesthetics, and politics."
The Center for Land Use Interpretation
"Dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge about how the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived.
The Center for Land Use Interpretation is a research and education organization interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth’s surface, and in finding new meanings in the intentional and incidental forms that we individually and collectively create. We believe that the manmade landscape is a cultural inscription, that can be read to better understand who we are, and what we are doing."
Now Urbanism
This lecture by Jeffrey Hou, based upon the book Now Urbanism: The Future City is Here, examines how everyday people are remaking their urban environments, making use of what is already there.
At the Crossroads of Hope and Despair: America since the Crash
Photographs by Matthew Frye Jacobson
Historian's Eye
"'At The Crossroads of Hope and Despair' comprises images taken across the country from 2009 to 2013 that speak to the complexities of this moment. Drawn from nearly 4000 images now archived on the Historian’s Eye website, these materials convey the harsh realities of American life during the Great Recession, but they also capture diverse passions and expressions of civic engagement that are emblems of aspiration, futurity, and promise. Myriad closed businesses and abandoned storefronts constitute a public monument to widespread distress; omnipresent, expectant Obama iconography articulates a wish for new national narratives; flamboyant street theater and wry signage and graffiti bespeak a widespread impulse to talk back. Together these images reflect the somber beauty of a time that is perilous, but in which “hope” has not ceased to hold meaning."
