A Glint of Lights in the Fog: Invisible Cities and the Riddles of Planning Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2110276
Author(s):  
Dalila Colucci ◽  
Pier Luigi Sacco
Keyword(s):  
Vantage Point ◽  
Planning Practice ◽  
Marco Polo ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Control Purpose

This paper examines Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities as a unique literary canvas to reformulate the relationship between narratives and planning practices. It does so from the vantage point of the Frame, namely, the dialogues between the Khan (the planner) and Marco Polo (the resident/traveler) punctuating the imaginary cities described in the book. Read through with the aid of narratological concepts, the Frame functions a mini-treatise on urban complexity, structured along nine dyads of oppositional concepts (e.g., chaos vs. meaning; reality vs. possibility), which call into question as many planning milestones (e.g., control, purpose, model, balance), fostering an original reflection on the limitations and potentials of planning practices.

scholarly journals Planning to care: the case for a broader implementation of therapeutic planning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Alton
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Planning Theory ◽  
Planning Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Relationship

Planning does not see itself as a caring profession, yet there are elements of care that underlie the relationship between planners and the public. Therapeutic planning is an emerging approach to planning that has shown promise at building on those elements of care and reimagining planning as healing and transformative for planners and the public. However, therapeutic planning has so far only been used as a specialized practice when planning with indigenous communities. Through an analysis of the literature on planning theory and therapeutic planning practice, this study seeks to build a case for a broader application of therapeutic planning. Key findings of this analysis show that therapeutic planning has the capacity to improve planners’ ability to address trauma, conflict and reconciliation. This ends with a concrete set of recommendations to guide the profession in embracing its potential for care. Key words: An article on urban planning theory and practice, used the key words: therapeutic; planning; caring; communication; profession.

The Politics of Communication between Planning Officers and Politicians: The Exercise of Power through Discourse

10.1068/a3287 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Tait ◽  
Heather Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Planning Practice ◽  
Communication Work ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

The relationship between local government officers and elected members is central to the decisionmaking processes associated with planning, as with many other areas of public policymaking. Legal responsibilities and issues of accountability and legitimacy lie at the heart of the relationship between officers and members, with interaction mediated and constituted through ritualised communicative encounters such as committee meetings and associated reports, and less formally through ad hoc contacts. Given the importance of this relationship it is striking that there has been relatively little research into the influences on officers and members within everyday planning practice. In this paper we will explore the extent to which a consideration of the language used in planning practice can inform our understanding of the relationship between planners and politicians. Thinking within the planning field about the role of language as a mechanism for reflecting and constituting power has been dominated by the work of Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault. However, despite the increasing attention focused on the importance of language and communication, work within the planning community has tended to concentrate on normative issues of how planning ought to operate in society rather than situating these theories within the ‘real’ world of practice. The objectives behind the case study research evaluated in this paper are therefore twofold. First, to explore the role of language and discourse in reflecting and constituting relations of power in a planning authority on the south coast of England and, second, to explore the value of Foucault's and Habermas's ideas as tools of research in planning. On the basis of this study we conclude that there are some important theoretical and methodological difficulties in connecting the ideas of Habermas and Foucault to the world of everyday planning practice.

Changing God’s Mind

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-255
Author(s):  
Gianluca Di Muzio
Keyword(s):  
Vantage Point ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Willingness To Change ◽  
The World ◽  
Petitionary Prayer ◽  
The Relationship

Summary Since God is perfect, he should never have a reason for changing his mind. However, some biblical passages describe God as modifying his chosen course of action in response to prayer. How could human prayers ever be efficacious if God’s mind is always independently set on doing what is best? This article examines contemporary attempts to answer the question by emphasizing the benefits of prayer for the petitioner. After exposing some difficulties with this solution, the author proposes that one can overcome the problem of petitionary prayer by reflecting on the relationship God wishes to develop with his human creatures. From this vantage point, one can see that God’s willingness to change his mind in response to prayer proceeds from his free decision to accept his human creatures’ input as he partners with them to realize his plan for the world.

scholarly journals Storytelling, a model of and a model for planning

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merlijn van Hulst
Keyword(s):  
Planning Practice ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Interest in storytelling in planning has grown over the last two decades. In this article two strands of research are identified: research that looks at storytelling as a model of the way planning is done and research that looks at storytelling as a model for the way planning could or should be done. Recently, the second strand has received the most attention. This article builds on theories of storytelling as an important aspect of everyday planning practice. It draws on an ethnographic case in which a range of actors struggled with the meaning of what was going on, (re)framing the past, present and future with the help of stories. The case illustrates how new stories are built on top of older ones and new understandings emerge along the way. The article also looks into the relationship between storytelling and other planning activities. The article ends with a plea for ethnographic fieldwork to further develop ideas on storytelling in planning practice.

scholarly journals Making Research Sociological

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Chaitanya Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationship ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Master's Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Thesis Writing ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Different Levels

Developing a distinctive disciplinary vantage point is crucial to becoming a professional. Thesis writing at the Master's level allows the professional opportunity of thinking and writing independently. For students of Sociology in particular, it is fundamental to recognize that the social is everywhere. There is nothing that is not socially constituted. Further on, a Sociology student should develop the sociological vantage point in order to see how the social is constituted. This the student can do by engaging and ‘dialoguing' with well-known sociological theorists. The student will then be able to think about how and why societies are historically constituted, how and why societies are diverse, internally differentiated and hierarchized and how and why societies transform themselves. They will learn to unravel the relationship between different levels of a society. In addition, they will also learn the significance of the structure even as they visualize historical human agents change the structure. Keywords: Social; Sociological; Sociological Imagination; Thesis Writing; Social Relationship; Institutions DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v3i0.2779 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.3 2009 1-18

scholarly journals «Unde narrat dominus Marcus Milio». Eredità poliane nei Sermones di fr. Nicoluccio d’Ascoli OP.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnese Macchiarelli
Keyword(s):  
Marco Polo ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of this work is to examine the references to Marco Polo’s Devisement dou monde within the work of Nicoluccio d’Ascoli OP, and specifically the direct quotations in the sermons. In order to deal with the large amount of studies on Nicoluccio, it was first necessary to reorder the various manuscripts’ catalogues and the notes on Nicoluccio inserted in other studies. The first part of the essay will therefore be dedicated to the revision of the works’ catalogue and to the recognition of the witnesses of the Sermones; the second part will investigate the relationship between Nicoluccio d’Ascoli and Marco Polo, through a careful reading of the texts that have been taken into consideration.

scholarly journals Editorial Introduction: Re-envisioning Education in a Globalizing World

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-209
Author(s):  
Hiro Saito
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
Critical Knowledge ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Globalizing World ◽  
The Relationship

This special issue focuses on education as a crucial factor mediating the relationship between youth and globalization. Specifically, four papers collectively explore how education can be re-envisioned from the following vantage point: the use of technology to foreground the fundamentally interconnected nature of today’s world; the help of mindfulness to deepen the awareness of such interconnectedness and cultivate a commitment to collective well-being; the role of activism to produce more critical knowledge and transformational solidarity for social justice on a global scale; at the same time, the necessity of reflexivity to examine one’s own ontological and epistemological assumptions before attempting any educational intervention. I argue that this vantage point helps re-envision the existing institutions and practices of education to encourage young people in a globalizing world to learn to live a happy life together by embracing their pluriversal coexistence.

Towards a Chinese Theology of Displacement: The Poetic Journey of a Chinese Migrant

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-217
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Yang
Keyword(s):  
Mainland China ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Poetic Voice ◽  
Phenomenological Methodology ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Dualistic Thinking

Abstract While poetry was used as a rich vehicle to express one’s identity, freedom and communal belonging in the “poetry fever” (shige re, 诗歌热) of the 1980s in Mainland China, its connection with Christian theology has been long neglected despite the rapid increase in Chinese conversion to Christianity amongst the post-1989 generation. Using both autoethnographic and phenomenological methodology, this paper explores the relationship between the two using the author’s own poetry writings as a case study. From the vantage point of a Chinese Christian, poet and migrant to Australia, this paper is an inter-disciplinary study that journeys with the poetic voice from the themes of lament to search and then return, followed by some theological reflections. It argues that the dualistic thinking of poetry and theology can move into non-dualist responses so that the two can meet and become fused on the epistemological path towards God. This path parallels with that of the Israelites in exile, and ultimately Jesus’ journey in the gospel. It aims to provide a trajectory to develop further a poetic Chinese theology of displacement.

Settlement Systems and Technology: A Summary Model

Harney Flats ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Randolph Daniel ◽  
Michael Wisenbaker
Keyword(s):  
Vantage Point ◽  
Settlement System ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Technological Organization ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
Tool Types ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter summarizes the preceding analyses by looking at the relationship between hunter-gatherer settlement systems and technology. Situated on a ridge slope overlooking the large inland basin of Harney Flats, the site is topographically well positioned to serve as a residential base providing a vantage point to observe animals in the basin, provide access to water, and obtain nearby suitable toolstone. Indeed, the site assemblage has been influenced by the readily available quantities of knappable chert. Manufacturing different tool types is seen as a principal activity at the site, and inferences are made with regard to the overall roles of these tools within the settlement system. With respect to technological organization, distinctions are made between expedient tools (manufactured for short-term use on-site) and curated tools (manufactured for long-term use elsewhere in the settlement system). Other items such as hammerstones, cores, and abraders were likely stored at the site awaiting reuse.

Wander, Watch, Repeat: Jean Rhys and Cinema

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Stead
Keyword(s):  
Jean Rhys ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Modernist Literature ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Serial Films ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Literary Techniques ◽  
Unique Vantage

This explores how modernist literature in the late 1920s and in the 1930s engaged with and conceptualised cinema culture, focusing on Jean Rhys’s early novels as a case study. It first examines her attention to urban geography and female movement, considering how she mapped city spaces through cinema visits. Rhys’s novels use cinema sites to construct a layered geography of memory and present experience for her female characters, mediated through locally specific choices in cinema venues. Second, it considers the relationship between Rhys’s literary style and cinema, considering how her early fiction forged intermedial connections between cinematic and literary techniques to describe these cinematic encounters and interconnect them with wider concerns in her fictions about the performative nature of women’s public bodily presence within the urban environment. Third, it considers Rhys’s use of certain types of cinematic texts and genres as a way of reflecting back on these issues, considering the relationship between genre structures and their modes of cinematic exhibition, and Rhys’s careful structuring of the everyday experiences of her heroines. Here, the chapter explores how Rhys’s references to comedy and serial films especially opened up a unique vantage point on women, visibility and value.

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