While searching for images for a recent post on Clarence Stein, I came across this photo of him (second from left) visiting a collective farm in Russia’s Arkhangel region in 1927. Apparently he was there to discuss regional planning studies for agriculture and settlement undertaken by his colleague Benton MacKaye (who also worked to establish the Appalachian Trail).

Credits: Image scanned from The Writings of Clarence Stein, Edited by Kermit Parsons.

I just saw a great documentary by Sanjay Kak, called Words on Water (2003).  It focuses on longstanding resistance to the construction of giant dams in India’s Narmada Valley. The footage is captivating,  including a scene in which Arundhati Roy is arrested and taken to jail in an SUV owned by a dam construction company. In another scene, James Wolfensohn (during his tenure as president of the World Bank) talks through a chain-link fence to a crowd of protesters. I found the activists very inspiring, although I know there are other ways of viewing this conflict. There must be a way to safeguard against abuses of power, and I think it starts with this kind of organized community action.

Credits: Image of a scene in Words on Water from magiclanternfoundation.org.

“Residents interviewed through the city said that the cries that they heard emanating from many collapsed buildings in the initial hours after the quake had begun to soften, if not quiet completely.” New York Times (Jan 15, 2010)

Earthquake response teams in Port-au-Prince explain that there is a 72-hour period in which people trapped under collapsed buildings can be rescued alive. We’re now at 67 hours. While there are still people under the rubble and homeless children searching for their families in the streets, it may be too soon to reflect upon the horrible aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. However, after donating as much as we can and still feeling helpless at the sight of the images in the news, this may be the best time. (more…)

[Originally posted to polis] This post is about making places, from Watts Towers to attractive neighborhoods. It looks at different ways that artists participate, and whether they might help bring about an urban development that would make Christopher Alexander proud.

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Originally posted to polis] Recent developments in Kibera and Dharavi, two of the most high-profile slums in the world, underscore the importance of including informal workers in planning decisions. In Kibera, a UN-backed slum clearance is underway amidst protest from residents whose livelihoods are at risk (and landlords who control informal real estate). The redevelopment plan for Dharavi has been stalled due to upcoming elections, as politicians appear reluctant to alienate the millions of voters involved in the economy it would displace. Slum redevelopment often exacerbates poverty when informal workers are not involved in decision-making processes.

Living conditions in slums can be improved without uprooting local economies. An international research network called WIEGO has been addressing occupational health and safety (OHS) in the informal sector. Through this initiative, researchers find out which government agencies are in charge of OHS and help informal workers open channels for dialog in policy development. WIEGO makes sure they have the resources for effective advocacy. OHS researchers also compile best-practices among government programs that have established successful workplace standards in informal settlements.

WIEGO is part of the Inclusive Cities Project, which promotes the representation of informal workers in planning decisions. They work with membership-based organizations in slums to influence municipal policy. Informal businesses are considered essential to poverty reduction, especially when accompanied with adequate infrastructure, regulation, and stimulus. If these businesses were included under effective legal structures, worker exploitation could be monitored and tax revenues used to finance improved living conditions.

Elinor Ostrom, Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, and Ravi Kanbur have recently published a book titled Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Policies. It includes theoretical and empirical studies that identify close relationships between the two sectors. Understanding informal business as an integral part of a city’s economy could encourage legal representation, protection, and accountability. In addition, Ostrom’s research on commons, institutions, social capital, and human-environment interaction is very relevant to planning and development from within informal settlements.

Communities like Kibera and Dharavi have complex and active economies that can be included in legal governance. It’s essential for informal workers to have a way of protecting their rights and livelihoods.

Credits: Photo of a boy in Dharavi by Jonas Bendiksen. Photo of Kibera residents from The Gardian.

[Originally posted to polis] Picking up on Ivan’s reference to Gordon Matta-Clark, I’d like to consider relationships between art, power, and space. The term anarchitecture, as commonly associated with Matta-Clark, provides an interesting way of thinking about these relationships. In connection with a recent AIA event on art and architecture, it implies a sort of freedom from client specifications. James Attlee sees a response to high-modernist rationalism, as well as the foundations of a more iterative, collective, locally contingent approach to architecture. He finds that Marcel Duchamp, Jane Jacobs, and “self-built shanties” may have been important influences.

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[Originally posted to Where] A public school in Philadelphia is training students in food production and environmental care on an urban farm. The Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences is a magnet program with 600 students from throughout the city. Located in the upper Roxborough neighborhood, it includes a 130-acre farm with livestock, greenhouses, crops, and pastures.

Saul offers concentrations in Food Science, Floriculture and Greenhouse Management, Landscape Design, Animal Science, and Natural Resource Management. In addition to the agricultural program, students take a full range of high-school, advanced-placement, and college-level courses. The results are impressive. Saul’s average graduation rate is 95 percent, with 80 percent going on to college. Other students start their own businesses or are hired into skilled agricultural jobs right after graduation.

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I’d like to add a detailed post on the ideas of Peter Kropotkin in relation to environment and planning. For instance, Lewis Mumford noted his influence on Ebenezer Howard, and Paul Robbins has described him as a sort of grandfather to political ecology.

For now just an immediate thought on anarchy: it’s interesting that the word has come to mean chaos, even though (I think) at root it just means without a ruler. Is it possible to prevent chaos in the absence of a ruler? Anarchy also shares a root with architecture. Different connections between architecture and rule never stop fascinating me.

Credits: Photo of Peter Kropotkin from the Anarchist Library.