10.

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Thinking About Thinking About Data
Methodology

 

For someone with a Futures project that (at the moment) leans towards a sort of urban sociology (perhaps with a touch of phenomenology, but that’s being ambitious even for me), understanding the user experience of a set of particular spaces from a set of particular users, and sifting through the sort of underpinnings of why and how those experiences come to be… I’m hoping for some level of quantitative method as well as ethnography/qualitative work. Balancing between the two to achieve a mixed methodology, working through codes, attempting interdisciplinarity between (primarily child) psychology and/or sociology and the built environment… it has a sort of ‘grounded theory’ ring to it, right?

While conditional matrices are definitely fascinating to look at and try to parse, I’m not very confident about coming up with one myself. I think partly that’s just because I have no data yet, considering I haven’t started actual research – just been looking up some literature and lectures when I can. But since I think I’ll be trying to look for a genuine understanding of patterns and behaviors, of actors and systems, of dynamics/mechanics, since I’m looking forward to questioning of understanding and theory and not just induction, I do think my best shot is at driving towards critical realist grounded theory. I want that rich data! I’m so interested in the possibility of real emergence, and especially excited by the prospect of arriving at its discovery with my own work! How does class and division and power work into the sort of lived experience I want to dissect? How can understanding those factors – and others – work towards a better typology? How could that typology affect social sustainability – and all other pillars of sustainability (including the fifth, cultural pillar)?

What is ‘actual’, what is ‘real’, what is ‘empirical’… aren’t these the sorts of questions one must ask and try to really get knee-deep in when understanding the user experience of built settings, and the social impacts of urban policy? Won’t navigating through these questions bring us closer to a sort of abduction that may just arrive at a solution for the children of displaced, marginalized communities?

If I’m being realistic, any data I may ‘create’ would be qualitative. I’m not sure I would be able to generate purely quantitative data in the time given for the thesis – and I don’t have a supervisor yet, to discuss the possibility of this with. Relying on previously mined data would probably be the only way I’d be able to use quantitative data, but I’m not complaining about that. What does daunt me, though, is the sort of models people are able to come up with, when talking about quantitative data. For example, in one of the first studies I came across last year, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. Journal of Democracy, that had SEM (Structural Equation Modeling). Before this paper, I had no idea I could create a model of social capital, through equations, and that the model could manage to look like this.

A SEM diagram of the parameters and variables from the paper – Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. Journal of Democracy.

 

A lot to think about. I’ve come across some more interesting model types, but I need to look further into data visualization to see what sort of relationships are possible and how I could represent my ideas and possible data through them.

Very nervous and excited for what’s to come. I hope I can make it.

9.

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Both the Sound and the Silence
Evidence towards Inequality

 

Some thoughts during the course Exclusion and Inequality.

Where data is present, it witnesses subjectively. Where it’s silent, it overlooks. These subjective points of view can have a level of intersection with others, or none at all. A point of view by itself, without intersection, has intrinsic bias. If held by a large enough body, that’s an intrinsic bias in the knowledge infrastructure

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8.

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Environmental Apartheid
The Case of South Africa

 

Some of my thoughts while the paper, Environmental Apartheid: Eco-health and rural marginalization in South Africa. This was my first time reading a scientific paper regarding the South African apartheid. I will be doing a lot more as my current plan for the Futures project is related significantly.

Rural marginalization of Black South Africans began as a tool through which to leverage increased power and privilege for the white colonial population, as a tool through which the apartheid could remain steadily within the reins of the oppressors. Yet, the effects it had, the reality it presented, to this day continues the effects of apartheid – even if, legally, it has ceased. Continue reading “8.” →

7.

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Bringing Back the Ghost
Adaptive Reuse of Pakistan’s Abandoned Typology

 

Classrooms stand empty, floors fill with rubble, and any remaining, forgotten books in the shelves gather dust. This is a widespread phenomenon in Pakistan – ghost schools; structures where students and teachers alike decided, one day, to never return. In Karachi alone, circa 2013, over 100 schools were ghost schools, with a handful on their way there given poor infrastructure and load shedding. During COVID lockdowns, this number reached higher. Students who dropped out during COVID did not necessarily return once lockdown was over. Education is a necessary right for all, and the SDG 4, Quality Education, as well as SDG 5, Gender Equality, are some of the SDGs that Pakistan has been officially working towards. These ghost schools, their causes (poor infrastructure), their current states (sites of criminal activity and squatting), and their consequences (lack of decent work and economic growth – among other SDGs), greatly affect how productive, cohesive, and healthy Pakistani society is, and can be, as a whole.

What I envision, through not only the sort of regeneration of empty, abandoned land as I exercised in the previous post, but additionally through an organically grown new system, through a network of hubs of socioeconomic and educational activity, connected via public transport routes linked to one another, is a version of Pakistan that fulfils the potentials it has, by putting these ghost schools to work – in ways perhaps a bit more diverse than originally intended than when these schools were first constructed.

  Continue reading “7.” →

6.

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CRIME REDUCTION AND NEIGBORHOOD RESILIENCE THROUGH REGENERATION
Portion of Lyari district in Karachi, SIndh, Pakistan, as pictured by Google Earth.

If you ask anyone in Karachi which neighborhood to really avoid, which spot in town is the number one for getting mugged or worse, odds are you’ll get Lyari – the neighborhood, which partially pictured above. And it’s a pity, really. The district of Lyari is a long stretch of land along the long stretch of Lyari river. And what’s done with the land is trash dumping, low quality living, poor (barely present) manmade infrastructure that partially obstructs blue infrastructure, and this cluster of trees on the other end of the river that huddle together mysteriously and don’t really spell out ‘great place to be spotted in case anything happens to you’ to innocent passersby (read: potential stabbing victims).

According to the principles learnt in Regenerating Places, I’ll be taking this bit of land and trying to see how it could be sustainably improved in order to up the green and blue infrastructures and connections, as well as increase economic resilience of the neighborhood, and, of course safety.

Here’s how I’m looking at it: Continue reading “6.” →

5.

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Land and Power
(and the overlooking of community)

 

1. Well, we know what Robert Moses did to New York: lay the groundwork for racist urban planning and ‘improvement’ projects that initiated a domino effect all around the States. With beauty, high property values and Benjamins rolling as a result of his mandated neighborhood evacuations and next-to-nothing compensations, as long as the scales tipped towards profits, as long as Robert Moses was allowed to hold sway. African American citizens lost homes for the sake of white people’s recreation, for bridges to be designed intentionally low enough to specifically disallow public transport (buses that non-white demographics frequented) to reach places of opportunity. Barred from homes, parks, and buses – that was lower class Black citizen life in the States. How did things get this far? Robert Moses chaired, among other positions, the New York State Council of Parks and was the 1st Commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, from 1924 to 1963. He rose to power, writing proposals from one position and passing them from the other. Despite public protests against him, against his decisions, despite politician promises, Robert Moses stayed, holding this power for personal gains, influencing the city, the state, and the country.

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4.

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TAKING POWER, TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
The Presence & Absence of Community Participation in Ecocity Potential

 

Since the latter half of the 20th century but more increasingly since the turn of the millennium, there has been an increasing focus on sustainable development and the creation of ecocities as a response to environmental challenges. There are two main approaches to the ecocity – transitioning existing build, and new build.

Transitioning ecocities tend to be more sustainable than new build ones, as they have the advantage of building upon existing infrastructure and systems.This allows for a more efficient use of resources and a smoother transition towards sustainability. New build ecocities, on the other hand, incite a greater cost in terms of financing, energy, and carbon footprint for construction.They have the advantage of starting from scratch and implementing innovative and cutting-edge sustainable technologies and designs, however, and these cannot be overlooked.

This post will investigate the efficacy of ecocities through the lens of community participation – does the ‘sustainability’ of an ‘ecocity’, so to speak, increase or decrease, depending on whether the planning of the area has in some way involved, or evolved due to, community participation? Alternatively, is community par- ticipation essential to the success (sustainable or otherwise) of an ecocity?

To analyse the data and answer the question, however, another question may arise:“What is sustainability in this context?” A leadup, “For that matter, what is an ecocity?” Perhaps even, “On what foundations is ‘com- munity participation’ being defined?”

For clarity on these terms and the base concepts this report will discuss, the definition section may be found below.

Continue reading “4.” →

3.

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Urban sprawl, climate change, and impact on animal life

‘Sprawl’, according to Merriam-Webster, means, ‘to spread or develop irregularly, or without restraint.’

In the context of urban design, ‘urban sprawl’ refers to the – usually unplanned – growth of cities, and if we look at the facts – that today, 55% of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2050, that will increase to 68% – this means, as the world’s population increases, and more people migrate from rural areas to urban ones, cities must expand to accommodate that growth. So this growth applies to most cities – urban sprawl applies to most cities.

Now, these growths, these expanding ‘sprawls’ – they’re not happening in a vacuum. They’re happening in physical, geographical contexts. Urban sprawl encroaches on natural land around the city. Ocean sprawl spreads its structures with its synthetic chemicals and rust and paint – right into the ocean. These environments of land and water, and their shared realm of air, are all being invaded by expedited human activity. Human activity, that aggressively pollutes the climate.

Climate change is not something that just happens in a vacuum, either. We are the ones causing it to change. We, as a global civilization.

So, climate change is not a phenomenon that is endemic to any single region.

Continue reading “3.” →

2.

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Bubbles under Culture and Capitalism
Urban Regeneration in the name of Gentrification

In the first semester, for Evaluating SLC, I wrote a paper on ‘bubbles’ under urban sprawl, and connections to racial segregation. Each person lives in a bubble – not perfectly spherical, but long and winding, tracing paths of travel and social activity. These bubbles have, I outlined, different dimensions – bubbles of opportunity for social movement, bubbles of career progression possibilities, bubbles that, through health, extend temporally and set limits on longevity. And all these bubbles could trace their existence to geography/urban setting/the location pin on the map that shows where you were born. Because, more likely than not – at least in the States – where you were born begins to dictate where you will spend the rest of your life. And where you spend the rest of your life shapes how you live it, thanks to the teeming inequalities of both opportunities and outcomes, in the ‘world we live in’.

Continue reading “2.” →

1.

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Exploring Effectivity

One of the foundational texts, one could say, in this program, pops up at the beginning of the curriculum. The New Urban Agenda, the mouthpiece of the ever-reliable UN, outlines requirements and makes demands on what makes a real 21st century city sustainable, and therefore equitable. Fair enough.

The handbook outlines its objectives, stating clearly that, given the interdisciplinarity of urban development at large, the recommendations, strategies and concepts covered would “require coordinating various sectors to achieve sustainability and success.” It continues that the NUA intends to leave no one behind, ensuring as ever sustainable urban economies – that are also inclusive – and doesn’t stop there. In fact, the NUA goes on to establish its legitimacy, citing the process and work done extensively that lead to the production of this handbook, actionable in any country-wide, regional, and local context.

If that is so, then this means the handbook can be applied – with some tweaks and modifications – to any geography, any sociopolitical context. The NUA says so. Then why are the systems of cultures not as close to the Eurocentric norm accepted (and propagated*) by the UN not treated with the same level of possibility and dignified language?

Why does it not bear mentioning that some of the different land management systems were a result of UN in position through IMF, remnants of colonial systems, and other vestiges the UN has not raised a finger to help relieve, despite the bodies’ apparent mission of promote equitable opportunities for growth throughout different nations?

Planning for typical urban renewal with strategies that have heretofore been applied to (and not even always worked for) a Western city standard, and now expecting these strategies to be simply transplanted on possibly different climates, and definitely different cultures, which would have shaped city – to some extent – differently, with spaces built for different purposes and functions.

Why does the language dismiss these practices and norms? Why does it not take the perceived difficulties as challenging contexts that the NUA should mold to? Instead, we get this address that seems to sweep these contexts to the side; no note of work on going to understand the intricacies and come up with localized solutions – the way the NUA boasts it can for other places – perhaps even all other places.

If the language in this post has seemed biased so far, or too demanding, let me go further. While the NUA was introduced in Evaluating Sustainable Lands and Cities, this next point comes from a case study presented in another course, Envisioning Sustainable Lands and Cities. One of the case studies covered was on REDD+, a UN program dedicated to positive climate efforts – in developing countries. That premise alone is two-toned; it seems understandable that a developing country would focus and prioritize improving more imminent facets of health, housing, economy and self-reliance issues through education, easily acquired energy, and so forth, as soon as possible. Trying to get there fast might overlook sustainable practice. Having a somewhat ‘global’ task force from the UN would help to keep such efforts aligned with sustainable practice, which, as we all know, has lasting impacts not only locally, but worldwide. But is this what REDD+ truly is? Continue reading “1.” →